Music Features/Interviews

TAYLOR SWIFT: THE ERAS TOUR

(25 October, 2024; CAESARS SUPERDOME, New Orleans LA)

A JOURNEY THROUGH TIME, MUSIC AND CONNECTION WITH SARAHLINDA TWENTE

When I first heard that Taylor Swift was embarking on the ERAS TOUR, I was immediately transported back to childhood – riding in the back of my dad’s car, singing along to “Our Song” on a CD. At six years old, I had no idea how Taylor’s music would become a constant presence in my life, accompanying me through heartaches, losses, and moments of joy. As I grew, her music grew with me, providing a soundtrack for nearly every chapter of my journey. For younger fans, the way they experience Taylor’s music might look different – streaming songs on playlists instead of popping in CDs. But the connection remains the same. Her music has been a soundtrack for so many, spanning generations and providing a sense of shared experience across time and space.

TAYLOR SWIFT: THE ERAS TOUR (photo credit: SOPHIA GERMER/THE TIMES-PICAYUNE NOLA.COM)

The ERAS TOUR wasn’t just about hearing Taylor’s hits – it was an emotional journey. My first show, in Kansas City, was one of the best nights of my life, but the second time I saw her, in New Orleans, felt even more profound. As I looked out at the sea of fans, mostly women, I felt an overwhelming sense of unity. In a time of uncertainty, it was a powerful reminder of what we can do together – through music, through strength, and through shared experience. For many of us, Taylor Swift’s music has been a constant companion through the ups and downs of life. Her lyrics have helped us heal, inspired us to be brave, and given us the courage to keep going. But the ERAS TOUR brought something new – a sense of collective power. Inside the walls of Caesar’s Superdome, we were all ONE. It was one of those moments in life where you aren’t just surviving – you are living.

Author SARAHLINDA TWENTE with her Dad, MICHAEL, at the TAYLOR SWIFT show in New Orleans (uncredited photo)

Sharing the concert with my dad added another layer of emotion. As mentioned previously, he’d played Taylor’s music for me when I was a child and now, at 24, I was singing along beside him in the presence of Ms Swift herself. That moment – sitting together, as we had when I was young – reminded me that Taylor’s music isn’t just about the lyrics, it’s about time and the way it can pull us back to moments we thought we’d lost, but also carry us forward into new ones.

One of the most magical elements of the night in New Orleans was the light-up bracelets handed out at the start. As the music played, these bracelets flickered in sync with the beats, creating a visual display that made the whole arena feel connected. I found myself dancing along with my dad, who was grooving to “You Belong With Me” – a highlight I never saw coming and that will forever be etched into my memory. Each show, Taylor surprises fans with a couple of songs not typically on the set list. As a die-hard SPEAK NOW fan, hearing “Haunted” live was a dream come true. The notes of the song, paired with the crowd’s energy, turned it into a moment that felt almost otherworldly.

The ERAS TOUR was a celebration of togetherness. Taylor’s music has always been about resilience, and the energy in the arena provided proof of such. Thousands of fans, all singing, dancing, and celebrating together, felt like a collective statement: We are stronger when we stand together. In the midst of the upcoming election, anxiety and fear was no stranger. For me, the experience of attending this concert was a gentle reminder that no matter what life brings, there is power in community, and there is nothing we can’t do when we unite. The ERAS TOUR was a reflection of resilience, girlhood, and the incredible power of women. As I sang alongside thousands of others, I realized just how much Taylor’s music has given us – a shared space where we can heal, celebrate, and empower one another. It was more than just a concert; it was a reminder of the power of connection and the timeless impact of music. And right at the core of this impact, you have Taylor Alison Swift.

MOTHER BRUCE FINDS UTOPIA: THE BRUCE FOWLER INTERVIEW

A FEATURE FROM THE VAULT

PART ONE: THE INTRODUCTION

George Duke. Ruth Underwood. Napoleon Murphy Brock. Legendary Mothers, all. And, the list is endless… there are actually too many musicians to mention here who owe their careers to Frank Zappa. Some of the original or early members of Zappa’s Mothers – including Motorhead Sherwood, Bunk and Buzz Gardner, Jimmy Carl Black, Elliot Ingber – continue to tour as the Grandmothers. More recently, a group of latter day Zappa band members have been working together under the name Banned From Utopia. Though the membership of this group is fairly nebulous – much like Zappa’s many incarnations of the Mothers – the current group (drummer Chad Wackerman, bassist Arthur Barrow, percussionist Ed Mann, keyboardist Tommy Mars, vocalist Robert Martin, guitarist Mike Miller, special guest vocalist Ray White, horn players Kurt McGettrick and Albert Wing, as well as the Fowler brothers, Tom, Walt, and Bruce) have just released SO YUH DON’T LIKE MODERN ART on Steve Vai’s Favored Nation label. The album is a Mothers-like free-for-all, incorporating some of Zappa’s more adventurous compositions (“Dupree’s Paradise” and ”Sinister Footwear, Second Movement,” among them) alongside band originals that are definitely in the “Frank Zappa” musical mold (the raunchy “Freeway Vigilante” and the politically incorrect “Christian Coalition Blues,” included). Having long been fans of whatever musical entity that Frank would use to present his music, we here at the Mule simply could not let an opportunity to speak to Bruce Fowler get past us. And, so… we give you… the Man, the Myth, the Legend… Bruce Fowler (circa 2002).

PART TWO: THE INTERVIEW

THE MULE: Hey, Bruce. Let’s talk about a new album, some old albums, and some old memories. First, Banned From Utopia. One of the things I have noticed through speaking to various other members of Zappa’s former band, you guys… it’s almost like a club.

BRUCE: That’s right. It’s like, in the blood. I just went over to Gail’s (Zappa, Frank’s widow) house the other day. It was really, really fun. We listened to some stuff from ‘72, from the GRAND WAZOO band. We looked at this documentary that’s in progress of being made by… in Amsterdam… a guy named Frank Shepherd. It’s really great. It’s a work in progress. He’s has been here twice and he’s coming back again this year – trying to finish this thing.

It goes all the way from the beginning. He interviewed all these different people from the band. It’s really, really interesting. You know… even from being in it, I didn’t really know what his influence was on some of the other guys. So after seeing that, it was great. George Duke was talking about how Zappa opened him up to music and the synthesizer… it was amazing. You’d have to say that everybody who played in the band became a much better musician, first of all. For some guys, it was the only real training that they had. You could have been a self taught musician and come into his band, and by the end of it, you’ve been through the whole thing… you’re highly competent to do other music. You know, we can read and everything.

THE MOTHERS, live late 1973 (BRUCE FOWLER, CHESTER THOMPSON, NAPOLEON MURPHY BROCK, FRANK ZAPPA) (uncredited photo)

THE MULE: I understand that he was pretty rough, in the sense that he demanded the best out of everybody. By the same token, he gave everybody a chance to shine in his band, a chance to move beyond a standard Rock and Roll, Jazz, Blues format.

BRUCE: That’s true; he was interested in every kind of music you could think of. He combined Classical influence, Indian music, Tibetan music. He talked about it on the video. All of that stuff is conglomerated into his music. Zarinsky combined with Varese, for instance. He talks about how something in between… a missing link between Zarinsky and Varese. He talks about that for a second. Let’s see… what was the question exactly? I kind of went off. Oh yeah… he was a taskmaster, to be sure. He would say – I saw in print many times – guys can be in this band as long as they can play the music, but if they can’t, they gotta go. It was nothing personal; he just had to have his music performed right. And it’s true, that members of the band – the personalities of the individual guys, had a lot to do with the music that he wrote. Always… from the beginning. He wrote music that those guys could shine bright; he could use the personalities of the individuals in the band. Duke Ellington was like that.

THE MULE: I think all great composers… musicians… have a little bit of that in them.

BRUCE: Yeah. Even if you go back to Strauss and the Classical guys… the guys that were playing with them definitely influenced the way they wrote.

THE MULE: I’m looking at the disc and the people that were involved – besides yourself and your brothers – most of the people involved are latter day Zappa musicians.

BRUCE: That’s right. I came in in ‘72, with THE GRAND WAZOO, before the George Duke/Jean Luc (violinist Jean Luc Ponty) days… actually, it was in between, because he was in there during Flo and Eddie, I believe. I’m not sure about it… I’m not sure that’s actually true, but maybe it is. At any rate, the band with Jean Luc Ponty that began in ‘73, that was really a strong instrumental band, so the guys could play really hard music. The first band… the original Mothers… those guys were entertainers. They had great personalities and they were funny and everything, but they weren’t heavily trained musicians in the technical sense. The music he wrote later on… during the Flo and Eddie era… when the guy threw him off the stage in London and he broke his leg. He was in a wheelchair for a year… during that time he wrote a lot of really hard stuff. He was looking to have really well trained guys, and the character of his band changed drastically. I’m good friends with some of those original Mothers… (keyboard/synthesizer player Don) Preston and Ian (Underwood, keyboards and woodwinds). Ian, now he was heavily well-trained; and Preston is well trained, but the other guys… not really. They’re more beat guys. The music that we learned so well by playing it a million times is that Jazzier, modern Classical, technical stuff. Sure, we played the earlier pieces, too… a lot of them. But, there was a strong emphasis on the more complicated music. Plus, it’s a lot of fun for a musician to play that stuff.

I think it’s interesting to note that a lot of these tribute bands, they’re all playing that stuff from the ROXY… record (ROXY AND ELSEWHERE, an infamous live album from 1974). The same stuff we played. So we kind of found out… we don’t play the same stuff as everyone else. But that’s the fun stuff to play. And also, Frank… his personality is so strong on some of those tunes, that it’s kind of weird to do it without him singing it. Even “Montana,” for instance… we didn’t do that for the longest time because it just seemed like it wasn’t going to be right. There are a couple instrumental tunes… guitar tunes that we don’t do because they really were Frank’s features on the guitar and we don’t want to do it. And… I don’t think he wanted people to do it, either. A lot of people miss him… it’s not a matter of having a tribute band and having that being some kind of a thing. It’s just a matter of having a lot of fun. It’s such an integral part of our history and we’re just drawn to do it.

FRANK ZAPPA AND THE MOTHERS: ROXY AND ELSEWHERE

THE MULE: There are 10 songs on the album and half of those are original numbers.

BRUCE: That’s the other thing. We don’t just want to just be a tribute band; we want to have our own thing. The tradition of speaking out against the establishment, especially now with what’s going on… it seems the world needs some people who are going to stand up and tell it like it is. Instead of being a commercial… talking about your girlfriend or whatever and have a sort of nothing music. In the tradition of Frank, you have to get in and battle it out with the forces of evil. I think part of the reason we were hired in the first place by him, was that we sort of felt the same way he did about censorship and politics. And, as he says on this tape… he says, “Deviant behavior is necessary because you have to deviate from the norm in order to do something different” and, who knows… it might even be an improvement. That’s really well put. And plus… we like comedy; it’s fun to make fun. It’s kind of taken in fun, but we’re truly horrified by what we see going on around us. What was your reaction to those tunes?

THE MULE: The originals? Listening to the disc all the way through its almost seamless… you guys obviously got your chops.

BRUCE: One of the hardest things about that record was getting the right order of tunes. We tried a million of them out. And that’s probably the best we could do. We had a few other tunes that didn’t make it onto the CD. I think it came out pretty good, considering. And, you’re right… guys like Chad… he’s such a great drummer. All you have to do is stick with him. We recorded the rhythm section and then, we overdubbed just about everything else… although we kept all the original rhythm tracks and then we added additional rhythm stuff; like a lot of the original guitar tracks and keyboard tracks are there, but there might be another one added.

THE MULE: I think that you guys have definitely captured the spirit of Frank’s adventuresome nature and his desire to present what may possibly be alternative viewpoints in a method that people are going to actually listen to and – whether they realize it or not – they are receiving this message. Does that make sense?

BRUCE: Yeah. I think it’s important to have some message. It’s interesting that my daughter’s a musician… and she’s 14 and she’s talking the same way. I think that maybe this generation that’s just coming up might be more interested in genuine music… with actual players. We have so many machines running around doing everything… in music, too. Not that I have anything against it; believe me, I use it all the time.

I really like the way machines have entered the music world. They have made a lot of things possible that weren’t before. I can just imagine what Frank would be up to if he had the current machines. But still, you got to have a guy who can play it to have the true expression. Our thing is that we can still do it… I don’t know… we’re getting older, you know. It’s been along time since ‘72… 30 years ago! We played that stuff so many times that it’s just not that hard… even though it’s really hard to do it. We’ve already been through that. And a guy like Chad, he can come over here and we can pull out a tune like “Sinister Footwear,” which is incredibly complicated, and he plays it right down. Like we just did it yesterday. That’s amazing.

