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Get It Together
ON ITS THIRD ALBUM, THE EXPLORERS CLUB GAINS CONTROL
By Bill Kopp music@flagpole.com
hen The Explorers Club released
its debut album, 2008’s Freedom
Wind, critics raved, but some also
wondered aloud if the group sounded a bit
too much like the Beach Boys. Leader and
songwriter Jason Brewer admits as much.
“It was the first time I had made a real
album,” he says. “I approached it as, ‘What
can we do, but still stay inside the confines
of what the record company that signed us
is looking for?’ So we stuck with the Brian
Wilson thing.”
The group—at that point, Brewer in
the studio plus friends assembled for the
occasional live date—ended its association
with the label Dead
Oceans and began work
on its follow-up, Grand
Hotel, released in 2012
on Rock Ridge Music.
“With the second
album, maybe I was
being immature about it,” Brewer says. He
took the band in a different, commercially
riskier and altogether more ambitious
direction, creating songs and arrangements
that evoked the sounds of AM-radio pop of
the early 1970s. Grand Hotel often recalls
groups like The Association and The 5th
both stayed on me for a couple of months.
And I really started getting my writing
groove back.”
Soon after, Brewer put together a new,
smaller version of The Explorers Club.
Returning were drummer Kyle Polk and
keyboard player Paul Runyon; new to the
group were bassist Wyatt Funderburk (“a
fellow musician who’s been a friend of the
band for a long time,” says Brewer) and gui
tarist Mike Williamson.
“Mike played guitar and bass on both
previous albums; he sang on everything
we’ve ever done, and even toured with the
band for a while on our first album tour,”
Brewer says. “The other
versions of the band
were fun, and they were
all talented people. But
until now, it just didn’t
come together in a way
that it should have.”
Brewer believes Together, scheduled for
release June 24 on the group’s own label,
“is the first one that we’ve done that was
really born out of a personal feeling. The
lyrics are way stronger than on the other
two; all the lyrics on all the songs have a
little more meaning to me.” And rather
Until now, it just didn’t
come together in a
way that it should have.
Dimension; one song sounds like it’s lifted
right off of Herb Alpert and the Tijuana
Brass’ 1965 smash hit Whipped Cream &
Other Delights.
“Grand Hotel certainly combined other
elements,” says Brewer. “There was maybe
too much of a conscious attempt to get
away from the sound of the first album,
though it still showcased the vocal harmo
nies and the old-school feel.” Brewer adds
that the album “was hard to make; half the
band quit in the middle of making it; I don’t
think they were into it.”
Experiencing a crisis of confidence and
facing the potential end of his band, Brewer
relocated from Charleston, SC to Nashville,
a place he found more conducive to focusing
on his music. Brewer recalls that his friend
and Superdrag founder John Davis “said to
me, ‘I really hope that Grand Hotel is not the
last thing you do. Because you could make
another really great record.’ He gave me a
real kick in the butt.” Likewise, Brewer says
BMI’s Brad Wilson “sat me down and gave
me a pep talk, a motivational speech. They
than cede control and responsibility for
extra-musical matters to a label, these days
The Explorers Club keeps it all in-house. “I
talked to a bunch of different labels,” says
Brewer, explaining that several liked the
band’s music but “nobody knew what to do
with it. And I just got tired of bad offers. So
I started a label.”
As a result, a conversation with Brewer
often includes phrases like “distribution
channels,” “licensing” and “social media
advertising budget.” But for him, the bot
tom line in all the business dealings is the
freedom to make music the way he wants. “I
got what I wanted, and I got the control,” he
says. “You can’t complain about that.” ©
WHO: The Explorers Club, Robert
Schneider, Casper & the Cookies
WHERE: 40 Watt Club
WHEN: Thursday, Apr. 21, 8 p.m.
HOW MUCH: $7
14 FLAGP0LE.COM-APRIL 20, 2016