Shill

Rock band Shill is easy to like. Multi-layered and loaded with nuance, Shill’s songs reach out and take hold with passion, energy and groove. Jonathan Perrow, the band’s founder, meticulously crafts each song, teasing out universal passions and truths that profoundly connect with the listener. And listeners consistently become fans.

“We are all human beings, searching and striving, and music connects us to those things,” says Perrow, a self-described wanderer.

“In There Somewhere,” the band’s first CD, showcases Perrow’s way with words and ability to transcend simple categorization. The songs are getting accolades from important arbiters of independent songwriting. “Whistle Away,” a sweeping composition that helps sum up what the band is about, placed as a finalist in the top 12 in Mike Pinder’s 2009 international Bandwars Competition, and Billboard’s 16th Annual Songwriting gave the tune accolades for its “energy-driven melodic theme” and well-thought lyrics. Pinder also gave “AIWIGBY,” “Play,” and “Pick a fight” awards for “notable songwriting achievement.”

For Perrow, music surfaced early. “I always knew I wanted to play rock and roll, from the time I could walk and talk,” he says

Even before that, he banged on the family piano in Connecticut. His mom taught him how to play. Viola lessons came later, then his dad’s acoustic guitar, which Perrow doggedly tried to make sound like an electric guitar, then his first electric guitar, when he was about 10. The rock continued in high school, where Perrow was friends with one classmate who went on to be the front-man of jam band Phish, and another who now heads up the Counting Crows.

It is fitting that Perrow has a dual degree in English Literature and Computer Science from Columbia University – he’s never satisfied doing just one thing. He’s traveled widely, lived in New York and San Francisco, pursued careers in journalism and real estate, and landed in New Orleans in 1990 after living and performing on the streets of Paris.

For years, he rehabbed old New Orleans houses, an apt metaphor at times for songwriting. Some projects are quick. Others require hours of peeling back the layers – whether old plumbing or tired wallpaper – to find what was there all along.

Perrow spends almost all his time composing and editing in his home studio, working and reworking. Although some songs happen in minutes, others take months. “I am most motivated by making concise statements in music, walking the edge between the words and the spiritual,” he says.

Even the band’s name suggests more is going on than first meets the ear.

One definition of a “shill” is a person who poses as a satisfied customer or an enthusiastic gambler to con bystanders into participating in a swindle. A more charitable view sees a shill as a covert advertiser, or someone who offers praise but is motivated by self-interest or profit. Essentially, a shill is a decoy.

“But it doesn’t have to be a bad thing,” Perrow says. “A shill points you in a direction but has an ulterior motive. You may not know what that motive is. You may not need to know. It’s all about how the song feels. What it means to you… A shill can be a positive thing by sneaking good stuff - true stuff - into your head, under the radar.”

Like the music, the black-and-white CD packaging of “In There Somewhere,” which Perrow designed, has hidden images and multiple layers of meaning -- if you stare at it long enough.

Shill, Perrow says simply, plays rock. Pulling that off with a trio is notoriously difficult. Perrow handles vocals and guitar. His longtime friend and co-conspirator Brook Sutton brings accomplished bass playing with deep roots in New Orleans. Versatile drummer Robert Crawford anchors the rhythm section with far-ranging rhythmic sounds and ideas.

Shill music also has discipline, an elusive trait for many others out there somewhere. Perrow started writing songs for “In There Somewhere” (and future albums) about 10 years ago. Not until then did he feel his songwriting had become worthy of attention; he keeps a notebook with him always, should inspiration strike, even walking his dog.

For many years, Perrow was a copy editor for Lagniappe, the arts and entertainment weekly at The Times-Picayune, the daily newspaper in New Orleans. He went to Nashville in 2007 to record “In There Somewhere.”

“Editing for so long – it’s one of the things that’s been the most helpful to my songwriting,” he says. “You have to be brutal, you have to be willing to throw things away. You come to understand how statements are made, what to leave in, what to leave out.”

Shill listeners benefit. If a concept warrants expert poetry, Perrow delivers. If a song works best stripped down, it is. “I try to eliminate everything that prevents you from experiencing the song in your own way” he says. “As a writer, you use the personal -- but you don’t barf it out on the page. You distill it and edit it and strip it