{"id":716,"date":"2012-02-16T05:54:54","date_gmt":"2012-02-16T10:54:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=716"},"modified":"2012-02-16T05:54:54","modified_gmt":"2012-02-16T10:54:54","slug":"the-explorers-club-a-five-star-hotel-part-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2012\/02\/16\/the-explorers-club-a-five-star-hotel-part-one\/","title":{"rendered":"The Explorers Club: A Five-Star Hotel (part one)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Beach Boys<\/strong> fans the world over \u2013 or at least the ones lucky enough to know about it \u2013 hailed <\/em>Freedom Wind<\/span>, the 2008 debut release from Charleston SC sextet The Explorers Club<\/strong>. Led by songwriter\/arranger Jason Brewer<\/strong>, the group successfully conjured the best qualities of the Beach Boys’ work. Their sound picked up conceptually where hits like \u201cDarlin\u201d (a perennial onstage favorite for The Explorers Club) left off. <\/em><\/font><\/p>\n

Yet on their sophomore release, <\/em>Grand Hotel<\/span>, the band takes a sure-footed step forward, proving that they’re no mere bunch of one-note stylistic copyists. <\/em>Grand Hotel<\/span>‘s all-original songs conjure the best of AM radio pop. Not, mind you, the schlocky end of the dial, either. Songs like \u201cBluebird\u201d evoke fond memories of better-than-history-would-have-you-think artists like Anne Murray<\/strong>. Elsewhere on the record one hears tunes that sound as if they could have been included on the soundtrack of <\/em>Midnight Cowboy<\/span>. The group aims for the arranging styles used so effectively on records by Harry Nilsson<\/strong><\/a>, B.J Thomas<\/strong> and other mainstream hitmakers of the early 70s. <\/em><\/font><\/p>\n

After catching a live show by the band, I took the opportunity to speak with Jason Brewer about the band, their albums, and their whole approach. Observing that Brewer himself is a young (thirtyish) lad, I couldn’t help but wonder how he had developed such a keen and complete understanding of the genre within which he’s chosen to work.<\/em><\/font><\/p>\n

\n

Bill Kopp: <\/strong>Generally when I interview an artist, I try to not focus unduly on the whole \u201cinfluences\u201d thing. I hope you\u2019ll forgive me if I make an exception in your case. Because of the nature of your music, I think it’s critical to understand where you’re coming from. I’m very interested to know about your musical background: your training, the stuff your parents played around the house when you were a kid, that sort of thing.<\/font><\/p>\n

Jason Brewer:<\/strong> My parents both sang in choirs, and sang in church their whole lives. And I do that, too. From the very beginning, I sang a lot of old gospel music \u2013 not like Southern gospel; more traditional gospel. All kinds of stuff; not too different, probably, from what Elvis Presley<\/strong> and Johnny Cash<\/strong><\/a> would have sang in church when they were young. And that came from my grandparents, really.<\/p>\n

Beyond that, my mom and dad are children of the seventies, essentially; they were born in the mid-fifties. They definitely grew up on the music of the late sixties and early seventies. My mom is into The Beach Boys<\/strong> and things like that; she’s from Miami, and that surf-y stuff was pretty popular. My dad is a total Leon Russell<\/strong> and Elton John<\/strong> guy. So I heard a lot of that. And he likes the early Doobie Brothers<\/strong> stuff, too. So that’s what my parents were into, and I loved that stuff.<\/p>\n

We were going to the beach one time when I was five or six, and my mom got me a Beach Boys cassette tape. So we listened to it in the car, with the whole family. That got me really hooked. But my really big musical breakthrough was through a neighbor who lived behind us. He was about eight years older than my parents. He let me hear \u2013 on headphones \u2013 Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band…<\/em>in mono. I was only six or seven years old, but it totally blew me away. I got him to make me a cassette of it. He put Sgt. Pepper<\/em> on one side, and on the other side he put his favorite songs from the White Album. I think I still have that cassette.<\/p>\n

