Toad the Wet Sprocket were one of those bands who fell into the “either/or” category in the early-’90s. Like, either you were neck deep in Nirvana and Soundgarden, or you were listening to the likes of Toad the Wet Sprocket. Closely aligned with Counting Crows, maybe Hootie & the Blowfish on a bad day or Gin Blossoms on a good one, their songs straddled the line of airplay on alternative rock radio and videos that would get shown during the day on MTV.
Named after a Monty Python sketch – and therefore lumped in with those partaking in the era’s unfortunate moniker trend like the aforementioned Hootie, Better Than Ezra, 4 Non Blondes, et al – Toad the Wet Sprocket have had a surprisingly long shelf life. Songs like “All I Want,” “Fall Down” and “Walk on the Ocean” have a sort of enduring quality where compositions by their peers recall a bygone era wrapped in nostalgia. A record like 1994’s Dulcinea, arguably Toad’s high-water mark, could easily be from 2004 or on the docket for a 2024 release.
That timelessness might be why it was easy to go back and re-record some of their earlier hits for the 2011 compilation All You Want. Last month, Toad re-released the collection, adding on a bunch of songs they’ve done since then. It’s available for streaming now, will be reissued on compact disc in August and make its debut on vinyl toward the end of the year.
Ahead of their show this Friday (June 16) at The Wilbur, Vanyaland sat down with frontman Glen Phillips, who carved out a significant solo career following Toad the Wet Sprocket’s breakup in the late-’90s, one that’s continued since the band got back together in 2010. Having a go at our 617 Q&A series (Six Questions; One Recommendation; Seven Somethings), Phillips talked about how he divvies up his songwriting, regret over the group’s name and what his own personal favorites are when it comes to greatest hits collections.
:: SIX QUESTIONS
Michael Christopher: This tour is ostensibly to support the re-release of the 2011 greatest hits collection, All You Want. Why do the re-release with extra tracks instead of just doing a new compilation, or did you not want to become one of those bands that has 10 “best ofs” out?
Glen Phillips: Well, I think part of it was since we’ve had the two newer records (2013’s New Constellation and 2021’s Starting Now), since we did that set of recordings, two new records and an ep (2015’s Architect of the Ruin), we just wanted to kind of complete it like an “up ‘til now.”
The idea of the re-recorded greatest hits was that in terms of things like placement – film, tv, anything like that – that we could give people the option of using a version of a song where we owned the master. But we put [All You Want] out kind of right before the streaming services were ascendant, so there wasn’t Spotify. And so it’s putting it out again instead of it being lumped in with that entire massive group of albums that existed since the dawn of time and were all added to the streaming services [laughs]. It gave us an opportunity to put it out there and to have a comprehensive greatest hits, but one that also includes our favorite songs from the last few albums we’ve done instead of just being a representation of the ’90s.
When you do any sort of compilation album, even one that’s been partially assembled prior, that always seems to be a time to reflect on the history of a band. Have you found yourself in that space at all?
I think if I were a better person or more professional person [laughs], I would’ve done more introspection, but as it was, I was just wanting to make sure everything was intact. I think the introspection really came when we were re-recording these songs just because it took so much effort and experimentation to do them the first time. And when you go back and redo it, it’s really kind of shocking how quick and easy it is to redo something that took you a lot of work the first time around. That part was, I think, the most interesting; for all the blood, sweat and tears that went into recording some of those things, it was a very easy process to redo them. But in general, I feel mostly pretty good about our body of work. I think I’ve said before, I’m glad we weren’t writing a whole bunch of songs about being young and getting laid. They tend to be more about worrying about an uncertain future and the future is more uncertain than ever, so that it still resonates [laughs].
Looking back at the 12-year break that you guys had from 1998 to 2010, do you view that today as missed time for the band, or was it more of a necessity to retain maybe the friendships you had in the group and any potential of reconvening down the line?
Maybe a bit of both. I think if we could have gotten some mediation and taken a long break back in the ’90s, it would’ve been really good for us. But I don’t know, you can never say… I mean, history is what it is. We needed a break from each other, and I think we all needed to grow up separately and chill out a little before we got back together. And we tried a few times to get back together before 2010. So we would get back and we would kind of give it a shot, but there was a lot of water that needed to pass under our collective bridges. So, it took a while.
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On the song “Crowing,” one of the verses opens up with the line, “Get over regrets.” For you, how long did it take to get over the regret of saddling the band with the name Toad the Wet Sprocket?
Oh, I’ll never get over that regret. And I can blame it on Dean [Dinning, bassist] as well. So, it’s always good to regret things that you can blame on somebody else. Dean thought it would be hilarious. We were both big Python fans. I think Randy [Guss, drummer] was a big Python fan too. Todd [Nichols, guitarist] probably regrets it more than the rest of us, because I don’t think he was enough of a nerd to love Monty Python as much as the rest of us. But we all thought it would be hilarious to see it in print – we just didn’t expect it would stick. So, yeah, I still regret it, but you know what? It is what it is.
