How far they’ve come.

Canny locals may remember the Philosopher Kings as purveyors of funky love songs who’d come to play for the college kids at the Sidetrack Cafe.

And now look at them. Still purveyors of funky love songs, they’re back with a new album of funky love songs, Castles, and a tour that tomorrow night takes them to the … Starlite Room.

OK, so it’s only a slightly bigger venue than the ’Track. The point is, the Philosopher Kings don’t have to put out a new album, they don’t have to tour all the way to Edmonton, they don’t have to do anything. They are largely financially independent, thanks to side projects far more successful than their act.

‘Heavy cats’

Probably the biggest hit is the production team called Track and Field – singer Gerald Eaton, a.k.a. Jarvis Church, is “Track,” guitarist Brian West is “Field” – which produced and wrote the hits for Nelly Furtado. They’ve also worked with people like Ricky Martin and Tina Turner. They are what we like to call “heavy cats.” Eaton likens it to an actor wanting to direct. Think Opie morphing into Ron Howard.

Eaton recalls seeing young Nelly singing in a bar, which he says was the first time he ever thought about being a producer for other artists. So it was new to both of them.

“I thought to myself, ‘I really feel that girl’s voice.’ I’m a singer and I can identify with that thing you have to have as a singer that makes people want to listen,” he says.

“And she had that thing. It’s not about notes or licks. It’s about personality that you can feel though the voice.”

Good pickup line, too: “Hey, you want to make music together?” And so they did.

Also noteworthy is the side project success of P-Kings guitarist James McCollum and bassist Jason Levine, the men behind the curtain of the cartoon pop duo Prozzak, Canada’s Gorillaz, in case you’re wondering.

Prozzak also had bigger hits than the P-Kings ever did. So did “Jarvis Church” in his solo career, for that matter. (Why go with two names? “Because you can,” replies Eaton/Church, in case you were wondering.)

So these guys don’t need the gig money. They don’t need a hit. They don’t need to sell millions of records. They’re playing because they love to play. They have complete freedom – and that works out well for everybody – band and fans alike.

Enjoyable

“Absolutely,” Eaton says. “I think that was one of the reasons why the process was so enjoyable. Not only was no one’s livelihood at stake, but no one’s creative expression was at stake.

“If people wanted to say something, they can say it artistically in their other projects. So we were free to let this band be its own creature.”

Coming in from eight years without a studio album, the Philosopher Kings found that it wasn’t a matter of what their side projects brought back to the band, but “what we were leaving behind,” Eaton says.

“People left their projects at the door and just kind of let the band be what the band wanted to be, which is always the way we’ve made music. It’s a great feeling just to be a singer and songwriter, and not be a producer.

“It all feels so natural. I think the thing that’s really surprising to all of us is how much it sounded like the Philosopher Kings. We’d only done two albums and both were so different and I thought, how is our sound so definable? It didn’t seem like our sound was that distinctive, but when it came out, we sounded exactly like we imagined we would sound like. That’s a good thing. We weren’t trying to do anything else than what came naturally.”

Of course, being eight years without a studio album and six years without a tour, they wonder if they have any fans left.

The album release show in Toronto went well, but then these guys could fill a room with just friends and family. As for the “real tour,” they’re not as sure. Not that it matters.

“No one knows how many fans we have,” Eaton laughs. “We had a college crowd, but our audience was always kind of eclectic. It was hard to nail down. We’ll see.”