THE MULE: Yeah, definitely. The guy is incredible.

BRUCE: He is incredible. I think one of the traditions of Frank is to have this drummer who is just a monster and then he’d have a bass player who holds down the fort and keeps this solid-as-a-rock time going on while Frank and the drummer go crazy. That’s something that all these great drummers that started out on the scene, about the time of Flo and Eddie… about ‘70 or so… Frank was an R and B guy when he was younger. He was loving R and B… and he played R and B guitar, too. That’s very interesting, you know? I think that he got more interested in Jazz… more interested in Classical music and the rest is history. We’ve all kind of been that way, even before we met him. My father is a music professor and he taught me about those rhythms before I met Frank. That’s how I was able to pass the audition… because I had already had some practice superimposing one rhythm on top of another.

THE MOTHERS, 1973 (GEORGE DUKE, BRUCE FOWLER, TOM FOWLER, IAN UNDERWOOD, FRANK ZAPPA, RALPH HUMPHREY, RUTH UNDERWOOD, JEAN-LUC PONTY) (photo credit SAM EMERSON)

THE MULE: The one thing – we’ve already touched on it – is you’ve got to be able to play the stuff. I was lucky enough to see Frank later on, in 1980. Arthur was in the band… Steve Vai was along with him… Ike and Ray (guitarists/vocalists Willis and White)… Ed Mann… Tommy… they would pull out these songs from seemingly nowhere. And Frank would lead them through it. It’s just like – you know… I mean, you were in the band – a wave of the hand or a nod of the head and… you’re off.

BRUCE: Yeah… the signal. He would make up a set of signals and we’d write ‘em all down; then, we’d have this list of stuff that it meant. It might be changed from tour to tour. We had to know them well enough so we could go from anything to anything else at the drop of a hat. Also, there would be certain things that he could insert in the middle of any tune just by putting up his little finger or some other signal… two or three or four or five, even… or some other thing, like the sign for the “C” chord… you know, the little “C” with his hand. That “C” chord was very useful and poppy in places. I was noticing, in fact, that this 1972 GRAND WAZOO, which had 22 people in it… they were in the middle of this one tune and there were three different free sessions that went on for 10 minutes. It was wild. I had forgotten all about it.

He really got into some stuff… he was obviously just conducting us on the spot. I like to do that… freeform conducting. It’s really fun. I did it in Amsterdam for this orchestra a couple of years ago. We wrote a bunch of orchestral tracks that were based on WAKA/JAWAKA and that kind of stuff. After the big Holland festival, which featured Frank that year. They actually did 200 MOTELS live… we did “Gregory Peckory” live with Ensemble Modern… then we had this third group, the Metropol Orchestra, and we did our concert… which was pretty loose and I just started conducting, because the conductor couldn’t do it… there was no way! You had to see Frank do it in order to have some idea of what he wanted. So, I just started conducting them and then I just turned around and started conducting the audience and they were right with me. I didn’t have to tell them what to do or anything about it… what signals meant… they just did it. It was great! That thing was recorded, but they’re hiding the tape. They won’t even give it to Gail. They’ve got it hidden, you know? It’s weird. I’d love to see that come out.

I think, along the lines of music and Frank – and us, too – I’d like to see the stuff retain its spontaneity and not go the way of some Jazz, which is now like a highbrow music… with tuxes and everything. I hope this doesn’t do that. That’s one thing that I kind of wonder… Frank, the greatest composer of the 20th century… kind of turns me off because of that. For instance, when guys do arrangements of the music, there might be stuff that we improvised… and now it’s written down, like its gospel. Like, guys put music in front of me – “Play this!” – but that’s stuff that I made up. That’s my stuff… I can’t do that!

THE MULE: Within the current group, do you have the opportunity to do any of that… orchestrating on the spot?

BRUCE: Oh yeah. We do it. Ike was in our band and he drifted out before we did this record. I have a feeling that certain guys will probably be in and out of the band. Like him… Ike would do it. He would conduct in that Zappa manner. I can do it… different guys can do it, but it’s important for somebody to stand out there and do something because it keeps everything together. On the other hand, we can just play free… and that’s sort of the same thing. You do it by just listening, where nobody is actually leading us. But somebody needs to get out there and actually lead us in order to get that to work. It’s like… There’s one tune, “Christian Coalition Blues,” the last tune (on the SO YUH DON’T LIKE MODERN ART album). That’s our jam tune. It’s just a Blues, and then it goes into this sort of rap thing. It’s actually Rob Reed rapping… as if Rob Reed was a rapper. He’s the guy who started the Christian Coalition in the first place. He looks like he’s about 12… he doesn’t age… ever. Now he’s a big wig in the Republicans, you know… he’s an advisor and everything. This was actually written a long time ago; it was when we did a tour, at least five years ago. It’s a little out of date, but its never out of date because they keep doing the same stuff.

THE MULE: There are certain things that don’t go out of vogue.

BRUCE: No… if we play that tune, we go with whatever current event is happening. Like when Clinton was having all his troubles, we had the blue dress. I went to the thrift store and got a blue dress and I put a bunch of Elmer’s Glue on it… so that it would look right. And that was on-stage and, you know, it was fun! We invent these vignettes… we’ll start talking about something and it gets into like, a little play. Frank started that early on. When he first started doing his stuff at the Derek Theatre in New York, he experimented with the audience… he went to London and did this kind of a play, where the group all broke up on stage because some of the guys wanted to actually have notes to play; then they brought an orchestra out and had a big fight between the band and the orchestra. This was on this video that I just bought the other day. That’s the kind of thing you definitely want to do. That makes our gig so much more fun for us… rather than just going out there and playing.

The other thing is – as with Frank – where a set list is only presented to the band moments before we go out… like five minutes before we’d go out, we’d get the set list. We’d be squealing, “Oh, my God! We haven’t played this one for weeks! How does that go again? What’s my part?” Take a quick look at your part because we’re not supposed to have any music out there… and we had 125 tunes in ‘88. It was hard to remember ‘em all… and the thing is, it was the opposite of a touring band that goes out and does the same exact show for an entire year or something. Like the current way of doing a show… which is cool, too… it’s a totally different thing, with all the lights… everything’s programmed… the stage moves and all that stuff. That’s the opposite of the way Frank liked to do stuff. I like both scenes really but, man, if we had to play the exact same thing every night, I don’t know why we’d do it. Which is never going to happen with this band. We’re doing it because we really enjoy it… that’s the bottom line. We’re not great businessmen, though. We’re going to need some help. That’s why I appreciate you calling me.

THE MULE: I’m looking at an album that came out on Rhino in ‘82, by the Grandmothers. I see that your brothers are in the band but, at that time, you weren’t involved. Were you ever involved with them and how would you compare that band of ex-Mothers – ex-Zappa sidemen – to the current group, Banned From Utopia?

BRUCE: This is a similar thing to us, in a way. Those guys are more of the earlier guys. The difference between us and them is that we’re playing more of the later stuff… not that we shouldn’t do that. We did play some of the stuff from WE’RE ONLY IN IT FOR THE MONEY… we’ve played that before… and we’ve played some stuff from FREAK OUT before… “Help, I’m a Rock,” we played that. So, we’re not, like, exclusive or anything. We’re not going to not do that stuff… it’s just that we didn’t put it on the record. I think, interestingly enough, the Grandmothers are playing the stuff that we were playing when we were in the band… it crosses back and forth.

Those guys had a history with Frank; the business of it caused a big problem. So, they’re not really in great favor with the Zappa family. And… I don’t know how important this is or isn’t… basically, we want good relations with the Zappa family. You have to be kind of careful about the way you use the name Frank Zappa and stuff like that because… we don’t own it. It’s him… it’s the family that deserves it and owns it and everything. In a way, the Grandmothers are more split up from the family… they had a pretty bad fight with Frank. I think its valuable that those guys are playing. They’re fine and… I think they’re going to actually go play in Europe real soon. They have some guys that I know that are in the band… some LA musicians that are friends of mine. They’re trying to get a better band… their band is getting better, all the way around… the instrumental playing of it. They weren’t that great at first, technically; now they are getting some other new players that are really good. They’ll be good and I think they’re going to Germany soon.

We’ve got to come out and play; we’re working on that now. We’re going to go play… we HAVE to go play. My problem is that I work in the movie business; I’m an orchestrator… so I get busy. I can’t do this… I can’t organize the band and still do the work I do. I’ve got to have help. Having a big group is what we need… we need the percussionist… we need the singing, which takes three guys really… and how could we do it without the horn section? That’s what’s different about us; we’ve got the horn section.

BANNED FROM UTOPIA: SO YUH DON’T LIKE MODERN ART

PART THREE: THE CONCLUSION

That wasn’t the end of our conversation with Mister Fowler, boys and girls, but it was the end of our tape. So engaged were we with this interview that we forgot to turn the tape over and lost probably another fifteen minutes of reminiscing about Frank and some of the other players involved in this and other projects that Bruce has been involved in. Banned from Utopia’s current release, SO YUH DON’T LIKE MODERN ART, features ten tracks – five originals, five Zappa compositions – all played as only a group of Zappa-nurtured musicians could play them. I’m certain that Frank would be proud.

DO THE ARCHITECTURAL WATUSI Music Features/Interviews | Darren Tracy | November 28, 2024 | 2002 Arthur Barrow Artist Interview Banned From Utopia Blues Rock Bruce Fowler Chad Wackerman Don Preston Favored Nation Recordings Frank Zappa Gail Zappa George Duke Ian Underwood Ike Willis Jean-Luc Ponty Napolean Murphey Brock Progressive Jazz Rock Ray White Rhythm and Blues Rock am Ring ROXY AND ELSEWHERE RuthUnderwood Steve Vai The Mothers of Invention Tom Fowler Tommy Mann Walt Fowler

IN PRAISE OF EPHEMERA’S MONOLOVE, A CLASSIC NORWEGIAN POP GEM ON ITS 20TH ANNIVERSARY

KEVIN RENICK REFLECTS ON MUSICAL PERFECTION

“We live in a cynical world.” That famous line was uttered by Tom Cruise’s titular character in the movie JERRY MAGUIRE, and it pops into my head sometimes. There’s a lot of distrust, unhappiness and social division out there these days, and it’s hard to find your own personal “throughline” in a world that seems to be constantly struggling, with more and more individuals feeling trapped in some way, or just plain alienated.

EPHEMERA (Ingerlise Storksen, Christine Sandtorv, Jannicke Larsen Berglund) (photo credit BENT RENE SYNNEVAG)

“Only chaos/Only empty days/Only thin skin/Only tension/Only make-no-sense,” sings Ingerlise Storksen of the divinely talented Norwegian girl trio Ephemera at the beginning of their fifth album MONOLOVE. The irony behind these seemingly gloomy lyrics, which are just as apt as ever 20 years after the album first came out, is that they are sung in an absolutely GORGEOUS and riveting pop song, “Chaos,” which opens with one of the most deleriously chiming keyboard flurries I’ve ever heard on a modern pop album. Sheer sonic beauty was already a hallmark of Ephemera’s career when MONOLOVE was released in late 2004; members Christine Sandtorv, Ingerlise Storksen and Jannicke (Larsen) Berglund had established themselves as supremely gifted songwriters and rapturous three-part harmony singers through the course of four previous discs, including successful outings like BALLOONS AND CHAMPAGNE in 2001 and AIR in 2003. But their winning formula only locked into place when they teamed up with producer Yngve Leidulv Saetre for an album called SUN in 2000. I will be upfront and say that this “formula” (an inadequate word to convey the lush and organic purity of this music) soon became one of my favorite sounds in the entire musical universe. And by the time I fully absorbed the depth, variety and spine-tingling perfection of the 13 tracks on MONOLOVE (an album that had a tendency to SLAY me on long road trips in my car), it managed to become my favorite album of all time. Yes, it’s THAT good and THAT personally significant to me.

“It was a really fun album to record,” Jannicke told me via email correspondence this summer (I contacted all three women to get their feedback when I was planning this piece). “I loved all the songs that the other two had written at that time and it was very giving and exciting to record them. Harmonies and arrangements came easily and our producer (Yngve) understood really well what kind of sound we wanted to express.”

