Interview: Prozzak talks “Love Fools Anonymous”, and finding true love

By: Curtis Sindrey –

Prozzak.

W

hen the animated band Prozzak arrived on the scene in 1998, a Canadian musical phenomenon was born. Comprised of the cartoon duo Simon and Milo, their debut album, Hotshow, full of infectious dance/pop tunes, followed Simon’s constant and largely unsuccessful search for love. It was a commercial and critical blockbuster going four times platinum, producing five chart-topping videos (including two number ones for “Sucks To Be You” and “Strange Disease”), three top twenty radio hits and five Juno award nominations.

Jay Levine and James Bryan McCollum, who are best known as members of the critically acclaimed multi-platinum band The Philosopher Kings, created Prozzak. Since then the pair have gone on to become successful musician/songwriter/producers working with Nelly Furtado, Jacksoul and Divine Brown, amongst others. Through their production company, Left Hook Entertainment, Jay and James helped launch the career of pop/rock diva Fefe Dobson by co-writing and producing her platinum debut album.

Everything about Prozzak has involved experimenting with new mediums and setting trends. It originally stemmed from their use of animation, now seen with other innovative groups like the Gorillaz. In addition, Prozzak’s use of the Internet was at the time a first in building a strong community of loyal fans and giving the band an arena in which to play with their alter egos. In 2000, Prozzak released their second album, Saturday People, that went platinum, producing two more hits, “www.nevergetoveryou” and “Be As.” It would garner them a further Juno nod for best pop album.

Here we are in 2016 with the duo marking their return with a performance at last year’s Atomic Lollipop event at the Ontario Science Centre, and more recently at The Danforth Music Hall in Toronto during NXNE earlier this month. Their sound is updated, weaving the worlds of alternative rock and dance, and their songs still have those catchy addictive hooks that we remember – and yes, Simon is still searching for love.

In our new interview with Levine (Simon) and McCollum (Milo), we discuss the making of their new single “Love Fools Anonymous”, finding true love, and more!

What was the creative process behind your new single “Love Fools Anonymous”

Levine: We’re usually in the same city, but this time we had to do some back and forth from L.A. to Toronto. We’d both think of hooks, titles and concepts and then throw them into the Dropbox. That all started because we had such a good time playing at (2015’s) Atomic Lollipop Festival. We’re now in the process of removing the shitty ideas from the Dropbox (laughs).

How do you kick off the process?

Levine: We think about things from the perspective of Simon and Milo. We know who they are and what they’re all about. This single came about because at one point I had to go to a love addicts’ anonymous meeting because I was just dealing with a bad breakup. Then, I met a girl I thought was really cute there – terrible idea.

McCollum: Awesome idea for a song, though! The concept was pretty clear after that, really, so we started jamming on different parts of it. The cute voices on it are actually my kids! It’s the next generation of Prozzak.

Levine: The topic of the song was a bit… sophisticated for them, but I loved the fact that we all sat and wrote it together.

It’s been 11 years since you guys split up. Why did you ultimately decide to reunite?

McCollum: Jay was living in L.A. and I had been in London for about five years. I’d just moved back to Toronto when both of us read this VICE article about late-nineties pop and Prozzak was featured in it. I think the promoter of Atomic Lollipop asked us to be part of an event they were having at the Ontario Science Centre. We both thought it was perfect for us. There’s Anime, there’s cosplay and amazingly enough there were all these people who showed up dressed as Simon and Milo – which blew both of us away.

Levine: We’re both hoping they still have those costumes.

Prozzak’s 1998 debut album, Hotshow, went four times platinum, and received five Juno award nominations.

What did it feel like to play live again together?

McCollum: Both of us were working on projects, but none of it is for the live setting. But as soon as we started playing live again, we were immediately taken back to how fun it was and how much we got out of it. I think we were just really grateful to be back in the centre of it all.

“It’s Not Me It’s You” has a Tchaikovsky melody in it. What kind of influence does classic music have on your process?

Levine: We tend to go with very short, precise melodies when we’re putting songs together, which is very Baroque.

McCollum: I’m more Bach and classical guitar. When we first started Prozzak, I was trying to squeeze those influences into what were doing, which is one of the reasons I loved being in this group so much. It was one of the only projects where I would randomly say “let’s get a strings quartet in there” and it would actually make sense.

When can fans expect a new record from Prozzak?

Levine: (“Love Fools Anonymous”) is really laying the groundwork for the larger album.

McCollum: Exactly. We don’t have a date yet, but I think it’s safe to say you can expect something in the next six months.

How long have you actively been working on new material?

McCollum: Since last year, really. At first, it was just kind of playing around with ideas, but recently it’s really ramped up.

The underlying theme of your videos is ‘finding true love’. How do you guys define what true love is? 

Levine: I don’t know that Simon really has one at all. Simon is a very self-destructive character and he lives in a world where he messes up his relationships all the time. We don’t see him change at all because he either chooses the wrong people, or is a victim of his own foolish psychology. Of course, he has Milo to keep him grounded and make sure he doesn’t throw himself off an animated bridge.

How did the look of the characters come about? 

McCollum: We worked with this guy Scott Harder – a very talented illustrator. He had some character design parameters based on our descriptions of them. We came up with Simon, who was always wearing a suit but had no neck. He was very eager, but ultimately kind of sad. Whereas Milo was this cut, strong, confident stoic guy.

What’s the ‘no neck’ thing about?

McCollum: it was literally so we could have his head bobbing around to the rhythm during the videos.

What are Simon and Milo’s back stories?

Levine: There’s a video where we created a whole backstory for them. Simon’s a British soldier who should not be in the army because he’s too short. And then you have Milo, who’s a huge, brawny Bavarian soldier. Then the two meet on the battlefield and realize there’s no sense in trying to kill each other, when they could search the world for true love.

You’ve both worked with quite a few other artists besides this project. What are some of the most significant stories with other artists?

Levine: When we were in the Philosopher Kings together we’d find ourselves a little disenchanted with constantly doing overly serious music and not being the writers or having much creative input at all. So James and I would go to the back of the tour bus and write all this crazy stuff – whatever we wanted it to be – that was influenced by stuff like Manchester pop from the eighties and that’s what we still do and enjoy.

You guys ended up working with the Backstreet Boys at some point. How did that experience come about?

McCollum: It was pretty random, actually. I wrote this song with James Morrison – a really soulful British singer. I loved his version of it, but he didn’t end up putting it on his album. And then Backstreet Boys started working with a friend of mine, and he played this song that I wrote and they were psyched about performing it together.

When you work with a team full of producers and songwriters, how do you come up with a singular vision?

Levine: It really depends on the project. Sometimes it can go by committee. You add your part and then someone else makes the beats and the others handle their roles. It’s a bigger version of what we do, really. It’s when find when it’s like that, it’s the most fun. But there are other times when A&R steps in and it gets messy.

McCollum: This process at this point, we just trusted each other and our sensibilities. and hear each other out. I think when you’re really connected with one another, it helps find the thing that you want to say or the sound that you want to create that much easier.

You’ve been all over Canada with your music. What’s the differences between the two sides (East and West?)

Levine: Well we’ve got a whole bunch of West Coast shows coming up and the way I always remembered it, that’s where our biggest shows were. Vancouver and Calgary are already sold out and adding new dates.

McCollum: Even back in the day we played places like the Saddledome in Calgary. We’re just psyched to get out there and try out the new material on new audiences. We really can’t wait.