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\nModern rock. Alternative rock. Indie Rock. No band epitomizes those terms or is a better representative of the breakaway style of music that spanned the two decades which straddle the year 2000.
\nStarting out in the 80s as a high school garage band in the Santa Barbara area, Toad the Wet Sprocket was aiming for nothing more than \u00e2\u20ac\u0153open-mic\u00e2\u20ac\u009d success. Yet in the early 90s, Toad climbed from the obscure college music scene into the mainstream.
\nIndependent and aided by ASCAP (The American Society of Composers Authors and Publishers<\/strong>) they produced two albums, Bread and Circus<\/strong> and Pale<\/strong>. Eventually signing with Columbia, Toad reached an early pinnacle, scoring two platinum albums, Fear<\/strong> and Dulcinea<\/strong> and placed songs on such notable movie soundtracks as \u00e2\u20ac\u0153So I Married an Axe-Murderer<\/strong>\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and onto the TV soundtracks of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Friends<\/strong>\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Buffy the Vampire Slayer<\/strong>.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d
\nSplashy guitars, letter-perfect arrangements and Glen Phillips<\/strong>\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 plaintive vocals impart a unique, melancholy sound that is somewhere between heavy and soft-rock, driving such unforgettable singles as \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Walk on the Ocean<\/strong>\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Fall Down<\/strong>.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d
\nOh, and the wildly incongruous name, Toad the Wet Sprocket, was chosen from an absurdist Monty Python<\/strong> skit.<\/p>\n
I caught Glen Phillips on the phone this March and found him a thoughtful person, mild-mannered and intellectual, but with understandably unsettled feelings about the future prospects for musicians.<\/p>\n
It’s my understanding that you established Toad in 1986<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Right around that time, although Todd and I had been playing and writing songs, together maybe from 1985 <\/p>\n
When you were only—how old were you?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
We were in high school. I was a freshman, they were seniors, in a regular public high school.<\/p>\n
\nNow the other members of the group, Todd, Dean and Randy, how were the four of you acquainted? <\/p><\/blockquote>\n
They all knew each other growing up. Some of the guys, they went to the same church. Todd had the guitar.<\/p>\n
You studied music in school?\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Apart from being in choirs, no. I got fired by my guitar teacher because I wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t any good at following directions. It was just your average band formed by high-schoolers who got together to play, practicing in garages and we called it a band.<\/p>\n
How did it transform into a serious music group?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
This was one club around town, called \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Shack\u00e2\u20ac\u009d, close to where we lived, which helped, because my dad would drive me there
\nThe guy who ran it didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to pay any performance rights to ASCAP, so you weren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t allowed to play covers there. At every other club you had to do covers, but we were at the one club where you had to do originals. So we started writing a lot early on and so developed those skills just out of necessity. In that sense we were very lucky.<\/p>\n\nWho actually writes Toad\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s songs?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
It depends. I write some of the songs. Todd and I write some together. He might come in with music and I might add a part. Since we broke up Todd and Dean have kind of become a writing team. Sometimes I just kind of finish things up after they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve written a song.<\/p>\n
While on the subject of creativity, what were your influences? Where does your unique sound come from?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
I have no idea. In those days we were listening to everything, including, certainly, the Beatles. In high school I was really into Rush. Before that, in grade school I was into disco. When we started Toad I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d gotten into metal and into punk. <\/p>\n
Can you name any other artists or groups that you were listening to when it dawned on you that you had the wherewithal to create your own stuff?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Todd really turned me on to post-punk bands like Husker Du and the Replacements, a little of Elvis Costello. Basically a lot of stuff with that punk energy but with a much more literate bent.<\/p>\n
In those days there was a genre that preceded the term “alternative rock” and it was “College Radio.” How did you and the group relate to that genre, if you recognize it as such?\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
At that time, Nirvana, and with it the term \u00e2\u20ac\u0153alternative,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d had not yet broken onto the scene, but what had been college radio was starting to enter the mainstream. I could see that my private stash of music had suddenly become public.<\/p>\n
You guys really hit it big in the 90s. Were you shooting for that level of success and recognition in the music world?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
No. I kind of knew early on what I wanted and it was not to get into anything competitive, into self-promotion or selling myself in any sense. I had a drama teacher and I saw that he became a teacher because he loved teaching and the theater. He didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to be a salesman for himself and summon all that ego and the drive of pursuing whatever it is that pushes people.<\/p>\n
You used him as a role model?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Yeah, so I just was playing music for whatever, but I just wanted to go to school, go to college and then become a teacher.<\/p>\n
In what? Music?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Yeah, that or even social sciences. I thought I might go into cultural anthropology. That side of things really moved me.
\nAnd so, we had the band, and the first two records were made completely independently, and we put them out in town, and we had a lot of fun playing and we assumed that like a summer it would end I was moving up to San Francisco to go to college and the band was going to break up.
