Bug Candy was an 'urban folk' original band founded by frontman and songwriter, Eric Thiegs. The band performed 150+ gigs in and around the Twin Cities, Minnesota between 1998 - 2001. Before social media and YouTube, fan-favorite songs such as "Pocket of Love" topped the MP3 charts.
Eric Thiegs set aside the band over 20 years ago, but it started nearly 30 years ago when he self-released an indie-folk album in 1996 entitled, Bug Candy. Wanting more than the pure singer-songwriter production approach, he asked his college roommates to sit in and perform on the album. This included his girlfriend, Rebecca, brother, Ryan, and friend, Marc.
Rebecca and Marc went on to form the band, Bug Candy, with Thiegs as they brought in bassist Michael Carvale. The quartet began to play gigs around the University of Minnesota campus, and Thiegs released his 2nd album, Man Eating Bugs, in 1998.
The band's mix of acoustic rock with a dash of Thiegs's silliness brought out the GenX post-college grads, who at the time were in their mid/late 20s, during the band's three-year run playing shows at bars and music venues across Minneapolis and St. Paul.
"Our little band hit at the right time," says Eric Thiegs, "We were just out of college, we had jobs, no kids, and it was the economic boom of the late 90s. Everyone had money and free time, no wonder we had so many people showing up to our gigs -- every Bug Candy show was a party for all of us new-found adults."
The band released their 3rd album, Shade of Creon, in 2001 at the height of their local popularity. As all good things must end, after nearly a four-year run together, the band dissolved in 2002 when Eric and Rebecca moved from Minnesota to Pennsylvania. There, they performed acoustically for several years before Thiegs released his fourth album, Distant & Clean, as a solo folk effort just prior the birth of his first daughter.
Who are the Bug Candy band members:
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