Glen Phillips
Encyclopedia
Glen Phillips is a songwriter, lyricist, singer and guitarist. He is best known as the singer and songwriter of 1990s alternative rock
group Toad the Wet Sprocket
.
, United States, and began making music at age 14. Glen grew up in a household where Reform Judaism
was practiced and Eastern Religion
was studied, and his spiritual curiosity has been one of the major themes of his writing.
Phillips and his wife, Laurel, have three girls (Sophia, Freya, and Zola).
Phillips injured his arm on October 8, 2008 at a friend's house when a glass coffee table he was sitting on collapsed. Phillips had surgery to repair a damaged ulnar nerve and muscle in his left arm. His ability to play guitar has been hampered during his recovery, but he has been actively touring in spite of his injury. Sean Watkins
and Jonathan Kingham
have recently joined Phillips on the road to provide accompaniment.
Phillips is frequently barefoot when performing with the band.
and recorded five albums and many major tours until 1998.
During his time in Toad the Wet Sprocket, Phillips was involved in a pop rock project called Flapping, Flapping.
Three years later, Phillips released his first solo album, Abulum
, which was a change from the sound that Toad the Wet Sprocket was known for. This was followed up by a self-released live album and solo touring, along with a reunion tour with his former Toad bandmates
In 2004, Phillips, with Nickel Creek
, released a long-awaited collaboration as Mutual Admiration Society. The self-titled album
had been recorded in 2000 and featured songs written by both Phillips alone and as collaborative efforts, and was released on Sugar Hill Records.
In 2005, Phillips returned to a major label via Universal Records
' imprint Lost Highway Records and released the critically acclaimed Winter Pays For Summer
. The album included the radio single "Duck and Cover," but Phillips and the label would part ways due to some creative differences.
Phillips released his third proper solo album, Mr. Lemons
in the spring of 2006. The music video for the album's first single, "Everything But You," made its debut as a Yahoo! Exclusive Premiere on May 11, 2006.
In 2007 Phillips reunited with Sara Watkins and Sean Watkins of Nickel Creek as well as Grant-Lee Phillips and Luke Bulla to perform as part of The Various & Sundry Tour.
In January 2008, Phillips released an EP with Talk Talk
and Peter Gabriel
influences titled Secrets of the New Explorers.
In January 2008, it was reported by Billboard
that a new supergroup
octet had formed. The genesis of the project came via a "Glen Phillips and Friends" evening hosted By the Sings Like Hell concert series at Santa Barbara's Lobero Theatre in February 2007. The ensemble reunited in Jim Scott's recording studio a year latter and by September 2008 the collective settled upon the name, Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.). In its octet configuration, WPA features Phillips, Sean Watkins
(guitar), his sister Sara Watkins
(fiddle), Benmont Tench
(piano), Luke Bulla (fiddle), Greg Leisz
(various), Pete Thomas
(drums), and Davey Faragher
(bass). The group also performs as a quintet featuring Phillips, Watkins, Bulla, and bassist Sebastian Steinberg
. The results of the 2008 recording sessions were released as this album on September 15, 2009.
Phillips has also completed an album with Neilson Hubbard
and Garrison Starr
under the band name, Plover, released October 23, 2008.
In 2009, Phillips has been involved in the soundtrack of the film Imagine That (film). He covers The Beatles
's song I'll Follow the Sun
.
Note: Abulum was released independently in 2000, then under Brick Red in 2001.
Alternative rock
Alternative rock is a genre of rock music and a term used to describe a diverse musical movement that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular by the 1990s...
group Toad the Wet Sprocket
Toad the Wet Sprocket
Toad the Wet Sprocket is an American alternative rock band formed in 1986. The band consists of singer/guitarist Glen Phillips, guitarist Todd Nichols, bassist Dean Dinning, and drummer Randy Guss. The band enjoyed chart success in the 1990s with the singles "Walk on the Ocean," "All I Want,"...
.
Personal life
Phillips was born in Santa Barbara, CaliforniaSanta Barbara, California
Santa Barbara is the county seat of Santa Barbara County, California, United States. Situated on an east-west trending section of coastline, the longest such section on the West Coast of the United States, the city lies between the steeply-rising Santa Ynez Mountains and the Pacific Ocean...
