Love Circus
Plain White Ts bring the show Monday
By Augusta Olsen
Tom Higgenson is definitely a romantic at heart, perhaps even a lonely heart. This doesn’t come as a great surprise about the bard who penned the 2007 hit, “Hey There, Delilah.” Higgenson has been singing about love for years as the lead singer and songwriter for Plain White T’s, long before the band’s 2005 release, “All That We Needed,” which feature the Grammy-nominated, platinum single. He continued his streak of platinum love songs with “1,2,3,4” in 2009.
His true romantic nature is more deeply explored on the band’s latest CD, “Wonders of the Younger.” There is not another Delilah on this disc, rather the band has taken a somewhat new direction, with a more full and layered sound, building up from the stripped-down, melodic, acoustic ballads of Plain White T’s fame.
The songs of the new CD reveal a more complex sound, exploring the nostalgic side of longing. Carousel songs and music box charms add texture on several tracks. “Racecars and spaceships and carnival rides, ghosts in the graveyard that come out at night, these are the wonders of the younger,” Higgenson sings on the title track. Rather than finding love solely in the eyes of a pretty young thing, Higgenson has found beauty in his own experiences, the trappings of youth, and his own mind. Beatles’ fans may find much to appreciate on this disc, as Plain White T’s richer sound is reminiscent of the fab four’s own sonic shift achieved on “Revolver” and later, “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.”
Higgenson is not the only standout singer and songwriter for Plain White T’s, as two tracks on “Wonders of the Younger” reveal. Guitarist Tim Lopez penned and performs lead vocals on two songs from the new CD, notably the CD’s first single, “Rhythm of Love,” which was released last October.
While “Rhythm of Love” is a departure from the band’s urban acoustic leanings, instead evoking a breezy, island capriciousness, Lopez’s song falls squarely in the pop canon that Plain White T’s have created, as a catchy tune that sweeps listeners along for the ride. He does it well, with charm and appeal, adding another dimension to the band, and giving Higgenson a chance to prove what a gentleman he is, stepping out of the lothario spotlight for a moment.
I had the chance to speak with Tom last week from his home in Elmhurst, Ill. before Plain White T’s bring their newest songs to the Slowdown Monday, after kicking off the tour in Minneapolis. The second stop on their fall tour, the Slowdown show is an exciting chance for Plain White T’s fans to experience the band in a smaller venue, more akin to the group’s roots, playing underground and indie clubs in Chicago.
Shout: Why did you guys decide to do a smaller club tour this fall?
Tom: We did a tour just like this a few months ago and we loved it. We loved the intimacy of it, we love it being our show, rather than opening for a bigger act or playing big stadiums or something like that. It was nice to have it be our show. With this album, “Wonders of the Younger,” it’s a highly thematic record, so to be able to take those themes and elements of the album and bring them out to the live show…on someone else’s show we couldn’t have all the little moments that we wanted in our set so we just decided to go out on our own again and do more clubs.
Shout: What are you most excited for on this fall tour?
Tom: Getting out on the road. Instead of being on tour, all summer we’ve just had one-offs, like we flew to Korea to play one show, one big festival…then we flew to Singapore. At the beginning of the summer we did some European festival dates, but we haven’t really been on a solid tour since our last one, which was in the spring, basically. So I can’t wait to get back on road in a bus and playing for our fans every single night, that’s the best part.
Shout: Did you ever expect this level of success and fame when you were playing clubs in Chicago?
Tom: Of course, that was the goal all long, it doesn’t really happen by accident, but the fact that we have achieved a lot of our goals is amazing. Were we thinking this would happen? Yes, but nothing comes easy so we’re very excited and grateful.
Shout: How did it come about for Tim Lopez to start singing on the new album?
Tom: He just wrote a f$#in awesome song, basically, that’s how it came about. We tried it in the studio with me singing it, and he had expressed, “maybe I’d like to sing this one,” so we just kind of tried it both ways and it sounded more sincere coming from him. He wrote it, it was about a girl he dated, so I just think it sounded more genuine with Tim singing it.
Shout: Listening to the new album, I felt it was somewhat reminiscent of the Beatles. Would you agree with that?
Tom: Yeah, they’re the best band of all time, so when you give any comparison to the best band of all time, that’s got to be a good thing, right?
Shout: Did it feel like a shift in sound for you on the new album?
Tom: A lot of our older albums are a bit stripped down and raw sounding. For this album, the idea of capturing that adventure and that sense of wonder and that excitement, we needed to go outside of the box, you know, our musical comfort zone, and we did a lot of experimenting and tried to make a production that was a lot more just epic-sounding, a lot more rich and lush, so definitely that was a purposeful shift in sound. We had a big goal for this album in conveying a theme. It took a lot of work to try to capture a feeling in music…that sense of nostalgia.
Shout: I imagine that you have a lot of female fans, so I was wondering first, is anyone in the band single?
Tom: Let’s see, everyone in the band is single except for Dave (Trio) and Mike (Retondo). So, me, Tim and De’Mar (Hamilton), our drummer, are all single.
Shout: Are you able to connect with your fans, or is it just too much at this level of success?
Tom: We get a lot of stories from fans. Around the time when “Delilah” was big, we would get people, even guys, you know army guys, people in college, anybody that was apart from their significant other, we got so much feedback that “that song is mine and my girl’s song,” it was incredible feedback. We have a song called “Radios in Heaven” from our first album, a lot of people have said that so-and-so passed away and we played that song at his funeral, or things like that, those moments are pretty mind-boggling. What more of a connection could you ask for? “1,2,3,4” gets played at a lot of weddings, we hear that alot, so the most significant moments in these people’s lives, be it a wedding or a funeral or whatever it is, and our music is what they are playing and is part of those days, it’s pretty amazing.
Shout: Can you tell us about the real Delilah?
Tom: Delilah is a girl that I met in Chicago, just met her through a friend, we all just hung out one night together, randomly, and I had a huge crush on her, she’s gorgeous. The next day after meeting her, she was going back to school in New York, so basically all I knew of this girl is ok, she’s gorgeous, she’s cool, we hung out this one night and flirted a little bit, and then she went to school in New York the next day. So I’m sitting here and I mention to her, I joked with her that I have song about her, just stupid flirty…obviously I’m messing with her, she didn’t take me seriously. It was just like a playful thing, but she kept it going. We talked online for awhile after she went back to school, and so, [she asked] “Where’s my song? I want to hear it.” So I eventually just said, “You know what, I am going to write you a song, and it’s going to be the best song I’ve written and it’s going to be the song that gets us famous, and you’ll be my date for the Grammys,” and all this stuff before I ever even wrote a note of the song. And then I wrote the song, and all that stuff came true. The problem was, she had a boyfriend, even that first day, through the Grammys, same dude, so I never got with Delilah.
Shout: What’s the most interesting gift you’ve received from fans?
Tom: DVDs, and American Apparel underwear. Last tour, someone tweeted at us saying, “Hey we’re coming to your show, what do you guys want? We want to bring you something.” And we just kind of went for it, so we’re like OK, we’re like bring us these DVDs, De’Mar and I asked for American Apparel underwear. You know on the road, you got to do laundry all the time, it’s kind of a pain in the ass.
Shout: What’s your favorite dessert?
Tom: I’m a red velvet guy. Red velvet cake. Cupcakes.