What do you do once your group has stormed the charts, toured the world and stopped turning up to award ceremonies? Simple. Form a super group, and there have rarely been as many…
But is this sudden wash of collaborations responsible for good old fashioned creative juices, or rather labels quick to cash in on more than one megastar? With everyone from the Jonas Brothers to Led Zep widening their horizons for another shot at the charts we look at a run down of side projects past and present, and why musicians will even risk humiliation to work with their mates.
Brendan Benson
Brendan Benson is not like other solo artists. Having conquered the music scene he then continued to turn his back on his reputation and shack up with Jack White. Eager to do something more he switched from solo albums to collaborating with others.
Speaking to Clash, Brendan admits that his solo work will always be his first love and that he is never really recognised as a solo artist to Raconteurs fans. Now releasing his third album, he said: “I make albums for various reasons. The first is that I have a fan base that are loyal and I want to be loyal back to them by producing more. Also for me it’s like a compulsion, it’s an addiction, it’s how it’s done for me. I started making music by myself and it hasn’t changed really.”
The singer joined the Raconteurs as the secondary vocalist, along with Jack White, yet the musician doesn’t think joining with high profile Jack White has helped his solo career.
He continued: “I think writing with Jack has been a learning experience and working with other artists is always great for finding out how they work.
“When we first started working I knew it would have a certain amount of expectation because it was Jack but I didn’t think it would become popular at all. I didn’t think I was recognised a whole lot in that band as Brendan Benson. We were just the guys in Jack’s band and it was eclipsed a bit in the press.”
Yet unlike Jack, Brendan does not get carried away with side projects. Keeping to his solo albums and the band he gets a taster of his real love playing smaller shows and the huge arenas with the Raconteurs.
He said: “I love being busy. I’d be lost without the band. Obviously you don’t want to do too much or you spread yourself thin- I think you have to keep that balance.”
WHERE ARE THEY NOW?
After washing his hand (the right one to be precise) Brendan will be moving into each musical genre starting with country and ending with Damon Albarn’s Africa Express.
Blind Faith
If you think of one of the first supergroups, Blind Faith will not spring to mind as striking against tradition. Created by Cream member Eric Clapton, he formed the group with Ginger Baker, Ric Grech and Steve Winwood to get out of the limelight. That is, until the band fell out, and had a lack of playable material meaning they had to play Cream covers for the majority of their gigs. The band was a disaster, leading to only one arena tour and album, which was mainly masked in controversy after a risqué cover sleeve.
Speaking to the New Musical Express at the time, Eric blamed the ‘super group’ tag for the band’s demise following a violence led US tour. He said: “There were differences mainly because we were being boosted as a ‘super group’. Egos were flying up and down. I was ashamed because I didn’t think we were big enough to take that. A group cannot start like that.”
The group were mainly known to be one of the first super groups around, with Clapton and Baker from Cream and Grech and Winwood from Traffic.
WHERE ARE THEY NOW?
As we all know Eric Clapton waltzed into the solo abyss and never returned. As for the others, they mainly spent their time complaining about Blind Faith and wallowing in their own filth.
Nick Jonas and the Administration
Side projects don’t just happen in the rock world. These days you’ll be lynched for saying pop acts don’t have a creative flare and the latest wave of pop side projects is proving it. If it’s not Girls Aloud members scattered all over the charts, then look to Nick Jonas, of Jonas Brothers fame, who announced earlier this year he would be releasing an album as The Administration.
The Jo-Bro announced the plans via a blog in October, in a carefully written statement slightly riddled with a mixture of jealousy and pride.
Writing on the band’s MySpace Nick said: “I decided to go to Nashville, TN, to make a side project (Nick Jonas & The Administration) with four musicians – guys that I had met and worked with before. If I was to describe the sound to someone… I would say it’s ‘heart & soul’, because the music that I make is from my heart, and the lyrics I write are from my soul.”
From the soul indeed, and the two remaining bros are supporting little Nick’s project at least in public, claiming the brothers are not splitting quite yet.
WHERE ARE THEY NOW?
Nick Jonas will be spending his time hanging out with Miley Cyrus, Robert Pattinson and Zac Efron for the ultimate teen musical. While he pursues his solo work the remaining Brothers, Joe and Kevin remain locked in a room awaiting his return.
The Dead Weather
Jack White should really be banned from making new groups until he’s made a damn good White Stripes album.
That said, The Dead Weather is the latest of White’s groups not to grate on the ears. With the underrated Alison Mosshart taking centre stage, this is White really letting go. Where The Raconteurs remain calculated and rehearsed, The Dead Weather have a very slap dash attitude.
Few other musicians can count themselves in three high profile bands other than Jack White. Back when the group first started he talked to Clash about the pressures of the group. He said: “I think the pressure is to not see it through, really. I mean, of all the things I do and all the things I’m involved in, I think probably the one thing that most people want – label-wise or fan-wise – is for me to go back and be in The White Stripes and just keep doing that. So what happens is I end up pressuring everyone else to let me see it through: ‘Let me do this band right now. I have to. It’s what we need to do.”
The band are also a certified super group, also containing Jack Lawrence of the Raconteurs and Dean Fertita of Queens of the Stone Age.
WHERE ARE THEY NOW?
Going by Jack White’s work timeline, by the time this article goes to print he will have made six albums, toured the world twice and produced a documentary film about the Tesla Coil.
The Last Shadow Puppets
When the singer of the UK’s biggest band joined his best mate and decided to make an album based on the music of Scott Walker, for some it was a dream come true.
For Alex Turner and the Rascals frontman Miles Kane however, The Last Shadow Puppets was more about a musical interest in the wayward man of the 1960s and a chance to do something utterly different to their own musical capabilities. Unlike Clapton in Blind Faith, The Last Shadow Puppets is not two musicians trying to escape the limelight but embarking on a genuine musical relationship founded by a love of Scott Walker and a time most music fans have forgotten.
Speaking to Clash at the time of the project, Alex Turner said: “The fact that we are writing together seems to make it stronger.
“You’re not as exposed as you are if it’s just you on your own. I do like the partnership thing.”
Miles Kane added: “It’s not a chore, it’s enjoyment. It’s great finding that with someone else, a dead good friend.”
Aside from the group being a side project for Alex Turner and Miles Kane however, the band signified two other members taking part in the project. The first- James Ford, produced the record in his day job, but also played drums on the record, while Final Fantasy’s Owen Pallett arranged the strings with the London Metropolitan Orchestra. The Last Shadow Puppets is not simply two friends collaborating but a bigger group driven by a passion for music.
WHERE ARE THEY NOW?
Alex Turner has moved to New York to concentrate on his new long locks, while Miles Kane attempts to create a one man Rascals band.
Words by Ruth Offord
