http://www.grantleephillips.com Don’t worry,
Grant Lee Phillips will look much more comfortable
with his guitar at Largo on Saturday.
By Anthony Bromberg
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
Grant Lee Phillips is a traditional singer-songwriter in the
most traditional of senses. He is a guitar-slinging,
bar-room-piano-playing troubadour from a small town.
Phillips is playing Largo this Saturday in preparation for his
world tour supporting the overseas release of
“Mobilize.”
“I still have one foot in the Renaissance. I come with my
tights and pointy toe boots ready to strum my lute,” Phillips
said in a phone interview.
But the thing is, this performer, whose fanatical fans have
often grouped him with R.E.M. and other respected alt-rock outfits,
is quickly being pulled out of the dark ages and into a
technologically advanced musical era.
Phillips is the former lead singer of Grant Lee Buffalo, and
currently has a recurring role on the WB show “Gilmore
Girls.” Including his output with the band and his most
recent release, 2001’s “Mobilize,” Phillips now
has six acclaimed albums under his belt. Accompanying him at the
shows won’t be a band, but his friend and UCLA graduate,
violinist Eric Gorfain. Phillips is known for his electrifying live
performances on Largo’s intimate stage.
“I’ve grown to be more accustomed to being in my own
skin on stage than I would be at the bank,” Phillips
said.
He doesn’t play the Hollywood venue as much as he once
did, but it’s still a special experience for him when he
does.
The shows essentially consist of Phillips alternating between
acoustic guitar and piano, blowing on the harp, and singing his
heart out in true singer-songwriter style, hearkening back to the
early days of Jelly Roll or Leadbelly or even Bob Dylan.
The material he will be playing, however, has its studio origins
from a very different source. With the help of Carmen Rizzo, who is
credited with mixing, helping with production and programming on
the album, Phillips created a singer-songwriter album on Pro-Tools.
Steeped in spooky computer noises and drum machine electronics, the
songs are still characterized most by the catchy melodies and
Phillips’ soaring vocals. “Mobilize” was written
and performed wholly by Phillips himself.
“It was a big job. I’ve always been involved in
every aspect of the recording process. It comes from being the
father of the songs,” Phillips said. “I had to play all
the instruments, but he (Rizzo) had to keep the computer
running.”
Phillips resignation to take credit for the technological part
of the music that he clearly embraced on “Mobilize”
makes him a Renaissance man of the 21st century. He still writes
songs based around the acoustic guitar and piano, but now
embellishes them with other worldly sounds. He synthesizes the
older songwriting requisites with the endless possibilities
technology affords musicians, encompassing the evolution of an art
form.
Phillips’ role on the “Gilmore Girls” embodies
this dichotomous existence of tradition versus the future. Phillips
is getting a chance to show his talents on the mass medium of
television, but his character is referred to as the
“strolling minstrel” or “wandering
troubadour.” Phillips likens the character to a cartoon
version of himself, and likes the extra zing of the names given to
his characters.
Unlike his WB alter-ego, Phillips hasn’t been a constant
wanderer. Hailing from Stockton, Calif., he made the move to Los
Angeles to get his career off the ground and has been hanging
around at clubs like Largo for a while now. He still loves the
smaller town life and draws inspiration for the American landscapes
in his songs from that area.
“It’s the kind of place that fueled the
imagination,” Phillips said. “If I wasn’t a
musician drawn to urban centers I’d string up a hammock right
now.”
Since his time with Grant Lee Buffalo, Phillips has moved from a
major label to the smaller Rounder Records. The smaller label
allows him more freedom, and lets fans discover his music in
perhaps more organic ways.
“I think people generally come across my songs through
some twist of fate, not the massive billboards I have erected on
Sunset,” Phillips said jokingly.
Along with the fictional billboards, Phillips’ Web site
has been cultivated as a place where his music can be discovered.
He uses it as his personal radio station, putting songs on it that
didn’t make the new album but that he would like listeners to
have a chance to hear nonetheless. According to Phillips, he enjoys
this opportunity, and if someone had given him a shack out in the
desert with a red beacon radio station he probably would have been
happy.
Over the years Phillips has acquired many odd talents, from
ventriloquism to magic to impersonations to banjo playing, and
there’s that whole singing, guitar playing thing. He says he
has two addictions in his life besides music ““ coffee and
chocolate. All of this as well as his wry sense of humor and down
home style have probably made it easier to accept his transition
into the information age. For all his forward movement in the
technological age, don’t think Phillips doesn’t have a
few old tricks up his sleeve to ensure the quality of his
music.
“I’ve found that a magic hat always helps being on
stage, as long as it doesn’t block out the microwaves that
are being beamed at my head,” Phillips said. “A good
hat lets all the rays through the felt pretty well. Cheap hats
block out the rays, or maybe the expensive ones. I don’t
really remember. One of these things I have said is
true.”