Performing Thursday at Jannus Live in St. Petersburg, St. Paul & the Broken Bones is a powerhouse rhythm ‘n’ blues revue out of Birmingham, Alabama.
The band, complete with punchy horns, pulls the deeply-felt feels from vintage Stax, Muscle Shoals and Motown and applies it to inspired original songs. This band has appeared at Coachella, Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza, Glastonbury and Carnegie Hall. In 2015, they were invited to open shows for the Rolling Stones.
The not-so-secret weapon here is singer Paul Janeway, who formed the Broken Bones with bassist Jesse Phillips. Janeway grew up in a devout Pentecostal home, and church – the expressive, southern variety known as Charismatic Church – was his bread, his butter and his toast in the machine.
Early on, Janeway intended to go the distance and get ordained as a minister (hence the name of the band).
But the call of secular soul music was simply too great, and after more than a dozen years St. Paul & the Broken Bones continue to spread its gospel around the world.
NPR calls them “one of the nation’s best live bands.”
St. Pete Catalyst: It’s been 12 years since we last spoke. I thought that you would pretty soon be the biggest band in the world. That hasn’t exactly happened, but here you are – how are things going? You good with where the band is?
Paul Janeway: I think it’s going well … I mean, I’m not unhappy. I have a happy life, I get to play shows and create … it’s a career, which is something to be really happy about.
We’ve had success on our terms, and I think that’s a big deal. We’re doing well, and I will take that any day of the week.
Can you tell the story about how your church-going parents were secret rock and soul fans?
My mom especially – my dad just kind of did what my mom did – she was very adamant about me not listening to soul. Or anything! It was all religious, gospel, that kind of stuff. But they would tell little stories every so often, like “Oh yeah, we saw the Commodores,” and I was like, what?! You know what I mean? They saw the Stylistics, and the Temptations. What?!
We would listen to Marvin Gaye, but it was always pre-“Let’s Get it On” and “What’s Going On” Marvin Gaye. It was all “Heard it Through the Grapevine” and Motown, early stuff.
I talked to them about all this not too long ago. Because I have a little girl now who’s 5. And obviously she’s going to grow up completely different than I did.
My mom was like “Well, I was just trying to protect you.” And I was like “From WHAT?”
I always tell this story: My cousin gave me a Nirvana CD, and she threw it away. She says “If you listened to Nirvana, you probably wouldn’t sing the way you did. So, you’re welcome.” I said, I guess you’re right.
You said somewhere that the Stylistics is where you got your falsetto from. Is that something you aspired to: I want to sing this kind of music, and tear the roof off?
All I knew was that I could typically sing the female part, and the male part of the duet. I just knew I could do that. Do both parts.
You could be Marvin AND Tammy.
Exactly! And I didn’t think that was that big a deal. I thought anybody could do that.
I never thought I was much of a singer. I didn’t know that anyone can’t. I mean, I sang in church, but it was a small church. And I had a pastor who, for better or worse, was really big about humility. He obviously knew I liked singing in front of people, but he wouldn’t let me sing a lot of solos. I had to sing in the back. It worked, because it’s taken me a long time to think that I’m not a bad singer.
But that was never my goal. My goal was to have a church, be the pastor of a church.
So what changed? Did some girl say “You have an incredible voice?”
My parents got divorced when I was like 16. Small town, small church, it changed everything. And they shoulda got divorced, don’t get me wrong, but that changed a lot and it made them more worldly, right? Some people go a little bit wild.
You start falling out of love with some of the stuff you hear from the pulpit. I was about 19 or so, and I was like “I love writing music and I can play guitar a little bit.” I didn’t care about learning anybody’s song. So I went to an open mic one time, and it got a reaction. That’s when I was like “Oh! OK,” and it kinda snowballed from there.
You’ve heard this before: The world associates this kind of R&B with African American singers. Do people turn up at your shows, or they see the band on TV, and they’re surprised … it’s a white guy?
For me, growing up you don’t really think about that. Because if you think about Charismatic Church, they’re very similar in Black and white culture. So you don’t really think in that way. Now, you’re like, obviously. I get it.
I think the thing for us – you get that one time, and then people are over it. You get that surprise that first time, maybe, where somebody’s like “I didn’t expect him to look like that,” but then the kind of novelty wears off. Then you’ve got to be “All right, are the songs any good?” [laughing] “Are THEY any good?” You gotta prove it.
So I think that happens, but like I said it’s nothing I ever thought about until we had an audience.
I hear a lot of Al Green in your voice …
Yeah, but once again, I didn’t grow up listening to Al Green. I heard some Sam Cooke, I heard Marvin and I heard the Stylistics.
This is a large band. When you and Jesse put it together, was having a horn section always an important factor?
God knows it’s not financially beneficial! Especially in these times. But it was always part of the plan. I always wanted a horn section just because I love that style, obviously. And I also thought it was something you didn’t see a ton of people doing. And you still don’t!
It’s expensive, but it became so much the fabric of what we do, it’s like “OK, that’s just the way it goes. That’s just part of the package.”
It’s funny, we had a management change, and someone mentioned “Could you just fly in the horns, where you don’t actually have to have the players?” And I was like, “NO! Absolutely not. That’s not the same thing.”
That would kill the vibe. Live horns is a part of our thing, so we make it work. You make it work.
Tickets for Thursday’s 7 p.m. concert are at this link.