{"id":717,"date":"2012-02-17T05:03:44","date_gmt":"2012-02-17T10:03:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=717"},"modified":"2012-02-17T05:03:44","modified_gmt":"2012-02-17T10:03:44","slug":"the-explorers-club-a-five-star-hotel-part-two","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2012\/02\/17\/the-explorers-club-a-five-star-hotel-part-two\/","title":{"rendered":"The Explorers Club: A Five-Star Hotel (part two)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Continued from Part One<\/a>…<\/em><\/p>\n

Bill Kopp:<\/strong><\/font> I was blown away by <\/font>The Explorers Club<\/strong><\/font>‘s precision onstage in Asheville recently. What made it more amazing was when I learned that the bassist was a stand-in \u2013 he even sang some leads \u2013 and that your merch guy was playing a few dates as well. How do you pull off such a tight show, even with substitute players?<\/font><\/p>\n

Jason Brewer:<\/strong> It’s all about enthusiasm. The guys we play with, they love<\/em> to play. Now, truth be told, the guy standing in on bass \u2013 even though he’s not a regular member of the band \u2013 he sang harmony backing vocals on every song on Grand Hotel<\/em>. And the guy playing trumpet and other stuff that night, his dad is a big friend of the band, and he’s<\/em> been a fan of the band since we started. He’s a college student and a really talented guy. When he has time, he plays with us.<\/p>\n

The misconception among some people is that we would come out onstage and play a bunch of soft pop. We like to play some rock’n’roll too, y’know.<\/p>\n

BK:<\/strong><\/font> Onstage the The Explorers Club are high energy and tasteful. And those are not two qualities often found together. <\/font><\/p>\n

JB: <\/strong>It’s really hard, but we want to make sure we’re meticulous. We want to nail the arrangements. And we want to make sure you’re not bored.<\/p>\n

BK:<\/strong><\/span><\/font> <\/strong><\/em><\/font>Freedom Wind<\/em><\/font> is clearly influenced by the Beach Boys; it’s a virtual pastiche. But what’s interesting to me is that the songs are really your songs, not rewritten Beach Boys songs. That’s one of the things that makes it different for me from, say, <\/font>The Rutles<\/strong><\/font>, <\/font>or <\/font>Utopia<\/strong><\/font>‘s <\/font>Deface the Music<\/em><\/font> album. I would argue that you could have presented the songs in a wholly different genre context \u2013 had you wanted to \u2013 and they would have worked fine, owing to the \u201ca good song is a good song\u201d concept.<\/font><\/p>\n

JB: <\/strong>The way the whole band started was, I was kicking around in my friend’s studio in Atlanta. I went there for a few months to write some songs with Troy Stains<\/strong>. He’s not in the band; we’re just co-writers. We’re both really into Fran\u00e7oise Hardy<\/strong> and the [then-unreleased Beach Boys] SMiLE<\/em> record. So we were jamming a bunch of Beach Boys, French pop, and \u2013 something else I really like \u2013 the Nuggets<\/em> collection.<\/p>\n

And I said, \u201cLet’s do a Phil Spector<\/strong> thing, just for fun!\u201d So we came up with the song on our first album called \u201cForever.\u201d We recorded it \u2013 the two of us and a drummer \u2013 and we stacked all the vocals. We thought, \u201cYeah, this sounds pretty cool.\u201d I took all the other songs I had recorded with him \u2013 they all had varied sounds \u2013 but only \u201cForever\u201d and one other got finished. We started eight but didn’t finish any of the others.<\/p>\n

I listened to \u201cForever\u201d on the way home, and thought to myself, \u201cWe can do this Beach Boys thing pretty good.\u201d I took the recording back to Charleston and played it for a bunch of guys I knew \u2013 guys I had played in bands with in the past \u2013 and we decided we had to start a band around that sound. So I said, \u201cOkay, let me see if I can come up with a ‘new’ Beach Boys album that they never wrote.\u201d I took it upon myself to carry on that west coast sunshine pop tradition, since they<\/em> don’t seem to be doing that too well any more.<\/p>\n

I wasn’t writing thinking, \u201cOh, I want to be<\/em> the Beach Boys,\u201d but rather just, \u201cLet’s write some songs with that sound, that production value. And let’s see how it turns out.\u201d So The Explorers Club was started on the basis of a bunch of demos, and some guys I got together in Charleston. Guys who liked what I liked, and who are really fantastic musicians.<\/p>\n

