Music: A Quiet Glen

Laurel Phillips Glen Phillips says the spare nature of his new self-released album allowed him to feel like a musician again, instead of just a "person in an industry."

In theory, the singer and songwriter of a successful band should find a certain measure of success as a solo act. But Glen Phillips knows that's not always the case.

His SoCal outfit, Toad the Wet Sprocket, was arguably one of the big Pop/Rock names of the '90s, garnering gold and platinum sales numbers, tons of radio play and even a track on the Friends soundtrack.

But after Toad's break-up in 1999, Phillips found the solo route slightly less lucrative. His first two albums, Abulum and Live at Largo, were independently released, which led to his signing with major indie Lost Highway for his third and best album, Winter Pays for Summer. While the reviews for the album and subsequent performances were overwhelmingly positive — Phillips' set at the Lost Highway showcase during 2005's South by Southwest was a highlight of the festival — sales were less than spectacular and he and the label soon parted company.

When Phillips started contemplating his next musical move, change became a priority. "The genesis of the album was a deep need to move on," says Phillips with a laugh. "Having been in the realm of the music industry and taking on the expectations from outside of how things are supposed to be done and how I'm supposed to go about doing them, I wanted to reclaim my life as a musician instead of a person in an industry. I was at a time where it would have been really easy to go though a demo process and the finding a record deal process and the marketing plan process.

And I realized that all I really wanted to do was make a record. It seems simple but it isn't necessarily."

Phillips' overriding concern was to make "something beautiful." Over the course of his solo career, he had come to the realization that solo acoustic shows were less problematic in terms of travel and finances and he began concentrating on that aspect of touring. It was a natural progression from his solo songwriting process, but it also fit in with his new mindset of trying to pare things down to their simplest components.

"I'm continually thinking smaller and smaller," says Phillips. "I like the idea (of), instead of reaching for something bigger, trying to figure out how to make what I already have work better. It's not bad, what I have, but if I do it by traditional record company standards, then it's not working at all."

The result of Phillips' introspection and scaling back is his newest solo release, Mr. Lemons. Although the album is far from being a strictly solo affair — a number of Phillips' musical peers help out, including vocals from Kim Richey and Garrison Starr — it is an intimate, gorgeously minimal work. In keeping with the smaller theme, Phillips has self-released the album, rather than entering the label arena again.

"I went in and made the record myself quickly so it was going to be quicker and easier for me to set it up myself than to go through contracts and new people and this and that," says Phillips. "There's a steep learning curve, but it's not crazy science. It's all doable. My attitude now is to make a record a year and not have such high stakes with each one, just do it like The Beatles and Stones used to. The Beatles made 20 albums in 10 years. I can at least make 10. That way, it's a sustainable family business and that will hopefully give me more time to feel like I'm a musician instead of somebody who's trying to ride the waves of an industry."

For a guy who's attempting to shrink his commitments, Phillips has a pretty hectic calendar coming up. He'll be touring Mr. Lemons throughout the spring before he reunites with his former bandmates in Toad the Wet Sprocket for a one-off reunion tour this summer (the tour stops here on July 20 at Coney Island's Moonlight Gardens). After that, Phillips, his wife and three children will pack up and head out in September to travel across Europe for nine months in a motor home. The kids will be home-schooled while Phillips plays small clubs, living-room gigs and various festivals across the continent. Phillips' family is one of the reasons he's made the move to a more streamlined business model.

Part of Phillips' newfound attitude toward career and business includes opening up about his life and beliefs on stage. Although he holds no particular religious affiliation, he is an extremely spiritual person, and he speaks frankly about his love for his family and his faith in a higher power, something he's been advised against.

"I'm in my thirties, I've got three kids, I love my wife, I want to keep my marriage together for the rest of my life, I want to be a good dad to my kids. That's the core of what I'm after," says Phillips. "There are people who will tell you, 'Don't talk about your wife during shows, that's not really cool.' It's not very Rock & Roll, but that's where my life is. On the other hand, you talk about that, people start going, 'Is this a Christian album?' And it's like, no, you don't get all my details, and you can talk about your family and God and not be a right-wing televangelist. There is a middle ground between ridiculous Rock & Roll hedonistic excess and being a straight, hard-line right-winger. There's a lot of room between those two things, and it's stunning that there's so little room for it in people's perception of music and what they're willing to hear and what kind of artists they're willing to hear stuff from."

Phillips is proud of Mr. Lemons in the same way that he's proud of himself for taking the leap of faith necessary to accomplish its release and promotion with very little help. "This album sounds like what I do when I go out by myself and I like that," he says. "It's small and I'm happy with it being small."