A Geography of Southland

What do Lakers coach Phil Jackson and the Los Angeles-based group The Southland have in common? Nothing really in particular, except I was introduced to both inside the Hollywood club King King about a year ago.

Jackson, boasting the frame of a superhero with the broadest shoulders I've ever seen, was rumored to be there to check out the quintet's performance as the venue's headlining act.

“Our keyboard player is from Chicago and he (Jackson) knows about us through that, I guess,” said Jed Whedon, the band's lead singer and rhythm guitarist, who co-founded the group with longtime friend Nick Gusikoff, the band's lead guitarist.

“We are old, old friends and we've played together for years. We went to high school together, so it's just sort of a best friend thing, and everything kind of stems from that,” said Whedon on his collaborative relationship with Gusikoff, who co-wrote many of the songs on the band's album, “Influence of Geography.”

In 2002, the duo got together to record a few tunes on a CD that became a Christmas gift for family and friends, one of whom was the son of well-known manager Joe Ruffalo, who was in the midst of establishing his own independent record label, RuffWorld Records.

“We all have gotten a little bit past the part of being a musician where you really want to prove something so we just sort of trust our tastes,” said Whedon about the songwriting process with his band mates. “It's more of a question of taste than a question of creative ability. There are a lot of options at any point. You just try to pick the one that everyone feels is right.”

With offices based in New York City, Los Angeles, the UK and Sweden, RuffWorld Records offered a deal to Whedon and Gusikoff who became its first signed artists. Ruffalo, who has been in the music business for more than 20 years, is the former manager of Prince and a producer of the film “Purple Rain.”

The group's taste in music ranges from John Coltrane, Tony Williams and Stevie Wonder to the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin and Jane's Addiction to Bob Marley, Sly and the Family Stone, the Beatles, Tupac, Randy Newman and, of course, Steely Dan.

“The way that we write music in the band is sort of reactionary. You come up with something and you play off it and see where it would lead,” said Whedon on comparing writing lyrics vs. writing music. “Whereas lyric writing is of the soul, a process that is more of a tortuous experience, but the lyrics are important and usually the lyrics come from the music.”

The duo formed The Southland with former members of Welsh-born singer Jem's band - bassist Ethan Phillips, keyboardist Danny Chaimson - and drummer Andy Crosby, who was working for Doors guitarist Robbie Krieger at the time.

“We all have the ability to play in different projects, and it seems like everyone is in a band in high school and then as you go through life you get down to the people who really want to do it forever,” said Whedon about the group. “We are all at that point when we want to do something you care about and just sort of happened that way in terms of finding all of the guys, we lucked out and we all dig on the same stuff. We all do try and play with other people but this is the band when we play the songs, we really mean it or something.”

“Influence of Geography” consists of 13 songs, some based on real life, like “Creatures,” and others inspired by character studies of fictional people or of friends such as “Debris,” which is about a defunct relationship one can't seem to see past when stuck in it.
“There is no way that we can only write from personal experience, especially now that all of our experiences are going to be the same as every other band,” said Whedon with a laugh. “One of the things that I've always been obsessed with is picking a mindset or a person and writing from their point of view.”

The Southland also likes to create variation between the music and lyrics as evident with the song “Shining Sun,” which juxtaposes a brilliantly upbeat melody with less than optimistic lyrics.

“That's one of our favorite things - happy music with sad lyrics,” said Whedon. “Anyone can write a sad song but if you have, musically, a sad song with positive lyrics, then it adds hopefulness or nostalgia to it and on the other end, if you have a really happy song with really dark lyrics then it becomes a Trojan horse in people's minds.”

The album also features the 1950s hit “I Only Have Eyes for You” made famous by the Flamingos.

“The keyboardist Danny (Chaimson) said ‘Why don't we do this.' We listened to the song, it's a very eerie song which you don't really notice when you listen to the oldie version,” said Whedon. “The Flamingos' version is haunting and as soon as we went into the (recording) room, it sort of became what it is in terms of the building choruses, the power of that chorus is so cool, so Danny gets MVP on that song.”