If Gerald Eaton was any more laid back, he’d be in a coma and hooked up to a machine.
Maybe it’s early in the day and he’s yet to have a coffee or maybe it’s more representative of his attitude towards the reunion of his ’90s Canadian jazz, soul and pop act The Philosopher Kings after a five-year hiatus.
He, like the rest of the band members, are taking the reunion, the new album Castles and the accompanying tour in stride.
And it’s made all the difference.
“To be honest I think that’s one of the reasons why there wasn’t this desperation or sense of tension about this project,” says Eaton, who helped form the band just over a decade ago. “It was very, ‘Let’s just do this because this is fun. Let’s do this because we want to do this.’
“None of our livelihoods depend on The Philosopher Kings, none of our creative expression is limited to The Philosopher Kings, we all have those avenues to do those things, so there just isn’t the sense of ‘I really want my voice heard,’ and ‘I really hope people like this.’
“It was really just about, ‘Can we get together and, No. 1, make it enjoyable … and No. 2, make an album we feel we’re really proud of.”
They think they’ve accomplished the latter — thanks to the former — with the polished adult-contemporary Castles.
It is, Eaton says, a collective effort from a somewhat effortless process, with the band writing in the studio and them letting it “became the album that it wanted to be.”
That’s interesting considering what each of the members has been doing since putting the Kings on the backburner.
Eaton, for example did his own thing under the name Jarvis Church, and has also made a name for himself on the production side of things, producing, with fellow-King Brian West, acts such as Nelly Furtado under the name Track & Field.
But despite the fact each of the members has excelled individually, all were willing to embrace the socialism of a band situation.
“It was a surprise to all of us how smoothly and easily it went,” the vocalist says.
“It was actually very easy to give up control, because you weren’t giving it up to a person you were giving it up to a collective, which was a fun thing after you’ve been doing your own thing for so long.
“It was fun to let the band take on a life of its own.”
And now the album is out and they’re on a tour, which brings them to The Whiskey Tuesday, Eaton says he has no expectations as to how they’ll be embraced.
“For us, just working together again and making this album was reward enough.”
Still, when pressed, he does admit the time might be conducive to The Philosopher Kings doing well, considering adults are now considered important to the music industry.
But again, he isn’t counting on his band’s reunion to take the world by storm.
“When I first started in this industry you always think that you’re looking to get on the other side of that hill,” he says.
“But once you start beating it for a while and you have successes … you just start looking towards the next tier and you realize this whole thing is just a journey.
“I don’t really see it like I need to put this album out and something miraculously is going to happen as a result of it.
“This is where I’m at right now, this is part of my journey … and then I keep rolling.
“Whatever happens happens.”