So it was between hearing all the oldies radio, and hearing The Beatles<\/strong> and Motown from my neighbor. I liked some of the music that was going on in the 80s when I was little; I enjoyed Michael Jackson<\/strong> and Bruce Springsteen<\/strong> and the pop Genesis<\/strong> hits. And I still like that stuff. But hearing the Beatles when I was six or seven, I knew, \u201cThat’s what I want to do.\u201d So I would do chores around the house to save up money in my piggy bank, so I could buy all of the Beatles albums on cassette. I collected ’em all by the time I was seven or eight. CDs were around then, I guess, but a little kid didn’t carry around a CD player. I had a Walkman. And it was easy to play cassettes in the car, too.<\/p>\n

I had some other stuff, too. I remember I had a Temptations<\/strong> cassette. I stumbled across some of that stuff recently; I was cleaning out my closet. And I thought, \u201cWow, I really have<\/em> been listening to this music all my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

I started playing guitar when I was ten, eleven years old. I started writing songs when I was fifteen. I learned a lot of Beatles songs. I remember a live Paul McCartney<\/strong><\/a> album that came out in ’88 or ’89 [Tripping the Live Fantastic<\/em>]. I loved it; that one was a big deal for me. I played basketball on a church league, and I would put that tape on my boombox while I was practicing shooting free throws.<\/p>\n

I always had to have music wherever I went. Even riding in the car, going out to dinner with the family, I’d bring a a cassette. Now, I drive my wife crazy playing music in the car. She loves music, too \u2013 she’s a singer and a great musician too \u2013 but she says, \u201cSometimes we need to have a quiet<\/em> car ride.\u201d<\/p>\n

I played in bands since I was fourteen, fifteen years old. I had a band that wanted to be The Who<\/strong>, but that never really worked out. We couldn\u2019t find a front man. We <\/span>did<\/span><\/em> have the drummer, though. And in high school, when indie rock came out, I listened to <\/span>Wilco<\/strong>, <\/span>Flaming Lips<\/strong><\/a>, early <\/span>My Morning Jacket<\/strong>. But I was always totally into <\/span>Brian Wilson<\/strong>, Paul McCartney and <\/span>Burt Bacharach<\/strong>. I was devastated back in high school when the local oldies radio station changed format. They had already started phasing out the fifties stuff; in my town [Charleston SC] you can’t hear <\/span>Chuck Berry<\/strong> or Elvis or the Beach Boys on the radio. You can still hear The Beatles on the classic rock station every once in a while, but it’s only the <\/span>Abbey Road<\/span><\/em> stuff. Than god for Sirius XM.<\/span><\/p>\n

I’m a radio guy; I really am. I love records; I collect records like crazy. Bootlegs, you name it: I’ve got it all. But I still love to be able to turn on the radio and hear the songs I like. My musical vocabulary is all over the place; I’m a music geek. The thing I love the most is that really well-produced fifties, sixties and early seventies sound. That was the height of rock’n’roll, the height of pop music in my opinion. With the band now, that’s what we want to do: we want to fit in with <\/span>that<\/span><\/em>. <\/span><\/p>\n

BK: <\/strong><\/font>These songs wouldn’t be what they are were it not for the arrangements. Your music is about as far from the \u201cjam band\u201d aesthetic as one can imagine. How carefully do you plot out what each player does on the album?<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

JB: <\/strong>For the most part, it’s routined. On the first record we did [2008’s Freedom Wind<\/em>], I was super-detailed on every little part. On Grand Hotel<\/em>, we mapped out arrangements, but there are some little accidental things going on.<\/p>\n

The new record is really influenced by A&M Records stuff. If you know the history of that label, they had a jazz label called CTI. They had weird stuff like Antonio Carlos Jobim<\/strong><\/a> and Walt Wanderley<\/strong>. Some of that was a sort of weird, west-coast, free-form, bossa-nova influenced jazz.<\/p>\n

And if you listen to Grand Hotel<\/em>, there are a few moments like that: at the end of \u201cRun Run Run,\u201d the classical guitar and electric piano are kind of trading off. None<\/em> of that was planned. I played the electric piano on the end of that, and I told the guitarist, \u201cHey, just goof off. Whatever. Just do it, and we’ll take the best parts.\u201d<\/p>\n

