Glen Phillips from Toad The Wet Sprocket joins the show this week and since Nick has known this guest for over 30 years, the conversation will certainly get deep and philosophical.
With many Top 20 singles and millions of records sold, Glen experienced early success with Toad The Wet Sprocket. He also has done a lot of critically acclaimed solo work.
Join us this week as we cover miles of road.
Nick encourages all his listeners to please vote, this election is one for the books — May our Republic survive it.
Key Takeaways
[1:30] Nick welcomes Glen Phillips and asks him to talk about the album he’s currently recording and how it has evolved along with the narratives of this “year that would not stop,” as he calls it.
[3:10] Glen touches on what it means for him as an artist to navigate the kind of unsettled political landscape we’re seeing today and where he tries to draw his inspiration in order to keep a broader historical and human perspective.
[7:00] His solo album Swallowed By The New was re-released last year, Glen talks about his maturity as an artist as well as his feeling of having trouble finding a way to get his solo voice above the noise level.
[9:27] Glen shares his process for writing in different modalities and with different sounds. He also opens up about his non-dogmatic spiritual musical side, which he’d been less confident about so that it wouldn’t come off as a “Hemp shirt, spiritual midlife record.”
[14:34] Esalen and Singing on the Edge are community singing events that Glen participates in, to have the spiritual benefits of singing together without the dogmatic religious package this practice usually entails. He touches on what he gains from these events as well as having non-performative musical experiences.
[19:12] From Beatles singalongs to more subtly complex spiritual songs, Glen hums, sings, and shares examples of the kinds of things you can expect from such singing practices.
[22:04] Glen shares the story of how Nick was almost single-handedly responsible for anyone ever hearing Bread and Circus by making cassette copies he would then send to A&R people! He tells the story of the beginnings of Toad The Wet Sprocket while navigating labels.
[29:55] After having sold a million and a half records, they finally saw their first royalty check. From the pressures to produce a single, Glen talks about the strange beast that was the nineties with its monstrous fear of selling out — which for a while after All I want, made Toad toxic in the press.
[33:14] On his mother’s reformed Judaism, his father — the physicist Zen practitioner — as well as the other influences that brought him to where he is today; which is to say from spiritual atheism to a tentatively renewed use of the word God, with a lot less personification.
[37:23] Philosophy! Here, you can follow Glen down the rabbit hole of our infinitely beautiful Universe, Physics, harmonics, and our small 3-dimensional but wondrous place in it.
[43:10] Glen shares his moment of hopelessness — after putting out Swallowed By The New — where he feared he would never again have success in music and would forever live off some youthful accomplishment.
[46:12] For Glen, charity work and community singing came together to help him walk away from the need to be legitimized in a transactional world. He also talks about all of the other projects he’s got running on the sidelines.
[50:00] Gratitude is what moves Glen through despair — and other lesser pressures — as well as all of the music that has moved and changed him through his existence. He touches on what the future may hold for him in light of his struggle with depression and his desire to help others with their own path forward.
[1:01:40] Nick thanks Glen for his honesty and for coming on the podcast to share so very much of himself and his story.
Thanks for listening! Tune in next week and don’t forget to take a minute to review the podcast. In this incredibly competitive podcasting world, every piece of feedback helps.
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Find out more about today’s guest, Glen Phillip
Find out more about your host, Nick Terzo
Mentioned in this episode:
Maggie Wheeler — Golden Bridge Choir
Natural voice singing movement
People:
@SeanCWatkins — Nickel Creek
@EmilySaliers — Indigo Girls
Projects:
