Roach motel

With a flick of a light switch, whatever roaches are roaming usually scurry back into the darkness from whence they came.

Papa Roach asked for a little more light.

Seemingly emerging from nowhere, Papa Roach scurried from the onion fields of Vacaville, Calif., in 2000 to infest the hearts of American youth with an infectious brand of pop/rap metal that even Terminix couldn’t eradicate. Their major label debut, Infest, currently boasts triple platinum status.

“We’re a seven-year overnight success,” says guitarist Jerry Horton, addressing the band’s rapid success by phone from Los Angeles. “We just grew naturally as a band. When we started, we were a garage band. We sucked and we didn’t have any aspirations of being a huge band. We just didn’t have anything else to do.”

Formed in 1993 while the members were still experiencing puberty and crawling the bathrooms of Vacaville High School, Papa Roach’s raid on the music industry featured the usual scrapping and struggling.

Despite four independent releases on their own Onion Hardcore label, Papa Roach spent lots of time in various bill-paying activities from scrubbing toilets to delivering furniture and stocking supermarket shelves.

No one seemed to care what these bugs had to say about anything, especially their bosses, who constantly rode the guys about frequent tardiness and absenteeism. “There was a few times there when we weren’t seeing any kind of relief,” says Horton, “but it was in our hearts and we kept doing it and doing it until Warner Bros. took notice.”

There’s really only one unusual twist. Warner Bros. didn’t notice until the boys acquired a connected entertainment lawyer. Between the lawyer and Papa Roach’s earnest product shopping in 1998, success seemed to coincide with the band finding itself musically. “It took us a while to find our niche and our sound and kind of come into our own as far as that goes,” says Horton. “With our last EP [1999’s Let ‘em Know], we kind of extended our fingers and tried to experiment with different things. That was where we found what we were most happy with.

“[But] we knew that without any kind of major support, we weren’t going to get anywhere.”

It didn’t take long for that belief to bear monstrous fruit. Since its 2000 release, Infest has struck a major chord with Generation Y. Though Papa Roach did believe in themselves, they had no idea it would happen so quickly. “We didn’t even think we were going to have a song on the radio,” says Horton.

Relatively speaking, Papa Roach’s success resides in singer Coby Dick’s “Hooked On Phonics” approach to reaching disenfranchised youth, venting issues they can identify with like having problems at home. This was not a focused ploy to ply the Ritalin generation, says Horton. “Jacoby wrote the songs as a kind of therapy for him. He didn’t have anybody to talk to growing up. He wrote those songs to kind of move on.

“We didn’t target our songs to cater to one audience. It just happened that a lot of kids connected with what he was talking about. We had no idea that people would catch onto it as much as they did.”

Now comes the problem. Chi Cheng of the Deftones said of Papa Roach, “Whenever you hit it really big really quick, your audience gets proportionately younger.” But, after viewing Papa Roach’s current tour with Alien Ant Farm and a summer stint on Ozzfest, Roach’s original audience will be two to three years older by the time a new disc is released. Whether Roach will retain MTV “TRL” status or implode in the sophomore jinx is a crossroad Horton says the band knows is approaching.

“We’re not going to try and cater to what people might want us to be or think we should be. We’re going to do our own thing and if people like it, great. If not, oh well. We’re going to make music that we’re happy with and are proud of. We’re probably setting ourselves up for something. I’m not sure what.”

When youth gravitate en masse toward one particular band’s ideology, there’s always the fear that the band will become a media soundbite from some kid who just shot up the school — as Linkin Park were recently and Marilyn Manson was for Columbine.

But, to stave off Columbine-like inspiration, Papa Roach attack nightly with mocking irony those “Dead Cell” youth (in a song of that name) who feel nothing. “We haven’t gotten any of that because Jacoby’s lyrics are really blunt,” says Horton. “It doesn’t really leave any room for interpretation. That would be one of the good things about his writing.”

Whatever the future holds, Papa Roach will not quietly scurry into this good night without all its appendages intact.

“We don’t really care about all the fame,” says Horton. “People automatically put us in the position that we’re this big, huge rock star thing. We’re not that. The most important thing to us is the fans, the music and the live show. To really understand what we’re about, you have to come see us play live.”

These Roaches thrive under lights. Flick that switch.

Papa Roach play the Tabernacle Fri., March 23. Show time is 8 p.m. Tickets are $23.50. For more info call 404-659-9022.??