Of course MANY groups might say such things about the process of making an album they are justifiably proud of, but some kind of transcendent magic had to be taking place in the studio to result in songs like “On the Surface” and “Thank You,” two exquisite Ingerlise Storksen compositions that send shivers up my spine whenever I play them. Ingerlise’s vocal approach on these songs is “blue diamond” stuff in my book… breathy, intimate and heartfelt. Add the delicate string arrangement on “Thank You,” the enthralling three-part “mm mm” harmonies and the haunting lyrics about a person in the singer’s life who helped guide her journey (“You left your footprints in the snow/A guideline for me so I will know/The day I get lost/Which way to go… ”), and you’ve got yourself a positively transcendent art song. The harmony interlude that follows that first chorus is literally one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever heard on any record. And it affects me the same every single time I hear it. THAT’s magic!

But one of the notable things about MONOLOVE is how all three of the band members contribute peak, spellbinding songs to the mix. Jannicke gives us two of her very finest, “City Lights” and “Paint Your Sky,” stunningly arranged soft rockers that always change my mood for the better the instant either begins. And a secret, underlying component here – something I bring up in a songwriting class I teach – I would characterize as “aesthetic vagueness.” That’s when the listener gets the imagery and overall feel a songwriter is aiming for without knowing all the specific details of what the song is truly about, so you can insert YOURSELF into it. “I can put up a show, so simple and lame/It’s far from the same/But the line is thin/Between failure and success/There’s either more or less/You’re either out or in/The line is thin… ” Plenty to relate to here, especially when Jannicke sings the lyrics in a clear, plaintive voice and is soon joined by her two cohorts on a deceptively simple chorus: “Under the city lights I fail/Under the city lights I’m pale.” I have been positively transfixed by that chorus since the first time I heard it, and I am profoundly MOVED by the sonic blend the group and their genius producer achieve here.

“‘City Lights’ is a song about the very unfair differences in our world,” Jannicke told me. “The background sounds and voices in the intro were recorded in Tokyo or Osaka when we were on tour in Japan. I like how it sets the atmosphere in the song, both quiet and chaotic at the same time. What I mean to express in the song is that no one is better or more worthy than the other. We are all equally small and unimportant in this big universe, or big and important in this small world. The point is that no one should put themselves above others. Be a fellow human being instead, if you have the chance… ”

Jannicke plays evocative keyboards on this and many other Ephemera songs; in video clips of the band’s performances, she’s almost always behind the keys, playing something distinctive and resonant. You’ll also notice, when you hear this album a few times, that just a simple percussion bit here and there or the way the bassline comes in at just the right moment, reveal an ensemble with exquisite taste and a unified sense of purpose. Everything sounds just so clear and right… The trio seem to be brimming with confidence throughout, apparently paying close attention to literally every detail of every song.

EPHEMERA, 2004 (Christine Sandtorv, Ingerlise Storksen, Jannicke Larsen Berglund) (photo credit BENT RENE SYNNEVAG)

“This was a really busy time for Ephemera, with a lot of traveling abroad,” Ingerlise related. “So it was really nice to have a break from it all, and that we got to stay home for a couple of weeks recording MONOLOVE at Duper Studio. We were in a very creative and productive state, I remember – and we did a lot of live recording in the studio. Most of the songs were written on the road and in between, so many of the songs were quite fresh by the time we landed in the studio. This gave it all a new nerve and feel to the sessions. I remember it being like busy, calming and lovely, all at once.”

To read those descriptive words busy, calming and lovely all at once from one of the people who actually MADE this amazing music was enormously helpful to me, as I’ve struggled through the years to explain to the uninitiated why Ephemera are just so darn brilliant. While it’s always a subjective thing to evaluate pop music (or really ANY music) – as a songwriter myself and a guy who has been doing music journalism for nigh on 30 years now, I think I have a reasonably good idea of what constitutes “good” music. But very, very FEW things have transfixed me and soundtracked my very being the way Ephemera’s music has. And I’m certainly not alone.

EPHEMERA (Ingerlise Storksen, Jannicke Larsen Berglund, Christine Sandtorv) (uncredited photo)

“Your music is what reaffirmed my belief in the possibility that people have souls,” posted one enthusiastic fan on the trio’s original web site, from which I extracted as many opinions as I could before it went defunct. He was probably responding to the same sincere vulnerability, compassion and unquestioning LOVE for the human condition that I find so compelling, and that these remarkable women inject into every song. Think of any movie scene that once gripped your emotions or any powerful moment in your life that still fills you with aching nostalgia, and that’s the sort of feeling you’ll find in almost every Ephemera composition. And MONOLOVE has more of those than usual. Christine Sandtorv, commonly the most prolific songwriter in the band, contributes six songs to the record, and they are mostly of a stylish piece, dealing with the uncertainties of relationships, the whole “trust versus love” dilemma and the simple challenge of being a vulnerable human being. Her songs feature delicate, often masterful acoustic guitar picking, tasteful string arrangements and conversational-style lyrics that anchor her songs. Even titles like “Do’s and Dont’s,” “Leave It At That,” and “Put-On-Smile” hint at the reflective approach these songs contain. That latter song contains one of MONOLOVE’s most telling verses: “I’m not in the sky/I’m not on solid ground/I cannot lie/But I know how to pretend/I’m not in the mood/Don’t feel like jumping for joy/Though I should be happier than medium okay.” Medium okay, wow! I know that condition, Christine! The primary musical element here is rather jaunty, with even Christine’s memorable vocal delivery sounding almost upbeat. But a strongly melancholy acoustic guitar arpeggio later in the song and some solemn but beautiful three-part harmony from the band nails down the real mood here for any attentive listeners.

EPHEMERA onstage (Ingerlise Storksen, Christine Sandtorv, Jannicke Larsen Berglund) (photo credit TORE SAETRE)

“I think a lot was on my mind at the time, as it often is when you are on your way to becoming an adult,” Christine told me. “It was probably a rather dark time for me. I was starting to get tired of traveling a lot. I like being close to family the most. You can see it thematically on many of my songs on this album.”

Christine related how the sparse, haunting album closer “Long” was played at the funeral of her father in 2007. “It became too difficult to play it live,” she said. “Even though it wasn’t written directly for him, I felt that a lot of emotions in the song fit.”

The existential sadness and uncertainty expressed in tunes like this helps explain why MONOLOVE steadily ascended to the very top of my list of favorite albums. Every song focuses on something relatable and timeless, something your heart was aching to hear… though perhaps you didn’t know it yet. I’d lost many loved ones myself and was constantly pondering the meaning of it all, something I tended to do a lot on long car trips. And I found that there was no better music to provide the soundtrack for such contemplation than Ephemera’s. And they truly outdid themselves in that regard with MONOLOVE. You get a real sense, song after song, of self-aware fellow human beings creating ultimate musical portraits of what it means to be a tuned-in, caring person in the “cynical world” of today. Take Jannicke’s anthemic song “Paint Your Sky,” a tune that absolutely bowled me over the first time I heard it. The subtly beautiful, lilting arrangement provides a bed for Jannicke’s clear, almost matter-of-fact vocal addressing the subject of self-doubt. The spellbinding chorus soon kicks in and I have quoted it often through the years. It plays rather continually in my head: “Those you rely on/They seem to be pretending/You’re in denial/Go out and hold your banner high/Painting your own sky… ” It’s unutterably lovely, creating one of the group’s most distinctive lyrical manifestos in those last three lines.

“‘Paint Your Sky’ is a song that shows the mood I was in at that time; happy, self-confident and ready to express myself, without being shy or afraid,” said Jannicke. “I was tired of compromising (myself), which is revealed as a layer of vulnerability in the song. I love the playful bass and the deep electric guitar, and the light, insistent mandolin.” She’s right about the arrangement; it positively dazzles. The group’s harmonies are luminous, and this is sure to be one of the songs that’ll stick in your head upon a first listen to MONOLOVE. But in a stroke of conceptual and sequencing brilliance, it’s followed by an even more unforgettable song, which doesn’t seem possible at this point. “Dead Against the Plan,” oh my lord. Absolutely unbelievable how good this song is. To this very day, after countless listens, I become positively awestruck listening to this Christine and Ingerlise collaboration. I thought about pressing them on how this track came to be, then decided I wanted it to stay somewhat mysterious. Not everything needs an explanation; it’s enough to say this is a stone CLASSIC. I’m not sure I can think of a better example offhand of a giddily inventive arrangement, peerless vocals both in the lead by Ingerlise and in the group harmonies, and the truest form of aesthetic vagueness thematically in the service of a song about something that has gone wrong in an unknown relationship. “Something happened/You could surely have done without” is about all the songwriters are going to clue you into here. There are three or four SEPARATE earworms in this track, and I’m on record already as saying the recording should be taught in music classes at universities as an example of getting every single aspect of a song just about perfect. You know those music-related queries in social media where they ask you, “If you could only listen to one song for the rest of your life, what would it be?” If I wasn’t allowed to cheat and pick the entire ambient album of my choice, I would probably say “Dead Against the Plan” by Ephemera. Inside, I am laughing and crying at the same time when I hear this truly BRILLIANT piece of music making.

EPHEMERA (Christine Sandtorv, Jannicke Larsen Berglund, Ingerlise Storksen) (photo credit BENT RENE SYNNEVAG)

So at this point, I MUST take my hat off to Yngve Leidulv Saetre, the George Martin-like producer of Ephemera, who has shepherded every album of theirs since SUN at the turn of the millennium. He’s produced many other acts as well, including DumDum Boys and Kaizers Orchestra, and he was the lead singer of Barbie Bones in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s. But I’m here to say that Mister Saetre helped this trio conjure absolute magic in the studio, and if I ever met him I’d give him a bottle of fine champagne or something to show my appreciation of his wizardry.

“Yngve is the fourth member of Ephemera,” Ingerlise declared. “From early on, with our debut album GLUE (which he mixed and mastered), he understood what we were working on. Where we wanted to go with our music. Yngve is a very creative producer, creative in the same sense as the three of us in Ephemera. We think the same (at least most of the time), and he understands and catches the depth and the sense, as well as how he challenges us. With MONOLOVE we worked quite productive and fast, because we had such a busy schedule (in between touring). This was not an issue, because we were already on the same page, and knew where we wanted this album to go.”

The famed producer was tough for me to reach; I had tried twice before, most recently with Ephemera’s 2020 comeback album SEASONS, and wasn’t successful. But I got ahold of him this time and he spoke very highly of Ephemera, calling their previous collaborations “open, playful and inspired.” While mostly in sync with the group’s intentions, Saetre said that MONOLOVE posed a particular challenge overall. “It was in many ways a very ambitious project,” he said. “There were different ambitions from many angles, also from outside the trio. It was hard to try to unite all this into the wonderful tripod balance that to me is Ephemera.”

EPHEMERA (producer Yngve Leidulv Saetre) (photo credit CHRISTINE SANDTORV)

Certainly at this point in the trio’s career, pressure was coming from not only within as to what should happen next, but from the industry as well. The discussions must have been rather lively in the studio, but whatever tension may have occurred pushed the group to their highest creative levels yet. You don’t get a masterpiece like MONOLOVE without many, many factors coming together to influence the result. Other musicians have contributed to Ephemera albums in the past, but the sometimes more complex arrangements on their fifth full-length feature contributions from well-known Norwegian players Thomas Dahl and Julian Berntsen (for whom Ingerlise recorded a duet called “The Park 1920”), among others; both are credited on some of the lush strings that the album features, though it is difficult to read the tiny credits on the CD sleeve. My favorite credit reads “Bits and pieces of sound on just about every track,” which is how one of Yngve Saetre’s credits reads. And we also learn that “Long” was recorded live at the producer’s apartment, which helps explain the ambient birdsong and other outside sounds that effectively adorn that song, ending the album with a particularly evocative flourish. Not to mention revealing what a hands-on producer Yngve clearly was. Without making this article longer than it already is, I can only declare straight up that Yngve surely has something to do with the particularly evocative details in many of Ephemera’s catalog entries, two of my personal favorites being “Maple Tree” and “Bye.” To be able to listen to certain songs over and over and ALWAYS get lost in their beauty, takes a secret ingredient in the production, and as both Jannicke and Ingerlise pointed out earlier, Yngve simply has an intuitive understanding of what their songs are aiming for, and how a detail here and there can make them even more rapturous. I can’t know what “bits and pieces” throughout MONOLOVE were his doing, but I bet Yngve had something to do with the three-tiered descending harmonies on “Leave It At That,” or how in the next to concluding song “End,” in the lyric “I see us leaving hand in hand,” penned by Christine, the word hand is memorably repeated a few times in the last minute. And in songs that achieve actual perfection like “Thank You,” “Paint Your Sky” and “Dead Against the Plan,” the producer deserves some kind of award for sonic dazzling. I doubt that George Martin ever heard this album when he was alive, but had he done so, I bet he would have nodded and smiled.