Some of those guys don’t play with me any more, because as the band has continued to evolve, the sound needed to change. And the personnel needed to change.<\/p>\n

But the new record, Grand Hotel<\/em>, is much closer to what I wanted to do originally. It’s sort of all over the board. It’s definitely inching our way toward finding our own sound. Me and my co-writer, we want to write modern classics.<\/p>\n

BK: <\/strong><\/font>I saw a comment someone left on the band’s Facebook page<\/a>, in which he complained about the Explorers Club \u201cdeviating from the formula\u201d on <\/font>Grand Hotel<\/em><\/font>. At first I thought it was someone doing a parody impression of <\/font>Mike <\/strong><\/font>\u201cDon’t F**k with the Formula\u201d<\/span><\/font> Love<\/strong><\/font>. Then I realized the guy was serious. How much do you worry about being pigeonholed? Did that figure into your broadening the group’s sound?<\/font><\/p>\n

JB: <\/strong>I think there are going to be people that loved the first album because it was sort of Brian Wilson Part Four<\/em>. There are going to be people \u2013 Beach Boys fanatics, a very strange brew \u2013 who may not like Grand Hotel<\/em>. But my whole philosophy is, I want to move forward. I don’t want to do [Freedom Wind<\/em>] again; I’ve done<\/em> it already.<\/p>\n

Making this record, I was listening to Burt Bacharach, and The Carpenters<\/strong>, and The Grass Roots<\/strong>. And teen idols from the early seventies. The Bay City Rollers<\/strong>, and ABBA<\/strong>. That’s what I was in the mood for. I started playing a bunch of that stuff on the guitar, and I guess it was really just, \u201cHey! This would be a heckuva lot of fun!\u201d<\/p>\n

I had just gotten married, and went to Mexico on our honeymoon. I heard all this crazy mariachi music and \u2013 this is kinda weird \u2013 a lot of Jobim and Brazilian jazz. In Mexico. Which didn’t make any sense to me. On the plane, in the elevators.<\/p>\n

I’m a life-long Elvis Presley fanatic. In the studio, we watched Fun in Acapulco<\/em> and Blue Hawaii<\/em> while we were making the record. So I felt like I was on a sort of two-year-long musical vacation. And the whole idea behind the new record was, we’re gonna check into a hotel in some sunny, foreign, tropical place. <\/span><\/p>\n

So yeah, I know some people are going to be bummed that we didn’t make <\/span>Carl and the Passions Part Three<\/em>. My advice to them is to open up their minds a little bit. Or go listen to <\/span>Rip Chords<\/strong><\/span> records…I don’t know. <\/span><\/p>\n

BK: <\/strong><\/span><\/font>It’s not as if <\/span><\/font>Grand Hotel<\/em><\/font> represents a stylistic left-turn; it’s not as if you made an album of death metal.<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

JB: <\/strong>That’s the thing, and I’ve thought about it. Listen to the bridge of \u201cRun Run Run.\u201d It’s got some sort of Pet Sounds<\/em>-style harmony parts.<\/p>\n

BK: <\/strong><\/font>I know that you feel like The Explorers Club has had some difficulty getting notice and\/or respect locally. <\/font><\/p>\n

JB: <\/strong>Charleston, South Carolina couldn’t care less about our band. When we first started, people thought we were cool; they thought…you know those indie rock bands that say they’re gonna sound like The Beach Boys, and then they sound completely different?<\/p>\n

BK: <\/strong><\/font>Like<\/span><\/font> Guided by Voices.<\/strong><\/font><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

JB: <\/strong>Yeah. That’s what people thought we were. Or maybe The Shins<\/strong>.<\/span> Now, I love The Shins; they’re cool. But people thought we were going to be like one of those Elephant Six-type bands [Olivia Tremor Control<\/strong>, Neutral Milk Hotel<\/strong>, Of Montreal<\/strong>]. I love Robert Schenider<\/strong> from Apples in Stereo<\/strong><\/a>; he’s one of my heroes. He’s such a champion of great music. We’ve toured with him.<\/p>\n

So people sort of put us in that kind of [category]. And we even signed with a super-cool indie label [Dead Oceans] for the first record.<\/p>\n

