Songwriter and West Windsor resident Frank Thewes looks for the psychology in religion.
By: Susan Van Dongen
Frank Thewes prides himself on his songwriting, but he’s also penned a signature quote that could go up there with the words of Mark Twain "Every great religion starts with a murder."
Kind of jumps out at you.
So does Mr. Thewes’ new self-published recording, PeripheralDivision, a collection of 10 original, hard rocking, intelligent songs that draw from influences as varied as U2, Albert King, Jeff Buckley and the soundtrack from the original Willy Wonka movie. With a style described as somewhere between Foo Fighters and Coldplay or old Metallica mixed with Springsteen, the new album is a departure for the West Windsor resident, known for hosting the Thursday night singer-songwriter showcase at Triumph Brewing Company in Princeton.
He’s hoping to officially launch PeripheralDivision with a release party sometime in June or July, which will coincide with an aggressive push on North American college radio. Until then, the disc is available at www.cdbaby.com and will soon be on iTunes and other download sites on the Internet.
Interestingly, Mr. Thewes refers to his CD as an "album" or "record."
"I still use that term because it’s a different way to look at recording and creating music," he says. "I call my CD an ‘album’ or a ‘record’ because it was sequenced. I created it, wrote it and meant it to be listened to from start to finish. Like a lot of the bands from the ’60s and ’70s as well as Pearl Jam and Radiohead it’s not about driving a single, but creating a record of a particular time or idea. Those bands and their albums are meant to start on track one and be played through to the end, keeping very much with the flow of ideas and emotions."
The tracks on the CD remind listeners of a certain age of the way bands of the ’70s sequenced vinyl records, usually starting with up-tempo songs, then flowing into power ballads or more introspective pieces, capping the album with an upbeat song.
Mr. Thewes says the planning, writing and recording of PeripheralDivision which he did at Homeplace Studios in West Orange with the help of Antar Goodwin on bass and Corey Rawls on drums took the better part of the last nine months. At one point when he was deeply immersed in the project, friends thought he had disappeared.
"I did disappear for a while and when I emerged my friends kept asking, Where is this album I keep talking about," he says. "But eventually, after many months, now they’re seeing it."
He says he’s been "absorbing sound" all his life and has been playing music since age 5, when he tootled on the recorder in school.
"Then it was piano and saxophone, but then it really exploded when I got an electric guitar at age 13," Mr. Thewes says. "Like many musicians my age, I heard my sister’s KISS and Pink Floyd albums blasting out of her room and went looking around the house for the guitar that was there. Both of my grandfathers played, so there was always an acoustic guitar around the house."
On his diverse list of influences, Jeff Buckley is right up top, although Mr. Thewes acknowledges that he doesn’t sound anything like the late singer-songwriter.
"He’s a luminous talent, very difficult to ignore," he says. "Same thing with Nick Drake, Bob Dylan and even Pink Floyd. These are all bands (and performers) that are very personal. They wrote a lot (of material) from their own experiences. Even when they’re commenting on social issues, they’re seeing things through their own eyes.
"On the other hand, I was in metal bands when I was a teenager, so Metallica would have been the archetypal band at the time and is also an influence," he continues. "Then in my early 20s, I was listening to Jimi Hendrix, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, but also bands from the ’90s Pearl Jam, Radiohead and Alice in Chains."
So we understand Mr. Thewes’ background and influences well, but what deep, dark place does that signature quote come from?
He says it probably shouldn’t be taken literally it’s more or less about the stories of rebirth and new beginnings in many of the world’s religions. (He studied religion at the New School in New York, in addition to liberal arts at Rutgers University.)
"There was a period in my life when I read a lot of Eastern philosophy, as well as Freud and Jung," Mr. Thewes says. "I’m not really a religious person I view religion as being as much about psychology as anything else. But I was interested in different philosophical systems and world religions and how they might feed my development as a songwriter and a person."
Frank Thewes hosts a singer-songwriter showcase at Triumph Brewing Co., 138 Nassau St., Princeton, Thursdays at 9 p.m. Every second Thursday he is joined by harp guitar player Den Lavoie and percussionist Edgar Diaz. $5 cover. For information, call (609) 924-7855. PeripheralDivision is available at his live shows and www.cdbaby.com. On the Web: www.triumphbrewingcompany.com. Mr. Thewes on the Web: www.music-is.com