Bass: John Myung
Drums: Rod Morgenstein
Keyboards: Derek Sherinian
Vocals, Guitar, and Percussion: Ty Tabor
Dr. Frankenstein could never have conceived a beast as proud and surprisingly musical as the brave Platypus. No, this small, aquatic, egg-laying monotreme mammal could only be the handiwork of a bunch of rock legends with a penchant for the playful.
As so it was born; a fiercely acrobatic and tuneful band with a funny name, the looped result of lots of laughs at Rod’s house, Rod being none other than maniac Dixie Dregs drummer Rod Morgenstein. The other mad scientists? Well, we have got Derek Sherinian and John Myung from prog metal icons Dream Theater, and Ty Tabor from the most underrated band on the planet, King’s X.
We will let Ty explain the bands name. “We were working on a Jeff Beck-type tune that sounded like something off of Blow By Blow and it had a clavinet sound in it. Derek was playing his clavinet part and he made the comment that every time he hears a clavinet it made him think of a platypus. And we all cracked up. So the next obvious thing was, “hey, why don’t we name the band that?”
The bands first (and almost certainly not their last) record, When Pus Comes To Shove is simply an outpouring of disciplined chaos, creativity with attention to detail, folly with strict adherence to quality.
Its construction turned out to be a three-part process. First the boys met at Morgenstein’s abode to get to know each other better, kick back, and write some music. Second, the newly minted band went to Millbrook Studios in Long Island, New York to begin laying down tracks for keyboards, drums, bass, and a portion of the guitars. Third, Ty took the tapes to his Alien Bean Studios in Houston, finished his guitar parts, did all the vocals and assorted percussion, mixed and mastered it, and three weeks later, Platypus took its first steps.
Ty looks back at the sessions with fondness. “It was a total pleasure working with all of them because everybody was really professional in the studio, really disciplined about learning and writing and practicing, and everybody had high expectations, which helps drive each other to do our best. We all got along really great. And it is always fun to watch Rod play. Rod is just a blast. He’s a nice guy and he is fun to watch. Most of the time when we were recording I would watch him and not even pay attention to my cheat sheets with all my guitar parts written out.”
John Myung seconds those sentiments. “Most of Rod’s performances are first takes. It was amazing working with Rod because we got to see a true professional tracking and recording. It was a great opportunity to be able to cross paths with Rod, to collaborate with him on a musical level. He is very hip and very talented.
“It was four individuals finding common ground,” continues John philosophically. “We were pretty much strangers in the beginning and over the course of two weeks we wrote a lot of songs. Overall, it was a really positive experience. It clicked from day one, we all got along and we all had something to offer musically. There were certain fragments brought in, ideas, but more or less everything was written from scratch. We just pieced things together and used what worked best. I think it is rare when a particular group of people get together for the first time and they all get along and everything works. To me, that is something rare. It is really hard to find that, so it is definitely worth continuing. I mean, it takes a long time to finally find a good group of musicians who have that chemistry. Sometimes you get lucky like we did this time, and sometimes it takesyears, you know?”
And what the band came up with is a warm, wide taste of many hard rock un- conventions: five vocal tracks and five instrumentals which attempt to capture the magic of the bands formative musical influences, most notably the best of the ’70s. Ty certainly looks at it that way. “To me it is an album that covers a lot of different kinds of music that were many of our favorites in the ’70’s, everything from straight ahead rock’n’roll to heavier fusion rock to Beatles-type stuff to Jeff Beck and everything between the gaps. And yes, there is a Deep Purple vibe to it. That was something that was very surprising to me afterwards, that I think none of us had any idea was going on until after it was mixed. And then I heard it and went wow, that sounds like Deep Purple.”
“I’m With You” is a particular favorite,” Ty continues. “Because it has harmonies, and at the same time its heavy and very ’70s. That song kind of captures the way some of that music hit me back then. I also really like “Chimes.” I never got tired of it. You know, depending on what kind of mood I am in, just about any song on the record can be my favorite every that day.”
Whatever your musical tastes, it’s a joy to hear musicians like these at work and play. For those who warm to vocal tracks, there is the smooth heavy metal glide of “Standing In Line,” the huge, funked-up Deep Purple magnificence of “I’m With You,” the psychedelic King’s X Hendrix of “Willie Brown,” and the soft lilt of both “Nothing To Say” and “Bye Bye.” For instrumental phreakout freaks, there’s a Morgenstein stomp of “Rock Balls Destination Unknown,” the harrowing Sherinian keyboard ride within “Platt Opus,” and well, let’s just say a few other surprises that will get you wondering who’s behind the curtain.
And the unifying spirit is this strange Deep Purple work ethic, something regal and evident in Ty’s super hi-fidelity production values, Derek’s full deck of keyboard sounds, and the band’s effortless wellspring of funk, blues and psych below their progressive metal credentials.
Chatting with the guys, you can hear their enthusiasm, the desire to get a tour together (despite grueling schedules with their main bands), and more than anything, the energetic affirmation toward making many more Platypus albums. But for now, you’ve got When Pus Comes To Shove (love that title eh?), built in the best of spirits for partiers and players alike, by a casual gathering of some of metals best musical minds. Journey forth and ride this beast.
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