By Jim Barber
Legendary American rock band Styx has been touring the highways and byways of the world, releasing basic music, after basic music for 53 years. Lots of these songs, akin to ‘Blue Collar Man,’ ‘Come Sail Away,’ ‘Renegade,’ ‘Babe,’ and ‘The Better of Occasions,’ are the soundtrack to the lives of three generations of followers, and proceed to be staples on each terrestrial and satellite tv for pc radio.
For 26 of these 53 years, so fairly darn near half the band’s complete existence, lead vocals and keyboards, in addition to compelling songwriting, has been supplied by Canada’s personal Lawrence Gowan. A solo star in his personal proper all through the Nineteen Eighties and Nineteen Nineties, he joined Styx in 1999, and regardless that he reignited his solo profession in Canada 15 years in the past – to nice acclaim and persevering with success – he continues to be a well-liked and stalwart member of Styx, including his distinctive vitality, keyboard mastery and vocal prowess to the group’s enduring legacy.
Not like lots of their contemporaries, Styx has not shied away from releasing new studio materials. They might merely re-release compilation albums, and have produced quite a few properly obtained stay albums over the previous quarter century, however the craft of songwriting and the will to maintain creating runs robust within the veins of the band members, which nonetheless consists of founding members James J.Y. Younger and bassist Chuck Panozzo, alongside longtime vocalist/guitarist Tommy Shaw, who initially joined the band in 1975. Drummer Todd Sucherman changed the late John Panozzo behind the package in 1996, and his bestest Canuck buddy Gowan got here alongside three years later after the departure of band co-founder Dennis DeYoung.
Circling from Above, launched in July, is the band’s 18th album, and it’s fifth since Gowan joined the band. It adopted on the heels of the 2 earlier information, each of which have been critically acclaimed and generated quite a lot of love from each new and previous followers, 2017’s The Mission and Crash of the Crown, which was an exquisite COVID pandemic antidote, popping out in 2021.
Styx simply wrapped up its summer time tour all through North America, which noticed the band performing in entrance of 10,000 to twenty,000 or extra followers per night time. A spotlight of the present noticed a efficiency of the basic 1977 album, The Grand Phantasm in its entirety. However there was additionally an opportunity for followers to listen to the brand new single ‘Construct and Destroy,’ which has rapidly turn into a fan favorite.
The viewers make-up for a Styx present is surprisingly numerous by way of ages, with wholesome heapings of the previous guard, but additionally a outstanding variety of new followers, many if not a majority of whom have found the band on their very own phrases, and who’ve taken on a way of possession of the present model of Styx, whereas respecting what has come earlier than.
“For the primary 40 minutes of the present, it’s The Grand Phantasm. After which we begin doing a collection of hits and we put in ‘Construct and Destroy,’ the one new music that cracks the set at this level. I sing three in a row at that time within the set, so we do ‘Girl,’ then ‘Construct and Destroy’ and it leads into ‘The Better of Occasions.’ So it’s acquired a candy spot, and most nights we come out our in-ear screens to listen to what the response is. And I’d say it’s actually robust, by way of the reactions we’ve acquired through the years to new songs we play. It’s been constructing since The Mission the response to one thing new in 2021 acquired even stronger. Response to The Mission was so robust that we performed that album in its entirety at a number of particular exhibits that we did in Las Vegas, Boston, Washington and New York. I feel that album started to essentially join with the half of the viewers – half being kind of an arbitrary quantity – which might be below 40 years of age and weren’t even born when the largest information of the basic rock period got here out,” Gowan mentioned over Zoom from his lodge room in Milwaukee.
“They appear to be those which might be extra hungry for one thing that’s concurrent with their lives. They’ve fallen in love with basic rock and so they love that sound, however they appear to be like, ‘do you could have any extra of that?’ After which you could have the trustworthy who’ve been there proper from the start, a few of them for over 50 years. They really need, for probably the most half, at the least initially, to recapture the music of their youth and have that, which is the majority of the present anyway – 95 per cent of the present, if no more. So we’re connecting with each audiences. Once we play one thing new, even final night time in Chicago, I appeared out on the viewers midway by way of ‘Construct and Destroy’ as I’m singing it and I can see individuals singing alongside already, which is wonderful. They usually’re the youthful followers. I feel they’re within the lineage of the band, those that have been there earlier than, as a result of they’re all vitally vital items to the sum of what’s on stage as we speak.”
