In the post grunge era, a group of musicians emerged from the head banging, d-chord swinging musical landscape, to form a band whose heart revolved around the essence of groove, with smooth pop-hybrid melodies, narrative lyrics and sensual vocals. The Philosopher Kings were literally a breath of fresh air, becoming a mainstay on the Canadian music scene. TPK dominated the radio waves with such chart-topping singles as “Charms,” “Hurts To Love You” and “If I Ever Lose This Heaven” and criss-crossed the country captivating sold-out audiences. With their remarkable high energy live performances and multi-dimension musicianship, they earned the moniker of ‘Canada’s Favourite Live Band.’ They toured from Brazil to Japan, including an impressive U.S. tour with The Fugees and Maxwell, winning every fan, one at a time. This incredible assemblage of talent spawned successful and diversified individual artist careers, with credits on releases from some of the biggest Canadian and international bands of today.
The Philosopher Kings led the way for a new generation of music, taking inspiration from the soul of yesterday and combining those influences with catchy pop riffs and intricate instrumentation. They created genre defying, big band sound that opened the doors for such contemporaries as Maroon 5, John Mayer and Jason Mraz. “Listening to the records we've made, there is definitely a signature sound,” commented guitarist James Bryan (a.k.a. James McCollum.) “The problem is it's never been easy for anyone to categorize. It's soulful, sexy, musical and has a live feel, but it's always been a melting pot of each member's influences.”
Cue forward several years, three immensely successful albums [The Philosopher Kings (1994); Famous Rich and Beautiful (1997); One Night Stand (1999)], multiple Top 10 radio hits, Industry Award nominations and sold-out concert venues across the country, and the band was ready to delve into other musical passions.
Since their last release, the band has drawn upon each other’s natural abilities by collaborating on their personal projects. Gerald Eaton released a solo project as Jarvis Church and with Brian West, formed the production team Track and Field. Together they produced Grammy Award-winner Nelly Furtado’s albums. James McCollum displayed his masterful guitar riffs on his solo debut as James Bryan and with Jay Levine, formed the band Prozzak and Lefthook Productions (FeFe Dobson.) Jon Levine has also pursued a solo career with his signature lyrical and piano stylings and Denton Whited has continued to tour with several artists. Collectively The Philosopher Kings have penned over 100 songs for superstar artists such as: Tina Turner, Ricky Martin, Divine Brown and Amanda Stott.
While collaborating on releases for K’Naan and Juno-nominated Jacksoul, they began to talk about how much they missed the chemistry of playing together as a band. “The idea of a new Philosopher Kings album came out of that,” explained James, “of a real love and appreciation of what the band was and is.” Unfortunately, Jay Levine, who is pursuing the business side of the music industry in New York, was unavailable to be a part of this album.
In fact, this live, eclectic, organic style starts from the ground up: from the recording process - onto the stage. Like the previous records, the album was recorded live off the floor, with the entire band in one room and with a minimum of overdubs, a real rare experience making records these days. “There's an overall warmth and spirit to this album, you can hear that we are inspired and are diving in headfirst,” commented James. Writing followed this symbiotic relationship, starting with an idea or hook that someone brought in, which the entire band then jammed on, to work out the music. Lyrics were written afterwards and this process really kept everyone involved and
excited. Lenny DeRose, who has engineered every TPK album, mixed the recording.
In order to keep the integrity of the recording experience and the sound pure to the original concept of the band, they self produced the album. Explains James: “pursuing our own solo and production work has given us each a confidence in what we can do as individuals and collaborating on those projects has created a whole new respect for one another. So when it came to making a Philosopher Kings album, we were all in a great headspace and had all gotten better at making records.”
“Castles” is a culmination of everyone’s life experiences and influences over the last decade and underneath the sweet groove and earnest soulfulness, they continue to build strong epic stories with their lyrics. The album tells tales of love, relationships and life exploration. The first single ‘Castles in The Sand’, discusses the romanticism of dreaming (“built the perfect house in the perfect town, dreamt a perfect dream and it all fell down I had to know for sure what its all about.”) ‘Give Back The Love’ is an introspective look at past relationships (“I would never undue the past that made me”) while ‘Out of The Blue’ describes how love can sneak up on you and how you have to be open to recognize it. Each track delves deep into the human condition with resonating narrative and a sound that transcends categorization.
Take the journey with The Philosopher Kings
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