Glen Phillips | |
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![]() Phillips at the Lowell Summer Music Series, August 2011 | |
Background information | |
Born | [1] Santa Barbara, California, U.S. | December 29, 1970
Genres | Alternative rock, rock, folk rock |
Instrument(s) | Vocals, guitar, mandolin, keyboards |
Years active | 1985–present |
Labels | Columbia |
Website | www |
Glen Phillips (born December 29, 1970) [1] is an American songwriter, lyricist, singer and guitarist. He is the lead singer and songwriter of the alternative rock group Toad the Wet Sprocket and also records and performs as a solo artist.
Phillips was born to a Reform Jewish family in Santa Barbara, California. His father was a college professor who taught physics. Although his family was Jewish, with Glen having a Bar Mitzvah, his family was secular and his father took him to meditation classes. [2]
Phillips attended San Marcos High School, where he was a part of choir and theatre. [3] He originally envisioned becoming a teacher. He began to make music at 14 years old. Phillips took the California High School Proficiency Exam so he could graduate early. [1]
Phillips formed Toad the Wet Sprocket in 1986, at the age of 15, with friends from his high school. [4] [5]
In 1991, at age 21, Phillips wrote the song "All I Want". [6]
The band recorded five albums but broke up in 1998, after escalating tensions, shortly after Phillips' father died of colon cancer. [7] [8]
During his time in Toad the Wet Sprocket, Phillips was involved in a pop rock project called Flapping, Flapping, which released the album Montgomery Street in 1996. [9]
In 2001, three years after the breakup of Toad, Phillips released his first solo album, Abulum . [10] This was followed up by a self-released live album and solo touring, along with a reunion tour with his former Toad bandmates.
In 2004, Phillips released a collaboration with Nickel Creek, under the name Mutual Admiration Society. The self-titled album had been recorded in 2000 and featured songs written by both Phillips alone and as collaborative efforts, and was released on Sugar Hill Records.
In 2005, Phillips returned to a major label via Universal Records' imprint Lost Highway Records and released the critically acclaimed Winter Pays For Summer . The album included the radio single "Duck and Cover," but Phillips and the label parted ways due to creative differences. A compilation of six outtakes from the album were published as an EP titled Unlucky 7 , the first track ("The Hole") of which was featured in the second episode of the AMC television series Breaking Bad .
Phillips released his third proper solo album, Mr. Lemons in the spring of 2006. [11]
In 2007, Phillips reunited with Sara Watkins and Sean Watkins of Nickel Creek as well as Grant-Lee Phillips and Luke Bulla to perform as part of The Various & Sundry Tour. [12]
In January 2008, Phillips released an EP Secrets of the New Explorers, with music influenced by Talk Talk and Peter Gabriel. [13]
In January 2008, Phillips formed the supergroup Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.) featuring Phillips, Sean Watkins (guitar), his sister Sara Watkins (fiddle), Benmont Tench (piano), Luke Bulla (fiddle), Greg Leisz (various), Pete Thomas (drums), and Davey Faragher (bass). It released an album in 2009. [14]
In 2008, under the moniker Plover, Phillips recorded an album with Neilson Hubbard and Garrison Starr. [15] [16]
In 2009, Phillips recorded a cover version of The Beatles' song "I'll Follow the Sun" for the soundtrack of the film Imagine That . [17]
In April 2018, Phillips signed with Compass Records Group. [18] His 2016 album, Swallowed By the New , was re-released on May 4, 2018, with a new bonus track "Nobody's Gonna Get Hurt".
Phillips and his ex-wife, Laurel, whom he was married to from 1989 to 2014, have three daughters, Sophia, Freya, and Zola. [19]
On October 8, 2008, Phillips injured his arm while at a friend's house, where he was sitting on a glass coffee table that collapsed when he moved back. Phillips had surgery to repair a damaged ulnar nerve and muscle in his left arm. His ability to play guitar was hampered during his recovery, but he toured despite the injury. [20]
Phillips has suffered from depression. [21]
Phillips is known for performing barefoot. [22]
Toad the Wet Sprocket is an American alternative rock band formed in Santa Barbara, California, in 1986. The band at the time consisted of vocalist/guitarist Glen Phillips, guitarist Todd Nichols, bassist Dean Dinning, and drummer Randy Guss, who stopped touring in 2017 and left the band in 2020. Guss was replaced by drummer Josh Daubin, who had been supporting them as their drummer on recent tours. They had chart success in the 1990s with singles that included "Walk on the Ocean", "All I Want", "Something's Always Wrong", "Fall Down", and "Good Intentions".
Fear is the third studio album by American alternative rock band Toad the Wet Sprocket. The album is their second album for Columbia Records, and was released on August 27, 1991. It became the first commercially successful album for the band, selling over a million copies and was certified platinum three years after release, on September 1, 1994. The album reached #49 on Billboard's Top 200 Albums in September 1992. Two of the album's singles charted in the US top 40, "All I Want" and "Walk on the Ocean" which peaked at #15 and #18 on the Billboard Hot 100, respectively.
Sean Charles Watkins is an American guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter. He is a member of the contemporary folk band Nickel Creek, the duo Fiction Family and the supergroup Works Progress Administration. He is the brother of Sara Watkins.
Dulcinea is an album by Toad the Wet Sprocket released in 1994. It is their fourth studio album with Columbia Records and the follow-up to their popular album fear, which was released in 1991. Two songs from Dulcinea charted on the Modern Rock and Mainstream Rock charts: "Fall Down" and "Something's Always Wrong". Dulcinea was RIAA Certified Gold on September 1, 1994 and Platinum on July 31, 1995.
