• printer friendly
• mail this article
• iPod format
• digg

Photo

The Faraway Places’ CD-release party is this Tuesday at Spaceland.

Two and half years ago, Chris Colthart stepped off his plane into the silver sparkle of Hollywood sunshine. With no job, no car and a freshly left-behind band, the 28-year-old guitarist of indie-rock band The Faraway Places had little more than any average newcomer to the land of milk and honey’s biggest dream-propagating city.

What he did have was The Faraway Places’ first record, “Unfocus On It,” finished just the night before, and Colthart was determined to find his music a home. The move paid off, as a reunited and reformed Faraway Places will celebrate the album’s U.S. release at Spaceland on Tuesday.

Of course, Los Angeles didn’t hold Colthart’s hand along the way. It took time to find willing musicians and places to play.

“Outside your nest of friends that believe in you, you’re like, ‘Wow I have to convince other people to play my music and believe in this thing that I believe in, but still have doubts in,’” Colthart said.

The Faraway Places initially formed in Boston with Colthart on guitar and vocals and Donna Coppola, described by Colthart as “a victim of childhood piano lessons,” on keyboard. Since its inception, a wealth of musicians have rotated in and out of the band’s cast, contributing to its pop-rock sound, but now, Scott Barber is the official bass player.

In Boston, Colthart was involved in the music/art scene and served as a roadie for his childhood friend Keith Gendel’s indie-pop band Papas Fritas. But as Colthart got older, even his artsy friends were looking for Internet jobs and were more concerned with job security than creativity.

When Colthart accompanied Papas Fritas to a show in Athens, Ga., where “nobody had a job, and everybody was in a band,” he realized there were places in this country where it was OK to devote oneself entirely to art.

“In the course of touring, I realized how I had these Boston blinders on,” Colthart said. “I just had sunk so deeply into the groove of Boston that I forgot that there were other ways of living.”

So Colthart left the East Coast to go “somewhere warmer and cheaper with more rockers.” But as any local knows, Los Angeles isn’t just sunshine and walks down the glamorous boulevard. Talent doesn’t insure recognition, and in the entertainment-industry machine, it’s easy to get chewed up and spit out. Leave it to Colthart to be optimistic.

“All the (Los Angeles) clichés hold true,” Colthart said. “People are a little more competitive here. But I think it also means a lot of the shows are better here, because people are trying harder to put on a good show.”

“Unfocus On It” parallels Colthart’s easygoing and positive attitude, and even though it was mostly recorded in a cabin in New Hampshire, it’s been described as reminiscent of late ’60s California pop.

But in a city whose nightclubs often celebrate regurgitated electro-rehash with flocks of scenesters thinking the definition of rock ’n’ roll is nihilistic bleatings, Colthart, at times, has felt a little out of place.

“We are a positive band in a real way, and I almost feel like I’m totally out of fashion, because all the bands are trying to sound like Gang of Four,” Colthart said.

Although the album has been praised as bubble-gum pop, Colthart has resisted that direction for a dance-y, and perhaps more L.A.-friendly sound.

Fortunately, The Faraway Places isn’t trying to be anything its not, and in the process, has accidentally stumbled into an original sound that tastes like an ice-cold Orangina in the middle of the vast L.A. desert of hollow bar rock. From the lyrics to the music, to Colthart’s gentle mannerisms, there’s an honesty that begs to be paid attention to, and refreshingly, comes without the usual self-seriousness.

“Maybe if we were a little more badass, I’d have more friends,” Colthart joked.

The Faraway Places celebrate its CD-release party at Spaceland on Tuesday, Feb. 17. Go to http://www.clubspaceland.com for more information.