Although he is responsible for one of the hottest rock songs of the last nine months, Thriving Ivory’s Scott Jason stakes out a middle ground in the ongoing singer-versus-songwriter debate.
“A good vocalist can make a song great, whereas with another vocalist singing the same song, it would just be OK,” allows the composer of “Angels on the Moon,” a solemn, earnest, piano-driven hit full of hope and uplift.
Thriving Ivory’s singer, Clayton Stroope, who grew up listening to classic rockers such as Aerosmith and Led Zeppelin, is more than just OK. His raspy tenor not only gives “Angels” wings — the song has registered 7 million-plus plays on the band’s MySpace page and the video has been viewed more than 1.6 million times on YouTube — but elevates the other 11 tracks on the San Francisco quintet’s self-titled debut CD.
Before meeting Stroope, whose voice has timbres that call to mind Bono, Axl Rose and Robert Plant, keyboardist Jason was working with a singer whom he had grown up with in Orange County. “He had more like a Lifehouse-y kind of voice,” says Jason, en route to a gig in Chicago. “By that, I mean he wasn’t a tenor. He and I enjoyed music as a hobby.” Jason, 28, says he didn’t start taking music seriously until he was 18, when he enrolled at Santa Barbara City College.
Jason met Stroope in late 2001, through a mutual friend. “When I first heard him, his voice reminded me of (San Francisco alt-rock band) Train’s Patrick Monahan,” says Jason. “It was classic rock sort of singing. … I was impressed.” Jason says he does not write specifically with Stroope in mind. “I take his voice into account as far as register and using certain words, as opposed to how, say, how those words might sound coming out of someone with a voice like, say, Dave Matthews,” explains Jason.
“But for the most part, I keep my mind on the song, regardless of who will be singing it.” Jason said the songs on “Thriving Ivory” were culled from the best he had written over the last eight years. “Angels on the Moon,” he points out, began taking shape six months after 9/11, and started out as an eight- or nine- minute anthem.
“We were watching DVDs and saw ‘U2 Go Home: Live from Slane Castle,”‘ Jason recalls. “They did this incredible version of ‘Where the Streets Have No Name.’ I went into my studio and wanted to do something like that. … Now we use it as an encore, and everyone gets excited.”
Another crowd-pleaser, according to Jason, is “Secret Life,” which also offers solace in the face of daunting circumstances. “A lot of women connect to that song,” he observes, “but it has a common theme. It’s almost like a country song, and then comes the big chorus.”
It is a testament to Jason’s songwriting craft that for the most part, “Thriving Ivory” sounds grand without becoming grandiose.