“I’m happy to hear you appreciate this album so much,” Yngve told me. “It’s always a good feeling to hear from somebody who found something of value in something one contributed to. Music has this direct connection to your feelings and you can’t argue with it. When you listen to something, you immediately recognize the way you felt when you got to know it the first time. I have it like this with a couple of other albums that were hard to make.”

I got the sense that Yngve is a modest chap, with an obviously strong work ethic. I wish I could have told him about the many, many transcendent moments on Ephemera recordings that I know he was at least partially responsible for. And to just THANK him for serving the trio so well… “Yngve always has good thoughts behind the work he does,” Christine related. “He allows us to be creative and try things out, while at the same time managing it all in a steady manner. We have never wanted to collaborate with any other producer, because we think Yngve is the best both as a producer and as a person. He understands us in a respectful way, which may have been extra important as an all-girl band.”

EPHEMERA, 2020 (Christine Sandtorv, Ingerlise Storksen, Jannicke Larsen Berglund) (photo credit: MAGNE FONN HAFSKOR)

“We always put a lot of work, all our hearts and minds into the recording of an album,” said Ingerlise. “The devil and the angel are always in the details, and all three of us really love working with the minor details, the tiny twists and turns, sounds and feelings. I think we were all very happy with how MONOLOVE came out in the end.” She added that she thought it was “more mature than some of the other recordings. A more balanced album, from low and ‘heart hurt’ things to the more uptempo and feel good songs. We like it like that, some down, some up. And some songs in between. Like LIFE… ”

As a very dedicated fan of this amazing trio, I have often mused about their working process, i.e. how could they consistently come up with such beautiful music? Their ear for melody, the often subtle sonic detours in the songs, and, I must point out, the rather intoxicating precision of their singing in English… pure musical catnip for yours truly. It’s understood that most Scandinavian artists speak English rather fluently and can make music in that language as well as their own, depending on the audience. I absolutely ADORE hearing Christine, Ingerlise and Jannicke singing perfect words and well-constructed phrases in their soft, beguiling voices. There are many reasons why Ephemera’s music affects me like few other artists, and at least one ingredient is surely their natural, intimate vocal style, which is warm and comforting, eternally. I absolutely BELIEVE everything these ladies sing; there is never a false note of any kind. Listening to “Thank You,” “Do’s and Don’ts,” “Call Me Home,” “Long” or any other tune here is like having a special friend share something important and meaningful with you. Your ears perk up, constantly. The fact that the sentiments are couched in glistening, resonant pop tunes only makes the experience more potent. It’s easy to forget that human beings with their own personal issues and separate ambitions had to perhaps struggle a bit to record this stuff.

“It was a challenging recording,” Christine acknowledged. “I remember a bit of frustration, with different opinions about where we should end up, together with a very strong desire to make something really good. Not too poppy and not too quirky. In retrospect, I think the album turned out really well.”

EPHEMERA, 2024 (Ingerlise Storksen, Jannicke Larsen Berglund, Christine Sandtorv) (uncredited photo)

Speaking for myself as a listener, I’m often fascinated by what the intentions were of the artists I like. It has not always been the case with “Artist X or Y” that their enthusiasm in public statements about their work correlated with my own level of appreciation. In the case of Ephemera and their sublime MONOLOVE disc, I soon came to the conclusion that I probably loved every single thing about this album more than they did! The platter contains timeless melodies, remarkably economical lyrics couched in rich, sparkling arrangements, gorgeous vocals both in leads and textured harmonies (sometimes occurring lower in the mix waiting to be discovered upon the umpteenth listen), and moments of such unforgettable emotional intimacy that I sometimes ended a listening session wanting to just say “thank you” to the universe and this band for, well, the SONG “Thank You” and all twelve other gems on this masterpiece. After any full listen to MONOLOVE, I end up feeling changed, and grateful. I hold the CD in my hands like it is a piece of jewelry or something, gazing at the cover photo of the three lovely musicians posing in a triangle-configured closeup of their heads, and leafing through the minimally adorned but classy booklet, soaking up every detail. And as an aside here, I want to say I still bemoan the devaluing of the CD and the “artistic presentation” in recent years. Yes, yes, I KNOW that downloading and streaming are the way most people listen to stuff, and people just don’t want to pay for physical “product” anymore. Phooey! To me, you simply CANNOT get the full experience of an album like this with a few digital downloads. Or, God forbid, “sampling” it on a YouTube video. I’d say the same about other artists I love like Joni Mitchell, Paul Simon, Talking Heads and more. All of whom, by the way, are also featured in my “Top 10 list of all time.” A really good album/CD is a work of art, something to be savored, something to immerse yourself in.

And that is what I do with MONOLOVE, every time. I’m aware it represented the culmination of everything this Norwegian trio were striving for. They and their crack producer worked their butts off on this thing. They were all at a peak of inspiration, coming off a major burst of attention and ambition, and they gave the world this gem. But it was to be the end of an era. No more new music appeared for 15 years from Ephemera, and while 2020’s SEASONS was a welcome return for sure, and featured the genuinely surprising classic “When the Best Ones Are Gone,” which accidentally became a pandemic-era soundtrack, plenty had changed, including their own career trajectory. On a simple level, all three ladies were just involved in growing families and their regular careers. Is that anything to be sad about? But shucks, in my “dream alternative universe,” there would be a “20th anniversary reissue” of MONOLOVE the way so many bands today reissue deluxe editions of classic albums. There’d be a stunning new booklet with unseen before photos, alternate takes of album cuts and some rarities, and perhaps even a delightful live album of an Ephemera concert, all housed in a handsome, shiny box. What a great treasure that would be in my alternative universe!

EPHEMERA (Jannicke Larsen Berglund, Ingerlise Storksen, Christine Sandtorv) (photo credit: BENT RENE SYNNEVAG)

But back here in reality… I am writing these words not knowing if there will EVER be any new Ephemera music again (hope I’m wrong), knowing that most music fans have never heard of them (unfortunately there is a Swedish heavy metal band with the same name, making any casual search for “Ephemera songs” a problematic exercise), and knowing I am probably the only writer in the WORLD, at least in America, saluting the 20th anniversary of an album you can’t even GET as a physical product anymore except from sellers on Discogs (and I highly suggest you old schoolers who are intrigued by what I wrote here to get the original album that way). I’ll finish by saying I did not want to casually just share some “top 10” list in social media or elsewhere with the Ephemera entry at the top, and then have some people scratching their heads over my entry. “He’s putting this obscure group above the Beatles and Joni Mitchell? What’s up with this dude?” Well, it was a simple evolution over time, that’s all… an emotional connection deep and enduring and truly personal. Because yes, MONOLOVE, by the Norwegian trio EPHEMERA, is indeed my very favorite album of all time, I am proud to say that. And I salute it, for all it means to me, and for the potent and enduring quality of its contents. I’ll let Jannicke (Larsen) Berglund have the last word.

“Music brings us all together. And I love it… ”

For more about Ephemera, here are links to their social media: https://www.facebook.com/ephemeragirls, https://www.ephemera.no/

DO THE ARCHITECTURAL WATUSI Music Features/Interviews Music Reviews Streaming Video | Kevin Renick | September 29, 2024 | 20th Anniversary Acoustic Music Christine Sandtorv Ephemera Folk Music Ingerlise Storksen Jannicke Larsen Berglund MONOLOVE Music Norway Norwegian Pop Pop Music Pop Rock Progressive Folk Rock Rock and Roll Streaming Video Yngve Saetre

AMBIENT MUSIC: A QUIET PASSION

(IN CELEBRATION OF A GENRE BY KEVIN RENICK, FEATURING A NEVER-PUBLISHED SURVEY)

BRIAN ENO, mid-1970s (photo credit: ERICA ECHENBERG/REDFERNS)

Pretty much everyone has heard of ambient music by now; if asked, the average person will say something like, “Oh, it’s that quiet background music that people use for relaxation and meditation and stuff.” Anyone who follows music or online music sites will likely know that Brian Eno had something to do with the founding/popularization of the genre, and a growing number of listeners may even be able to namedrop some of the more popular artists in this realm, such as William Basinski, Steve Roach, Tim Hecker, Stars of the Lid, et al. Ambient music has been around for roughly half a century (I’ll get to why Brian Eno’s DISCREET MUSIC from 1975 was arguably the first TRUE ambient recording in a bit here), but for most of that time it was very much a cult thing, something that a handful of enthusiasts and enlightened music writers would have quiet conversations about here and there. As the internet evolved and came into widespread use in the mid-to-late ‘90s, the phenomenon of “listserves” and chat groups allowed fellow ambient lovers to find each other and bond over this rapidly growing sonic universe, and it helped that the ‘90s saw some of the most important and influential ambient pioneers of all time releasing major, enduring works… this included such names as Pete Namlook (and his wildly prolific German label FAX), Aphex Twin, Future Sound of London, the Orb and so many, many others. By the early 2000s, specific ambient review pages were springing up all over the internet, and “fan groups” were no longer something reserved just for major pop and rock stars. You could find ambient information pages with just a casual google search by 2010, and virtually any popular ambient artist had a fan page and possibly even a separate Facebook discussion group. The main Brian Eno page on Facebook, “Before and After Ambient,” grew to well over 10,000 members by about 2020, and the genre itself, once a rarefied category, became more and more popular as enthusiasts spread the word electronically and as ambient music began to get used in films more and more. Michael Mann’s HEAT and Peter Jackson’s THE LOVELY BONES were just two of many films whose soundtracks were largely ambient (the latter actually featured Brian Eno substantially). And a curious thing happened when the pandemic struck; when people started staying inside more and more, many of them “found” ambient music and discovered it was perfect for this new, nearly apocalyptic age. The drones, tinkles and strange lush chordings of this electronic sub-genre were a darn good soundtrack for a world in which death or detachment might be uppermost in the minds of average citizens. The New York Times itself published a major piece extolling the virtues of ambient for this modern age, and Brian Eno, godfather of the whole ambient universe, finally saw the ideas he generated that were once frowned upon by snottier critics and snobbier listeners, practically enter the mainstream, now fully embraced by an audience that had their minds opened wider by all that was available. Ambient is now here to stay, and most major music sites regularly publish lists of “Best Ambient Recordings,” with PITCHFORK doing an ambitious piece of “50 All Time Best Ambient” just a few years ago; I recall that list generating a ton of controversy because not everyone agreed on the choices. You expect that sort of thing with Rock, of course. But AMBIENT? Causing people to argue over what mattered most? Bet Eno himself couldn’t have seen THAT one coming.

GAVIN BRYARS, 2018 (photo credit: KATE MOUNT)

So I say all that by way of introduction, but… ambient is a deeply personal and cherished music world to me. And yes, I’m gonna give myself a pat on the back… I was there from the beginning. Listening to TV and movie theme music (STAR TREK was influential for me), and hiking in the woods a lot as a teenager gave me absolute primed receptors for the kind of mysterious, foggy sound world that was about to emerge in the ‘70s. I already knew stuff by Tangerine Dream, Mike Oldfield and a few others, but I discovered Brian Eno in 1975, and that was momentous beyond words. I bought ANOTHER GREEN WORLD like tons of other fans, but it was DISCREET MUSIC that altered my trajectory as a listener. It came out that same year, with a technical essay on the back cover explaining how the music was made, and a weird almost all-black cover signifying this as an OBSCURE LABEL release. That was Eno’s boutique label in which he produced and brought the world a series of experimental works by new composers who were not necessarily otherwise going to find popularity. Among the prominent releases were works by the great Harold Budd (another ambient pioneer), Gavin Bryars (his THE SINKING OF THE TITANIC was groundbreaking) and even Mister Silence himself, John Cage. My favorite version of his landmark piece “In a Landscape” appeared on the Eno-produced Obscure release. DISCREET MUSIC, however, was the biggie for me. Side One was a 20+ minute piece that featured lulling, goosebump-raising minimalist tones that sounded like they were far, far away, the dreamlike beckoning to a place of peace and beauty that you wished SO much you could get to. But only COULD by listening to this album. I loved it not only as a soothing work of musical transcendence, but oddly, it became my “go-to” album for hangovers, of which I had a few during that era. Something about that gentle, entrancing sound was able to make me forget everything else, even discomfort. It’s influence on me cannot be overstated. But Eno was just warming up. I’d have to write a separate article on the man’s huge, overwhelming impact on my life (I wouldn’t even be a modestly successful musician without Eno’s influence), but for now, it’s worth recounting that just a few years after DISCREET MUSIC, Eno put out a little thing called AMBIENT 1: MUSIC FOR AIRPORTS. That was the album where he coined the term “ambient music,” and is generally considered the official START of the genre. PITCHFORK had it as #1 on their widely read list of the classics, and many people have written essays about this potent collection of four shimmery, drifty pieces featuring simple piano melodies, synthesizer and lilting female chorus vocals. I listened to MUSIC FOR AIRPORTS over and over and over, most notably during a time when I was housesitting for my parents’ friends for a six-month period in 1979. But just a year later, came the first of two stellar collaborations with Harold Budd, this one called AMBIENT 2: THE PLATEAUX OF MIRROR. Without question one of the most beautiful and tranquil ambient releases of all time, and STILL cherished. And then in 1982, Eno released AMBIENT 4: ON LAND. Sometimes it takes a while for a groundbreaking masterpiece to get its due, for the “new territory” that is staked out to fully get integrated by those who follow in its wake. But I didn’t have to wait, myself. I recognized ON LAND as a breathtaking, visionary leap forward right away; I became obsessed by it, in fact. It was literally a dream come true to experience this album. And so eager was I to thank Mister Brian Eno for what he’d done on this gem of an album, that I wrote him a long, long letter about it. I recall it being nearly 30 pages long. I had a LOT to say. I was in college at the time, and I spent several long sessions composing my letter… about how I’d dreamed of a music that could capture the rich experience of being out in the wilderness, how I enjoyed listening to birdsong and admired how Eno incorporated birds into the sonic fabric of some of his pieces, and how the very mysteriousness of ambient as a form was expanding in bold new ways, far from anything that could be talked about in the same breath as “new age” (which less experienced listeners often did) or the generic “mood music.” Nope, Eno had definitely conjured something brand new here, and my own world would never be the same.