Something I’ve always been intrigued by with artists like yourself is you’ve got this, I’d say a fairly prolific solo career along with Toad the Wet Sprocket. Where do you decide what goes into the Toad pile and what goes into the Glen Phillips solo pile when you’re writing songs?
It really depends. I mean, I feel like one of the things about the band getting apart and then coming back together is I got to examine what a Toad song was for the first time. Back when Toad was the only thing I did, every song was a Toad song, or it just didn’t get played [laughs]. If the guys didn’t like it was just a song I happened to have written. And music that Todd brought in or Dean brought in, those get worked on and those are definitely Toad songs as well.
When we did New Constellation, that was the first time that I ever consciously started writing with the question in mind of, “What is a Toad song?” And when we did Starting Now, I had started on a solo record and realized it was time for a Toad record, not a solo record, and so I kind of aborted that process and moved those songs over, but I also knew there were a bunch of, kind of, moods and tempos that would need to be hit with the band. And that album ended up all being my writing, which I don’t think is actually good for a Toad record [laughs], but that’s the way it turned out on that one, just I think ‘cause of lockdown and where everybody was in their lives.
I think a lot of records happen where it’s just, you know, keep writing, then you have 30 or so songs saved up and you choose 15 that you think will go together and you record those and then you have 10, 12 that end up on the record. And more recently, when I’m thinking about the next Toad record and the next solo record, I’m really thinking, a little more, not strategically in some business sense, but trying to have an idea of what I want the album to sound like and feel like before I start the writing. And Dean and Todd are already writing some great music for the next Toad record and I’m going to be throwing in on that too and trying to think lyrically what I kind of want to throw out at the world at this time.
So yeah, I don’t know. It’s hard to know what makes a Toad song and what makes a solo song. A lot of songs could be either, but the folkier stuff I tend to reserve for solo stuff, but then again, there’s songs like “Nancy” and “I Will Not Take These Things for Granted” that that are Toad things. So, there’s room for a little of everything.
You’re known for playing in your bare feet. When was the last time you had a barefoot related accident on stage? Either something dropped on it, or you stubbed a toe or something?
I think I stepped on something sharp a few years ago, but my feet tend to get through the show pretty safe.
So, there’s no blood or anything…
I think our tour manager has the stages swept [laughs]. They tend to run a pretty tight ship. So, there’s the occasional stubbed toe, but I’ve generally done pretty well.
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:: ONE RECOMMENDATION
Glen Phillips: I like cooking Kitchari. It’s just rice, and usually I do it with mung beans; brown rice, mung beans, a bunch of Indian spices and then whatever kind of leftover vegetables you happen to have in the crisper. And it’s a delicious Indian one pot meal that’s also a complete protein. I cooked a lot of it during lockdown. I like cooking and so I don’t know why [laughs], but I’ll just say Kitchari for the time being. And aside from that, is there anything else I’m excited about right now? Madison Cunningham. I think her – it’s not a new record – but damn, she’s good.
:: SEVEN OF SOMETHING
Give me seven of your favorite greatest hits records. It can be from when maybe you were growing up, to this day or whatever.
Wow. Seven greatest hits records. Well, trying to think, do I listen to a lot of greatest hits records?What would those be?
Sly and the Family Stone – you got to do that.
Bill Withers. You can just do Live at Carnegie Hall instead of doing the greatest hits because the Live at Carnegie Hall’s absolutely the bomb.
I mean, Legend, Bob Marley, because it’s just that damn good.
What was that big Crass compilation? Crass Best Before. That was the greatest hits that had everything from “Smash the Mac” to “Reality Asylum” and “Do They Owe Us a Living?” That was a fun one. That’s a cool one. That changed my life when I was a teenager [laughs].
Peter Gabriel, there’s a good live kind of greatest hits, but he’s just got enough good stuff around. I’m going to go for that.
Nina Simone. I just ended up doing a Nina Simone Radio while I was running a couple weeks ago, and that got me through. I can look at my Apple Music – just a second. Well, it probably would’ve been just The Best of Nina Simone. Let’s see what it’s got. “I Loves You, Porgy,” “Mississippi Goddam,” “The Other Woman,” “Sinnerman” – yeah, it’s got all the good ones. “I Put a Spell on You” – she kills that. “Four Women.” So, I’ll go with that. Wait. Oh, maybe Essential Nina Simone. I’ll go with that instead. It’s two discs. It’s got a lot. It’s got “I Want a Little Sugar in My Bowl.” Yeah. Oh, “Why? (The King of Love Is Dead).” Hell yeah. Let’s go with that one.
The other stuff I’ve been listening to is, well, kind of a greatest hits, but not entirely, is Mercedes Sosa, Acústico. It’s the live acoustic Mercedes Sosa. She’s awesome.
TOAD THE WET SPROCKET + MARCY PLAYGROUND :: Friday, June 16 at The Wilbur Theatre, 246 Tremont St. in Boston, MA :: 7 p.m., all ages, $61 to $91 :: Event info :: Advance tickets