The same goes for the end of \u201cSummer Days, Summer Nights.\u201d It’s a total Sergio Mendes<\/strong> thing. We wanted it to sound like a party by the pool in 1960s California, maybe on the border of Mexico.<\/p>\n

BK: <\/strong><\/font>It reminds me a bit \u2013 in terms of feel, if not sound \u2013 of the impromptu jam The Beatles did when they appeared on <\/font>David Frost<\/strong><\/font>‘s TV show.<\/font><\/p>\n

JB: <\/strong>I know what you mean: the little thing they did right before they played \u201cHey Jude.\u201d That could have been in there subconsciously. You’ve got to understand, my sophomore year of high school is when Anthology<\/em> came out. Already being a Beatles fanatic, I inhaled<\/em> that stuff.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

One thing with this new record that was really out of bounds, out of the box, was that I really gravitate toward things like sixties Frank Sinatra<\/strong><\/a>, Herb Alpert<\/strong>, Burt Bacharach, Dionne Warwick<\/strong>, Ricky Nelson<\/strong>…<\/p>\n

BK: <\/strong><\/font>AM radio pop, basically. That was AM radio music of the early seventies.<\/font><\/p>\n

JB: <\/strong>Yeah. The arrangements on that stuff were, I imagine, done by old-school jazz and big band guys who were just trying to stay in the the game. They were taking their skills and applying them to the new rock and pop music. These really trained, really brilliant musical minds met the teenage feel.<\/p>\n

When we were making Grand Hotel<\/em>, we were listening to the Andy Williams<\/strong> record with \u201cMusic to Watch Girls By\u201d on it. And Bob Crewe Generation<\/strong>…that kind of stuff. That stuff is so cool, because it’s the expansive Bacharach and Wilson sort of chords with crazy, over-the-top singing. I love that.<\/p>\n

BK: <\/strong><\/font>You bring up an interesting point about the arrangers on that kind of material. Those guys \u2013 and they were, for the most part, guys \u2013 were schooled not only in creating catchy, clever, sophisticated arrangements, but also in doing so in such a way that would sound good over a cheesy little monophonic AM radio speaker. I mean, sure: if you had quadrophonic sound (like we had briefly in the early 70s) you could make most anything <\/em>sound good. You had a higher sonic quality that allowed many of the subtleties to come out. But in crafting music for AM radio, one had to arrange the songs very carefully so they didn’t sound muddy. And that’s why I think that the horn lines on <\/font>Tijuana Brass<\/strong><\/font> records and such really cut through the mix. And you’ve completely captured that essence on <\/font>Grand Hotel<\/em><\/font>.<\/font><\/p>\n

JB: <\/strong>That was a conscious production effort with this record. If you listen to pop-jazz from that era, or even the guitar solo from \u201cSurfin’ USA,\u201d or any of the A Hard Day’s Night<\/em> era Beatles material, the solos float over<\/em> the mix. And that was just so they\u2019d stand out. I think on Grand Hotel<\/em>, there are some moments where some things really pop out of the mix. We recorded it that way, but then when Mark Linett<\/strong> mixed the record, I gave him notes that said, \u201cI really want this [prominent] in the mix; I want this-much compression,\u201d and so on. Of course, he’s a genius, and he knew how to do what I was looking for.<\/p>\n

BK: <\/strong><\/font>How did you come to work with <\/font>Mark Linett<\/strong><\/font>?<\/font><\/p>\n

JB: <\/strong>Our manager heard what we thought was the finished record, and he emailed a bunch of mix guys. Mark Linett was the first to respond. I said, \u201cAbsolutely: he’s the guy<\/em>.\u201d Mark heard the stuff and said, \u201cYeah. I can make this right.\u201d And he did.<\/p>\n

Click to continue to Part Two<\/a>…<\/em><\/font><\/p>\n

<\/a>
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Beach Boys fans the world over \u2013 or at least the ones lucky enough to know about it \u2013 hailed Freedom Wind, the 2008 debut release from Charleston SC sextet […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-716","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-interview","cat-41-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=716"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}