With regards to the twenty first century model of Styx, working throughout the present music business surroundings, there’s much more freedom, much more independence and so much much less outdoors stress to supply music. There may be at all times a business consideration, in that whenever you do launch an album, you’d prefer it to promote, however simply as vital is that it’s promoting as a result of it’s good and since it’s connecting with audiences on a deeper stage.
“I suppose if there’s any luxurious or benefit to being a band that’s been round for many years, and within the case of Styx, it’s now 53 years at this level, and I’ve been in it for 26 of these years, we don’t have these pressures. We’ve truly mentioned to one another with the final three albums, if we don’t like it, we’re not placing it out. We don’t have to only for the sake of placing one thing out. Different bands of our period, they’ve stopped placing out new music. Or after they do, they won’t lean into it as arduous as we do. We simply should lean into it as arduous as we will as a result of we’re pushed that method. I feel that’s a distinction we’re fairly proud of. However you’re proper, and also you’re sort of making me snicker to myself, as a result of I fought all these battles as a solo artist,” Gowan mentioned, including that it’s additionally why Styx selected to jot down, file and launch full albums, together with bodily variations. The albums, together with Circling from Above, have been conceived not as a disparate assortment of songs, however as a cohesive unit with a typical vibe, widespread thematic connective tissue and parts of a coherent story interwoven all through the 40 or so minutes of music.
“I’m simply as responsible of this factor as anybody else. I’m not honouring myself within the slightest method, however let’s simply say on topics that I do know just a little bit about, the artwork type of the album is considered one of them. I’m going to lean just a little bit heavier now on youthful individuals for this very motive; to embrace it as a result of it’s a musical expertise that takes you about 40 minutes to get by way of and it’s possible you’ll be on the fence deciding whether or not or not you actually love this artist or this band or whoever it’s. Is it simply a few good songs? An album provides you a 40-minute window the place in case you go from starting to finish, don’t playlist it, don’t combine it with different artists and every thing, you then start to sort of drink in its musical vocabulary, it’s lyrical philosophies, if you wish to name them that.
“You’re getting all the trajectory of what this band is attempting to perform or attempting to drag you into their world. And it causes the thoughts to broaden and start to sort of create a theatre of the thoughts. That’s what I’ve at all times discovered in regards to the album expertise; that it’s very enriching. And I say that as a result of if that weren’t the case, then would I be going out on stage 40 years later enjoying [his iconic solo album] Unusual Animal, as a result of it’s the fortieth anniversary of that album for me. Taking part in all the file and watching the viewers’s response to it and the way they know the file from starting to finish – they’ve all acquired a customized expertise of it too. And with Styx, it’s the identical factor with Grand Phantasm, which we’ve been enjoying begin to end on this tour. Everybody has a customized expertise of this musical piece that has taken them locations of their thoughts and made a musical connection that has united them. And to go even additional that that, I’d say that in a public sense, to see 1000’s of individuals night time after night time united by that particular person expertise that they’ve now culled collectively into this large viewers, and to see the enjoyment and the life enrichment that they really feel from that musical expertise is admittedly wonderful. And I’m under no circumstances disparaging the truth that you get your music otherwise now and it may be in small little bites. However to essentially embrace an album is a deeper musical expertise. That’s actually what it’s, and that’s why I feel it’s legitimate for us to attempt to do these issues.”
And getting again to the notion of getting the liberty to create what they need, when they need, how they need, Gowan mentioned the method resulting in the final three albums, together with Circling from Above was as pure because it was creatively fulfilling.