, United States, and began making music at age 14. Glen grew up in a household where Reform Judaism
Reform Judaism
Reform Judaism refers to various beliefs, practices and organizations associated with the Reform Jewish movement in North America, the United Kingdom and elsewhere. In general, it maintains that Judaism and Jewish traditions should be modernized and should be compatible with participation in the...
was practiced and Eastern Religion
Eastern religion
This article is about far east and Indian religions. For other eastern religions see: Eastern_world#Eastern_cultureEastern religions refers to religions originating in the Eastern world —India, China, Japan and Southeast Asia —and thus having dissimilarities with Western religions...
was studied, and his spiritual curiosity has been one of the major themes of his writing.
Phillips and his wife, Laurel, have three girls (Sophia, Freya, and Zola).
Phillips injured his arm on October 8, 2008 at a friend's house when a glass coffee table he was sitting on collapsed. Phillips had surgery to repair a damaged ulnar nerve and muscle in his left arm. His ability to play guitar has been hampered during his recovery, but he has been actively touring in spite of his injury. Sean Watkins
Sean Watkins
Sean Charles Watkins is a guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter. He is a member of the contemporary folk band Nickel Creek, the duo Fiction Family and the supergroup Works Progress Administration.-Nickel Creek:...
and Jonathan Kingham
Jonathan Kingham
Jonathan Kingham is a folk, pop and jazz musician from Seattle, Washington. Kingham has released three full-length albums, one EP, and appeared on Meet The Bixbys as a band member for The Bixbys in 1999. Since 1997 he has toured nationally. He also has a home in Tennessee. His singing has been...
have recently joined Phillips on the road to provide accompaniment.
Phillips is frequently barefoot when performing with the band.
Music
Phillips began Toad the Wet Sprocket in 1986, at the age of 16. By 1988, they had signed with Columbia RecordsColumbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
and recorded five albums and many major tours until 1998.
During his time in Toad the Wet Sprocket, Phillips was involved in a pop rock project called Flapping, Flapping.
Three years later, Phillips released his first solo album, Abulum
Abulum
Abulum is the solo debut album by former Toad the Wet Sprocket singer/songwriter Glen Phillips. The album was produced on both CD and DVD formats...
, which was a change from the sound that Toad the Wet Sprocket was known for. This was followed up by a self-released live album and solo touring, along with a reunion tour with his former Toad bandmates
In 2004, Phillips, with Nickel Creek
Nickel Creek
Nickel Creek was an American progressive acoustic music trio consisting of Chris Thile , Sara Watkins and Sean Watkins . The band was founded in 1989 and released 6 albums between 1993 and 2006...
, released a long-awaited collaboration as Mutual Admiration Society. The self-titled album
Mutual Admiration Society (album)
Mutual Admiration Society is an album featuring the collaboration between Nickel Creek's Chris Thile, Sara Watkins, and Sean Watkins, and Glen Phillips, the former lead singer of folk-rock group Toad the Wet Sprocket...
had been recorded in 2000 and featured songs written by both Phillips alone and as collaborative efforts, and was released on Sugar Hill Records.
In 2005, Phillips returned to a major label via Universal Records
Universal Records
Universal Records was a record label owned by Universal Music Group, and it is now owned by Manny Patino and Michael Jackson, and operated as part of the Universal Motown Republic Group.-History:...
' imprint Lost Highway Records and released the critically acclaimed Winter Pays For Summer
Winter Pays For Summer
Winter Pays For Summer is an album released in 2005 by Glen Phillips. The album was Phillips' debut for Lost Highway/Universal Records. It was recorded during 2003 and 2004. It was produced by John Fields at Paramount Studios and Mansfield Lodge, and features guest appearances by Jon Brion, Sam...
. The album included the radio single "Duck and Cover," but Phillips and the label would part ways due to some creative differences.
Phillips released his third proper solo album, Mr. Lemons
Mr. Lemons
Mr. Lemons is the third full-length album by singer/songwriter Glen Phillips. It was released in May 2006 and features a cover of the Huey Lewis and the News hit, "I Want a New Drug"....
in the spring of 2006. The music video for the album's first single, "Everything But You," made its debut as a Yahoo! Exclusive Premiere on May 11, 2006.