HAROLD BUDD, 2018 (photo credit: MARTIN BOSTOCK PHOTOGRAPHY)

Pleasingly, I was not the only one. While here and there I would run into another Eno fan who was intrigued with his experiments, it wasn’t until the computer age that I began to realize many other people not only loved Eno’s ambient music but in fact, were passionate about the genre itself. It was the late 90s when I learned about “Hyperreal,” an internet listserv for fans of this rapidly growing style of music. As I sit here writing this, I feel overwhelmingly nostalgic about the years I spent communicating with fellow enthusiasts in this group. We regularly exchanged lists of our favorite releases, argued about the difference between “ambient” and “new age,” and turned each other on to new stuff over and over. I learned about Pete Namlook and the FAX label in this group, which was very significant for me personally. And, I hungered for an updated “Most Popular Ambient” list after seeing modest lists done by one or two members in the period before I joined. So, in 2001, I volunteered to do a very intensive “Classic Ambient” survey, in which members would submit their list of ten favorite, or sometimes even twenty favorite ambient recordings of all time. But I wanted it to be even bigger… I decided to also contact some DJs on electronic music shows, and some music journalists who were NOT part of the Hyperreal group. I wanted this survey to really COUNT, for anyone interested in this still “relatively” rarefied type of music. The amount of time I spent on this thing and the good timing of it helped make this one of the most widely read and useful pieces I ever put on the internet. It is STILL online, in fact, though many of the individual pieces other members submitted are long gone, including the entire beautiful 2350.org website devoted to Pete Namlook. But you can still read my 2001 survey right here:

http://music.hyperreal.org/epsilon/info/2001_classic_ambient.html

Having been able to make a small contribution to the contextualization and popularity of ambient made me almost giddy, but I still wanted more. I did another survey five years later that I think vanished into the ether. And then, I repeated my intensive approach for a survey in 2015, right before the “ambient@hyperreal” group scattered in the wind, the victim of a changing world and rapidly evolving internet/social media universe in which there were simply too many groups to even keep up with anymore. The intimacy of Hyperreal and the many friends/colleagues I’d gotten to know there was not to come my way again. Yes, I joined many other groups, and pored through survey after survey of “Best Ambient”, “Most Influential Ambient,” et cetera. There is so much literature on the subject now (though not that many published BOOKS per se), that the connoisseur can just do a google search and find himself with stuff to read for DAYS. I do it often. But the internet – and social media – have taken over our lives these days, in a way that wasn’t quite the case in the early days of the millennium. Something is DIFFERENT now. In those old days, you would learn about what was SPECIAL by talking to a (relatively) small group of peers, checking it out for yourself, and probably buying it. Nowadays, EVERYTHING can be had easily. A millions different web sites will tell you what is truly special, even about ambient. Even REDDIT has ambient pages now, and for deep research, you can go to DISCOGS, which didn’t even exist back in the heady days I spoke of earlier. It’s all available: The music, the opinions, the listings, the “expert” opinions. You just gotta sift through it all yourself. That can be fun still, to be sure. But it can also be really, really tedious.

APHEX TWIN (RICHARD DAVID JAMES), 1994 (uncredited photo)

AMBIENT FAVORITES: THE 2015 SURVEY…

Anyway, in the spirit of the old days, I present here, for the first time, the complete unedited 2015 survey I conducted of Ambient FAVORITES. Votes came mostly from the members of Hyperreal, a truly dedicated group of ambient listeners that I miss very much. But they also include votes from music journalists familiar with electronic music. Each listing features the artist, the name of the particular album, and then the number of total votes that album received. As with any genre, ambient has branched out into “sub-genres”, something you quickly start to learn about when you explore this sonic terrain. It is beyond the scope of my little article here to go through all that, but here are a few examples: there is something called “dark ambient” (probably just what you think it is), “ethno-ambient,” “ambient classical,” “environmental ambient” (possibly redundant since it is ALL rather environmental, but the idea here is that such recordings tend to include more nature sounds or field recordings), et cetera. “Space music,” “drone” and even “IDM” (which stands for “intelligent dance music”) are recognized labels that very much can fall under the ambient banner. There’s plenty more, believe me.

STARS OF THE LID, 2012 (BRIAN MCBRIDE, ADAM WILTZIE) (uncredited photo)

I guess in conclusion, I would say that ambient has most certainly evolved into its own musical universe, with a zillion pathways you can explore. You could spend weeks on YouTube listening to stuff that is available without spending a cent, or you can find carefully curated Spotify playlists of splendid ambient selections. Or, you can do it old school, and actually PURCHASE the original discs, something I do proudly. That can be a challenge, frankly, as far too many ambient recordings, including nearly the entire FAX catalogue, were released in strictly limited editions. Yes, stuff is available on Ebay, and by God, a lot is still available on Amazon. But get it from the individual ambient labels if you can or the artists themselves. They put considerable effort into making their specialized music… wouldn’t you feel great supporting them? Sadly, I would say that at least half the ambient music made these days is only available via digital download. I know by direct communication with some artists that they just don’t go to the time and trouble to manufacture CDs anymore. But we loved those little plastic discs back in the days of Hyperreal, and some of us still play ’em. If I want my Stars of the Lid or Tim Hecker or Steve Roach or Biosphere or Harold Budd classics, I just go to my nice little shelves, where it’s all in alpha order. And yeah, I love the artwork, the vibes and reading the credits. It’s all part of the experience.

BRIAN ENO, 2018 (photo courtesy: THE ASSOCIATED PRESS)

As I said, ambient will soon celebrate its 50th anniversary. 2022 was Brian Eno’s 50th anniversary as an active musician and recording artist… he was a founder member of Roxy Music in 1972, and some consider the first album he made with Robert Fripp the next year, NO PUSSYFOOTING, to be a progenitor of ambient. By any standard, Eno was the first major “name” in ambient. But that aside, if you have a taste for drifty, dreamy, droney (mostly) instrumental music that can transport you out of the dull doldrums of today’s world, it is well worth exploring what this thing called ambient is all about. And here’s what a bunch of us who love this stuff were wild about back in 2015. I present to you the full survey I did at the time, not available previously in this form…