“Actually, it truly is natural. To begin with, you sort of take inventory of how profitable the earlier file was and also you see how individuals reacted to it and whether or not there’s a want from them for extra. But it surely’s actually simply that new concepts start to flourish and get fleshed out within the dressing room. Abruptly you’ve acquired a riff or one thing else, another concept and everybody begins leaping in on it. That is what I really like in regards to the band expertise versus being a solo artist. I really like each equally, however they’re just a little bit totally different. One is a really private musical journey that you just’re on. And the opposite is that this shared sort of mixed conflict of musical minds as to what we will do, what we will pull collectively. And I’ve to say that Common Music letting us put out these three most up-to-date albums have been very indulgent in that,” he mentioned.
“I feel they see the validity in a band like us, that’s nonetheless striving to make information which might be equal to or worthy of the legacy of a band that’s been round for over half a century and give you stuff that we actually really feel is high quality, not simply placing one thing out for the hell of it, however actually having the ability to sort of analyze it, look one another within the eye and say, ‘I’m completely joyful placing this out, regardless of the consequence could also be. This can be a good illustration of the place the band is as we speak.’ And also you do defer, roughly, to the fellows which were within the band the longest because the arbiters of whether or not or not one thing is worthy. I feel they’ve undoubtedly earned that.
“And typically it takes a bit extra convincing. It’s arduous to think about what the Styx sound is as we speak. You will have a psychological image that’s based mostly on the previous, however then it’s a must to open your thoughts as much as what number of flavours, what number of colors from the previous can we combine into the place the band is as we speak, with the personalities and the abilities that exist now. As soon as they’ve reached an appropriate or acceptable steadiness of these elements, then the music might very properly be worthy.”
Gowan then talked about how the idea of Circling from Above happened, with its theme of the existential tug of warfare between the pure world and the technological world, and the way humanity must convey extra steadiness to that relentless and ever-evolving battle.
“This goes again to what we have been speaking about with the concept of the album expertise. To begin with, I really like when individuals assign a file to be conceptual as a result of which means to me that the cohesion between these songs is powerful sufficient that you just start to mission what’s the idea right here? For this album there’s truly no overriding idea, however there’s a cohesion within the assortment of songs the place one arms off to the subsequent in a very palpable method that makes your thoughts, due to the way in which the thoughts works, join these dots, very like the quilt of Circling from Above with all the person birds connecting into one big fowl,” he defined.
“I’ll go proper again to the Sixties and, after all, I noticed Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Membership Band as this conceptual file. However in case you hearken to interviews from the Beatles individually all of them say, particularly Paul, that there was no idea there. These have been simply the songs that that they had on the time, and so they went collectively extraordinarily properly. You possibly can’t assist to place kind of a cinematic glaze over all the factor. I’d say that with Circling from Above, if there’s an idea and overriding theme, it’s the wrestle that we’ve got as we speak of attempting to steadiness the great innovations of expertise and the extraordinarily scary innovations of expertise – the 2 of them – inside our human situation, with our humanity, with our flesh and blood expertise. And we’re grappling with that, let’s face it.
“There are every kind of implications about how this has enhanced or been to the detriment of the human expertise. There does appear to be numerous hinting at that all through the lyrics. It’s simply the place we’re as individuals. ‘Construct and Destroy’ has a few of that, the place solely you’ll be able to determine. So, they do join in a method that I feel is kind of pleasing. That music is sort of an anchor to the album and that’s a part of why that’s the music that we included as the primary music that got here out with the file. It wasn’t even meant to be a single, however it resonated with individuals and it cracked the set checklist. And that’s a fairly powerful set checklist to crack. However that music appeared to embody, or at the least open the door to what the album sort of factors to.”
A big side of the thematic materials infusing the songs on Circling from Above is humanity’s love/hate relationship with expertise and in addition how humanity likes to consider that by way of it’s ‘intelligent’ use of expertise, be it the plough, the steam engine, the rocket ship or Synthetic Intelligence, it may possibly tame, manipulate and management it’s surroundings.
As mentioned already, lead-off single ‘Construct to Destroy’ can mentioned to be the emblematic music on the album, with a video that’s each arresting and disturbing (for some) in how AI has been in a position to recreate every band member of Styx. In a way, Gowan, et al, are ‘changed’ by their artificially created avatars.
