Interview with Lawrence Gowan of Styx
August 14, 2021
By Mary Andrews
The legendary progressive-rock band, Styx, is on tour after a year and a half pandemic shutdown. No one could be happier to be back on the road than the band members. The band is well known for their four consecutive certified multi-platinum albums starting in 1977 with The Grand Illusion. The band has changed members over the years, but Tommy Shaw, James “J.Y.” Young, and Chuck Panozzo are considered the core musicians. Drummer Todd Sucherman, keyboardist Lawrence Gowen and bassist Ricky Phillips have been with the band for 15 years or more. Singer, Will Evankovich, was recently announced as the newest member of the band. We were able to catch keyboardist Lawrence Gowen, between shows for a chat. Here’s what we learned:
Mary Andrews: This has been a very unusual time over the last year and a half whether you were in good health or ill. What have you and the band been doing during the pandemic to keep your sanity?
Lawrence Gowan: (Laughing), Yes it has been a weird time. That’s actually a very good question. If you didn’t get sick, you had to address other personal things in your life. What we did after the first six weeks of the pandemic, we took our first ever holiday, from playing live with the forced shutdown. However, at that point, we started looking at the possibility of this might stretch out much longer than we anticipated. We thought, “We better do something.”
We started listening to the album we began in 2019. We had anticipated coming back to it once the pandemic had passed. When we listened to the songs, we realized that these songs are really relevant to what’s going on at the moment. I could see my own situation in so many of these songs. So, with that, we wondered how we could get together and finish this album. We thought we should do this with the time we have allotted here. What ended up happening is we used Zoom calls. This technological advancement became more and more second nature in our life. We realized that there was a way we could record remotely and still be able to hear each other in each other’s studio. Tommy Shaw and the producer, Will Evankovich, were in Nashville. I have a fully functioning studio in Toronto. Todd our drummer has one in Texas. We would link up on the Zoom calls using an audio app and we would hear each other and link up with each other in real time just using technology.
As a result, we were able to finish the entire album, get all the artwork together, and coordinate the release of the album with us going back on tour whenever that would be. It turned out to be June of this year. The album, Crash of the Crown, came out and within 10 days, it went to number one in Billboard’s rock album charts. That’s never happened that quickly in STYX’s history. We really feel our time was well spent.
MA: It sounds like it was well spent. And you are very pleased with the results?
LG: STYX has such a legacy behind it with so many years. The band will be 50 years old. I’ve only been in the band for 23 years. It’s amazing that the band has withstood so many changes in the world to survive to this point to sell out so many of these shows and have a record this successful. The great thing about being in a band this successful is, unless you are really pleased with the work, you don’t have to put new material out. We felt this was strong enough to represent the band as it exists today showing us in a different light. We felt regardless whether the reaction to it is as strong or not, it is an accurate portrayal of who we are as a band today. With that confidence builder, we decided to put the record out. You’re always lucky when you find out the public agrees with you. It seems they do.
MA: Are you doing mostly songs from the new album with this tour?
LG: The bulk of the show is filled with songs from the band’s entire career. There are no shows without the biggest STYX songs. We never do a show without playing “Renegade,” or “Come Sail Away,” “Blue Collar Man,” or “Grand Illusion.” These are songs in every single show and these are songs we enjoy playing. Interweaved there are songs that we play almost seamlessly, depending on the night, and then spliced between those are the new songs and the goal is to achieve a seamless show. Although we are jumping around the decades, it still feels very cohesive and not jarring when they hear the new music and material. For a lot of people it’s brand new stuff, but you can see in the audience a lot of hands and arms go up in the air when the new songs are played . It’s almost like those people who have heard the new stuff are educating the others who haven’t had a chance to hear the new music.
MA: When did your 2021 tour start?
LG: The tour started June 16. We got together at the beginning of June and rehearsed for a couple of weeks prior to the first show. We’ve already done over 30 shows now and it’s mid-July. The tour stretches all the way to next year. We are aware of the situation at the moment and we’ve been playing to packed houses every night. It’s a lot of fun and there is a lot of elation there with getting back to concerts. However, we kind of know that this could be over very quickly. Things could spiral out of control again. Hopefully people are looking out for themselves as we are. We are hoping for the best and this thing can continue on for years to come.
MA: I noticed the band will be in Phoenix for two nights at the Celebrity Theatre. It’s always packed when you play there.
LG: We love that place. It’s in the round and I think we played there in January of the last year 2020. Being in the round, everyone has a good seat. We are very much looking forward to it.
MA: We’ve talked about the professional stuff you’ve done during the pandemic. What else have you been doing during the pandemic?
LG: That’s kept me pretty busy. Over the months I have rediscovered the joy of riding my bicycle every day. I had to do something to stay in shape. I spend a couple of hours on the bike every day. Living in Toronto and biking in the winter is a bit of a challenge and I was able to do it. Musically I was able to do some live streaming.
MA: You are very active when you are on stage.
LG: I’m very active on stage. Just a few weeks in the pandemic, I began to realize that if I didn’t do some to keep myself fit, I wouldn’t be ready to tour when this is over. I saw a lot of people doing that when I was out. Fortunately, I didn’t get sick. I was one of the lucky ones. I met no one for a year unless we were in outdoor conditions. We all had to do our part. We are almost back to normal conditions. I hope that continues on.
MA: Is the band playing in a lot of outdoor venues?
LG: We are. We played in an outdoor venue last night in Toledo, Ohio. It was jammed. You could see the audience far into the horizon. It’s a much safer environment. If we play indoors they stagger the seating. That may not be necessary when we get to Phoenix. They’ve done great things to ensure safety.
MA: We wish you a safe rest of the tour and I look forward to seeing you in Phoenix.
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