Glen Phillips

Glen Phillips was once the lead singer of Toad The Wet Sprocket, which gave the world more than a decade of alternative folk-rock, for lack of a better term. That California band recorded a number of popular radio hits that still get played over the airwaves today, such as “All I Want” and “Walk on the Ocean.”

Phillips has been quietly recording a series of post-Toad solo albums since 2001, and his latest, Secrets of the New Explorers, combines his gentle musical style with songs about space, of all things. The artwork, in fact, showcases a cool looking spaceship traveling in outer space. And the hard copy disc itself replicates the surface of the moon. Yet all the science infusing these six songs should not surprise anyone. Phillips, after all, is the child of two scientists. But even though the settings are often what you might more likely expect from a Sci-Fi Channel series, these character studies are just as human as Phillips’ past material.

Unlike David Bowie, however, who looked and behaved like the space aliens he sang about, Phillips remains a regular guy. And from talking to him, it’s obvious the subject matter for this release derived directly from Phillips’ deep love of science and science fiction as a child.

SSv: Did you ever aspire to be an astronaut growing up?

Glen Phillips: Probably not. The idea of actually going up into space – although it’s wonderful and I was a complete sci-fi nut – I’m probably too risk averse to actually consider it in any serious way. Just the sheer probability of dying is a little too much. It’s the same reason I don’t go climb Mt. Everest. I just have the feeling I’d be one of the guys who didn’t make it.

SSv: But do you like flying, in general?

Phillips: I’m fine with flying, I can handle boats. I’m decent with most things. I’m not, like, in general a paranoid person – I have many psychological difficulties, but that’s not one of them. You figure how many trips there have been into outer space, and then the number of those that have exploded, and it’s not a really good safety record. I love the concept of space travel. I love what it does with technology. I love the science. There’s a lot of beauty in it, and so I’m completely comfortable with all of that.

SSv: The artwork for the EP has a really cool, retro look to it. Were you inspired by B-movie science fiction stories when it came time to come up with the images you’ve put on the EP?

Phillips: What happened was I had one full cover finished and I had to scrap it. My dad was a physicist; my mom’s a chemist, so I was sort of a child of scientists. And he had this great collection of ’50s sci-fi books – Asimov and Astounding Science Fiction. I scanned a bunch of stuff and somebody told me the copyright laws would all be public. I put it altogether and then discovered it probably wasn’t actually public anymore and had to re-do it. I showed the stuff I’d put together to a friend of mine, Ben Ciccati, and asked if he would do some kind of piece based on it. So it’s definitely based on that retro stuff. Those are my dad’s old sci-fi magazines, and I spent my childhood reading those – Robert Heinlein books and Asimov foundation and all that.

SSv: Did you have to do a lot of research in order to come up with the ideas for these songs, or was a lot of this already in your mind before you started?

Phillips: Some of it is. I’d just been reading about Bigelow and his inflatable space station, this project he took over from NASA and kind of bought their research on. And I’d always loved a space elevator. Now, you could get me in space if I could go up in a space elevator. I’d be perfectly willing. I’d bring a few good books and take a week or whatever. I just don’t want to be strapped onto a rocket. I’ve always really been into space elevators.

One of the songs is kind of fictionalized, maybe it’s Paul Allen; I’m not sure who it is – somebody basically trying to impress a girl by being the first couple at zero gravity. That’s the song “Return To Me.” It’s just how you win a woman over; just make her forget all the other men by taking her to space. It’s all pretty much stuff I read about.

“The Spirit Of Shackleton,” which is very un-Shackleton in the plot line, but it’s the name of the spaceship. Some guy has a website that I found; the guy has his personal plan for how we can get to Mars. He has his whole Mars mission idea and I was just picturing – if it ever happened – how wonderfully wrong it could go. There wasn’t a ton of research, but it’s all stuff that I was into anyway.

SSv: I think your parents would be proud of the scientific knowledge you show, though. You had to know what a solar flare was to write “Solar Flare,” for instance.

Phillips: I guess so. Apparently the solar flare scientists – I got a few calls from a few people at Goddard Space Flight Center, and another astrophysicist in Boston who got a hold of me who said, “You’ve got to come check out our project.” So, the solar flare scientists are very happy about it. They liked the teeth and the hair falling out part. ["Goodbye teeth/And goodbye hair"]

SSv: Do you imagine you may be doing a few shows where some teacher wants you to perform at their science class? Maybe to students that are studying space and using your music to help get them interested in science?

Phillips: That would be fun. They’d have to take out some of the sex … oh, I don’t know. The sex isn’t very explicit. I threw in a little sex and murder. No, that would be a lot of fun. I may get a chance to go to Goddard Center and play at lunchtime.

SSv: When I think of rock music that has to do with space, the obvious template is David Bowie’s “Space Oddity”. Was that kind of in the back of your mind when you created this work?

Phillips: Oh yes. The first song we wrote – I don’t think it’s a rip-off – the chord progression, I think it’s the same change, but with a different melody. “Return To Me” is a lot like “Space Oddity” in certain ways. I don’t know how conscious I was, initially, of that. But obviously, if you’re going to write a good space epic, you gotta think Bowie.

SSv: What are some of the other great space rock songs that might not be as familiar as “Space Oddity’? Are there others you have explored?

Phillips: There’s “Hemispheres” by Rush. Rush was always really good for that. And “2112″ with its futuristic driven world.

SSv: Usually when people do songs that are science-y, these are accompanied high-tech music, whereas I think of your music as more like folk. Do you think it’s odd that you’re taking your style and marrying it to something that’s not normally associated with what you generally do?

Phillips: My dad was as science as they came, and he was really into Benny Goodman. He had one Miles Davis album, and no Ornette Coleman. I think he had John Coltrane plays “Chim Chim Cheree.” So I suppose in the era of jazz, in terms of my geeky upbringing, the music we listened to – we did have the Wendy Carlos Switched On Bach stuff, even back when Wendy was Walter – was relatively tame.

Science, more than anything, is about trying to find out what is. It’s about being fascinated enough in the world to ask questions and take some time to find out what’s actually happening, instead of deciding you already know it. That kind of attention and creativity and willingness to be surprised and to learn something that is, is as much a value of folk music or singer/songwriter music, as anything else.

SSv: One of my favorite lines is the Steven (Aerosmith) Tyler reference in “Space Elevator” ["I tell you Steven Tyler's wishing/ He could have a piece of this ascending movable feast"]. Were you particularly proud of yourself when you wrote of that line?

Phillips: It cracked me up. I was happy. I don’t know – particularly proud might be carrying it far. It’s been funny playing that song for people because it’s so utterly different then what people have come to expect from me. Part of making this album was just deciding to play and have fun. I’ve been so heavy for so long; it’s not to say I’m regretting that mode. But I’d been taking everything really seriously. I felt like I’d kind of forgotten how to have fun. So I decided I was going to make a record that I didn’t care if anyone ever listened to, that was purely to amuse myself, and the funny result of that is that it’s probably one of the better things I’ve done.