“I used to be a bit freaked out to see myself. However I’ll let you know why I wasn’t actually all that freaked out. We determined to go along with the most recent expertise of all. I labored with a fellow in Toronto named Jay Ziebarth on a few lyric movies prior to now. He labored with us on Crash of the Crown. I met him by way of my son Dylan who’s knowledgeable musician and he’s into the metallic. Properly, he’s very metallic. And I’ve met numerous pals by way of him. Loads of his pals have turn into my pals. I met Jay as a result of he was a metallic man. He and his brother Trevor had a band the place they performed numerous Nineteen Eighties music. And the band was known as Moonlight Wishes [named after one of Gowan’s biggest hit singles]. However Dylan additionally confirmed me a few of the video stuff he was doing, and this was fairly a number of years in the past. I assumed these two brothers have been fairly gifted. When Styx determined ‘Construct and Destroy’ was going to be the one, Will Evankovich, our producer and bandmate and co-writer requested if my buddy Jay performed round with any AI stuff. I requested him and he confirmed me what he’d been enjoying round with about 9 months earlier. And I do know there’s every kind of implications right here each optimistic and destructive with AI, let’s face it. We’re going to make wonderful medical discoveries and issues which might be going to doubtlessly save – or doubtlessly destroy every thing. It’s like we’re splitting the atom over again,” he mentioned.
“However I additionally thought that it matches with the concept of the music and that we must always put it to use and see what comes out of it. So Jay took all our images, did some sketches himself as a result of he’s an artist and commenced the method of punching issues into AI. For each single shot that you just see within the video, there’s about six or seven issues that it will spit again that have been so ludicrous that we have been like, ‘oh that is ineffective.’ However there would at all times be one little nugget that labored, and that is what intrigued me. And it was at all times the nugget the place the human aspect started to direct the AI and never the opposite method round. For instance, we mentioned, let’s discuss builders. And positive sufficient the idea of bees got here – the bees and the hive and what the collective can put collectively. That began to emerge. So that you’re beginning to see, oh there’s a little bit of a narrative right here. And within the video, there’s this cut up throughout the band. I’m the scientifically minded, technologically minded man and Tommy Shaw is attempting to construct this beehive to the sky. And we’re each undercut as a result of the birds, this large flock of birds, they’ve one other concept totally. They don’t like both plan, and so they take over. And finally, on the conclusion of the video, which is so much like how we really feel about AI, in case you can’t beat them, you’ll be able to be part of them, as a result of all of us turn into birds, regardless that that was not our authentic intention. I don’t know if that’s what everyone took from that video, however I do know we acquired numerous feedback. Some have been extraordinarily accepting of the idea, and a few mentioned there are issues that AI is doing which might be simply horrible. And I agree with each of them, however in the end, it’s a great piece of leisure. I’ve mentioned in different interviews that it’s kind of the tug of warfare between nature and man’s intentions. However as everyone knows, or ought to know, it’s a foregone conclusion that nature in the end wins. It’s vital to at all times keep in mind that, and but we as a species are pushed to attempt to management as a lot of the narrative of what goes on within the universe as we presumably can. I feel that’s each very noble, and really foolhardy. However that’s who we’re. And as I mentioned, and I hate to be a spoiler, in the end nature wins.”
Some of the attention-grabbing developments each for Gowan personally and for Styx, is that his youthful brother Terry joined the band early in 2024, changing longtime bassist Ricky Phillips. It not solely upped the Canadian content material by a big stage, however doubled the variety of Gowans onstage enjoying basic Styx songs to 1000’s and 1000’s of followers each night time. One of many elements that led to the selecting of Terry Gowan to affix the band as a member was the truth that he had been enjoying alongside his brother Lawrence in his solo band for a few years and that in addition they had related tastes in music.
