"Sucks To Be You" - An Interview With Prozzäk

The late 90s were, to say the least, a bizarre time in the landscape of Canadian music. So unbelievably weird, it enabled a cartoon pop duo who sang about eternally partying and the search for true love in fake accents to go multi-platinum and become a cultural phenomenon. In a lot of ways, Prozzäk was a work of pure providence—everything in the bewildering world of Canadian popular music coming together at just the right time, in the right place, to create a work of pure pop perfection. It was a wonderful cosmic accident, a divine union the likes of which the world may never see again. The cartoon duo of Simon and Milo had ridiculously catchy melodies, cheeky, sarcastic personas, and perpetual lovelornness that made for the most sincere and sugary pop music you could imagine. That it was actually being made by two guys from a fairly popular Canadian adult contemporary rock band who only started making music together because they pretty much couldn’t stand each other? Well, that was almost too perfect for words.

Jay Levine and James McCollum met playing in the Philosopher Kings and, to say the least, they didn’t get along very well. Eventually their rivalry grew into a weird little musical collaboration, with the duo penning a silly song about European girls that was sung in a faux-British accent while on tour. Shortly after realizing the song would never fly with the Philosopher Kings, the two began making music as Prozzäk.

They wormed their ways into the hearts of Canada’s youth by releasing a one-two punch of slickly produced, love lamenting bubblegum pop with 1998’s Hot Show and its follow up, 2000’s Saturday People. Filled to the brim with questionable nights out, hopeless lust and long lost loves, Hot Show is the coke and MDMA-fueled romp through the nightclubs and discotheques of Europe. Saturday People is the anxiety-ridden withdrawal of the day after, multiplied by the crushing weight of the new millenium—an album of painful nostalgia, poor choices and harsh realizations.

After an unsuccessful attempt to break into the American market by rebranding as Simon and Milo and releasing the quasi-greatest hits compilation Ready, Ready, Set, Go, as well as contributing a song to a Lindsay Lohan movie, Get A Clue, in 2002, the band slowly faded out of the spotlight. Out of nowhere, however, they returned suddenly in 2005 with Cruel, Cruel World, a bleak and more forlorn take on the duo’s penchant for pining pop songs, featuring drab, beige artwork and leaning more into synth rock territory than ever. Though just as quickly and mysteriously as Prozzäk had swept in with another album of overwrought relationship hysterics, they vanished again shortly after.

In an effort to get some closure on Simon and Milo’s search for true love, we tracked down Jay Levine, half of Prozzäk and the man responsible for the voice of the hopelessly romantic Simon, to set us straight on the history and conception of Prozzäk, the cartoon show that could have been, and what the future holds for our lovesick heroes.

Nosiey: Before you and James became Prozzäk and were working on these songs together, there was a bit of animosity between you guys in the Philosopher Kings, right?
Jay Levine: Yes. We were always clashing over small things like my over-the-top and sometimes brash sense of humor. These things tend to be magnified when you’re crammed into a van for years on end touring in the dead of the Canadian winters in the Rocky Mountains. That relationship came to a boiling point one night in Montreal when I took a joke too far and finally took a well deserved “lefthook” to the chin from James. I had to play Music Plus live on TV the next morning with stitches in my face. A true Spinal Tap moment. I don’t think a grown man should go through his adult life without knowing what it’s like to take one on the jaw at least once, so for that I’m grateful.

After that we could have either parted ways and left the Philosopher Kings or figured out a way to rise above. I had to take a good look at myself and what I did to cause so much passionate anger in my friend, and James had to register his fist as a legal weapon in Quebec (which is difficult when you don’t speak French), so there was personal growth all around! The Prozzäk story, as sarcastic as it is, truly reflects our coming together over music and creating something wherein a much healthier friendship developed.

When did you realize this project had legs and that you were going to do a full Prozzäk album?
It was a combination of the reaction from our then manager Chris Smith, who noticed that we were really energized and happy doing it, and helped come up with the name Prozzäk, Mike Roth at Sony who gave us the platform, funding and encouragement and Lenny De Rose who one night introduced me as a “producer” to a friend and was the first person to call me that. I always wanted to thank him for that because it gave me the confidence to throw everything I had into that project. Even to this day I use that period of creativity as a test to see if I’m truly passionate about something I’m doing and feel the way I did then. That energy is the only way to get something done in this business.

Where did you guys end up recording the debut, Hot Show?
Mike Roth gave us a little mini disc 8 track recorder and we wrote the whole thing on a Philosopher Kings tour in 6 weeks in the back of the bus. We came back to Toronto and recorded it over a 6 week period at Sony’s in-house studio. It was fun. All fun - all the time! Jeff Deisle was the programmer and taught me how programmed music worked and was a big part of the process. We stayed there till 4 in the morning most nights and explored whatever whim came to our heads without any judgement. The Sony complex was like camp to us.