But here in Charleston, it’s jam-band central. And a lot of singer\/songwriter Ryan Adams<\/strong> wannabees. We can’t even get the triple-A noncommercial station here to play us. They say that they play homegrown music, and they play just about every other local band but us. The program director has very matter-of-factly said to us that he doesn’t take us seriously.<\/p>\n

We can play the Troubadour in Los Angeles, and get played on XM Radio \u2013 this morning we got some airplay in the midwest, and we’re getting played all different places \u2013 but here in our own hometown: no. Nothing. Absolutely nothing.<\/p>\n

BK: <\/strong><\/font>There’s always that herd mentality: \u201c<\/font>This<\/em><\/font> is popular, so more of <\/font>this<\/em><\/font>, please.\u201d<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

JB: <\/strong>I have a theory about all of that. There’s not a happy medium in music any more. There’s music that’s really challenging, really hard to listen to, and it gets a lot of attention. Like Radiohead<\/strong>. It’s hard<\/em> to listen to; it’s not like, \u201cHey, I’m in a great mood; I think I’ll put some Radiohead on!\u201d And then there’s music that you don’t have to think about at all<\/em>. Terrible. And there’s no middle ground. But The Explorers Club is<\/em> that middle ground. It’s poppy, and very happy, upbeat stuff. And the lyrics \u2013 and I’m the first to tell you, our lyrics aren’t Einstein<\/strong>; they’re really elementary<\/span> \u2013 too. On the other hand, you’ve got the arrangements, with some complex chord changes.<\/p>\n

And I think that sometimes people want to like something that’s difficult to listen to, or they want something they can ignore and put in the background.<\/p>\n

BK: <\/strong><\/font>I interviewed <\/font>Tim DeLaughter<\/strong><\/font> of <\/font>The Polyphonic Spree<\/strong><\/font><\/a> many years ago. Perhaps even more so than you, he’s certainly somebody who knows about the challenges of touring with a large group. He has something else in common with you: the Polyphonic Spree made some commercial inroads \u2013 and some money, too \u2013 when one of their songs was run on television. In their case it was a Volkswagen commercial; in your case it was airing on several TV shows. How important do you think that sort of thing \u2013 commercial and TV placement \u2013 is to your long-term success? Is it pretty much a given that you have to pursue that?<\/font><\/p>\n

JB: <\/strong>We have to. We live and die by that. Radio doesn’t matter as much any more; it’s all about getting placed where a lot of people can hear you. And that’s something we factored in with the new record, too. That’s why some of it is simple; we thought, \u201cIf we write a song about waiting for the phone to ring, a cell phone company might want to use it.\u201d We’d be totally into that.<\/p>\n

BK: <\/strong><\/font>I hear rumors that <\/font>Mike Myers <\/strong><\/font>might make another <\/font>Austin Powers<\/em><\/font> film…<\/font><\/p>\n

JB: <\/strong>If he makes another Austin Powers<\/em> film, they need to get in touch with me and have me write some songs. For me, it would be the biggest deal ever.<\/p>\n

BK: <\/strong><\/font>The instrumental title track on <\/font>Grand Hotel<\/em><\/font> reminds me of the original <\/font>Casino Royale<\/em><\/font> theme, and the theme from the <\/font>Peter Sellers<\/strong><\/font> film <\/font>The Party<\/em><\/font>. <\/font><\/p>\n

JB: <\/strong>That’s totally what we were going for. The guy who designed the album cover [James Abercrombie<\/strong>] had written that song. None of us in the band had really written it. He came up with the main idea for it, brought it to us, and said, \u201cTurn this into 101 Strings<\/strong> or Herb Alpert.\u201d So I decided, we’re going to tun it into Herb Alpert jamming with The Wrecking Crew<\/strong>. We were thinking of the James Bond<\/strong> movies when they’re in the lavish hotel. I kind of see Woody Allen<\/strong>‘s \u201cJimmy Bond\u201d character in the elevator or something. So, yeah, you nailed it.<\/p>\n

<\/a>
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Continued from Part One… Bill Kopp: I was blown away by The Explorers Club‘s precision onstage in Asheville recently. What made it more amazing was when I learned that the […]<\/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-717","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\/717","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=717"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}