“After I joined Styx in 1999 I made a acutely aware choice that I used to be not going to do any solo stuff whereas I’m specializing in the band. I can’t cut up myself like that. And for the primary 11 years I didn’t. In 2010 it was the twenty fifth anniversary of the Unusual Animal album, which is the bottom zero album for me, the one which did a lot for me. A buddy of mine named Larry Gregson was working at Fallsview On line casino in Niagara Falls, and he mentioned that after Styx performed there, as many individuals have been calling for a Gowan present as for an additional Styx present. So he requested if I used to be considering doing one. And it was nice timing as a result of I felt I needed to do one thing for the twenty fifth anniversary. However he additionally mentioned that he thought I might do a couple of and we ended up with three bought out exhibits that yr. After which we did three the subsequent yr, and three the yr after that. And since I had labored now for therefore lengthy with [Styx drummer] Todd Sucherman I requested if he wished to do the exhibits. And he liked Jerry Marotta who performed on the album, so he did these exhibits. And Terry had been in my solo band since he was 19 years previous. And so Terry got here again too, so once we did these first exhibits, Terry and Todd immediately bonded as a rhythm part,” he defined.
“Each successive yr, Todd would come up and play and so they simply grew to become a pure match. They converse the identical language musically and it was an ideal combo. When Ricky was leaving the band, very early final yr, earlier than I even acquired concerned within the dialog it had already been introduced up that Terry must be the fitting man, as a result of he was already a part of a longtime rhythm part with Todd. I got here into the dialog by a day later and I assumed, ‘wow, I do know that’s going to be excellent. I do know that he is aware of this music.’ We’re of the identical blood so far as our musical style goes relating to progressive rock anyhow. We each worship on the altar of Genesis and Sure. So we’ve got that totally in widespread and Todd and Terry had performed about 200 exhibits collectively at that time, so the wheels have been already greased.
“And he got here in and did this, quote/unquote ‘audition’ and it was one of many funniest days, however I don’t assume I’ve been prouder of him. We booked a theater in New Jersey for a whole day, beginning at 8 a.m. and it was set to complete round 11 or midnight. We have been performed after one run of the present. The crew have been like, ‘you guys can run it once more.’ Don’t have to. We tore every thing down. We have been out of that theatre by three o’clock. He simply hit it out of the park and has each single night time.”
Brothers are brothers are brothers. There’s at all times an ‘attention-grabbing’ dynamic when brothers are concerned collectively in a artistic enterprise, particularly a band. Beginning with the Everley Brothers, by way of the Davies brothers (the Kinks), Chris and Wealthy Robinson from The Black Crowes and probably the most well-known of reconnected brothers – Liam and Noel Gallagher – it may possibly get just a little heated at occasions.
“It’s a mix of emotions [sharing a stage with Terry in Styx]. Brothers in a band, that’s truly a tricky factor to navigate. For those who don’t consider me, strive to consider a band that has brothers in it who didn’t all find yourself at one another’s throats. Go forward, I’ll wait. Even the Bee Gees. It’s simply constructed into the scenario. When it got here to him being within the band, we talked. We had that dialog. I talked to Tommy Shaw about it and instructed him that Terry’s an ideal match. It makes probably the most sense. However brothers struggle. We do struggle. And we fought so much and possibly will carry on combating. However I mentioned to Tommy that we determined that we’re each working for this band, not for one another. Terry’s not working for me within the Gowan band,” he defined.
“Terry has performed his personal factor and been very profitable. He’s put collectively some improbable company non-public exhibits with individuals like Martin Brief and Leonard Cohrn. He’s performed all these items in my absence. And at occasions I used to be included in a few of these the place I used to be roughly working for him. So we talked and determined, let the household dynamic, let the egos and the sibling rivalries that exist, even in one of the best of households, let’s put them of their place and simply be sort of pleased with one another’s accomplishments. And that’s actually how I really feel. I really feel very proud that he’s exceeded the expectations right here. Everybody’s actually proud of him. However, you already know, I’m nonetheless the boss!”
An earlier addition to the band occurred not lengthy after COVID when the band’s producer, who had been writing a big quantity of the fabric on the final couple of albums, Will Evankovich was requested to turn into a full member, together with as a part of the stay present.
