EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH BILL HERNANDEZ OF ROCKBANDREVIEWS.COM
Toad the Wet Sprocket is still making new music and touring with the same spirit of unwavering independence that started it all over three decades ago.
The band is thankful for the continued help and enthusiastic support of their fans, which helped spur the release of All You Wantand also serves as inspiration for the band to not only tour and play live, but to continue to make new original music together. They continue to support their most recent release, Starting Now (2021), as well as their previous album New Constellation(2013), and EP The Architect of Ruin (2015). Toad the Wet Sprocket share in the kind of musical chemistry that can only come from meeting in high school and writing, recording, and touring on albums over the course of time. After Bread & Circus, they followed with Pale in 1990, fear in ’91, Dulcinea in 1994, and Coil in 1997, as well as some compilations along the way. While most will still feel the comforting familiarity of the Billboard-charting hits, “Walk on the Ocean”, “All I Want”, “Something’s Always Wrong”, and “Fall Down”, fans will also be well familiar with tracks with lyrics that resonate for so many life milestones like “The Moment”, “I Will Not Take These Things for Granted”, “Transient Whales” and so many more.
Glen Phillips and Toad The Wet Sprocket will bring their superior live show to the Lillian S. Wells Hall (Parker playhouse) this Tuesday, October 3rd. at 8pm. Phillips took time out of his busy touring schedule to talk with Bill Hernandez at Rockbandreviews.com.
Tickets are available through Ticketmaster and the Parker Playhouse box office
Q: How was it growing up, did you come from a musical background?
A: No (laughs), my parents are not musical at all, my mom cant hold a tune and my dad had a guitar but couldn’t really play it. Both my brother and I are artistsMy parents were both scientists. Dad was a physicist and my mom was a chemist and we were the artsy offspring of scientists.
Q: You started your music career as a freshman in colledge. Were your parents supportive of your choice to be in a band? A: They were fine with me being in a band. But my mom, literally everytime I saw her, would ask me when I was going back to school, lol.
Q: I was watching a video performance of Toad The wet Sprocket on YouTube the other day and you had stated that you you were “too fragile for rock”. Could you expand on that?
A: I love the arts, we all met in choir andtheater in high school, they were all seniors and I was a freshman, and I remember having my theater teacher talking about why he went into the business and why he went into teaching, saying that all of his friends were going to new York and Los Angeles just to realize that they were going to be auditioning constantly and disappointed constantly and always selling themselves, trying to climb up. He just wanted the art and that’s what he taught. For me, heading in that direction, I loved social sciences and I loved theater and I kind of thought that I would head into that direction . Even at age fifteen, I was like, I don’t want critical reviews and people looking at me and judging me. I felt that would be weird and I also felt that just the attention is a bit much. The field is littered with so many addicts and broken hearts, I think, is because nothing fills that hole except love, kindness, closeness, and they find themselves wanting stuff. For me, it was like realizing that hey, this is going to mess me up, to have that scrutiny and attention.
Q: You have done very well for yourselves because you guys are one of the very few bands out there that really have shown no controversy within the band throughout this career.
A: Yeah, we are kind of boring that way. We have kept our dramas quiet, but we have had our issues. I also feel that it is no one else’s business to have all the details.
Q: At the time you were signed, you were in college. What was your major and do you still have a interest in it?
A: At the time, I was a music major. I was eighteen when I got signed. If I went back, I would probably study Psyche because I find it fascinating.
Q: You are an amazing songwriter. When approaching a new idea for a song, do you have a certain process that you follow?
A: I kind of go where the music of lyrics take me. I kind of think about what my subject matter is , if that makes sense. I am not really a day-to-day writer, and I don’t over-ponder.
Q: As a vocalist, what do you do, if anything, to maintain your vocals while you are on tour?
A: At best, I avoid coffee and alcohol and try to get a lot of rest. Your voice is a fragile organ. I warm up before the show, try not to put myself at a disadvantage, although I recently got myself back into caffeine because coffee is just too good of a drug to give up (laughs)
Q: Thanks again for taking time to talk with me today. We look forward to seeing you this week in Fort Lauderdale.
A: Looking forward to it.
ROCKBANDREVIEWS.COM / 2023