from The Beat - July 1995, page 5

James Young Group

by Tom Lounges
As Chicago music fans currently bask in the national spotlight being shone on Smashing Pumpkins, Veruca Salt and others...it's important to note that none of today's current crop of alterna-rockers can lay claim to a honor once bestowed upon a band from the suburban hamlet of Roselawn.
In 1979, Styx was named as "the most popular band in America" by the Gallup Poll and by Seventeen Magazine readers.
"When you get to a certain point in your career, you look around you and ask - 'What's next?'," said James JY Young, guitarist and founding member of Styx.
The 1981 Paradise Theater tour was listed in the Guiness Book of Records as being the most expensive rock tour of its era. The teenage dream that had begun in 1968 in the DeYoung garage had unbelievably come full circle.
"The hunger was just not there anymore," he reflected. "There is a lot of talent in Styx and I believe we all needed to seek out new creative challenges." Interesting to note was the use of the word "is" and not "was" in reference to Styx.
Contrary to popular belief, Styx has not broken up - officially at least. The classic prog-rock band are merely on an extended hiatus. "We don't have a record label right now and we are all busy on our own projects," said JY, "but Styx is still very much a band."
With the exception of 1991's Edge Of The Century, Styx has been inactive for quite some time. JY filled that time creatively by releasing two solid solo albums - City Slicker (1985) and Out On A Day Pass (1993). When both releases failed to ignite the world on fire, Young decided to fall back and re-think his approach.
Now back on the scene with a new attitude, a new band and a powerful new album - Raised By Wolves - JY is armed and ready to rock'n'roll once again!
The album's first single, "Faith, Love And Hope" managed to get added at several college and secondary market radio outlets and helped create a strong buzz about the band.
A second single, "Don't Get Mad", is a testosterone-driven rocker that is currently hitting hard at the male-oriented "rock radio" outlets.
At press time, "Don't Get Mad" had been added at over 60 radio stations across the country. Inspired by the "out of the gate" success of Raised By Wolves, JY is back on the road and determined to keep a high profile.
The James Young Group visit the Calumet Region twice this month. They join Foreigner on July 9 at Merriville's Star Plaza Theater for an 8 p.m. performance.
Then on July 20, JY and bassist Hank Horton will join other area rockers as players for The Beat Bashers at Merrillville High School for the Beat's "Rock 'N' Jock Softball Game". The Bashers will battle it out with Ron Kittle's Merrillville Muddogs to benefit the Indiana Sports Charities (to combat cancer in children).
Aside from the strong radio response presently being given to "Don't Get Mad," several other tracks from the new album have been getting considerable airplay.
"The response to this album has been very, very positive," said JY. "You can name me a track on this record and I can name you five people that would say it's the best track on this record. It's been hard to try and work a single at radio, because different people are picking up on different songs."
"'Faith, Love and Hope' was the first song we took to radio and it was doing pretty well, but then a few other stations like WABT in DeKalb started playing 'Heart's Not The Same'. I'm really glad that so many of the tracks are making an impression..."
Rather than shop his musical wares to the majors, who have shied away from the arena bands of the past in favor of the Greendays [sic] and Pearl Jams, Young ventured into a business partnership with Chicago's independent Whitehouse label (merging his own Absolute Records imprint) to release his newer music.
Raised By Wolves finds JY shedding the "solo" status of his past albums; frequently letting his very capable band carry much of the musical weight.
JY reflects on the progression of his career away from Styx with a somewhat melancholy tone. "I had things I needed to prove with the first two albums," he said. "They may not have been commercial successes, but they were things that I needed to do to get me to where I am with this album and this group."
City Slicker was a collaboration with renown [sic] instrumentalist Jan Hammer of the Mahavishnu Orchestra, who were early heroes of JY. "That record was a response to the fact that I felt Styx got no credit at all for its musical excellence. Styx was pigeon-holed as a corporate rock band and then as a pop band based on its success with 'Babe' and everything thereafter. I wanted to do something with my first album that would establish me with rock instrumental credibility. People didn't know what to think of it... Was it a jazz record? Was it a rock record? What was it?"
Out On A Day Pass was another proving ground for JY. "That was my attempt to show I could do everything," he said. "That I could not only produce, but that I could write or co-write everything, sing everything and pretty much do everything myself."