“Identical to the story with Terry, Will’s story makes excellent sense. Tommy was doing a solo album again round 2010 and he’d begun to work with Will by way of Jack Blades [Night Ranger] and naturally Tommy was in Rattling Yankees and later Shaw/Blades with Jack. They went out and did a tour collectively and it was Jack who advised they bring about alongside his buddy Will in from Santa Rosa, California, to behave as sort of a musical director. In order that’s when Tommy began working with Will and realized this man’s extremely gifted, not simply as a musician and songwriter, however he additionally had these rising manufacturing chops that have been rapidly getting higher and higher. He simply had this innate understanding of basic rock and analog gear, And that’s how I met him. On the time he had a band known as American Drag and so they wound opening a few exhibits for Styx so I noticed him then. Then the subsequent factor you already know he had joined The Guess Who, because it existed at that time, with [original members] Jim Kale and Gary Peterson and so they did a number of exhibits with us in America so I acquired to see him onstage with that,” Gowan mentioned.
“As you already know I’m a Guess Who aficionado. I’ve had little associations with everybody in that band, just a little bit with Randy Bachman and fairly a bit truly with Burton Cummings, and what actually struck me was, you already know it was nice to see Jim Kale and Gary Peterson collectively once more, however I talked to Will after as instructed him I used to be standing aspect stage and the way his guitar tone matched Greg Leskiw [who replaced Randy Bachman in 1970] sound and the way he additionally matched the Kurt Winter [who also joined the Guess Who in 1970] sound. Most individuals can toil away and attempt to get the Randy Bachman sound, however they at all times miss the Kurt Winter sound. I simply talked about how properly he sculpted that sound. So I used to be impressed with that.
“After which instantly round 2014, Tommy got here in with this music, ‘Mission to Mars,’ and performed it and instructed us he performed it for Will after which they wrote one other music, ‘Crimson Storm.’ And by that point I used to be getting concerned within the album [which would become 2017’s The Mission] and we determined, ‘let’s make Will the producer and co-writer on songs the place we really feel it really works finest.’ I realized rapidly that he had an actual course in thoughts for this entire factor, simply as a producer ought to. He grew to become the arbiter, roughly, in order that throughout the band, we didn’t should struggle with one another. That was actually vital. So, we made The Mission and once we went to play The Mission stay a couple of yr later for a particular present in Las Vegas, we realized we wanted a 3rd guitar. Oh, and Will sings just a little bit on this music, so let’s have Will come and be part of us on these exhibits. So he got here on stage and performed together with The Mission. A few months glided by, and we went to do the identical present in Boston, enjoying the entire album, and this time we thought, as an alternative of getting him come on and off stage, let’s have him on for the entire present. It’s not going to harm. Properly, not solely did it not damage, it was nice. So then the pandemic occurs. After that, we made Crash of the Crown and by then he had cemented himself so integrally into the band, he had turn into such an vital half that we realized he’s going to be on stage for these songs too, so why don’t we simply put him within the band? And that was it. That’s the place we at the moment are.”
This fall, Styx hits the highway once more beginning Sept. 10 in Decatur, Illinois, with exhibits bouncing round many of the continental U.S.A. earlier than wrapping up 2025 Dec. 5 in Shawnee, Oklahoma. Two exhibits in California mark the beginning of 2026, with Gowan additionally having quite a few solo exhibits all through the autumn and into subsequent winter and spring again residence in Canada.
“We’re going to do a full tour of Quebec in November after which we’ve got the massive Unusual Animal fortieth anniversary blowout at Massey Corridor in Toronto on Nov. 29. That’s the massive pinnacle for the top of the yr. However there’s already Gowan exhibits booked into 2026 and I feel we’re going to attempt to get out to western Canada once more. I used to be in a position to do St. John’s. Newfoundland this yr, and I wish to get extra into the jap provinces as properly. Styx could be coming to the Maritimes subsequent yr too, we’ll see,” he mentioned.
For extra info on Styx, the band’s touring plans and Circling from Above, go to:
For extra on Gowan’s plans shifting ahead, go to;
Jim Barber is a veteran award-winning journalist and writer based mostly in Napanee, Ontario, Canada, who has been writing about music and musicians for greater than 30 years. Moreover his journalistic endeavors, he works as a communications and advertising specialist and is an avid volunteer in his neighborhood. Contact him at jimbarberwritingservices@gmail.com.
