Rising from the Flame: Phoenix and the Turtle

by Kristen Kawaguchi

"I think we'll accomplish a lot in L.A.," postulates Bill Barrington, bassist for Phoenix and the Turtle.  Making the trek from Yucaipa with a new trailer, the quartet just finished playing a handful of gigs in Los Angeles County: The Scene, Silverlake Lounge and {open}.

Over an early dinner in Claremont, the five of us—Bill, Cahn Curtis, Mikie Curtis, Valerie Curtis and I -- discussed the decision to form Phoenix and the Turtle, the band's latest release Asleep in America and the nebulous status of its follow-up album.

The band was formed in 2003 in honor of a friend's funeral. Bill explains, "In Yucaipa there's this Farmer's Market where [Cahn, Mikie and Bill] were in a previous band. This guy, Bob Condie, came to all the shows and recorded them."

"He had this big library of tapes of every show we ever did," Cahn interrupts.

"That band broke up and he still followed us wherever," Bill continues. 

Drummer Mikie adds, "We really had a good relationship with [Bob]. He got in with our dad and his business," he says looking over at his brother, Cahn. "He really liked our music and, in a way, it sort of saved him by meeting us."

When Bob passed away, the band members reconvened and brought Valerie on board to play violin.

"We [all] wound up playing at the memorial service.  It worked out so well, we decided to stay together," Bill says.

The band name stems from a poem written by Shakespeare in 1601. Valerie explains, "[The poem] is actually about a phoenix and a turtle dove and it's about these two birds that aren't sure who they're supposed to be. They come together and the phoenix burns up the turtle dove and they transcend the material world."

"It's about love and sacrifice," adds her husband, Cahn, who plays guitars and keyboards in addition to providing vocals.

The band released its first album, Sunday is a Good Day for Relaxing, in 2004.  In contrast to the band's current sound, Valerie's voice only appeared on one of the album's tracks.

"I hadn't been in a band before and I didn't know what I could do with music," explains Valerie, who attended L.A. County High School for the Arts.  "I just started out playing the violin too and thought that's just what I was going to do."

On Asleep in America, the band's current release, Valerie sings on half the songs.  The band members point out that adding vocals is the final part of the recording process for them.

"I think, as we've progressed, we found out our thing is putting different parts together to create a song," says Cahn.  "Like Radiohead's 'Paranoid Android,' that's actually three songs they mashed together or 'Bohemian Rhapsody' or numerous Black Sabbath recordings.  We consciously take parts that could be totally different songs and we mash 'em together."

Bill notes that with Asleep in America, the band wrote pieces that were "a little more up beat" and relied more on piano and keyboards.

"There's some stuff on [Asleep in America] that we can't replicate live, but is on the album 'cause it's overlaid with what we thought sounded good at the time," adds Cahn as the waitress hands us our plates.  "We consciously wanted it to be a denser recording.  I think the first album was a little sparse."

Bill acknowledges that the band has recently written two new songs, which he vaguely claims are "in a different direction" from the material on the current release. "We're seeing if these are the bridge songs that are gonna propel us into the next album," he adds. Until that next album is released, though, you can catch Phoenix and the Turtle playing live in and around Los Angeles. 

Phoenix and the Turtle will perform at Mr. T's Bowl with the Monolators on October 5.