TOAD THE WET SPROCKET - FEAR.
Autor: André L. Santana. | Publicado: 2015-06-06T01:42:00+02:00








Facebook is often good to bump onto with blasts from the past, posted by contacts who would end up showing up a surprising musical similar taste to mine.
It is always nice to have something to talk about to someone else that speak to your younger heart we used to when we were teenagers.

God, I sound so old by saying that!






So, through this contact named Tim, I came across this interview from&nbsp;Glen Philips -&nbsp;the lead singer and composer of a band whose five albums I only know and own one: Toad The Wet Sprocket - Fear.









It is a great in-depth and (yet) down-to-earth interview, different from so many others I got used to read, especially from the musicians and singers I wished to know more about, while still developing a musical taste.
But with Toad The Wet Sprocket, nothing; which is a damn and disgraceful shame. So much that after reading this interview I felt like calling him and deeply apologize, tear-eyed, saying how much of an asshole I am for not listening until now (Fear was released in 1991!) the band's other albums. Through the interview, it's easy to understand why: not only Glen makes you wanna be his friend, but he acknowledges himself as an artist without the ego crap, which is normally is embedded in the archetype.





Never before I had even bothered to know and listen more from the band, and simply chose to narrow down my experience to Fear. Though in hindsight, I can say why: Grunge. And when two albums named Nevermind&nbsp;and Ten come into your early teenagehood, few things are able to keep up with them. To make matters worse (for TtWS), I had also started to listen to Heavy Metal back then.




I remember listening to&nbsp;Fear for the first time&nbsp;at a friend's house. "Walk On The Ocean" (see video below) was one of the most beautiful musical impacts ever. And they resonated incredibly to my inner musical frequency; and only those years through this interview and my own musician influences and education I found out: we listen to the same bands.
But that was also the day I heard "Black Number One" from Type O Negative.&nbsp;And to this day, whenever I listen to this song or "Pray Your Gods" from Fear, my brain plays the damn trick of mnemonically &nbsp;remember one another!








And as far as the album goes, I'll merge those first initial feelings when I first listened to it, with how I feel towards it now: it's timeless.
In a time when grunge was telling a young audience who alledgely had nothing to fight for and go &nbsp;all the rage on a system that was slowly showing a new world order through TV, Fear (huge irony for its title considering such worldwide scenario) kept rock 'n' roll music simple. There is something &nbsp;to feel, either sad or happy - or even extremely romantic - about life. Remember, these are kids recording such album when they barely reached their twenties. So their naivete can be felt, embellished with rich mellodies and lyrics which literally invite the listener to join the experience and sensitive vision of life as it was happening to them, with their own boundaries - that it is ok to feel passionate; it's ok to let some (cheesy) poetry make part of your life; the powerful secrets of a woman; that the world is as dangerous as we believe it to be outside our doors while we are young, but we can be together safe and sound inside; that we are allowed to embrace a blind passion; that we might have something to say and not take it for granted.

Plain simple: the music is sincere.

As opposed to what was sung and heard during the early nineties: Rock 'n' roll songs that were either pushing all the way down or forward to extreme feelings.

After spending a childhood being musically educated with The Beatles, The Smiths, Joy Division, New Order, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Ramones, Kraftwerk and others, Fear sounded deliciously new and stimulating, and was also the counterbalance that always brought me back to simple things, whenever I was pushing myself to dwelve further into those extreme feelings provided by the grunge revolution.
I never stopped listening to it.









Another thing that made me feel like an asshole from the interview: Glen is also influenced by many of the bands which influenced me, melodically and musically. Toad The Wet Sprocket's music has never made more sense to me than now; thanks to this interview. And also thanks to Tim, the guy who showed me the link to the interview.
It is one of very mandatory albums in my MP3 player; and I still listen to write by it, read by it, ride a bycicle, jog and whatever.




It is just good music to live life by.















(Now I'd better chase 'Dulcinea' and the others. Cheers, Tim.)