Coattails. Piggybacking. Standing on the shoulders of giants.
This is often the case in rock music, though it isn’t always successful. For every
Hagar there seems to be two Gary Cherones. For every few great bands, there
seems to be a not so great supergroup. But when people ?rst hear about Circa
Zero, the new band with Andy Summers and Rob Giles, they all seem to think
the same thing: Who is the other guy riding the coattails of Greatness? One of
them is a legend, true. A very well-known master in a few hipster circles in three
or four neighborhoods of Los Angeles and New York, having sold hundreds and
hundreds of albums, both as a solo artist and as a member of The Rescues. But
give the other guy a break. He played guitar in a band called The Police.
The story goes – Andy was a fan of The Rescues, and came to see them every
chance he got. When Giles ?nally got the chance to hang out with Andy after a
show one night, they hit it o? immediately. Andy called a few weeks later, saying
something English and debonair like “Fancy jamming some tunes, mate” or
something, to which Rob said “fuck yeah!”.
They started writing songs together at Andy’s studio in Venice. The evidence
there was a “band” in the making was immediate; it was the most fun, and the
most “rocking” thing either of them had done in many years. Without trying to
sound like or run away from the in?uences of The Police etc., they simply
followed their mutual muse and began to carve out a growing number of
melodic songs with a walloping dynamic punch, both familiar and new, modern
and classic.
What is most shocking, perhaps, is how vibrant and contemporary Andy
Sounds. He is old as water, but he sounds like a teenage prodigy from the
Valley. And Giles, who played both bass and drums on the debut album as well
as the epic and unhinged singing, is a bit of a mystery – how has he not broken
through to bigger audiences yet?
They will release their ?rst album “Circus Hero” soon, and will follow it up with
live dates throughout 2014.
View
official listing on sxsw.comhttp://schedule.sxsw.com/2014/events/event_MS27203