Put your shoes on...

Tie The Knot With All That You Got, the fourth studio album from Philly pop-rockers IKE, officially dropped the first week in January of 2010, but a sold out record release show on the day after Christmas at World Cafe Live, at which the band included a copy of the album with every ticket, quickly put TTK into the hands of 500+ people, and word-of-mouth exploded like the "dirty little bomb" lead singer John Faye describes in the album's devastating acoustic closer "Aftermath." Immediate reaction from fans and long-time followers of the band has been visceral and music biz types are taking notice. The record has already received spins on key stations in the Philadelphia region like WMMR (where Faye recently appeared on the hugely popular Preston & Steve morning show), WXPN, and WSTW. The band expects 2010 and beyond to be full of "epic adventures" as the album's title track suggests.

Sometimes it feels like chemistry...

IKE has been a consistent presence in the mid-Atlantic music scene since releasing their first album, Parallel Universe, in 2003, enjoying unheard of radio play for an unsigned band. Their debut single "Deathbed" was recently named one of the top 200 songs of the decade on Wilmington, DE top-40 station WSTW. "Into Philadelphia" from 2005's In Real Life album is still in recurrent rotation on WMMR, 4 years after it appeared on the station's CD compilation Jaxon's Local Shots Vol. 1. The song has also become an arena staple in the city, receiving play during major sporting events for the Phillies, Eagles, and Flyers. The song was played at every home game during the Phillies 2008 and 2009 World Series bids. The original incarnation of the band, which also included guitarist Cliff Hillis, drummer Dave Anthony, and bassist Joann Schmidt, also opened for numerous national acts, including a coveted gig supporting Bon Jovi at Atlantic City's Boardwalk Hall. By the end of 2008, however, Faye had amicably parted ways with the rest of the band for a variety of personal and creative reasons. Having survived the departure of the other original members, Faye rebuilt IKE from the ground up, first with the addition of lead guitarist Brett Talley and drummer Tommy Kristich (both of whom appeared on IKE's 2008 album Where To Begin), and then with the recruitment of Susie Steen on bass in May of 2009. "The way the band is now," Faye says, "feels more like a family to me than any other combination of musicians I've played with, which is saying something because I'm still very close with my former bandmates. Brett, Sue, and Tom have been a huge support system for me. A lot of personal and sometimes very painful experience went into writing and recording Tie The Knot, and they were all right there with me as I was going through everything. On top of that, Brett, especially, has really energized the band musically; he's one of the most creative guitarists I know. The whole band shares a real comfort level and sense of fun, which I'm really loving. And considering what's gone on in other area's of my life, I really need that."

A broken heart on such a winter's day...

Even with a history of wearing his heart on his sleeve as a songwriter, Faye has produced his most relatable and riveting work in TTK, chronicling a tumultuous year which included ending his marriage, finding the will to be vulnerable again with someone new, and confronting the declining health of his mother, who suffered a series of mini-strokes and moved into assisted living 3000 miles away in Oregon. The song "1-Way To Avalon" finds Faye grappling with the emotional subject of a parent's mortality: "It's about her attitude towards dying but it's also about my feelings of helplessness and anger about her moving away. I felt like I already lost her." Songs like "Latitude," "Hints and Arrows," and "Only Life" reveal some of Faye's most raw emotions ("you think I'm here for good.. not with that attitude," "I don't takes hints, I only take arrows," "take whatever you think of me and shove it up your heart"), but the record manages to balance the bitter with the bittersweet in songs like "Set You In Stone," "The Notion," and the aforementioned "Aftermath," a song that Faye describes as "the most emotionally honest song I've ever written."

Perhaps as significant an influence as the shake-ups in his band and personal life was Faye's musical kinship with a young Philly poet named Brittany Rotondo. The two became fast friends after meeting at an IKE show in December of '08 and began writing songs together when Faye was impressed by some poetry Rotondo had posted online. "I really loved how honest her writing was. You could tell right away she had experienced a lot for someone her age, and it turned out she had literally hundreds of poems, all hand-written, in these old folders she kept." Buried deep in these stacks of loose-leaf was a poem called "Last Act." Faye recalls, "It immediately sang itself. The phrasing of it was so musical already." Faye wrote the chords and melody for the song, ironically, on the night before Valentine's Day. "Last Act" became one of the album's key tracks, balancing Rotondo's vivid lyrics with Talley's driving guitars and Faye's multi-tracked choir-like vocals. "We viewed the song as an opportunity to really experiment with sounds and the overall vibe on record. It's a much darker kind of song than people might be used to hearing from us." notes Talley.

Feed the ghost...

It's somehow fitting that a record so haunted by Faye's personal demons would also end up being literally haunted.. well, sort of... The band had no idea what they were getting themselves into when they decided to record drums in a church-turned-recording-studio in south Philly. During a conversation in the main cutting room between drummer Kristich and co-producer Ron DiSilvestro, something unseen began tugging rapidly on DiSilvestro's pant leg. Kristich quickly noticed DiSilvestro's trepidation and looked on in disbelief. Both returned to the control room, pale as the ghost who had apparently been messing with them, and at that point the band was schooled on the long history of paranormal activity at Fifth Stone Studios (now called Philly Sound Studios); legend has it that the church is haunted by a woman named Mary E. Morton, whose gravestone, for reasons unknown, rests in the attic / steeple of the church. Once the record was mixed, the band heard strange children's voices at the very beginning of the song "Forgiven." DiSilvestro checked back over the master recording to find almost 8 seconds of these voices (along with the sound of a dog barking) isolated on a single track - from a room mic, which was one of fourteen mics set up to record the drums. The only problem is that there were no children or dogs anywhere near the cutting room when the songs were tracked. The mystery of why these sounds would turn up only on one of the mics placed in the room, with no trace on any of the other thirteen (most of which were set at a higher level than the room mic) still baffles those involved with the recording.

The voice gets louder...

John Faye is in a unique position, being one of those rare artists that not only survives personal and personnel changes but continues to grow more compelling as time marches on. A litany of accolades for IKE (the aforementioned radio play, six WSTW "Hometown Heroes" awards in '09, "Best of Style" award in Philadelphia Style Magazine), not to mention his seemingly forever-ago stint as the leader of the major label alt-rock 90's band The Caulfields, has not dampened Faye's drive to take his music to as many people as he can reach. With the help of his musical partners-in-crime, Faye has become more or less a timeless figure in the Philadelphia rock community, combining his wealth of experience with a constant sense of renewal and vitality. He makes no apologies for his ever-youthful attitude in the song "Do What You Do": "I do what I do and I don't need props from you, 'cause I do what I know is right." IKE is more than ready to do what they do and follow their muse wherever it leads. So, as the song goes, "just tie the knot with all that you got tonight."