From basement to the big leagues A Newmarket band survives its high-school days to court record deals The Phonies: Daniel Morgan, Jeffers Lennox and Brandon Anderson

By Kate Wilczak

Like every other high school band, the Phonies spent their days in their parents' basements singing, strumming, and re-naming. First they were Mr. Kazoo and the Fabulous Blender Children, then a year and a half passed, and they became Johnny More marketable, or whatever,"Explained band Whatever they were called, they were most definitely the band of their high school in Newmarket. Lennox describes with glee the time they won a Battle of the Bands contest down in Toronto, at the now defunct Ozone Club on College Street. As with most high school bands, though, the end of high school was also the end of the band. Not only did the lead singer, Daniel Morgan, move to Windsor, but as Lennox said, "We were sick of the whole band thing." So Morgan went to Windsor to study drama, Lennox went to U of T to study history, and Brandon Anderson, the third band member, went to OCAD for design. A fourth member went to Sudbury. He is not mentioned in the interview again.

The Christmas holidays of 2000 saw the band getting together for a little jam session in Morgan's basement, which turned into the reformation of the band. This time round, after tossing around the possible names of "Bathtub," "Raincoat," and "K," they became the Phonies. As the Phonies, they've been garnering a vit of attention from some record labesls in Canada. Although they haven't all been able to be inToronto at once to play much, they've been doing the odd gig in London, Ontario, and audiences like them. They've written quite a few songs, produced some singles and an album, and have a possible record deal under discussion. What's really great about the Phonies, though, is their music. It's upbeat, has some good harmony, and has a reasonably professional sound, given that they've yet to do any terribly professional recording. In their own words, the Phonies say their music is "the illegitimate love child of Weezer and the Foo Fighters, but with our own original twist and distinctive sound." Whether or not this is entirely accurate, their singles are definitely fun. The details of their lyrics are mostly lost in the volume of the instruments, but that

Might be fixed with some good mixing. So where do they want to go from here? Lennox, a Victoria College student, is adamant that his major in History and minor in Literary Studies will get him a job at the Heritage Foundation, or at the very least, Historica. On the other hand, time and money restraints aside, they want the Phonies to be big. "We want to take a year and try to make this happen," said Lennox, "get in a van and play as many shows as we can." They're looking for the big name record deal, but have learned from experience that they've got to start small and build up. Anything's got to be better than being a high school band. Not only are there the shows where you are kicked out of for being underage. Once when they showed up to play a show, the manager just barely let them in because they were underage. In order to have any audience at all, they set up the stage by the front window so their high school groupies could stand in the sidewalk and listen. "Now that's a sign of good fans," said Lennox.

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