Opening act worth catching at Maroon 5 Moda Center concert
When Phases warms up the crowd for Maroon 5 at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Moda Center, its wont be the usual case of the awed support act grateful just to make the headliners look good.
Phases, who sound (and look) like your moms Blondie, has intertwined roots with the band led by perennial favorite judge on the TV show The Voice, Adam Levine.
Its not that big a deal, Phasess lead singer Z Berg says, chuckling over the phone from her kitchen in Los Angeles.
They supported Maroon 5 in Las Vegas on their latest annual New Years Eve.
For about the first second it was like, Do I know the words? Then I snapped out of it.
Berg read somewhere that the human mind can only process about 1,000 people at once, so she wasnt fazed at being in front of about 12,000 people.
And Im not a particularly nervous person. Performing is my happy place, she says.
Shes looking forward to the 20,000-capacity Portland show.
Indeed, repetitive, melodic pop songs such as Im in Love With My Life and Tell Me from the 2016 EP Afterparty have a simple accessibility.
So where do Phases come from?
From 2009 to 2013 they enjoyed modest success under the name JJAMZ, with a label and tour. JJAMZ included James Valentine of Maroon 5.
Berg decided to take a break and write folk music in Nashville. Her bandmates Alex Greenwald, Jason Boesel, and Michael Runion stayed in Los Angeles. Greenwald was messing about with solo tunes at home on an outdated version of GarageBand, and Berg liked the subsequent sound, saying It sounded like weird, future spaceship music, from a very old spaceship.
They got together, wrote six songs and played it to producer Mike Elizondo, who signed them. Elizondo has a strong hip hop résumé, including collaborating and playing bass with Dr. Dre and Eminem, and co-writing the megahit The Real Slim Shady.
Phases recorded their 2015 album, For Life, in what was once the headquarters of Death Row Records.
Everyone has a favorite decade, and I am the 1960s, 100 percent, Berg says. But she adds that their influences include disco from the 1970s, New Wave from the 1980s, as well as high pop such as early Whitney Houston and Madonna from the 1990s.
She credits her dad: He was the biggest 1960s-phile of all time. When I was a kid he did a good job of brainwashing me, showing me why The Beatles are the best, playing the Stones and Bowie. He made me CD mixes of his favorite songs. Those are the building blocks of what songwriting is. Theyre always in the back of my mind.
Berg adds that the first time she broke with 1960s music was in sixth grade when she discovered hip hop Dr. Dre, Eminem, Tupac Shakur. Dres still my favorite kind of hip hop. The great choruses, theyre great songs.
On a different note, you can stop any concert right now and precipitate a mass singalong with the classic Ed Sheeran/Justin Bieber ballad Love Yourself. Phases will do it, too, on Thursday, with Berg showcasing her glassine voice in full-on folkie mode. But they are mainly uptempo pop.
The nice thing is our music is suited to moving around. Singing is athletic, its a workout, she says.
Berg say Jason Boesel is her favorite drummer. He played with Rilo Kiley and Bright Eyes (in the Motion Sickness and Cassadaga era of the 2000s) ,and Alex Greenwald is one of the most explosive performers around. Hes climbed to the rafters of every club weve been in. Im the only one whos not tethered so I really move around, she says.
Adapting their set to the short format of the support act was fine by her, she says. Thirty minutes is enough for me of any band. When the Strokes were touring they played just the record: 35 minutes, no (expletive) encore and gone.
L.A. might be full of bands who move there, but the young locals make a music scene on their own. And they stick together. At one point she dated Mickey Madden, the bassist from Maroon 5. Mickey used to make me incredible mix CDs, with Suicide, the Sundays, My Bloody Valentine. I would delve into the catalogue. Mickey has the greatest taste, Berg says.
As for the entanglement of Maroon 5 and Phases, Berg says, Weve all known each other forever. When I was a kid we all saw Phantom Planet at The Roxy (in L.A.)
Nowadays young kids are showing up to their shows.
Im forced into social media, I was made to join Snapchat, she says with a laugh. The concept of ephemera is the opposite of what I like. But I joined Snapchat, and I leave it open. So my experience is I have hundreds of fans who write me every day, and send me pictures. Sometimes theyre asking for advice, from what are my favorite records to how to come out. Its created an open dialogue, and Im getting to know them personally. If you use social media wisely it can be a beautiful thing.
She adds, If I was 13 and lived in the middle of nowhere and could write to bands, Id lose my (expletive) mind.
As for inevitable comparisons to Blondie, Berg is game. When my hair was longer I couldnt walk down the street without getting it. But on stage, I definitely want it. Its slightly intentional. I realized the perfect soundbite about our album was, What if Blondie made (Michael Jacksons) Thriller?
You cant say fairer than that.
For tickets: www.ticketmaster.com.
