By PAULINE M. MILLARD, Associated Press Writer
NEW YORK - When Tim DeLaughter first had the idea for
the Polyphonic Spree, he didn't consider the tour bus
question.
DeLaughter, former lead singer of the '90s rock group
Tripping Daisy, knew he wanted a large band to play
sunny pop music with layers of harmonies and
instruments. Three years ago, his dream came to
fruition.
"It was also a sort of social experiment. I didn't
know most of these people when they joined,"
DeLaughter said of his current 25-person, white-robed
troupe, which released the album "The Beginning Stages
of..." in June.
"I was just looking for excellent musicians. Only one
of the singers is actually trained, the rest were
mostly just people who liked to sing in their cars,"
he said before a recent soundcheck at the Central Park
Summer Stage in New York City.
Today, the Polyphonic Spree has become successful
enough to tour Japan, England and the United States,
where they travel for three weeks at a time on an
enormous bus equipped with 22 bunk beds, a bathroom —
but no shower.
Group members joke about the foibles of being on the
road, such as sleep deprivation, keeping tabs on their
food and "tour syndrome," which is feeling like you're
asleep even when you're wide awake.
Then there's "tour mouth." "That's when cursing goes
up to 11," said trombone player James Rimer, a former
computer programmer from the Dallas area, where
DeLaughter is from.
Privacy becomes a premium on the road. Between venues,
many members disappear behind headphones, while others
simply wander away from everyone once they actually
get off the bus. Others keep their energy fresh by
making sure to hang out with different members of the
band.
"There's definitely a ying and a yang to it all,"
Rimer said.
Behind it all, there's DeLaughter.
"I really had no idea how we were going to interact as
a band, exhaust our energy or how that would affect
each other. I didn't put much emphasis on the personal
interaction of the group. It kind of just worked
itself out," he said. "The music was always there. It
came from the very beginning. But then what came after
that was beautiful and moving."
And eclectic. The band includes a french horn, harp,
flute, theremin and flugelhorn, among other
instruments.
"We've become such a guitar, bass, drum,
keyboard-based world in the last 30 years," DeLaughter
said. "We've kind of lost that there is a whole
plethora of other instruments out there that you can
still rock out with."
Growing up, DeLaughter was heavily influenced by
groups such as the Fifth Dimension and the
Association, as well as Walt Disney storybook records.
"You would have thought that the Fifth Dimension was a
religious band but they weren't, they were just
spirited. And it translated so well," he said. "I look
back and it's all that kind of music that sounds like
my band now."
DeLaughter writes all the songs, but encourages
members to improvise on their instruments. That method
reaches its zenith at live shows. The energy created
between the band and the audience mixes into a
powerful wall of sound, especially during their
flagship song, "Sun."
The horns begin to improvise, the choir harmonizes,
the flutist chirps. DeLaughter, soggy with sweat,
leaps across the stage. It's hard to know where to
look first — sometimes it seems like it may take
several visits to several concerts to get the full
effect of a Polyphonic Spree show.
The impact is heightened by the white robes that have
come to define the group's image. They were originally
DeLaughter's idea as a simple way to make the group
look unified on stage. However, some have come to
think that the Spree is some sort of cult.
"We haven't adopted any sort of religion, although I
do think that we've adopted hope," DeLaughter said.
"That's kind of where I'm coming from. And you've got
to be hopeful to have a band like this."
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On the Net:
www.thepolyphonicspree.com
