Eight years ago, after a couple glasses of wine, Fred Schneider quietly left the party and locked himself in a friend's bathroom.
His creative juices were flowing. The acoustics in the Orlando lavatory were nearly perfect and Schneider came up with the song "Totally Nude Island" in just a few minutes. The next day, he performed his creation for fellow record-junkie friends Noah Brodie and Dan Marshall and they composed music to "Totally Nude Island," a lounge/tiki number fusing the untroubled melodies of Martin Denny and the ridiculousness of low-budget horror movies from the 1950s. Schneider showed the song to another friend, Tom Yaz, who ended up producing the video for "Totally Nude Island," and Ursula 1000 remixed it for iTunes soon after.
The song started a movement; Brodie, Marshall, and Schneider founded The Superions and released an eight-song EP titled—what else?—Totally Nude Island on Jan. 19, 2010. Within the past month, The Superions announced the title of their fourth album ( Superionicus ) and released the first single from this next record, "Konnichiwa," on which Schneider sings "hello" in 12 languages.
Now, the real question is: Does the name Fred Schneider ring a bell?
Maybe it does, maybe it doesn't. Schneider is one of the founding members of the B-52s; rooted in New Wave and 1960s rock 'n' roll, this musical group was started in Athens, Georgia, by Schneider and four others in 1976. The B-52s are best known for the single "Love Shack," which was their first Billboard Top 40 single and one of the most-played tracks in the world from late 1989 through the early 1990s.
Schneider has collaborated with Duran Duran, The Pretenders, Public Enemy and Cher, and performed with the B-52s on Saturday Night Live and Good Morning America as well as all over the world. In the summer of 2013, the B's ( the preferred nickname for the musical group conceptualized by Schneider himself ) co-headlined a tour with The Go-Go's, and the future remains blissfully wide for this seasoned ensemble of dancing fiends.
Band members Fred Schneider, Kate Pierson, Cindy Wilson, Ricky Wilson and Keith Strickland were all getting drunk at a friend's house when they wrote "Killer Bees," the first song initiating a long and successful future for the B-52s ( formerly known as the B-52's ). When "Killer Bees" was written in 1976, the killer bees in Brazil were loose and the front page of every U.S. newspaper was splattered with the gory headline, explaining their blithe inspiration. Then, Schneider's good friends were hosting a Valentine's Day party and he asked them if the band could perform. They said "yes" and a quirky, memorable musical group called the B-52s started to shake up the 1970s Southern music scene.
Over the next decade, the B's recorded four studio albums, including The B-52s, Wild Planet, Whammy!, and Bouncing off the Satellites. The musical group gained considerable success and their post-punk, pop rock dance tunes were recognized all over the world. In 1985, once recording Bouncing off the Satellites was finished and after performing at Rock in Rio in Brazil ( their largest crowd yet ), tragedy struck the group. Guitarist Ricky Wilson passed away Oct. 12, 1985, from AIDS-related health complications at the age of 32. None of the other band members was aware of Wilson's illness.
According to Schneider, when the B-52s started, no one cared about the sexuality of fellow bandmates. Naturally, the AIDS crisis made the musical group very active in supporting gay causes, but none of the B's were "out" to the public. The mission was always about the music, not who was gay or straight or anything else. After Wilson's death, the band went into seclusion and did not advertise Bouncing off the Satellites, taking a needed and deserved hiatus from their musical careers. In 1987, the B's made a public service announcement on behalf of AMFAR. Over the past two decades, the band has performed at multiple Human Rights Campaign benefits and has raised more than $1 million for AIDS-related causes.
Schneider talked about coming out to his mother in the 1970s on Howard Stern's radio broadcast a few years ago. Seemingly, "Schneider's mother always knew more about her son than he knew about himself. He came out of the closet while she was vacuum-cleaning. 'Oh I know, Freddie,' she said, and continued vacuuming without missing a beat. 'It's like, well, OK. I guess I'll go back outside and smoke some pot.'" Out and proud, Schneider is looking towards the future. The Superions are releasing 10 more singles off their Superionicus album before doing a CD and vinyl of the record. There are no plans for The Superions after Superionicus is finished, but the musical group plans on staying together and creating more tunes. The B-52s aren't finished either; Schneider ended the phone call saying, "We are not disbanded. We are not done. Don't forget about us."
Fred Schneider will be in Chicago for Soul Summit as a guest DJ on Saturday, Aug. 16.
