>>PREVIEW
PHILOSOPHER KINGS
Tuesday, February 21
The Whiskey
It’s challenging to keep a band productive and happy. Actually, it’s pretty hard to keep a band together at all. Tension is always present when you’re working with a group of people who each have their own goals that stretch beyond the compromise that a band requires.
For the Philosopher Kings in the 1990s, there was the added pressure of touring the world with heavy-hitters of the day like Maxwell and The Fugees, and releasing multiple Top 40 hits. They were a Canadian R&B group, at a time when Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins and Alice in Chains were dominating the Top 40 – a bunch of music school guys trying to make it when being a band meant power chords and grunge-y hooks.
But that wasn’t the only issue for the band.
"When you’re part of a group and that group is your only expression, it can be difficult…trying to express yourself, and it inevitably gets watered down," explains Philosopher Kings front man Jarvis Church.
Which is why after their third release, One Hot Night, they decided to take some time apart to work on their own ideas. During that time, Church and guitar player Brian West formed the high-status production team Track and Field, producing (among others) Nelly Furtado’s award-winning Whoa Nelly! album. Church also put out a solo album, as did keyboardist John Levine. James Bryan did both a solo project and, with Jay Levine, formed Prozzak.
But individual styles had already started to surface on The Philosopher Kings’ second album, 1997’s Famous, Rich, and Beautiful. The album’s overall sound relied heavily on the funkier hits like "I Am The Man" and "Hurts to Love You," but equally strong tracks like "Wide Awake" and "The End" hint that they were morphing their sound, or perhaps turning an artistic corner. Church sums it up as a random circumstance.
"Every time we do an album it’s different. There’s a really big difference from our first album to our second album."
With Castles (released February 14) the focus is clear – concise pop material. What it lacks in straight funkiness, it balances with tight pop production.
"This time was a pleasure," says Church. "Everyone had had time to musically express themselves in their own thing, and then it was just like: Let’s just really be a part of this thing and let it be what it wants to be… The way we made this album was a lot quicker and a lot more spontaneous. We really just went in the studio and we didn’t know what we were going to do, we just started playing."
The band now serves as a showcase for each member’s outside pursuits – in their live show, John Levine’s band opens, followed by James Bryan, and then The Philosopher Kings who pull out some Jarvis Church songs during the set.
Since their hiatus, a sub-genre of smooth, accessible bands such as Maroon 5 and Jamie Cullum have emerged within the mainstream, playing a style of music that The Philosopher Kings were among the first to make successful. Ironically, with Castles, the group almost seems to have been affected by these newer bands, reorienting their sound to a mainstream climate that will no longer look at them with the perplexity that their schooled funk and eccentric ballads might have inspired in the past.
But that is not to say that increased accessibility has caused The Philosopher Kings’ plan to change. Church keeps it simple.
"We love touring, we love playing live… We’ll let the world let us know whether or not it wants to be dominated – we don’t want to force anything on anybody." |
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