Glen Phillips w/ Julian Velard Live at SOhO!

Born in Santa Barbara, CA, Glen Phillips served as the frontman and main songwriter for Toad the Wet Sprocket before launching his solo career in 2001. Toad the Wet Sprocket took shape in 1986, when Phillips was only 14 years old, and the band’s debut effort, Bread and Circus, earned them a contract with Columbia Records. However, it was the group’s third album — the jangling, orchestral Fear — that truly broke the group, garnering heavy radio play with the singles “All I Want” and “Walk on the Ocean.” After three years away from the recording studio, Toad returned to the mainstream with Dulcinea, which again found one of its singles, “Fall Down,” in heavy radio rotation. After six albums and a substantial string of hits, the group disbanded in 1998.

Phillips began touring as a solo act after Toad the Wet Sprocket’s demise and worked with producer Ethan Johns to create his first solo album, 2001’s Abulum. He also collaborated on several songs with the bluegrass band Nickel Creek and toured with them for the latter half of 2001. Live at Largo appeared in 2003, followed by Winter Pays for Summer in 2005, a collection of new material that featured guest appearances from ex-Jellyfish frontman Andy Sturmer, Ben Folds, Kristin Mooney, Jon Brion, and Semisonic/Trip Shakespeare scribe Dan Wilson.

Phillips released Mr. Lemons in 2006. That same year, he also toured North American with a reunited Toad the Wet Sprocket, although he only continued releasing new material under his own name. The EP Secrets of the New Explorers arrived in 2008, along with news that Phillips would be joining members of Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, Nickel Creek, Elvis Costello & the Imposters, and other musicians to form a new band, the Scrolls.

In 2009 Glen began extensive touring with his new supergroup: Works Progress Administration (“WPA”). The group is a collaborative which also includes Sara and Sean Watkins (Nickel Creek), Pete Thomas (Elvis Costello & the Attractions), Benmont Tench (Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers), Luke Bulla (Ricky Skaggs), et al. In 2013 brought the release of “New Constellation,” Toad The Wet Sprocket’s first new studio album in fifteen years, a perfect return to form for a band whose trademark combination of lyricism and brainpower has magicked legions of admirers into truly undying fans.

Victory has a hundred fathers and defeat is an orphan – at least, that’s how the old saying goes. But as passionately as we’re conditioned to strive for first place in our success-driven world, deep down we all know we’re our truest selves when we’re confronted with failure. It’s a sobering subject, and perhaps not the first you might expect to inform a hook-filled, piano-driven pop album, but Julian Velard isn’t your average recording artist. The New York-based singer/songwriter’s fifth full-length LP, Fancy Words for Failure , surveys that universal chasm of disappointment with the bemusement reflected in the its title. Suffused with the same musical warmth and melodic sophistication fans have come to expect, the album adds another batch of unforgettable characters to Velard’s growing gallery of hangdog rogues – potentially unreliable narrators who cop to professional jealousy, domestic discord, thwarted ambitions, and money woes; who acknowledge their lives are really pretty great, even as they can’t help but wonder why that brass ring remains stubbornly out of reach.

Leavening the melancholy strain that runs through the record is the classic songcraft that’s earned Velard a devoted cult following (and helped make him an unlikely favorite among pop connoisseurs in the Netherlands). Fans of Billy Joel’s early Brill Building eclecticism and Randy Newman’s acid wit will hear strong echoes of those traditions in Fancy Words for Failure , which – much like its songs’ protagonists – tucks its darkest moments behind a quick joke and a (mostly) sincere smile. As a songwriter, Velard continues to mature, weaving together chord changes that belie the depth of his musical background without ever forgetting the value of a hummable hook. 

Title notwithstanding, Fancy Words for Failure finds Julian Velard honing his creative craft while balancing his growing discography against a number of other musical gigs, including a relationship with The Howard Stern Show as the bandleader on the long-running radio hit’s wrap-up segment, a guest musician spot on NPR’s Ask Me Another , and a jingle-singing sideline that’s put his voice in spots for Coca-Cola, Wix.com , Google, and the New York Knicks. Along the way, he’s also co-written extensively and landed a number of cuts (including a song on Olly Murs’ debut LP) and toured extensively, sharing international stages with a growing list of acts that includes Paul Carrack, Jamie Cullum, Amy MacDonald, José González, and Goldfrapp. Raw and honest, bruised yet hopeful, Velard’s latest proves Failure isn’t the end – if anything, it sounds like he might just be hitting his stride.