When Candlebox released their self-titled debut album in the summer of 1993, the scene was flooded with bands trying to be Nirvana, Pearl Jam, or Soundgarden. 

But Candlebox stood out because they were different. 

While Kevin Martin, lead singer and songwriter of the group, hailed from Seattle, the sound that he and Candlebox created was urgent, melodic, and even bright — in contrast to dark and shadowy grunge. And both music fans and radio took notice. The band’s massive single “Far Behind,” along with songs like “Change” and “You,” became ubiquitous hits and were heard everywhere in 1993 and beyond. Today, Candlebox’s first album, certified quadruple platinum, stands as one of the defining records of the Nineties and, to mark its 30th anniversary…Kevin and Candlebox are calling it quits.

“Thirty years is a long time for a band. But it’s also a long time for a person. Being away from my family as much as I have been, on the road and in the studio, it made me feel that I had missed way too much,” Kevin says. “So, with the 30th anniversary of Candlebox’s debut album this year, I knew it was the right time to go out on top.”

But they’re not going quietly. Candlebox are capping off their influential career with The Long Goodbye, a brand-new album that finds the group taking stock of evolving maturity, fleeting time, and lasting love, all while kicking a lot of ass.

Lead single “Punks” is a cautionary message to young bands that they won’t be the hot new thing forever. Charging forward with a slashing guitar riff and rapid-fire drums, Kevin howls about quick-burning success and vacuous trends. “We’re the punks, we’re the same ones that you fear/We paved these streets, that’s why you’re here,” he sings. “This ain’t your last dance, this ain’t your last chance/It’s already gone.”

“Candlebox weren’t the punks that paved the road for all these other bands that came along, but the statement is that music has always been there and nobody’s really doing anything differently,” Kevin says. “You think that you’re invincible and you try to grab all those things that come along with being in a rock band and touring the world. But inevitably, you’re left with yourself, and if you don’t have something within yourself that can keep you grounded, what are you doing it for?”

For Kevin, that’s always been songwriting. Up until The Long Goodbye, he wrote every one of Candlebox’s seven albums. This time, he challenged himself to expand his vision by collaborating with co-writers in Nashville and L.A. like Don Miggs, who produced the album, Ryan Sorestad, and Claire Douglas. “I wanted to work with lyricists and melody writers, because I wanted to find myself in a position where I had to reach a little bit further for things,” he says.

For the sneering statement of independence “What Do You Need” — “If everybody’s leaving,” Kevin declares in the chorus, “I’ll go it alone” — he recruited Nick Brown of the alt-rock band Mona to co-write and appear on the track.

“I sometimes feel like I’m being pulled from all these different sides and don’t know where I’m headed,” Kevin says. “I’m such a fan of Nick’s that I gave him that song and asked him to develop the story, and he just ran with it.”

On the moody, atmospheric “Elegante,” Kevin dives headlong into creative wordplay, rhyming the song title with the poet Dante, as Miggs and the band — guitarists Brian Quinn and Island Styles, bassist Adam Kury, and drummer BJ Kerwin — mimic a synth-pop vibe with guitars and drums. Candlebox wrote the song at soundcheck after being inspired by their tour bus playlist.

“We sit around on the bus a lot and listen to obscure or different rock & roll, like Death From Above 1979 and Nothing But Thieves, these elaborate bands that push the fucking envelope,” he says. “I wanted to keep the lyrics as vague as possible so that the audience has their own interpretation of it. I didn’t want it to be personal. I wanted it to be androgynous, and to entice. It’s my favorite song on the album.”

But Kevin does get personal — intimate, even — on “Maze,” a yearning acoustic number that celebrates the complexity of his wife. “She’s really been behind every single song I’ve ever written,” he says. In “Cellphone Jesus,” he allows some of his worldview to seep in, as he searches for a sign from above for a damaged society: “Pick up your cell phone Jesus/You got a world full of need ya’s.”

Ultimately, The Long Goodbye is a statement record, a document of a band that somehow survived an era that tragically proved too seductive for some of their peers to remain not only successful, but relevant. Hits like “Cover Me” off their debut LP, “Simple Lessons” from 1995’s Lucy album, and “It’s Alright” off 1998’s Happy Pills are all standouts from an enviable career. 

Candlebox are delivering those songs and more on their farewell tour, also titled “The Long Goodbye.” Running through 2023, the tour allows Kevin and the band a chance to commune one last time with the fans who found meaning in their songs and made the group household names.

“The tour is taking people through the 30 years that we’ve been doing this, with a major focus on our debut album, of course,” Kevin says. “It’s cool to be able to go out and play these shows the way we want to play them and say goodbye at the end of the year.”

And then, when the last note rings out, Kevin will retire from the road. But he admits the pull of the music business is strong and he may turn up elsewhere behind the scenes. “I’ve already had people emailing me about producing or managing bands,” he says, “so I think I’m going to be in this industry somehow — just not on tour.”

Still, the hits will live on, along with a legacy that serves to inspire the young punks who come after them. 

“Candlebox were a band from Seattle that nobody really knew about but somehow were able to infiltrate the world of rock & roll,” Kevin says. “Our legacy is being a band that followed our own path and did what we chose to do the way we wanted to. We did it on our own terms.”