In 2007 Phillips reunited with Sara Watkins and Sean Watkins of Nickel Creek as well as Grant-Lee Phillips and Luke Bulla to perform as part of The Various & Sundry Tour.
In January 2008, Phillips released an EP with Talk Talk
Talk Talk
Talk Talk were an English musical group, active from 1981 to 1991. The group had a string of international hit singles including "Today", "Talk Talk", "It's My Life", "Such a Shame", "Dum Dum Girl", "Life's What You Make It" and "Living in Another World"....
and Peter Gabriel
Peter Gabriel
Peter Brian Gabriel is an English singer, musician, and songwriter who rose to fame as the lead vocalist and flautist of the progressive rock group Genesis. After leaving Genesis, Gabriel went on to a successful solo career...
influences titled Secrets of the New Explorers.
In January 2008, it was reported by Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...
that a new supergroup
Supergroup (music)
In the late 1960s, the term supergroup was coined to describe "a rock music group whose performers are already famous from having performed individually or in other groups"....
octet had formed. The genesis of the project came via a "Glen Phillips and Friends" evening hosted By the Sings Like Hell concert series at Santa Barbara's Lobero Theatre in February 2007. The ensemble reunited in Jim Scott's recording studio a year latter and by September 2008 the collective settled upon the name, Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.). In its octet configuration, WPA features Phillips, Sean Watkins
Sean Watkins
Sean Charles Watkins is a guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter. He is a member of the contemporary folk band Nickel Creek, the duo Fiction Family and the supergroup Works Progress Administration.-Nickel Creek:...
(guitar), his sister Sara Watkins
Sara Watkins
Sara Ullrika Watkins is an American singer-songwriter and fiddler. Watkins debuted in 1989 as the fiddler of the progressive bluegrass group Nickel Creek, which consisted of herself, her elder brother Sean, and mandolinist Chris Thile. As a band, they are notable for three wide-released albums:...
(fiddle), Benmont Tench
Benmont Tench
Benjamin Montmorency Tench, III is an American keyboardist best known as a founding member of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.-Early years:...
(piano), Luke Bulla (fiddle), Greg Leisz
Greg Leisz
Greg Leisz is an American multi-instrumentalist, playing lap and pedal steel guitars, guitar, mandolin, and bass.- Biography :Leisz was influenced early on by the Byrds and Flying Burrito Brothers, especially pedal steel player "Sneaky" Pete Kleinow...
(various), Pete Thomas
Pete Thomas
Pete Thomas is best known as the longtime drummer for Elvis Costello. Tom Waits has referred to him as "one of the best rock drummers alive".-Career:...
(drums), and Davey Faragher
Davey Faragher
Davey Faragher is an American bass guitarist from Redlands, California. Faragher's career took off and received critical notice as a founding member of the nineties band, Cracker, and his following work with The Imposters, the backing band for Elvis Costello since 2001.Faragher is an accomplished...
(bass). The group also performs as a quintet featuring Phillips, Watkins, Bulla, and bassist Sebastian Steinberg
Sebastian Steinberg
Sebastian Steinberg is an American bass player, best known for his work in the band Soul Coughing.- Biography :Steinberg played with Soul Coughing throughout the band's entire history, from 1992–2000. He also recorded and performed with guitarist Marc Ribot and appeared on William Shatner's 2004...
. The results of the 2008 recording sessions were released as this album on September 15, 2009.
Phillips has also completed an album with Neilson Hubbard
Neilson Hubbard
Neilson Hubbard is an American singer-songwriter, musician and producer. His first band was called This Living Hand formed with Clay Jones . They signed to Adam Duritz's label, E Pluribus Unum. After the band split up, Hubbard went on to record three solo albums, The Slide Project, Why Men Fail and...
and Garrison Starr
Garrison Starr
Garrison Starr is a singer-songwriter who originally hails from Hernando, Mississippi, a suburb of Memphis, Tennessee. As a solo artist, she has recorded seven full-length albums, as well as two EPs and one live album...
under the band name, Plover, released October 23, 2008.
