Rock the Planet
By Daily Bruin Staff
Feb. 25, 2002 9:00 p.m.
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By Anthony Bromberg
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
Rock stars are larger than life. They are the elite of the
coolest people in the world. That’s what makes them rock
stars. A rock star is almost a sacred container of the
world’s hipness. Certainly, rock stars, especially those who
are movie stars as well, are not goofy people with juvenile senses
of humor that rival the dorky kid down the hall.
That’s the age-old myth anyway.
The members of the band Phantom Planet, however, go a long way
towards dispelling that myth. The five boys who comprise Phantom
Planet are very busy these days, doing their best job to bring
their pop rock stylings to as many people as possible on the
planet. Their album “The Guest” is released in stores
today, and they will be playing a number of dates to support the
release. The Los Angeles-based group plan a heavy assault on the
college crowd with a performance at USC today and a Westwood Plaza
appearance tomorrow at noon. They will also hold an autograph
session after they attempt to indoctrinate the students with their
music.
“Well, it’s just because they’re people our
own age and I think they’re people who like music, and love
music like us and it just seems like more fun and
personable,” said Jason Schwartzman, the band’s drummer
and keyboard player and star of the movie “Rushmore.”
“It just seems more down to earth. Grass roots. Bluegrass
roots.”
Sitting down with Schwartzman and Darren Robinson, one of the
band’s three guitarists, in a small room in the Sony offices,
the illusion of a rock star sensibility fades into a planet of
wackiness and young 20-something, exuberant humor.
“I’m 21 and a half, but for the record, I’m 12
years old. He’s 11,” Schwartzman said, looking at
Robinson. “We’re the greatest young band
ever.”
And to this end the interview is dominated by
Schwartzman’s antics and off-the-wall banter, leaving
Robinson often speechless and hysterical with laughter. While stuck
in the sterile office room, Schwartzman amuses himself, and
everyone else, by singing an impromptu future hit single he calls
“Little Shaft in Your Face,” the opening line of which
he declared would go, “I’m going to make your chin
glisten/It’s the sweat off my balls listen.” He also
vocally imitated the sounds of a french horn, screamed out a Stone
Temple Pilots song, and numerous times pulled up his shirt grabbing
the meat of his stomach and slapping it intensely.
Other rock stars may not take such a free-spirited approach to
their image, but Phantom Planet insists on their down-to-earth
style with each other and their fans. They hang around after shows
and talk to audience members. And sure, Bono may never say anything
like “onion buns dick basement,” but U2 didn’t
name their band after a campy ’60s sci-fi movie either.
“To sum it all up, I believe they used a piece of fried
chicken as a planet,” Schwartzman said. “It was all a
mistake. Alex, he had this CD called “˜Neil Norman’s
Science Fiction’s Greatest Hits,’
disco-ized versions of great sci-fi theme songs, and Alex
loved this one song, he thought it was amazing. So, he called me
and said, “˜This song is called “˜Phantom Planet Theme
Song’ on here. It’s fucking awesome.’ So, we
called the band Phantom Planet and then he counted down the CD case
later on that week, and he miscounted and it was the
“˜Godzilla Theme’ that he liked. So we got stuck with
Phantom Planet. We couldn’t be called Godzilla
now.”
Schwartzman and Robinson are accompanied in Phantom Planet by
lead vocalist and guitarist Alex Greenwald, bassist Sam Farrar, and
USC student and guitarist Jacques Brautbar.
Greenwald, besides being the hunky, dark-eyed lead singer of
Phantom Planet, like Schwartzman, has pursued acting with roles in
films like “Donnie Darko.”
Robinson, the quiet one in the interview, is the quiet Phantom
Planet member.
“I’d rather be known for the guitar,” Robinson
said. “I’m just myself. I’ll rock out when
I’m on stage, and then when I talk to the fans I’m just
myself.”
According to Phantom Planet’s tour manager Pete Lewis,
Robinson talks so loudly with his guitar that once, after a show, a
fan squeezed his hand and blood spurted out from between his
knuckles.
The third guitarist, Jacques Brautbar, is the
“collegiate” bandmember, according to Schwartzman and
Robinson. He’s also a huge “Star Wars” fan.
“Jacques knows how many balls Yoda has,” Schwartzman
said.
That leaves the rhythm section of the band, Schwartzman and his
cohort Sam Farrar.
“Sam’s out of his mind,” Robinson said.
“He’s just plain wacky.”
The two cite a specific instance before a show in North Carolina
that involved a bathtub and a favorite dessert snack. According to
Schwartzman, Farrar filled the bathtub with lime Jell-o, laid down
in it, and let it congeal over him. As it was getting close to
showtime, Schwartzman claims, the other band members noticed a
straw sticking out of the bathtub, which Farrar was using to breath
through the congealed Jell-o.
“Freak,” Schwartzman said. “We had to eat him
out of the bathtub. With forks. We didn’t use spoons, because
that’s the way he would have wanted it.”
And what about Schwartzman himself? What does he do besides sit
behind a drum kit and bang away?
“I’m the quiet one,” Schwartzman said.
“I have a girlfriend, I’m pretty much the only one.
Everyone else is immature. They get drunk, they like to
fuck.”
The band, then, is made up of five distinct personalities, all
of whom share the common bond of being brothers from different
mothers, according to Robinson.
Despite their personal quirks they do take the music very
seriously. Their sound draws on pop rock artists of the past like
Elvis Costello, utilizing a piano to ameliorate the sound of
Greenwald’s sincere vocals and the three guitars on many
tracks.
The album’s first single, “California,” which
is garnering play on MTV2, is a good example of the idea that
songwriting is meant to make things more real than real, according
to Schwartzman. Besides Schwartzman’s theatricality, the
tendency toward larger than life expression did not carry over to
the rest of the atmosphere of the Sony offices.
After the interview all of the Phantom Planet boys hung out in
the hallway of the Sony offices, as they waited to perform an
almost-acoustic set for executives. They were laidback and
talkative, except for Schwartzman who was rushing from place to
place and room to room.
Any idea that Phantom Planet is only garnering attention because
of the fame of its cinematic members was put to rest during the
four song performance they gave in a large conference room.
Without room for a drum kit, Schwartzman banged away on an empty
guitar case, holding one fist up in the air when it wasn’t
occupied in mid-bang. The songs were high energy, and
Greenwald’s voice was more piercing and present live than on
record. Up in front of the room the four young men looked hip and
with it, and dare it be said, even a little bit like rock
stars.
“I think if you were to use a computer program, and you
could take like Alex’s eyes, Sam’s nose, my ears,
Darren’s eyebrows, and Jacques’ chin, it would probably
be the sexiest man ever made,” Schwartzman said.
“So I think really that’s what (fans) see when they
look at the band, they see that one weird collective person,
“˜the station’ of the band if you get my “˜Bill and
Ted’s Bogus Journey’ reference.”
“We’ve never acted like this in an interview
before,” Robinson said.
Of course not.
