Begin Again

With their fans going halfsies, IKE builds a new power-pop band on the ruins of the old one.

by M.J. Fine

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Published: Jan 16, 2008

When John Faye sequenced IKE's new album, Where to Begin, he took care to alternate the rough and the smooth. So the sentimental "What I See in You" sets up the sweet revenge of "The Way I See It," and the confrontational "Say Luvva" bounces off the passive-aggressive "A Curse Is Not Enough."

If it feels like a ping-pong game, well, so does a love affair. But any fool can sing about romance. Where to Begin's about the tension between a songwriter and his band. "I think a lot of what you would call, quote-unquote, love songs or relationship songs, I mean, they totally can be viewed through the lens of what happened to our band," Faye says. "Because it was very much like a marriage that dissolved." Instead of paying a fortune for couples' counseling, IKE made a CD full of catchy power-pop tunes. Over omelettes and hot chocolate at South Street Diner, Faye and bassist Joann Schmidt explain how they survived losing half their band.

Michael T. Regan MAIN ANCHORS: John Faye and Joann Schmidt are the only survivors from IKE's pervious incarnation. (CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VERSION)

Faye says he didn't mean for Where to Begin to be therapy. "A lot of times, I don't know what I'm trying to say until after it's already been said," he says. "So I totally now realize that 'The End of the Rope' is about trying to maintain optimism in the face of things falling apart and 'Eleven Eleven' is about the fear — everything is based on either fear of things falling apart or picking up the pieces from things falling apart or trying to avoid things falling apart."

The trouble began in early 2006, when guitarist Cliff Hillis started to take stock of his life after both of his parents died. "It was just becoming real apparent over the course of that year that his heart wasn't as much in IKE," Faye says. Hillis had been distant for months, even skipping a few shows. "Before that point, it was pretty much unheard of that somebody would not be able to make a gig," Faye says.

When the band gave Hillis an out at the end of the year, he took it. "He of course would never come out and say that he would want to leave the band," Schmidt says, "but we kind of gave him that option and he was like, 'OK, yeah, if it's cool with you, I think I need to do this other thing.'"

The very next night, drummer Dave Anthony broke up with Schmidt after three years of dating, and told her he was moving to Atlanta. He left it to her to break the news to Faye. "So the next conversation I had with John is: He's like, 'OK, so we wanna try and get a guitar player, what do you think?' and we were discussing that and then I had to be like, 'Well, while we're at it, we should get a drummer, too.'"

It didn't take long to find replacements. "Twenty-seven days," Faye says. "It sounds pretty evil, because how lucky can you be? We would've taken January off anyway, and before we knew it everything was as it had been and better, really."

Guitarist Brett Talley knew the material from filling in for Hillis, but brought more rock to his licks; drummer Tom Kristich came in fresh with a pop sensibility and more swing than Anthony had. Schmidt says the foursome clicked instantly.

Just one problem: The new guys have other groups. Kristich plays in Harrisburg's Jellybricks; Talley's in OutSet. Faye and Schmidt didn't want to cause other bands' breakups, so they called it a temporary arrangement. A year later, the lineup looks pretty solid.

IKE already knew a thing or two about moonlighting; for a while, Faye, Schmidt and Anthony backed Kara Lafty in the Jane Anchor. "For as much as it wasn't supposed to work out, it seemed to have worked out OK," Schmidt says.

Dashing from one band's gig to another's is a recipe for burnout, but Faye wanted to cut back on touring anyway. "IKE is at the point where our ambitions are not to be on the road 200 days a year anymore," he says. "I think it would kill us."

Throughout the upheaval, IKE could always count on its fans. About 60 of their most loyal patrons shelled out between $25 and $450 to help pay for Where to Begin, covering about half of its $12,000 budget. "It's a cheap price tag for the record we got," Faye says.

After 2005's all-analog In Real Life and last year's live album, The Living Room Show, the band was up for something completely different. And making Where to Begin was definitely different.

Without Hillis' engineering expertise, Faye was forced to figure out ProTools on his own. Aside from an old drum machine that he describes as sounding like "a Jody Watley record," Faye liked what he heard on his demos. "It started to get into my head: Is it possible that some of these songs could actually become the record if we do certain things, like record real drums? And it turns out that, yes, it can happen."

Especially if your producer gets sick and misses the recording sessions. With six usable demos under his belt, Faye was already at Hammerhead Studios in Hockessin, Del., when he learned that Don McCollister wasn't coming. Fortunately, studio owner Kevin Walsh stepped in and helped the group record eight songs from scratch, and opened them up to different effects in the process.

"Completely unwittingly, he became the co-producer of the record," Faye says. (McCollister, who'd worked on IKE's 2003 debut and their live record, recovered in time to mix most of Where to Begin.)

When Faye talks about playing with Talley and Kristich, he sounds as excited as a honeymooner. But while his heart's open, he's learned to protect it.

"On paper, it still is temporary," he says of the new lineup. "But I think we actually forged this new philosophy of life in the midst of all this experience, which is: 'Everything is permanent until it's not permanent anymore.' And that can be a matter of six months or 10 years, who knows?"

(m_fine@citypaper.net)

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