In 2009, Phillips has been involved in the soundtrack of the film Imagine That (film). He covers The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
's song I'll Follow the Sun
I'll Follow the Sun
"I'll Follow the Sun" is a song by The Beatles. It is a melancholy ballad written and sung by Paul McCartney and credited to Lennon–McCartney. It was released in 1964 on the Beatles for Sale album in the United Kingdom and on Beatles '65 in the United States, but was written long before that year:...
.
Studio albums
- AbulumAbulumAbulum is the solo debut album by former Toad the Wet Sprocket singer/songwriter Glen Phillips. The album was produced on both CD and DVD formats...
(CD) - Brick Red Records - 2000 - Winter Pays For SummerWinter Pays For SummerWinter Pays For Summer is an album released in 2005 by Glen Phillips. The album was Phillips' debut for Lost Highway/Universal Records. It was recorded during 2003 and 2004. It was produced by John Fields at Paramount Studios and Mansfield Lodge, and features guest appearances by Jon Brion, Sam...
(CD) - Lost Highway Records - 2005 - Mr. LemonsMr. LemonsMr. Lemons is the third full-length album by singer/songwriter Glen Phillips. It was released in May 2006 and features a cover of the Huey Lewis and the News hit, "I Want a New Drug"....
(CD) - Umami/bigHelium - 2006
Note: Abulum was released independently in 2000, then under Brick Red in 2001.
Other major releases
- Live at LargoLive at LargoLive at Largo is a live album by singer/songwriter and former Toad the Wet Sprocket singer/songwriter Glen Phillips. A self-released effort, it is a compilation of recordings from his performances at the Los Angeles, California nightclub Largo...
(CD) - independent release - 2003 - Unlucky 7Unlucky 7Unlucky 7 is an EP by singer/songwriter Glen Phillips. It is a compilation of six outtakes from the Winter Pays For Summer sessions, and one track from a scrapped solo album from 2002. The EP was released shortly before his third full-length album, Mr. Lemons. The EP is available both at concerts...
(EP) - independent release - 2006 - Secrets of the New Explorers (EP) - independent release - 2008
Collaborations
- "Scare Goat" by MC FrontalotMC FrontalotDamian Hess , better known by stage name MC Frontalot, is a Brooklyn-based hip hop musician and self-proclaimed "world's 579th greatest rapper". He is best known in nerdcore hip hop and video game culture, for naming the nerdcore subgenre, and performing at Penny Arcades annual Penny Arcade Expo...
- independent release - 2008 - "Sobriety Kills" (CD) by Jason KarabanJason KarabanJason Karaban is an American singer-songwriter and musician living in Los Angeles, California. Karaban first began his career fronting the Philadelphia based indie rock band Dragstrip Courage in 1997, and Grand in 2000. He emerged as a solo artist with the release of Doomed to Make Choices, in...
- 2009 (Composer)
External links
- Glen Phillips The official site with news, tour dates, blog, photos. (.com)
- Glen Phillips The official site with news, tour dates, blog, photos. (.net)
- Glen Phillips message board Official message board.
- Glen's MySpace site Glen's MySpace site with blog, photos and information on any upcoming tour dates.
- ComeBackDownload.com This Toad the Wet Sprocket site also has a great deal of content devoted to Glen's solo career.
- Unofficial Glen Phillips FAQ This is an out-of-date and incomplete patchwork of information, but it's still somewhat useful.
- Archive.org A large database of downloadable live performances. The shows are also indexed at ComeBackDownload.com.
- Works Progress Administration The official site for WPA.
- PopGurls 20 Questions with Glen Phillips. Interview from 2003.
- Interview with Glen Phillips on The BackStage Pass Internet Radio Show
- http://www.paradigmjournal.com/sagan/music2.html PARADIGM interview with Glen Phillips
- http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=glen+phillips&search=Search Glen Phillips on YouTube.com
- Glen Phillips JBTV interview on XNDTV.com Interview from 2007
- http://brightsidebroadcast.com/micro/GlenPhillips Glen Phillips BrightSideBroadcast Podcast.
- 2010 Half-Hour TV Interview on The Creative Community