Just when it seemed time to say ‘Goodbye’

Here’s a conundrum. You put out an absolutely amazing yet difficult to categorize album. For whatever reason, your label wasn’t able to pony up all the dough you needed, so your fans actually chipped in to make that album happen. Then it got released, but only in England. Then, the band, which had a contentious relationship to begin with, decided to finally go their separate ways. And here you are, two years later, just starting to form the new incarnation of your band and promoting an album that, for you, has been around for a long time. Such is the dilemma faced by John Grant, frontman for the Czars. 

Except the wonderful thing is, for him, it’s not a dilemma at all.  It’s simply a chance for more people to finally get to hear the incredible “Goodbye.” And it’s a chance to tour with new guitar player Dave Devine in a more stripped-down fashion.

“I think people are really blown away by Dave’s guitar playing because he’s a virtuoso,” Grant told me via phone, while eating breakfast at Denny’s and fighting off a bad cold. “And my voice continues to get stronger. It’s really nice to be able to play the songs in the intimate setting.”

An amalgamation of jazz, alt-country and electronica, the Czars’ sound varies from song to song. “It’s sort of nice to take a journey on a record and end up in all sorts of different places,” said Grant.

The sound hinges on Grant’s voice, which is a strong, soaring instrument all its own. Listening to him, particularly on the almost perfect “Paint the Moon,” you get the sense of how the first person to hear Ray Orbison must have felt. Grant’s stunningly clear, deep vocals fit equally well into the country-esque “Paint the Moon” and the jazzy “Little Pink House.” On “I’m the Man” he even uses a vocoder to distort his own voice. Part of the fun of the CD is not knowing what you’ll get next — where he’ll decide to add trumpet or a delicate piano opening.

“You sort write things to have an excuse to use trumpet,” said Grant. “And to have Ron Miles do that [on ‘Little Pink House’] is a huge honor. On the new album, for example, I’m specifically thinking about the bass clarinet all the time because I love it so much.”

Similarly, Grant reached out to jazz vocalist Julie Monley simply because he loved her voice and wanted to work with her. “I’m in love with her voice. She sang jazz in Paris for 13 years,” he said. And he hinted that future collaborations may not be out of the question.

“I’m going to try,” he told me. “We’ll see. I’m really want to see if we can get Anna-Lynne from Trespassers William to sing on the next record.”

What’s fun about the Czars, and Grant’s philosophy of songwriting, is that he never stops being influenced by everything around him. Which is part of the reason their sound is such a grab bag of different influences. Other musicians inspire him. “We met this guy named Patrick Flemming in Iowa,” he said. “And we can’t stop talking about him. He has this amazing band called Poison Control Center and I would love to work with that guy.”

Grant is also inspired by some strange influences. Of the gorgeous “Paint the Moon,” he told me, “I was watching this old episode of the ‘Twilight Zone’ and it was about the sun was getting closer to the earth. What basically happens is the woman wakes up and realizes that it’s actually cold outside and the sun is moving away from the planet. I thought it was so beautiful. And this song just popped in my head.”

He even has the good sense to poke fun at some of the heavy emotions with the song “Los,” which stands for “Lake of Syrup,” where he sings, “I want you to remember me / For the things I never did.”

“No one wants to wallow in the past,” he said of the song, “or wallow in self-pity about why couldn’t I have become this or why couldn’t I have become that.” It’s a song he says he never tires of playing live, even without the old band in tow.

It’s ironic that an album full of songs about saying goodbye came just as the band was starting to disintegrate. Even the title track is a song in which Grant says goodbye to his former self, singing, “I love to see you fade and die / I love to see you kicking, screaming as you try to reach the sky.”

“It was about deciding that I was going to work toward living on this planet instead of learning how to destroy myself,” Grant said. “That song is basically sort of a promise to try to live instead of giving up.”

It’s the perfect philosophy for someone who’s starting fresh — for someone who’s main priority is to get back into the studio and create even more great songs. Hopefully, with the label kicking in the right about of money this time around.

“We’re still here and we’re going strong,” he said. “And I want to thank people for the support and see you at the show.”

You can catch the Czars as Grant and Devine tour around the Midwest and at the Noise Pop Festival in San Francisco on March 30.

For more information on the Czars, visit: http://www.czarsmusic.com/.

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