\nBut what happened was there was this friend of a friend, Nick, from ASCAP who liked our tapes. I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even know him at the time. He was dubbing copies of our tapes in his office and sending them off to record companies. And then I got signed when I was 18.<\/p>\nHe apparently had good musical taste. He knew that it was good stuff!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Yeah and that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the great thing about ASCAP. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a great organization and they really help. We would never have had the drive or ambition on our own without them.
\nJust as an aside, when we broke up, I had to suddenly manifest that drive, and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been really bad at it!<\/p>\nSo who in the band is then responsible for pushing the success of Toad?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
We all have an artistic drive, or ambition for our music, and we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been lucky that it has gotten us as far as it has, because none of us is very good at the business part of it.<\/p>\n
That attitude of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153take us as we are\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is evident in the music.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Sometimes our sound is embarrassingly earnest. (laughs)
\nIn a way that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s why we have our audience, because when we came out people were competing so hard to be \u00e2\u20ac\u0153heavy.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d When we first started to get play on the radio it would be next to Hole or Green Day or Henry Rollins. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s like we were making music for nerds when it wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t fashionable to be a nerd.<\/p>\nToad has a couple of platinum albums and is featured on movie and TV soundtracks but somehow remains just below the mainstream radar. What\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s that like?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
I suppose it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s nice that way. On the other hand, everybody would like to be a little more successful. But when we were more recognizable, it used to make me nervous. But a little notoriety goes with success. When I went independent and solo—and so I was less well known— I felt like I had to always audition for my job. <\/p>\n
What form of success would you really like?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Stability. Like having the same management for more than just one album. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not counting on labels anymore, because that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s to a large degree gone. And I no, I won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t waste my time being bitter. I guess I just want to be able to make a living making music I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m proud of. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not young and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not without responsibilities anymore.<\/p>\n
Doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t everybody want to be a rock star?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
I think wanting to be a rock a star is one of the lamest, lowest desires in the world. I really don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get kids wanting to be famous for fame itself. There are people— nobodies, really, like the Kardashians—who are famous just for being famous.<\/p>\n
You mentioned responsibilities. You have kids?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Yes, three.<\/p>\n
\nAnd based on your knowledge of the field, would you advise them— if they have the aptitude—to go into music?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
I would advise them to follow their passion. But, no, I wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t advise them to go into music as a career. They work at gymnastics, my kids—on the trapeze and such—and they learn from it that you need to work harder at whatever you want to excel at. <\/p>\n
What\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s your take on the future of the recording industry?\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Humans been making music longer than we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been talking, and record companies are based on very recent technology when you look at it in terms of human history. I just feel that the recording industry is just a weird technological blip. People made music and people listened to music long before there was a music industry. At this point musicians can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be monetized in the same way that they have been.<\/p>\n
It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a different world.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
People will still make music. People will still want to hear music. We need to figure out new ways of how we distribute it and how make a living out of it.<\/p>\n
So what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the solution as you see it?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
People are going to have to go back to seeing themselves as patrons of the arts. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not about album sales anymore. You can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t make a living selling records.
\nMaybe fans with a sense of stewardship will form collectives. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s this concept of a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153home concert community.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d
\nSome are coming to realize that people nowadays are basically stealing music. Musicians have still got to eat. Maybe artists are going to have to live on the proceeds of live performances. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve done our share, sometimes performing at a hundred live shows in a year. Keep in mind that this isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t Canada or Scandinavia where the government issues grants to performing artists.<\/p>\nFinally, let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s talk about more mundane and imminent issues. When will Toad the Wet Sprocket go on tour?\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re just about to start a nationwide tour. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be in New York at Irving Plaza on April 7.<\/p>\n
What\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going to be on the playlist?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
There will be a lot of the familiar stuff that is known and that people want to hear, but since last year we started writing again as a band. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be a couple of new songs, and a couple of songs off of the solo records.<\/p>\n
Is the new material intended to go into a new album? Is an album in the works?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re really early in the writing process and won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t likely even start recording for a new album until next year.<\/p>\n
Who do you like that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s out there now?\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re still great artists out there in the mainstream. I think of Mumford & Son, Death Cab for Cutie, Arcade Fire and MGMT. <\/p>\n
And the future for Toad the Wet Sprocket?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Creatively, at this time, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re at a high point.<\/p>\n
It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been great catching your insights on these things.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Thanks.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Toad the Wet Sprocket Interview By Doktor John Modern rock. Alternative rock. Indie Rock. No band epitomizes those terms or is a better representative of the breakaway style of music that spanned the two decades which straddle the year 2000. Starting out in the 80s as a high school garage band in the Santa Barbara […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/doktorjohn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/doktorjohn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/doktorjohn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/doktorjohn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/doktorjohn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=295"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/doktorjohn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/doktorjohn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/doktorjohn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/doktorjohn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}