Pale is the second album by American alternative rock band Toad the Wet Sprocket. It was recorded independently in 1989 for roughly $6000. During the recording of Pale, the band signed with Columbia Records. However, they declined to re-record any of the album in a more polished way. Columbia released the album without alterations, as it had done with the 1989 re-release of their debut 1988 album Bread & Circus. Pale was released in January 1990. "Come Back Down" was the first radio single for the album.
Winter Pays For Summer is an album released in 2005 by Glen Phillips. The album was Phillips' debut for Lost Highway/Universal Records. It was recorded during 2003 and 2004. It was produced by John Fields at Paramount Studios and Mansfield Lodge, and features guest appearances by Jon Brion, Sam Phillips, Ben Folds, Andy Sturmer, Kristin Mooney, and Jonathan Foreman. The album boasts a well-produced, radio-ready sheen unheard since Phillips' days with Toad the Wet Sprocket.
Mutual Admiration Society is a musical collaboration between singer/songwriter Glen Phillips and progressive bluegrass trio Nickel Creek.
Sara Ullrika Watkins is an American singer-songwriter and fiddler. Watkins debuted in 1989 as the fiddler of Nickel Creek, the progressive bluegrass group she formed with her brother Sean and mandolinist Chris Thile. In addition to singing and fiddling, Watkins also plays the ukulele and the guitar, and also played percussion while touring with the Decemberists. In 2012, she and her brother played with Jackson Browne during his "I'll Do Anything" acoustic tour.
Mutual Admiration Society is an album featuring the collaboration between Nickel Creek's Chris Thile, Sara Watkins, and Sean Watkins, and Glen Phillips, the lead singer of alternative-rock group Toad the Wet Sprocket. It was recorded in three days in December 2000, but took 3½ years to be released.
Abulum is the solo debut album by Toad the Wet Sprocket singer/songwriter Glen Phillips. The album was produced on both CD and DVD formats. The DVD features the bonus track "Sleep of the Blessed".
Bread & Circus is the debut album by American alternative rock band Toad the Wet Sprocket, originally self-released on cassette in 1988, and re-released in 1989 by Columbia Records.
Aware Records is an American record label. The label has worked with a range of artists, including John Mayer, Train, Five for Fighting, Mat Kearney, and Guster.
"Walk on the Ocean" is a song by American alternative rock group Toad the Wet Sprocket from their third studio album, Fear (1991). Two different versions of the song were released: the album version with a cold ending and the single version with the chorus repeated until fade. Commercially, "Walk on the Ocean" peaked at number 18 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and reached the top 40 in Canada, New Zealand, and Norway.
Works Progress Administration, formerly known by the working name The Scrolls, is an American supergroup led by Sean Watkins, Glen Phillips, and Luke Bulla. They recorded their debut album with Benmont Tench (piano), Sara Watkins (fiddle), Greg Leisz, Pete Thomas (drums), and Davey Faragher (bass). These members gained recognition in other musical projects such as Nickel Creek, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, Elvis Costello and the Imposters, Fiction Family, and Toad the Wet Sprocket.
"Fall Down" is a song by alternative rock band Toad the Wet Sprocket from their fourth studio album, Dulcinea (1994). "Fall Down" was co-written by Glen Phillips and Todd Nichols. Released to US radio in April 1994, the song topped the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart and peaked at number 33 on the Billboard Hot 100. In Canada, the song peaked at number 10 and ended 1994 as the country's 76th-most-successful single. The music video for the song was directed by Samuel Bayer. In 2017, Consequence magazine ranked the song number 245 on their list of "Every Alternative Rock No. 1 Hit from Worst to Best".
"All I Want" is a song by American alternative rock band Toad the Wet Sprocket, released by Columbia Records in 1992 as the second single from their 1991 album, Fear. "All I Want" yielded the band's furthest commercial success, became one of their most well-known songs, and peaked within the top 20 of both the US Billboard Hot 100 and the Canadian RPM Top Singles charts.
Jason Karaban is an American singer-songwriter and musician living in Los Angeles, California. Karaban first began his career fronting the Philadelphia-based indie rock band Dragstrip Courage in 1997, and Grand in 2000. He emerged as a solo artist with the release of Doomed to Make Choices, in 2006, co-produced with Mike Napolitano. Along with vocals, Karaban plays acoustic guitar, 12-string and electric guitar, bass guitar, keyboards, piano and drums. Karaban has released four critically acclaimed albums, and has had a number of songs featured in film and television shows Over the course of his career, Karaban has collaborated with many notable musicians including Ani DiFranco, Lucy Schwartz, Sara Watkins and Sean Watkins, Garrison Starr, Taylor Momsen, Dave Pirner, Glen Phillips and Benmont Tench.
New Constellation is the sixth studio album by American alternative rock band Toad the Wet Sprocket, released October 15, 2013, through Abe's Records. It is available on CD, vinyl and as a digital download. Financed with more than $250,000 from approximately 6,300 contributors on the crowdfunding website Kickstarter, it is their first full-length studio release since the band's 1997 album Coil. This marks the final album with longtime drummer Randy Guss, who had been with the band since its formation in 1986, before his departure in 2020.
Randel "Randy" Guss is an American musician and drummer. He was best known as the drummer for the band Toad the Wet Sprocket from its formation in 1986 until he stopped touring in 2017 and left the band in 2020.
Starting Now is the seventh studio album by American alternative rock band Toad the Wet Sprocket released on August 27, 2021 through Abe’s Records. This is the first album since the departure of longtime drummer Randy Guss in 2020.