Mean Street Magazine, Sept. 2001
(www.meanstreet.com)
BILL JANOVITZ

"It's a fun thing to do and a fun thing to listen to."
by Waleed Rashidi

Bill Janovitz is looking for a little change in his life. He’s lived most of his musical career as the frontman for one of rock’s best kept musical secrets, Buffalo Tom, over the past decade, creating a rich history trail of several albums with the trio. Yet, Janovitz is quick to note that Buffalo Tom is on hiatus, after releasing 2000’s fantastic greatest hits collection titled Asides From Buffalo Tom, which means a couple things: Buffalo Tom ain’t over yet, and yes, Janovitz has now wiped his schedule clean to mark it up once again with some fresh ink. Four new pieces of art, to be exact.

Enter Bill’s latest masterpiece, the SpinArt-released Up Here, which at first may seem like just another disc full of Janovitz-penned material. So what’s the big deal: Buffalo Tom records have plenty of his material, why the solo effort?

First of all, a quick skim through the album’s 11 tracks reveals that Buffalo Tom this is not. Aside from the Janovitz’s trademark coarse yet calming pipes delivering his picturesque lyrics, everything else about every track screams “no rock is present here!” The Marshalls and drum kits have been set aside; what’s left are just a couple acoustic guitars, some piano or organ, a subtle tambourine tap, mellow backing vocal tracks, and well, not much else.

“I wanted to go do an intimate solo acoustic record as much as possible,” Janovitz says of the minimalistic production. “I didn’t want it to be demos, but I wanted to be nicely recorded acoustic stuff. The stuff that I love to hear is when a great songwriter with a good voice can sit there with a guitar and play. I think those are some of the most revealing sorts of moments. If you can pull that off, it’s a fun thing to do and a fun thing to listen to.”

Second, the songs themselves don’t really cater to the style Buffalo Tom is known for. But they’re not necessarily B.T. throwaways either. That’s something Janovitz can explain a little better.

“Some of these are odd-ball ones, like one was written for someone’s wedding,” he says. “One was about having a kid, and you need little things that kind of break up the definition of myself and the rut I can fall into as a writer.”

Janovitz brought in a little support — emphasis on the “little” as there are literally just a few others besides Janovitz behind the making of Up Here. Janovitz enlisted his keyboardist friend Phil Aiken to add some ear candy and there are a few tracks with some tasteful female backing vocals.

“That’s Chris Toppin from a band called Fuzzy here in Boston,” Janovitz says of the feminine presence. “She also sang on my first record and we write together a lot as well, and we’re also in a band together called the Bathing Beauties that started out as a bar cover band, but that’s becoming its own thing as well.”

As if Buffalo Tom, Bathing Beauties and Bill Janovitz himself aren’t enough, the man has brought another project together, titled Crown Victoria, whose material falls somewhere between his strictly acoustic solo efforts and the rocking Buffalo Tom.
On the full-sized Ford: “It started out as I wanted to be a solo guy and I needed some people to play on my record. It just became a band and I really didn’t mind it being a band.”

And aside from being involved with four musical gigs (Bill says he’s got ‘em all sorted out on his website for easy digestion), Janovitz is also occupied with his biggest project to date, his two-year-old daughter Lucy.

“My wife works right now, just because I can [stay home],” Janovitz says of his latest childcare endeavour, “so, that’s been my main gig.”

On the web: www.billjanovitz.com