"Looking back now, I recognized that I made some mistakes while making that record. People were not enamored with it and I sensed resistance to my voice at radio.
Doing a couple of songs per record worked for me with Styx because it was balanced with those of Dennis (DeYoung) and Tommy (Shaw). I realized that I had to do something great and really spectacular to get people to listen and that it was not going to happen with just my voice as the vehicle..."
Having assembled a powerful band to back him on the road while supporting Day Pass, JY found he needed only to look within to find what he needed most.
"After Day Pass I realized that I needed to find a strong singer to offset and balance my voice. I wound up with three of them."
Captivated by the many textures of vocals found within his talented road band, JY decided that the time was right to dispel their "hired gun" identity and solidify the unit. For the first time since Styx cut Edge Of The Century, JY is in a real "group." The various members are involved in in [sic] every aspect - from songwriting, to performing, to the production...
Supplementing JY on vocal duties are guitarist Michael Baran, keyboardist Lou D'Pasqua [sic] and bassist Hank Horton.
"I think the variety of multiple vocals gives each song it's own personality. That was the real strength of the Beatles' records and of Styx's records. People like variety and that's what we strived for with Raised By Wolves," said Young. "One guy trying to do it all himself tends to make everything sound too much the same. Whereas different voices make it easier to shift moods and shift perspectives. A different voice can take you to a different place than the last song took you."
As he did with Styx, JY tends to step into the spotlight most prominently on the more rockier numbers.
JY and Baran share vocals on "Don't Get Mad" and "Amazing Grace". Baran sings lead on, "Let's Do It Everywhere," a sexual anthem he had written for his former band (BMG recording act, Galley Boyz.) Coming to JYG upon the recommendation of former Styx mate, Glen Burtnik, Baran had played guitar for the Glen Burtnik Band for three years and played on the group's A&M album, Heroes And Zeros.
If JYG has a vocal equivalent to Dennis DeYoung, it can be found in it's [sic] youngest member, Lou D'Pasqua [oh, whatever]. Well know to N.W. Indiana music fans from his tenure with Pride of Lions/ David Carl Band, D'Pasqua's smooth balladeer-style can be heard on "Heart's Not The Same" and "Heaven In Your Heart". Lou came to JYG by through Survivor's Jim Peterik, who produced Pride Of Lions.
The soaring pop vocals of "Love (And Love Alone)" and "Faith, Love and Hope" are embodied in bassist Hank Horton, who came to JYG from Dennis DeYoung's road band.
Rounding out the band is the only non-singing member, Ken Harck, who is well-known to Midwest rock fans as the drummer of Off Broadway. Harck has also filled the drum throne for two other notable Chicago recording acts, Wild Blue and The Tami Show. Harck spent three years touring and recording with Badfinger and came to the JYG through recommendations of Chip Z'Nuff of Enuff Z'Nuff.
Chip and Enuff Z'Nuff vocalist Donnie Vie contributed two tracks to Raised By Wolves - "Amazing Grace" and "Faith, Hope And Love" . Glen Burtnik likewise contributed a pair of songs - "Heaven In Your Heart" and "Love (And Love Alone)".
"Chip had been a fan of mine for a long, long time," said JY. "I grew up in an area near to where he grew up and our paths crossed frequently over the years and we shared mutual musical friends. He and Donnie are very prolific writers and when he heard I was doing a record, he sent me a tape of about ten songs and the two we wound up recording really caught my attention."
Burtnik's numbers were older ones he'd originally written with Styx in mind during the making of the Edge Of The Century, but which they never recorded.
Styx was named after the fabled river of Greek mythology. Raised By Wolves, was originally planned as the band's name and is rooted in Roman mythology about the warrior brothers who founded Roman [sic - sigh], Romulus and Remus. Legend has it that they were suckled and raised by a pack of wolves after their parents were killed in battle, becoming mighty warriors.
Someone else already had the name and we tried to buy it but the price just kept going up and up," explained JY. "So we decided that since we'd spent two years (on the road behind the Day Pass album) getting known as the James Young Group, that we'd just stick with that and call the record Raised By Wolves, 'cause you can't copyright a title."
The agenda for the James Young Group is full...a summer spent peppering the US of A with live dates that will take them from Florida to New York to South Dakota and most points inbetween.
"I have a great band and we have a great album that is full of great songs," said JY. "I'm determined to make sure that people hear us and hear what we are all about!"