BY THE NUMBERS: THE TOP 10…

1. Brian Eno – AMBIENT 4: ON LAND (1982) – 34 votes

2. Biosphere – SUBSTRATA (1997) – 27

3. Aphex Twin – SELECTED AMBIENT WORKS VOLUME 2 (1994) – 25

4. Brian Eno – APOLLO: ATMOSPHERES AND SOUNDTRACKS (1983) – 20

5. Global Communication – 76:14 (1994) – 18

6. Harold Budd/Brian Eno – AMBIENT 2: THE PLATEAUX OF MIRROR (1980) –

7. Harold Budd/Brian Eno – THE PEARL (1984) – 14

8. Steve Roach – STRUCTURES FROM SILENCE (1984) – 13

Stars of the Lid – THE TIRED SOUNDS OF (2001) – 13

10. Tetsu Inoue – AMBIANT OTAKU (1994) – 11

Steve Roach – MYSTIC CHORDS AND SACRED SPACES (2003) – 11

…AND THE REST

Brian Eno – AMBIENT 1: MUSIC FOR AIRPORTS (1978) – 10

The KLF – CHILL OUT (1990) – 10

Robert Rich – SOMNIUM (2004) – 10

Steve Roach – DREAMTIME RETURN (1988) – 10

Stars of the Lid – AND THEIR REFINEMENT OF THE DECLINE (2007) – 10

Robert Rich & Alio Die – FISSURES (1997) – 9

Harold Budd/John Foxx – TRANSLUCENCE/DRIFT MUSIC (2011) – 8

Future Sound of London – LIFEFORMS (1994) – 8

Robert Rich – TRANCES/DRONES (1984) – 8

A Winged Victory For The Sullen – A WINGED VICTORY FOR THE SULLEN

(2011) – 8

Max Corbacho – ARS LUCIS (2009) – 7

Brian Eno – THURSDAY AFTERNOON (1985) – 7

Tetsu Inoue – WORLD RECEIVER (1996) – 7

Pete Namlook – AIR 2 (1994) – 7

Woob – 1194 (1994) – 7

Aloof Proof – PIANO TEXT (2007) – 6

Brian Eno – NEROLI (1993) – 6

Jon Hassell – LAST NIGHT THE MOON CAME DROPPING ITS CLOTHES…

(2009) – 6

James Johnson and Stephen Philips – LOST AT DUNN’S LAKE (2001) – 6

Lustmord and Robert Rich – STALKER (1995) – 6

Steve Roach – THE MAGNIFICENT VOID (1996) – 6

David Sylvian – PLIGHT AND PREMONITION (1988) – 6

Tangerine Dream – PHAEDRA (1974) – 6

Aphex Twin – SELECTED AMBIENT WORKS ’85-92 (1992) – 5

Fripp and Eno – EVENING STAR (1975) – 5

HIA/Biosphere – POLAR SEQUENCES (1996) – 5

ISHQ – ORCHID (2001) – 5

Pete Namlook – SILENCE V (2001) – 5

Vidna Obmana – LANDSCAPE IN OBSCURITY (1999) – 5

Steve Roach – QUIET MUSIC (1986) – 5

Steve Roach/Vidna Obmana – WELL OF SOULS (1995) – 5

Michael Stearns – PLANETARY UNFOLDING (1981) – 5

Tangerine Dream – RUBYCON (1975) – 5

The Dead Texan – THE DEAD TEXAN (2009) – 4

Deaf Center – PALE RAVINE (2005) – 4

Fripp and Eno – THE EQUATORIAL STARS (2004) – 4

Hammock – MAYBE THEY WILL SING FOR US TOMORROW (2008) – 4

Tim Hecker – RADIO AMOR (2012) – 4

Steve Hillage – RAINBOW DOME MUSIC (1991) – 4

Bill Laswell – AXIOM AMBIENT: LOST IN THE TRANSLATION (1994) – 4

Pete Namlook – SILENCE (1993) – 4

Pete Namlook/Tetsu Inoue – 62 EULENGASSE (1995) – 4

Vidna Obmana – RIVER OF APPEARANCE (1996) – 4

The Orb – ORBUS TERRARUM (1995) – 4

Steve Roach – THE DREAM CIRCLE (1994) – 4

David Sylvian – GONE TO EARTH (second disc) (1986) – 4

Tangerine Dream – ZEIT (1971) – 4

TUU – ALL OUR ANCESTORS (1994) – 4

Kit Watkins – THOUGHT TONES VOL. 1 (1990) – 4

Autechre – AMBER (1994) – 3

Autumn of Communion – AUTUMN OF COMMUNION (2012) – 3

Biosphere – CIRQUE (2000) – 3

Biosphere – MICROGRAVITY (1991) – 3

Biosphere – SHENZHOU (2002) – 3

Boards of Canada – MUSIC HAS A RIGHT TO CHILDREN (1998) – 3

Harold Budd – AVALON SUTRA (2005) – 3

Stevie B-Zet – ARCHAIC MODULATION (1993) – 3

Carbon Based Lifeforms – WORLD OF SLEEPERS (2006) – 3

Coil – TIME MACHINES (2000) – 3

Alio Die – SUSPENDED FEATHERS (1996) – 3

Brian Eno – DISCREET MUSIC (1975) – 3

Gas – GAS (1996) – 3

Jeff Greinke – LOST TERRAIN (1992) – 3

Tim Hecker – HAUNT ME HAUNT ME DO IT AGAIN (2001) – 3

Tetsu Inoue – INLAND (2007) – 3

Jean-Michel Jarre – OXYGENE (1976) – 3

Thomas Koner – DAIKAN (2002) – 3

Thomas Koner – PERMAFROST (1993) – 3

Thomas Koner – TEIMO (1992) – 3

Loscil – PLUME (2006) – 3

Lustmord – THE PLACE WHERE THE BLACK STARS HANG (1997) – 3

Cliff Martinez – SOLARIS (soundtrack) (2002) – 3

Murcof – REMEMBRANZA (2005) – 3

Pete Namlook – AIR (1993) – 3

Pete Namlook/Tetsu Inoue – SHADES OF ORION 2 (1995) – 3

Pete Namlook/Tetsu Inoue – 2350 BROADWAY (1993) – 3

Pete Namlook/Geir Jenssen – THE FIRES OF ORK (1993) – 3

Pauline Oliveros/Stuart Dempster/Panaiotis – DEEP LISTENING (1989) – 3

Oophoi – HYMN TO A SILENT SKY (2005) – 3

The Orb – ADVENTURES BEYOND THE ULTRAWORLD (1991) – 3

O Yuki Conjugate – EQUATOR (1995) – 3

Jeff Pearce – DAYLIGHT SLOWLY (1998) – 3

Jeff Pearce – TO THE SHORES OF HEAVEN (2000) – 3

Max Richter – THE BLUE NOTEBOOKS (2004) – 3

Riceboy Sleeps – RICEBOY SLEEPS (2009) – 3

Steve Roach/Robert Rich – STRATA (1990) – 3

Steve Roach – DYNAMIC STILLNESS (2009) – 3

Klaus Schulze – MIRAGE (1977) – 3

Klaus Schulze – TIMEWIND (1975) – 3

Shuttle 358 – UNDERSTANDING WILDLIFE (2002) – 3

Sleep Research Facility – NOSTROMO (2001) – 3

David Sylvian – ALCHEMY (1985) – 3

David Sylvian – APPROACHING SILENCE (1999) – 3

Vangelis – BLADE RUNNER (OST) (1993) – 3

Paul Vnuk Junior – SILENCE SPEAKS IN SHADOW (2001) – 3

Yagya – RIGNING (2009) – 3

Susumu Yokoto – SAKURA (2000) – 3

Another Fine Day – LIFE BEFORE LAND (1994) – 2

A Produce – SMILE ON THE VOID (2001) – 2

Olafur Arnalds – FOR NOW I AM WINTER (2013) – 2

Autumn of Communion – AUTUMN OF COMMUNION 2 (2013) – 2

Baked Beans – BAKED BEANS (1993) – 2

William Basinski – THE DISINTEGRATION LOOPS (2002) – 2

Beautumn – WHITE COFFEE (2005) – 2

David Behrman – ON THE OTHER OCEAN (1977) – 2

Biosphere – DROPSONDE (2005) – 2

Thom Brennan – SILVER (2005) – 2

Thom Brennan – VIBRANT WATER (2000) – 2

Gavin Bryars – THE SINKING OF THE TITANIC (1975) – 2

Harold Budd – THE PAVILION OF DREAMS (1978) – 2

Harold Budd – THE WHITE ARCADES (1988) – 2

Bvdub – SONGS FOR A FRIEND I LEFT BEHIND (2011) – 2

Carbon Based Lifeforms – HYDROPONIC GARDEN (2003) – 2

Carbon Based Lifeforms – TWENTYTHREE (2011) – 2

Cluster and Eno – CLUSTER AND ENO (1977) – 2

Max Corbacho – BREATHSTREAM (2008) – 2

Danna and Clement – NORTH OF NIAGARA (1995) – 2

Deep Space Network and Doctor Atmo – I.F. 2 (1994) – 2

Vladislav Delay – ANIMA (2001) – 2

Alio Die and Antonio Testa – REVERIE (2012) – 2

Fennesz – BLACK SEA (2008) – 2

Edgar Froese – YPSILON IN MALAYSIAN PALE (1975) – 2

Future Sound of London – ISDN (1994) – 2

Peter Gabriel – PASSION (soundtrack) (1989) – 2

Gas – KONIGSFORST (1998) – 2

Gas – ZAUBERBERG (1997) – 2

Gas – POP (2000) – 2

Global Communication – PENTAMEROUS METAMORPHOSIS (1993) – 2

Harmonia – MUSIK VON HARMONIA (1974) – 2

Jon Hassell – DREAM THEORY IN MALAYA (1981) – 2

Jon Hassell – THE SURGEON OF THE NIGHT SKY RESTORES DEAD

THINGS… (1987) – 2

Heavenly Music Corporation – CONSCIOUSNESS III (1994) – 2

Tim Hecker – HARMONY IN ULTRAVIOLET (2009) – 2

Tim Hecker – RAVEDEATH, 1972 (2011) – 2

Hecq – NIGHT FALLS (2008) – 2

H.I.A./Biosphere – BIRMINGHAM FREQUENCIES (2000) – 2

Michael Hoenig – DEPARTURE FROM THE NORTHERN WASTELAND

(1978) – 2

H.U.V.A. Network – EPHEMERIS (2009) – 2

Tetsu Inoue – ORGANIC CLOUD (1995) – 2

Tetsu Inoue – ZENITH (1994) – 2

Tetsu Inoue/Jonah Sharp – ELECTROHARMONIX (1994) – 2

Irezumi – ENDURANCE (2008) – 2

The Irresistible Force – FLYING HIGH (1992) – 2

The Irresistible Force – IT’S TOMORROW ALREADY (1998) – 2

Johann Johannsen – FORDLANDIA (2008) – 2

James Johnson – SURRENDER (1999) – 2

James Johnson/Robert Scott Thompson – FORGOTTEN PLACES (2001) – 2

Journeyman – MAMA 6 (1994) – 2

The KLF – SPACE AND CHILLOUT (1995) – 2

Koda – MOVEMENTS (2004) – 2

Thomas Koner – AUBRITE (1995) – 2

Kraftwerk – AUTOBAHN (1974) – 2

Loscil – FIRST NARROWS (2004) – 2

Loscil – SEA ISLAND (2014) – 2

Loscil – SUBMERS (2002) – 2

Lull – COLD SUMMER (1994) – 2

Marconi Union – A LOST CONNECTION (2008) – 2

An Mlo Production – LO (1994) – 2

Modeste – A MOUNTAIN OF CONVENIENCE (2009) – 2

Pete Namlook – SILENCE II (1993) – 2

Pete Namlook – SPRING (1994) – 2

Pete Namlook – SUMMER (1995) – 2

Pete Namlook/H.I.A. – S.H.A.D.O. (1997) – 2

Numina – SANCTUARY OF DREAMS (2004) – 2

Vidna Obmana – THE SURREAL SANCTUARY (2000) – 2

Vidna Obmana – THE TRILOGY (1996) – 2

Oophoi – ATHLIT (2002) – 2

Oophoi – THE SPIRALS OF TIME (1998) – 2

The Orb – POMME FRITZ (1994) – 2

Stephen Philips – DESERT LANDSCAPES (1998) – 2

Pub – DO YOU EVER REGRET PANTOMIME? (2001) – 2

Robert Rich – BELOW ZERO (1998) – 2

Robert Rich – HUMIDITY (2000) – 2

Robert Rich – NEST (2012) – 2

Terry Riley – A RAINBOW IN CURVED AIR (1969) – 2

Steve Roach – ATMOSPHERIC CONDITIONS (1999) – 2

Steve Roach – MIDNIGHT MOON (2000) – 2

Steve Roach – ARTIFACTS/ORIGINS (1994) – 2

Steve Roach/Vidna Obmana – ASCENSION OF SHADOWS (1999) – 2

Steve Roach/Robert Rich – SOMA (1992) – 2

Steve Roach/Vir Unis – BLOOD MACHINE (2001) – 2

Bruno Sanfilippo/Mathias Grassow – CROMO (2010) – 2

Paul Schutze – APART (1995) – 2

Jonn Serrie – AND THE STARS GO WITH YOU (1988) – 2

Adham Shaikh – JOURNEY TO THE SUN (1995) – 2

Shuttle 358 – OPTIMAL (1999) – 2

Solar Fields – EXTENDED (2005) – 2

Solar Quest – ORGSHIP (1994) – 2

Spacetime Continuum – ALIEN DREAMTIME (1993) – 2

Stars of the Lid – AVEC LAUDENUM (2002) – 2

Michael Stearns – THE LOST WORLD (1995) – 2

Saul Stokes – OUTFOLDING (2000) – 2

Saul Stokes – ZO PILOTS (1998) – 2

Tim Story – BEGUILED (1991) – 2

Sun Electric – 30.7.94 LIVE (1995) – 2

Suspended Memories – FORGOTTEN GODS (1992) – 2

David Sylvian/Holger Czukay – FLUX AND MUTABILITY (1989) – 2

David Tagg – WAIST DEEP IN SEAS OF MILK (2007) – 2

Vangelis – BEAUBOURG (1978) – 2

Vangelis – L’APOCALYPSE DES ANIMAUX (1973) – 2

Various Artists – A STORM OF DRONES: THE SOMBIENT TRILOGY (1995) – 2

Wagon Christ – PHAT LAB NIGHTMARE (1994) – 2

A Winged Victory For The Sullen – ATOMOS (2014) – 2

Woob – WOOB 2 (1995) – 2

Zero Ohms – 369 (2013) – 2

IN SEARCH OF YOUR “BLUE DIAMONDS”

STEVE ROACH, 2022 (photo credit: FRANK BEISSEL)

As I stated in my main essay about ambient music, there’s a tendency towards “Best of” lists that seems more suited to this genre than others. Ambient is NOT a universally adored style of music; it’s generally quiet, non-flashy and suitable more for private reflection than the kind of communal involvement prevalent in rock & roll or country, for example. It’s rare to find ambient connoisseurs passionately debating ANY particular issue… most agree Brian Eno was either the godfather or the “chief contextualizer” of the genre (unequivocally he’s the one who NAMED the genre), and you might see the occasional thread about whether it can still be called “ambient” if it has vocals or drums; I remember debates about that back in the Hyperreal days early in the millennium, along with the always fascinating “How does ambient differ from new age?” discussion. I like that one, myself. But fans take this music PERSONALLY, and they love their lists. In the three giant surveys I did in the Hyperreal era, participation was pretty enthusiastic, and everyone wanted to know what everyone ELSE voted for. Nowadays, you can hop on the DISCOGS site or “Rate Your Music” and find lists of global ambient favorites with just a few clicks. Yes, people are still listmaking, and it does my heart good to see that this genre I love so much still has a large following, and even shines a light on obscure or new but maybe under-promoted releases quite often. For anyone ignorant enough of the style to say something like “Isn’t it all just a bunch of droney background noise or synthesizer squiggles?”, well, we enthusiasts will respond “NO!” very aggressively. If you spend any time at all exploring the ambient world, you’ll find startling variety. Sure, synthesizers and keyboards are used routinely, but so are strings (“ambient classical” is a thing), guitars, cellos, brass, field recordings and yes, vocals sometimes. Part of the thrill of being an ambient lover is finding stuff that sounds like nothing you’ve ever heard before. When Eno released the landmark ON LAND, reviewers and fans alike marveled at how you couldn’t even TELL what the instrumentation was at times. It’s often in the MIXING of the sounds that sheer magic would result and prove to be transportive; that is something Eno instinctively pursued.

TIM HECKER, 2016 (photo credit: PAWEL PTAK)

So absolutely NO, it does NOT all “sound alike.” Ambient has crappy, weak recordings just like any other genre, and it also has stone classics like work produced by Eno, Biosphere, Robert Rich, Stars of the Lid, Tim Hecker and many, many others. I tend to think that when a fan makes his list of favorites in the ambient realm, it will consist of albums he’s played many, many times and developed a personal connection to. Ambient GROWS on you if you let it, and it’s adaptable to a wide variety of listening situations. I’ve played it in my car while traveling, in my room while resting or working on a project, and in the old days, I’d offer it as suitable music for small gatherings where everyone wanted something “pretty” or evocative in the background. I had a couple of spectacular experiences in that context when I used to visit friends who lived in Colorado. Ambient can be the ultimate “scenic music” for a scenic setting. And it has the ability to SURPRISE the listener who has an open mind and receptive ears. I love that about this genre, truly.

