“I’ve made a lot of mistakes, and I’m trying to correct those still today,” he says of his two-decade history with Smash Mouth. “I’ve had to apologise a lot in my career. I’m smarter now than I was when I was a kid – I’ve learned to take a step back and really think things through before I make a decision. The ‘I don’t care’ attitude has gotten me in trouble, but I’ve slowed down since then. I’m not the crazy guy I used to be. I take a lot of pride in what we have, and appreciate how good we have it. I try not to take my career for granted. There’s nothing like having your friends standing next to you on stage and you’re all smiling and kicking ass and having a blast.”
Early in their career, Smash Mouth scored big hits with All Star and Walkin’ On The Sun. As young guys experiencing their first taste of big success, their instincts told them to party as hard and as long as possible. Harwell can’t help but cringe when he looks back on those days. “I used to go out there and play shows drunk, but I’m not doing that anymore,” he says. “Nobody benefits from it. It’s not fair to the fans, it’s not fair to the band – it’s not fair to anyone. We’re not getting all fucked up anymore,” he continues. “We have ups and downs, and there are still things that need to be patched up, but we’re not making a big deal of it. We take a lot of pride in playing great shows every night, and we want to keep doing that. We have a really big year: we’re going to be on the road a lot, and I’m really excited, because I love to work. I do bad things when I’m not working.”
Earlier this year, Smash Mouth took their first tentative steps into a whole new field of artistic endeavour, publishing a cook book. Entitled Recipes From The Road, it chronicles some of their favourite food from around the United States, as well as collecting stories about life on the road. “When you’re on the road, you get tired of eating shitty food at truck stops and places like that,” Harwell explains. “When you get to a new town and check into your hotel, you ask around and find out if there’s a great steak joint or a great barbeque place nearby. So you go to those places and you make friends with the chef or the owner, and whenever you come back to that town, you go there again because it’s one of your favourite places. Over the years, we’d taken so many photos and accumulated so many stories, we realised that we wanted to put them all together and make a cook book.”
Smash Mouth’s busy touring schedule includes their first ever trip to Australia, and Harwell seems genuinely excited to be on his way. The idea of playing to an all new audience is a big part of the appeal. “I’ve played thousands of times around [America] in the span of 18 years. I’ve never been to Australia, so when we play one of the hits, it’s going to be like we’re playing it for the first time. It’s new for you guys, and it feels new for us, so that’s where the excitement’s coming in! That’s why I’m super stoked.”
BY ALASDAIR DUNCAN