Were you surprised at the wild response that album received?
It was a cold grey day in Regina, in the early morning, sleeping on the Philosopher King’s tour bus, about three months after Hot Show’s release when I got a call from Chris Smith waking me up telling me that Hot Show was number 15 on Billboard. I was like “billboard… did someone put 15 posters of us somewhere in Downtown Toronto?” The Philosopher Kings didn’t even think of sales as something possible so it never even occurred to me that we’d make the Billboard charts. Everyone was asleep in the bus and I reached down to the bunk below me and shoved James to wake him up. I was like “Dude you’re not going to believe this.” I remember high fiving with him outside the tour bus and also feeling weird about how to handle it with the other guys in the Kings. They all had other great stuff going on too but we had a really exclusive club mentality back then, so it was awkward.

When did you realize you were going to starting working on a follow-up?
After Hot Show hit a few times platinum we started thinking about it.

How did recording Saturday People after the huge success of Hot Show feel? Did you feel like there was a lot of pressure on you guys?
Second albums are always tricky. The “I don’t’ give-a-fuckness” of the initial inspiration is sort of lost when you are thinking about outdoing yourself. I think it lost its essence in a big way.

You guys also released an album in the US that was a combination of Saturday People and Hot Show, and you guys rebranded as Simon and Milo—how did that come about and how did you feel about that?
Jason Jordan, who signed the Philosopher Kings to Columbia records US, moved over to Hollywood Records and loved the project. He sent his then boss Rob Cavallo up to have a listen and we released a “best of” of sorts in the US. We developed an animated TV show pilot with Disney and hoped that it would draw attention to the music but in the end the cliché happened. Disney is for kids, little kids, and Prozzäk was ‘bad ass’ - sarcastic and people who liked Rage Against The Machine were into it. We got all starry-eyed by Mickey and dumbed it down (or younged it down), took out all the edge and of course… it didn’t work. Lesson learned.

Had you guys ever envisioned doing Prozzäk as a live thing before there was pressure for you guys to tour?
I think one of the reasons I created a cartoon character was out of shyness about performing. I always considered myself more of a writer and producer and especially artist developer. When the animated show we created started opening for Destiny’s Child and we were watching it from the audience I started to wonder if I wasn’t at least missing out on a life experience by not doing it myself on stage. Then we set out to put together an awesome show and toured arenas. We still haven’t been paid for that tour now that I think of it. Maybe it’s time for James to dust off that left fist and go get our money.

Yeah, you guys did one tour in 2002 where you and James were performing live instruments at these stations shaped like Simon and Milo and you had DJs also spinning vinyl and stuff, right? It was a pretty elaborate set-up.
The tour was amazing. So much fun to play massive arenas. Lots of production and no room for error as I was singing it live synched to a huge screen above. Nerve-racking but pretty cool, and yes we had two giant Simon and Milo heads designed that we attached pyrotechnics to and performed on top of… maybe that’s where that tour money went!

Prozzäk didn’t do a lot of live stuff though, all in all, was that because of the hassle of the set-up or because of your schedules?
James and I always felt like artist developers and wanted to concentrate on that. Prozzäk success prompted us to start a production company called Lefthook, for obvious reasons, and we soon after discovered Fefe Dobson and wrote and produced hits for B4-4.

What convinced you and James to resurrect Prozzäk for Cruel, Cruel World in 2005?
James and I simply missed working together. I had been living in NYC and James moved to London. We reconnected in the West Village and really expressed some truth both musically and emotionally on that piece of work. I still love that album.

With Cruel Cruel World, it definitely felt more personal and darker than the previous two albums—did you feel nervous about going with a whole new aesthetic?
I had a lot to say and it captured the mood in New York, and I wanted to tone down the comedic element of my singing style and see how it came out. Whether or not it was a good move is for others to judge.

How did you feel about the response to that album?
Interesting question. I realize that the best part of making music lies in the moment you have truly expressed yourself, crafted something that you are proud of and having a listen back. It’s just like completing a long run in the hot sun when you think you might not finish. After that it’s all: Is it getting air-play? how many views does it have? I’ve learned to create, finish, listen, love it, let go and move on to the next one. If you can ask nothing more than that from your art you get to have that experience over and over again throughout your life and in that way us musicians are lucky.

In other words, the response sucked.

Have you and James collaborated on anything since Cruel Cruel World?
We really haven’t and that’s sad. I’m sure we will. He’s one of the best writers and tastemakers in the world.

Would you guys ever considering doing a reunion tour sort of thing with Prozzäk? Those are all the rage now.
100%

What do you have going on right now in terms of your own music?
I plan on continuing to make music with people who inspire me and to navigate the changing world of the music business. Catey Shaw is the artist to watch who I’ve been developing for two years now. I discovered her playing Ukulele at 23rd street Subway station on the F line and we’ve been making great music ever since. Break has some exciting releases coming soon including an artist named Myke Terry, and Sophie Dupin and I have also been commissioned to write a musical and we are super excited about that too.

So, be honest. Do you think we’ve heard the last of Simon and Milo?
Well… I hear Simon every night when I go to sleep telling me that true love is just around the corner. That little fucker’s full of shit.

Nick Laugher is just one of many Saturday People in this Cruel, Cruel World, but his Twitter is a pretty Hot Show - @largiantribune