MY PERSONAL FAVORITES (TODAY)

One more thing to note before I share my list of favorites. Although it seems to be accepted these days, much to the chagrin of some of us, that CDs are no longer the most desirable music format, right up until a year or two before the pandemic they were still the main way that ambient music was sold and “discovered.” There were boutique labels out there like Hypnos, Infraction and the now-defunct but highly influential FAX label in Germany. Some other fantastic labels like Kranky Records in Chicago put out stellar ambient releases along with indie rock and flat out experimental titles; they became the home for Stars of the Lid and many others. Steve Roach, a “superstar” of the genre releases a ton of stuff on the big label Project, as well as his own personal “Timeroom” editions based in Arizona. So you could generally FIND the CDs if you sought them out, but… the limited sales potential of ambient caused many artists to release only limited editions of their work. FAX was known all along for this; label head Pete Namlook realized he could keep his costs down by releasing titles in editions of just 1,000 or 2,000. If they were popular enough to sell out, he had a separate label agreement to reissue such titles. That it happened QUITE often tells you that ambient had its devoted followers, for sure. And in the last few years of Fax (Namlook passed away in 2012, pretty much ending an entire sonic empire), Namlook released editions in a limitation of just 500. Nearly all of those sold out, with almost NO reissues, making many titles highly sought after and ultra expensive on Ebay, DISCOGS and elsewhere. Good luck even finding a lot of that stuff nowadays. The point is, the uniqueness of ambient and the way the internet allowed even obscure artists to be talked about and to get attention, meant that a high “collectibility quotient” was part of what drove more dedicated ambient fans to seek out various titles. I will always be grateful I followed an impulse one day years ago to purchase an evocative sounding limited edition on the Infraction label titled A WARM WOODEN HOLLOW. It was by an Ohio-based artist named Milieu. This release went on to become one of my absolute, all-time favorite “Blue Diamond” ambient recordings. But you simply cannot get it anymore at ALL; the artist himself has no more copies (I know, because I corresponded with him). So, this is the sort of thing that keeps ambient fanatics on their toes. Even a decade after Pete Namlook’s death, fans are seeking out his music and sometimes paying big bucks to do it. Sure, YouTube and other sites have made it possible to listen to a whole universe of ambient music without paying a cent. And virtually EVERY ambient artist either has a BANDCAMP presence or makes their music available as digital downloads quite reasonably. But if you want to OWN the music, on the CD (or in rare cases, vinyl) where you also got the artwork, and have it displayed properly on a handsome shelf, well, that often proved to be the most enjoyable place to have your ambient collection and revisit it in a tangible manner whenever you liked. That’s how I still do it. And I doubt I’ll give up my collection any time soon, because it truly enhances my life.

WILLIAM BASINSKI, 2011 (photo credit: JAMES ELAINE)

In every ambient survey I was involved with, there was some flexibility about how MANY “favorites” you submitted; most people went with ten or twenty, some of them complaining that it was hard to narrow it down to even THAT. On DISCOGS, I routinely see lists of “top 40,” “top 50” and even up to 100 favorites at times. There is a ton of music out there, folks! I saved in my email my own list of “20 All Time Favorites” which stayed fairly consistent after roughly 2012 or so. For our purposes here, I’m only going to share my TOP 10, as I find that a worthy enough challenge, and wanted to see if I’d still argue my case for each of my inclusions. Each is a bonafide gem, a work I not only can listen to any time but positively REVERE. Ambient is genuinely a compelling musical universe to explore if you have that kind of receptivity in your genetic makeup. So here then are some of the greatest titles produced in the genre, according to ME.

BRIAN ENO, 1982 (video capture courtesy BBC TWO RIVERSIDE)

Brian Eno: AMBIENT 4: ON LAND Mysterious, dense landscape music that was so overwhelming to me, I wrote several essays about it and a long letter to Eno himself. The absolute fulfillment of a kind of “dream music” I imagined for years during expeditions out in nature. Eno had already raised the bar so high with DISCREET MUSIC and AMBIENT 1: MUSIC FOR AIRPORTS. But ON LAND created its own fresh spooky universe that only a handful of artists have been able to emulate.

Harold Budd/Brian Eno: AMBIENT 2: THE PLATEAUX OF MIRROR Eno’s two collaborations with piano visionary and heir to the throne of Erik Satie, Harold Budd (THE PEARL is their second collaboration) are now legendary, and routinely make almost everyone’s list of favorites. You’ll see how high they place on the 2015 survey I did. I could have included either album on my list, but I’m going with this 1981 release for its stark minimalist beauty and the fact that the title track is still my very favorite short ambient piece of all time, which is saying a lot.

Aphex Twin: SELECTED AMBIENT WORKS VOLUME 2 This two-disc set has the distinction of being potent enough to inspire one of those little books in the popular 33 1/3 series, in this case a book by Marc Weidenbaum. Weirdo British electronica whiz Richard D. James has released music under different names for nearly a quarter of a century, and VOLUME ONE of the above title was a more accessible, influential and popular electronica album overall. But SAW II, as we enthusiasts call it, is a massive collection of highly original pieces inspired by lucid dreaming; it’s unsettling, diverse and absolutely devoted to its mission of giving the listener a strange and haunting ambient universe to explore. My experience listening to it through headphones on an overnight train journey out west is something I will NEVER forget.

Milieu: A WARM WOODEN HOLLOW God, do I cherish this out-of-print title. A few times listening to it while driving through winery country endeared it to me on a deep level. It has a blissful “aesthetic vagueness” to it that is perfect for a scenic drive, and Brian Grainger, the wunderkind behind this entity as well as others, including Coppice Halifax, has a knack for conjuring beautiful, unexpected soundscapes that he gives you time to revel in. It’s very hard to describe this brand of ambient. It’s melancholy, yearning and foggy, and unusually original for a primarily keyboard-based sound.

Robert Rich: TRANCES/DRONES Deep, immersive “widescreen” ambient. Rich has been a consistent composer/producer for decades, and his music often achieves a sonic depth that is unparalleled. What you get here are long, dark drones that could be suitable for meditation or a generally restless night. You’ll find yourself floating far away to this stuff, whether you intend that or not.

Pete Namlook: AIR 2 I personally regard the Fax label’s genius founder as the main person besides Brian Eno who truly “understood” the vast potential of what was being called “ambient” music. Namlook was THE most prolific composer/producer of the genre, with several HUNDRED titles to his credit if you include all the collaborations that also bore his name. AIR 1 and AIR 2 quickly became classics of “ethno-ambient,” featuring tribal percussion, French and Arabic sounds often hard to pin down, shakers and rainsticks, and all sorts of other instrumentation. AIR 2 is beautifully listenable and hypnotic, and certain to be unlike anything you’ve ever heard. It’s intended to be a “journey without moving,” although something will sure move inside you when you listen to this masterpiece.

Steve Roach: MYSTIC CHORDS AND SACRED SPACES Roach is the MASTER of modern ambient exploration. He’s the most prolific living composer in the realm, and his Timeroom studio in the southern Arizona desert is now legendary, as are his rare live concerts. MYSTIC CHORDS is a massive four-CD set that includes both short pieces and side-long sonic journeys; it’s completely and totally immersive. And I love it especially for pieces like “Wren and Raven” which use bird calls and other natural sounds in the most organic, hypnotic manner. You probably can’t even get through all this epicness in one sitting, but as a powerful, richly textured ambient journey, it has very few peers.

Stars of the Lid: THE TIRED SOUNDS OF STARS OF THE LID Adam Wiltzie and Brian McBride seem like humble, ordinary guys, but together they created a strings-based ambient entity that rapidly earned them a large cult following. They truly created their own style, and largely let their expansive, haunting music speak for itself. This very popular album, a two-record set with a striking yellow cover, has sad-sounding titles like “Requiem for Dying Mothers,” “Austin Texas Mental Hospital” and “The Lonely People (Are Getting Lonelier)”. Whatever you might imagine such music to sound like, chances are it DOES, or goes beyond that. At least a few moments in this set are among the most beautiful moments I have ever heard in ANY musical genre, and the works of SOTL nearly ALWAYS rate high in lists of ambient favorites.

Koda: MOVEMENTS If there is such a thing as “friendly, reassuring ambient,” this disc might be a good example. The music here is not headed for outer space or darker realms of the imagination; instead, it is grounded, ethereal tonally accessible music for what’s here and now, observable right in front of you. It soothes, whereas an artist like Aphex Twin or Lustmord might terrify. Another gem on the always reliable Infraction label, this summation from the Amazon page should suffice: “MOVEMENTS is a work of drifting, beautiful and ethereal soundscapes with a lightly classical leaning and it really does do the job in style… there’s a deeply enthralling tone to the whole work.”

James Johnson/Stephen Phillips: LOST AT DUNN’S LAKE I’m not sure how available this one is anymore, but I’m choosing it because it SO captures the feeling of being in a remote cabin on the shore of some northern lake while a consistent rain falls. Repetitive, moody and delicate, this is a good example of ambient’s ability to totally capture a specific mood and setting. Back in the Hyperreal glory days, the members would exchange recommendations and often write lovely things about their favorites. A guy whose name I can’t remember wrote an incredibly haunting description of this album and how it took him back to days of camping with his father when he was young, somewhere in Minnesota or Wisconsin. Wish I could find that passage. It was perfect to convey the sleepy, nostalgic mood of this “lost” ambient classic.

DO THE ARCHITECTURAL WATUSI Music Features/Interviews Music Reviews | Kevin Renick | January 9, 2024 | Adam Wiltzie Ambient Music Ambient Music Survey Aphex Twin Brian Eno Brian Grainger Brian McBride Dark Ambient Music Drone Music Electronic Music Environmental Ambient Music Ethno-Ambient Music Experimental Music FAX Records Gavin Bryars Harold Budd Instrumental Music James Johnson John Cage Koda Milieu Music Music Feature Obscure Records Pete Namlook Richard David James Robert Fripp Robert Rich Soundtrack Music Stars of the Lid Stephen Phillips Steve Roach The Orb Tim Hecker William Basinski

TEN YEARS AND KICKING: THE INITIAL KICK INTERVIEW

PART ONE: THE INTRODUCTION

INITIAL KICK (Steve Ojane, Frankie Schaffer) (publicity photo)

Angel is one of my all-time favorite “progressive” rock bands. The first time I heard “Tower” on the radio, I was hooked… went out and bought the debut album immediately. While I never saw the original band live, I did see them probably twenty-five years ago, when singer Frank DiMino and drummer Barry Brandt put together a short-lived version of the band. I had given up on ever hearing from the band again when it was announced that DiMino and the band’s incendiary original guitarist, Punky Meadows, were working on new material as Angel. Not long after, I had the opportunity to see this reconstituted band play live. This new Angel line-up was more in line with what the original band sounded like. Each member of the group was a stand-out musician, but I continually found myself focusing on the bass player, one Steve E Ojane. He had that beefy, muscular sound that drove most hard rock bands of the 1970s, including Angel, particularly the albums with Mickie Jones’ replacement, Felix Robinson. Steve recorded two albums with the group, RISEN and ONCE UPON A TIME. Recently, it was announced that Felix Robinson would be returning for select shows and that other players would be filling in on bass. Ojane’s time in Angel was apparently over. On the same day that I read the news about Felix, I received a promotional download of PLAYS WITH MERCURY by Steve’s new/old band, Initial Kick. I immediately requested an interview, the result of which follows…

ANGEL, circa 2022 (Charlie Calv, Billy Orrico, Punky Meadows, Frank DiMino, Danny Farrow, Steve Ojane (publicity photo)

THE INTERVIEW

THE MULE: So, the two of you formed Initial Kick about a decade ago… quite a while before Steve took up the bass duties with Angel. Steve, why did you decide to set IK aside and play with that iconic band? How has that experience influenced your work here?

STEVE OJANE: First off, I just want to thank you for talking with us today, Darren. It’s a pleasure. To answer your question – I was a big Angel fan since my early teens. Angel was five days shy of being my first concert. (The Meat Loaf BAT OUT OF HELL tour was my first, just five days earlier.) I had all the Angel albums, had their posters on my walls, et cetera. When this opportunity presented itself all these years later, there really wasn’t any question. I had to go for it. Frankie completely understood the decision to put Initial Kick on the back-burner temporarily. It would have been a bit too much performing live in two touring bands at the same time. But since we started recording the Initial Kick album before I joined Angel, we continued the recording and mixing during the interim.

THE MULE: Did Angel’s connections with Starz lead to Richie Ranno’s participation on PLAYS WITH MERCURY or did you know him before Angel?

