A year of living in a bigger SPOTLIGHT

12/23/05

By Josef Woodard
NEWS-PRESS CORRESPONDENT

ALO, AKA ANIMAL LIBERATION ORCHESTRA, HAS BEEN GRADUALLY GROWING ITS SOUND AND AUDIENCE FOR A DECADE

Animal Liberation Orchestra, is playing SOhO next week. What else is new? They've played in this club going back a decade to when they were a genre-goosing nine-piece project, with their jazz band director Jon Nathan on drums. Even while in San Francisco for a few years and becoming an ever more solid, evolving band, the ALO-SOhO connection continued.

Of course, any ALO observer, old or new, knows what makes next week's two-night SOhO booking special. It comes as a capping-off party for the biggest year yet for a band that started out as a college lark and has worked humbly and diligently for years to build their following and hone their happy-funky-jazzy-jammy rock sound.

The biggest news on the ALO front, circa 2005, was an invitation from Jack Johnson, an old friend from UCSB, to open for his summer tour. On an itinerary including many multithousand-fold crowds, the band got some due local affirmation when they played at the Bowl in August with Johnson, who joined them onstage for the tune "Girl, I Wanna' Lay You Down."

(In fact, it was keyboardist-singer Zach Gill's second Bowl gig, after a zany solo accordion-wielding opening slot for Chicago in 2004).

Things are moving on up on other fronts, as well. ALO's latest album, the smart and positive vibe-filled "Fly Between Falls," has been distributed by Johnson's Brushfire Fairytales label, which has also signed the band for its next album. In another link, Gill has also been playing in Johnson's band, his limber approach a perfect match for the surfing singer's spirit of deceptively easy-going bonhomie.

In ALO, Gill, guitarist Dan Lebowitz, bassist Steve Adams and drummer David Brogan make a good-natured, style-hopping sound, from quirky pop songs to extended jams and back. Gill spoke on the phone soon after the band had returned from a successful trip to Japan, one of the global spots where ALO has suddenly found a thriving new audience. The band's saga continues, onward and upward, and with soul.

QUESTION: You've played SOhO many times over the years, but these end-of-the-year gigs seem special. Do you view it that way?

ANSWER: It feels that way, especially with the two nights in a row there. I think we're all feeling that the shows will almost feel like a "year in review."

Q: Did this latest phase for the band began with the release of "Fly Between Falls?"

A: I would say so. It's hard to say where one phase begins and another ends, but the release of "Fly Between Falls" was a big marker for us.

Ironically, we got in this car accident right before the album came out. None of us were injured, but it was a pretty bad accident. Our van slipped in Wyoming. We flipped our van three times and ended up on a snow bank, on a cliff on the side of a mountain. Two weeks later, it was the CD release party. It almost felt like the momentum from that accident pushed us into a new realm.

Am I sounding totally far out? (He laughs.) It felt very much like that was the big fall before the fly, and I hope we don't have any other big falls.

Q: You've paid your dues, so to speak, and really honed the band over many years. It's not like you're in the model of the overnight sensation, which is a healthy thing.

A: I think so, too. We've worked really hard. I'm not even counting my eggs yet. There's still so much stuff up ahead. In some ways, the fact that we've had such a long ride has given us lots of -- I hate to say "wisdom"-- but we're aware of a lot of things that maybe we wouldn't be if success had come upon us really quickly. Years ago, if we had become famous, we wouldn't have known what to do. We wouldn't have known where to go from there.

Back when I was in high school, we put out this demo and we were pretty excited about it at the time. But if we had become famous from that demo --which is good for a high school band, with the lyrical depth of an Ashlee Simpson -- it would have all been over by now.

Thank goodness for all these experiences and all these musicians we've gotten to play with, all these places of growth.

Q: What are some of the highlights of this past year?

A: It's been one thing after another. Last February, we did a tour down the coast, called the "tour d'amor," a Valentine's Day benefit tour. That was the first time we did a run down the coast where every show was sold out.

Then the big summer tour with Jack, playing these huge venues. It was interesting to see what it sounded like from the stage in places like The Gorge in Washington, learning how to work the energy of such a larger crowd, because we've been such a club band.

Japan might be the highlight. Right when the album came out, a Japanese label approached us about selling the record in Japan. We'd get reports back that it was doing really well. It was exciting to go over there for the first time and actually have people come out to the shows. They knew the songs and were singing along.

Q: You have such a rapport with Jack Johnson. Does this go back to your days together at UCSB?

A: Yeah. He and I have been good friends since college. Right about the time he signed to do his first record, I had moved to Marin, so the band relocated to San Francisco. We would talk on the phone, but we didn't see each other too often. This last year, we've spent a lot of time together and it was a neat thing to reconnect.

He and I met in the dorms when we were 18. He and I have the same birthday, so we have birthday parties together.

Q: That's kind of cosmic.

A: Yeah, I suppose it is. It was really cosmic when we celebrated our 30th together in Barcelona. That was wild.

Q: "Fly Between Falls" has a great blend of your slightly absurd pop songs, jazz-flavored instrumentals and more. Do you try to keep a balance between all the different elements?

A: Absolutely. It's not a struggle, but we're definitely trying to find our formula for how to keep it all straight. Sometimes our inclinations lead us towards long instrumental passages and sometimes, we want to keep it short and sweet and to the point. We certainly don't want to bore audiences.

We had our own following who knew what we were all about and now that we've done this Jack tour, there are all these new people who saw us for 45 minutes there and now come to our own shows to see the stretched-out version of it. That's been really interesting, to see the different demographics, side by side.

Q: You end the album on a local note, with "Wasting Time (Isla Vista Song)."

Was the idea to make a nostalgic nod as a dramatic exit?

A: Very much so, and with that song, in particular. Our current drummer (David Brogan) was with us before Jon Nathan. He played in that band Evil Farmer, a really cool band we were all fans of. When Evil Farmer disbanded, Dave joined us for a while.

We all moved to Augusta, Ga., for the summer, living in this little house there. We got to meet James Brown a bunch of times, and really got into (his) music. That was one of the songs we wrote, when we were away from Isla Vista. It seemed fitting, when Dave rejoined the band a couple of years ago, that we would record that song.

Q: Does it feel like a whole new chapter is unfolding for ALO?

A: I think it does. Maybe that chapter has already begun. It feels like there's not much of a limit on the way things could go. It feels like we've got a great team of people who are excited about working with us, a great bunch of tunes. It's still a lot of fun. Everybody's getting along, no drug problems or anything like that.

It's a new chapter, but maybe at the same time, the same old story, you know.

Q: But a good story?

A: A good story. One with a happy ending. Band works hard. Band does well.

ALO

When: 9 p.m. Thursday and Dec. 30

Where: SOhO, upstairs at 1221 State St.

Cost: $12; $20 for both nights

Tickets, information: 962-7776

JENNA LEBOWITZ PHOTO
ALO is David Brogan, Steve Adams, Dan Lebowitz and Zach Gill, from left.