Channeling Bright Edgy Rock

"Lyrics make you think a thought, music makes you feel a feeling. A song makes you feel a thought," reads a quote in the liner notes of Channeling Owen's latest CD, So Much Depends Upon Furry Bright Green Shoes. The quote is from Yip Harburg, the lyricist behind much of the music in the Wizard of Oz.
"I think we're the quintessential 1999 example of those very words," says Stu Strumwasser, the drummer and principal songwriter for the New York-based intellectual rock band. "On the sadder, slower stuff, or the more aggressive stuff, you listen to our songs and you feel something."

With sirens and other urgent New York sounds in the background, I spoke with Strumwasser in a recent phone interview about the band and their unique sound. He had trouble putting his finger on what exactly that sound is. Singer and guitarist Matt Tonken is comfortable with the term "smart rock" but adds, "Is that a pompous thing to say? I don't know." Mika Larson, the band's cellist, couldn't describe it really. "It kind of goes back and forth between melodic and edgy," she says. "I'd say melodic, edgy, alternative, commercial rock."

Can I answer, D. All of the above? I say, they're music for hungry brains. Channeling Owen is gourmet rock, serving up smart lyrics that digest on multiple levels, with a rare cello element to spice up their sound.

The music is expertly performed, shining through shoestring budget production. Lyrically rich, the CD is full of historical references, poetic metaphors, and literary allusions. As principal songwriter, Strumwasser does not shy away from using polysyllabic words to convey big thoughts and vivid imagery.

Strumwasser first met singer Matt Tonken five years ago in New York through a mutual friend. They began playing in a different alternative, commercial rock outfit, and a year and a half ago, the two broke away to form Channeling Owen, through which they would pursue more melodic, pop-like ideas. Once they decided to channel Owen, they sought band mates the New York way--ads in the Village Voice, word-of-mouth, and pure fate. Their invaluable bassist Dean Beaver was discovered through an ad in the Voice and, as Strumwasser says, "we to this day do not know how we met Mika."

Mika Larson, the band's cello player, has graced the stages of Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center as well as the club venues where Channeling Owen typically perform. After doing some recent recordings with various rock bands, she discovered that she preferred rock cello to the confinements of classical. A year and a half ago, she met up with Channeling Owen, as Strumwasser says, "through some sort of astrological power."

Standing behind her cello, propped up by a homemade stand, Larson plays through a Rectifier, adding distortion at times, bowing out lines that sound more like an electric guitar solo than a recital piece. Her playing weaves a dramatic intensity into every track, and her songwriting influence can be heard on more punk-tinged tunes like "All of This."

Strumwasser paused in amazement during our phone conversation, "I'm in this pop rock band with musicians who could play Bach with the same composure that they could play a Beatles tune."

Strumwasser's dedication to his musicianship is nothing to discount either: he wrote his first song at age six, performed it at seven, and picked up a pair of drumsticks that same year. "It's the only thing I've ever wanted to do in my life," he says.

When talking about his singer Strumwasser says that the two have a synergy and a trust. "It's kind of like we're two halves of a person."

Tonken says it's not hard for him to take Strumwasser's lyrics and make them his own. "I think the stuff is very smart which is really unusual in music now. A group like Rage Against the Machine tries to say a lot--they're very political--but it doesn't seem that people in pop music are trying to say much more than 'I love you, yeah yeah yeah.'"

Strumwasser's take on the lyrics: "I just try to write the truth no matter how hard or embarrassing it is. I think those are the things that people will relate to most--the secret weaknesses, insecurities, or even joys, that we all experience, but are a little tougher for us to handle or address. And I try to communicate something that's honest, in a way that's fresh. I don't think we make any of it up, I think we just translate it. I just try to say things that are true, in a way that's beautiful."

"Spice Line Vision," the fourth track on Furry Bright Green Shoes, elaborates on a scene in Dune by Frank Herbert, when some of the characters eat special spices to see the "lines of possible futures." As Tonken sings about possible negative futures (illness, sadness, suburbia), he refrains with hope in the chorus, "It's all right to choose a good life." This theme of hope in the face of hopelessness recurs throughout the album. "Our songs are about overcoming pain," says Strumwasser, "not about pain itself."

"Overlapping Pieces," also off the latest CD, is one of Tonken's favorites. "I can't seem to find the right words/ While it was always simple for me/ You've got some, furry bright green shoes," he sings (the line that inspired the CD title). Tonken explains that the song, inspired by one of Strumwasser's ex-girlfriends, is about the "importance of the little things, the furry bright green shoes just being a metaphor for anything that is intriguing about somebody no matter how small it may be."

Tonken calls "Chris," the eighth track on FBGS, "an antiestablishment kind of song, but in a nice way." The song is one of his stage favorites because "it's really meaningful and it's got this beautiful loping melody that's really fun to sing." The "Chris" in the song's title is Christopher Columbus, who was "sort of antiestablishment," according to Tonken. "The world's flat and he thought it was round and he took off and sailed to the Americas... It's about doing your own thing even if it's not the popular thing to do." This song has more symbolism than your ears will pick up on first listen. The band takes a poke at ideology with the lyric, "Nevermind the word/ Small-minded voodoo theories/ the earth spins free."

"Despite the fact that I'm saying all these heavy things," Strumwasser reminds us, "we don't take ourselves too seriously. We think we're just a rock band and some of our songs are a little bit sarcastic and funny and I think you have to be."

So I asked him if he had any jokes. He told me one that inspired the name of Channeling Owen's first EP, A Duck Walks Into a Pharmacy. "A duck walks into a pharmacy and he says to the pharmacist, I need some condoms. The pharmacist says, 'Oh certainly Mr. Duck. Would you like me to put those on your bill?' And the duck says, 'Whoa! I'm not that kind of duck!'" It's OK, he says no one else ever laughs either.

People always tell Channeling Owen, "You guys look like you're having the best time."

"We move around, we jump around, we yell at each other, we have a really good time and everything's done with a sense of humor," Tonken says. "I'd say Dean is a really big catalyst for that. He's really funny on stage and always has the ability to push us."

Strumwasser and the band are proud of the record and have heard fans say that their live show is awesome but, as he says, "I don't think we've ever captured our real energy on tape. Not yet."

Speaking on behalf of his bandmates, Strumwasser wants people to know that "rock is not dead... and we're a real rock band in the 1970s sense of the word and in terms of the songs we make. We're writing things and trying to sing and talk about things that matter. We're a band that has something to say."

Channeling Owen are currently touring the Northeast for weekend shows (hey, they do have day jobs) and have recorded a demo, which their manager will submit to various record labels. You can buy their current CD at http://www.channelingowen.com.