STEVE: I met Richie through the shows we did with Starz and he’s been a good friend ever since. He’s a terrific guy and an incredibly melodic guitar player. His style blended perfect with the material on the Initial Kick album, and we are thrilled he generously offered to play on two of the tracks – “Tomorrow and Forever” and “Rock and Roll Saved My Life.”

THE MULE: Frankie, while Steve was touring and recording with Angel, how did you keep busy? Did you do any writing or work on other projects? Did Initial Kick continue to play and record during Steve’s downtime from Angel?

FRANKIE SCHAFFER: I’m so glad Steve got to live his dream and tour the world with Angel. That said, I’m very happy Initial Kick is back now and firing on all cylinders! The past few years for me have been filled with life, work, and lockdowns. Ha. Actually, I played in a Ramones tribute band for a while that was a lot of fun, and I’m always in the studio messing with things. Steve and I were always in communication and, although we placed IK, the live band, on hiatus for a bit, we continued working on making the record the best it could be. And we’re working on the follow-up now which, if you like the first record, you’ll love the next one!

INITIAL KICK (Steve Ojane, Frankie Schaffer) (uncredited photo)

THE MULE: I’ve been listening to the album and there’s a certain… smoothness to the sound, particularly the vocals. I think that this approach serves the material quite well, especially on the singles. “Tranquilizer” is jarringly tranquil… not at all what I expected. And, the cover of “Sugar, Sugar” is a blast. First, is the sound a natural extension of working together or is it an intentional attempt to do something just a bit different within the confines of Rock and Pop music? Second, obviously, the Archies were next level cartoon performers – on par with another like-minded band, the Beatles – but have rarely been covered. What prompted you to cover the national anthem of Pop confection and how much fun was it to record? Is there a cover of the Groovie Goolies in IK’s future? Or, the Amazing Chan and the Chan Clan, Banana Splits, Jabberjaw and the Neptunes or Evolution Revolution from LANCELOT LINK: SECRET CHIMP?

STEVE: Maybe that “smooth” vocal sound you refer to is simply because I don’t have a particularly loud voice. So I would say it’s not a deliberate thing, just the way I sound I guess. Of course I belt it out on the heavier tunes. As for the bubblegum possibilities… I don’t know. Frankie, Is “Yummy Yummy Yummy” on deck for the next album? Ha!

FRANKIE: Steve and I both love upbeat, fun music and I’m a big fan of the original bubblegum genre – 1910 Fruitgum Company, Ohio Express, Bay City Rollers, Sweet, et cetera. I think it was Steve’s idea to cover “Sugar Sugar” and I was instantly onboard 100%. It’s just a great song and fits well on the record. I’m not sure about the Banana Splits but I do see some Partridge Family in our future. Ha ha!

THE MULE: Steve, I saw Angel a couple of years ago (at the Wildey Theatre in Edwardsville, IL) and was quite impressed, not only with your playing but with the tone of your bass. That is the sound that I grew up listening to, with bands like Alice Cooper, Grand Funk Railroad, Bad Company and so many others… a truly classic sound. Are you playing bass on the new IK album and will you play the parts live or are you concentrating solely on the vocals?

STEVE: Thank you, Darren. Yes, that classic bass sound is deliberate. That sound we all grew up on is still in my heart as the classic bass tone. I did play bass on the album but don’t play bass while singing live with the band. I’d rather be free to just sing, and I have limited attention bandwidth! Ha ha!

STEVE OJANE on stage with ANGEL, November 3, 2021 (photo credit: DARREN TRACY)

THE MULE: Tell us a bit about the songwriting process within the band. How do the tunes come together?

STEVE: Since you brought up “Tranquilizer,” that’s a good example. I had half an idea kicking around in my head for a while for a 3/4 timing song that spoke about finding relief for the things in life that ail ya. Then one day, Frankie started playing this sweet wah-wah guitar part that was perfect for the song. We fused those elements together into what became one of the standout tracks on the album. It was even used in a movie soundtrack – BOXANNE, directed by Brian Wild.

FRANKIE: Most of the material on the first record are songs, ideas, and melodies Steve had written over the years. I liken it to ice cream. Steve is the ice cream on this record. I am the sprinkles. Ice cream is great, but ice cream with sprinkles? Forgeddaboutit!!

INITIAL KICK (Alexx Reckless, Steve Ojane, Johnny Zabo, Frankie Schaffer) (uncredited photo)

THE MULE: I’ve mentioned Richie Ranno. Who else plays on the album? Aside from the two of you, who else would be a part of a touring Initial Kick band? Have you considered putting together a permanent version of the band outside of the core? What does the future hold for the two of you and the band?

STEVE: In addition to Richie Ranno, we also have Charlie Calv (keyboards) and Billy Orrico (drums) from Angel playing on a few tracks. Also, Damian MonteCarlo and Phil “Mad Dog” Roberts make an appearance. As far as the live band, we have our original drummer, Johnny Zabo, back on board and we’re looking to start performing live again early next year. In the mean time, like Frankie said, we’re actually working on the second album. It’s really a one-two punch. We had so much material that we couldn’t fit it all on one album. So we split the material in two and, for the complete Initial Kick experience, you’ll have to check out the follow-up album which will be released in 2024!

FRANKIE: There’s a bit more collaboration writing-wise on the next record. In reality, we have so many songs to choose from, it will be interesting to see what makes the cut. Just looking forward to the next single off of PLAYS WITH MERCURY and moving forward. IK2 is in the works!

THE MULE: Finally, Steve, I’ve seen posts from the Angel camp stating that Felix Robinson will be returning for a few shows on their next run and that others will be filling in, as well. Does this mean that you have officially parted ways with the group or is this merely part of a push to get Initial Kick into the public consciousness?

STEVE: I’m thrilled that Felix is back in the fold. He’s a great guy and of course – a phenomenal musician. I’ll be in the front row cheering him on! This is actually what I’ve always hoped for. Although I love the time that I spent in Angel, I was always hoping it would serve as a catalyst for getting the original members back together. This is a great first step, I think. Who knows what the future has in store but, for now anyway, I am no longer in Angel and I’m really enjoying writing, recording, and performing my own music.

THE MULE: Thanks, guys. Oh, yeah… one last thing: Please tell me there’s going to be a vinyl version of PLAYS WITH MERCURY.

FRANKIE: Ha ha! It’s in the works!

THE REVIEW

INITIAL KICK: PLAYS WITH MERCURY

(DEKO ENTERTAINMENT; 2023)

Guitarist Frankie Schaffer and singer/bassist Steve Ojane, for all intents and purposes, are Initial Kick and their debut album, PLAYS WITH MERCURY, has been a long time coming. The original band formed a decade ago, taking a six year hiatus while Steve toured and recorded with one of his favorite bands, Angel. Realizing that the time was right, Ojane stepped away from his Angel duties to finish what he started with Schaffer and Initial Kick. So, was the delay worth the wait? Well… DUH!

INITIAL KICK (Alexx Reckless, Ray Ray D, Johnny Zabo, Steve Ojane, Frankie Schaffer) (photo credit THE MUSICIANS ROCK NETWORK)

““On the Inside” gets the proceedings off to a bombastic start with a bit of “stun guitar” from Frankie and Steve’s effortless vocal style. “Tomorrow and Forever” features a chugging rhythm and some very nicely-placed tack piano by (Steve’s former Angel bandmate) Charlie Calv occasionally pushing its way up from the depths of the mix. The lead work and solo (from Frankie and Richie Ranno from Starz) are of the type that one would expect from an Arena Rock band from the latter Jurassic Period (late ‘70s and early ‘80s), but tweaked just enough to make it fresh and new. With pounding drums from Steve’s battery mate in Angel, Billy Orrico, and a riff that would make Chuck proud, “Wish You Well (Once Upon a Time)” could be the ultimate “kiss off” song of all time… kind of the biggest “I loved you, you broke my heart, I’m so over you” song ever written. Plus… COW BELL! The first single from the record, “Tranquilizer,” was featured in the Brian Wild movie BOXANNE. It’s about keeping the demons in your head in check and chugs along at a dizzyingly lethargic pace even after the drums pick up over the last half of the tune. A chorus with lyrics like “Give me a tranquilizer/To steady my head/To feel good instead,” certainly makes it an odd choice for a lead single, but… it works. You almost believe that the drugs are working when Steve sings “I will be good/The way that I should.” It ain’t a toe-tapper but, it sure does get stuck in your head.

INITIAL KICK (Ken Mondillo, Steve Ojane, Alexx Reckless) (uncredited photo)

“Another great riff, a catchy melody, an appearance by original IK drummer Johnny Zabo and more of Ojane’s old-school bass style highlight “Sotheby’s Wasteland (It’s a Mall World After All).” The tongue-in-cheek lyrics are merely icing on the cake of another excellent mid-tempo rocker. The opening guitar on “Me and Rock and Roll” is somehow very reminiscent of the Beatles’ “Don’t Let Me Down” and the lyrics could be and updated version of “Beth” by Kiss. Given the name of the tune, both of those comparisons are quite apt. The guitars bite in a very laid-back way (as dichotomous as that sounds, that’s what I’m hearing). Frankie offers up another nice solo at the end. “Sloan Road Kids” is one of the more rockin’ tunes with a cool, almost familiar riff. With Steve, Frankie and the boys leaning into the Power Pop sound, it has a certain Cheap Trickesque magnificance. The instrumental harmonics of “’93” add a certain… here’s that word again… familiar warmth to what is the only actual ballad on PLAYS WITH MERCURY with a killer acoustic lead. The sound oddly brings to mind an old T Rex hand-clapper – especially the final minute or so – as the tempo picks up a bit, bringing a good song to a nice finish.

““At Home With the Animals” is an absolute rager compared to everything else here. And, like everything else here, it features solid licks, a cool solo and powerful though understated drumming. A true standout track among an album of standout tracks. I’m a sucker for cover tunes, the stranger the better. That, in a nutshell, is IK’s take on “Sugar Sugar,” that saccharine piece of bubblegum pop by the Archies, a cartoon group based on the ARCHIE comic books. In 1969 and 1970, it was almost impossible to escape the infectious song. Initial Kick adds a hard rock edge to the syrupy number, with rather tribal drumming and some stingingly awesome guitarwork. Of course, Ojane’s bass shines throughout and his smooth vocal delivery is almost a mirror of Ron Dante’s original. “Big In Singapore” is another lyrical gem, a track about the travails of a working rock band trying to find an audience in the good ol’ US of… in the 2020s. After quite a nice, melodic guitar intro, the lyrics take hold. With lines like “Thinking we passed the test/Then we get an F” and “We found our home abroad/Our US plan was a little bit flawed,” you hear a tinge of frustration, but also the ring of truth about the fickle state of the music industry (and its consumers) in this country. Steve gets bonus points for the line “Get your ass caned if you misbehave.” With a cool organ intro by Charlie Calv, aggressive power chords (are there any other kinds?) and the bass and drums as powerful as anywhere else on the album, “Rock and Roll Saved My Life” seems the antithesis of the previous number, extolling the healing properties of music and Rock music in particular. This is as close to a nod to Steve’s time in Angel as any of the previous eleven tunes. The song also has a snotty kind of guitar solo by Richie Ranno that fits perfectly here. Much like “On the Inside” was the perfect track to open PLAYS WITH MERCURY, “Rock and Roll Saved My Life” is the perfect set closer.

INITIAL KICK (Alexx Reckless, Ray Ray D, Steve Ojane, Johnny Zabo, Frankie Schaffer) (uncredited photo)

It only took ‘em ten years, but Frankie Schaffer and Steve Ojane have finally delivered the near-perfect debut album. Here’s looking to record number two. And… hopefully, a tour? What do ya say, boys?

DO THE ARCHITECTURAL WATUSI Music Features/Interviews Music Reviews Streaming Video | Darren Tracy | November 30, 2023 | Angel Artist Interview Billy Oricco Charlie Calv Classic Rock Felix Robinson Frank DiMino Frankie Schaffer Glam Rock Hard Rock Initial Kick Johnny Zabo Music Pop Music Pop Rock Punky Meadows Rock and Roll Steve Ojane Streaming Video The Archies

HEADHUNTING FOR FUN AND PROFIT: THE KENTUCKY HEADHUNTERS LIVE PREVIEW

They’re a little bit Donny and a little bit Marie… and a little bit James Brown and a little bit McKinley Morganfield… maybe even a little bit Woody Guthrie. The music of the Kentucky Headhunters is permeated with an amalgam of everything that is American music. The boys from the heart of Kentucky are a lean and not-too-mean Rock and Roll machine, hitting on all four cylinders. Like the rest of the world, Greg Martin, Fred Young, Richard Young and Doug Phelps found themselves with jobs that they couldn’t go to and, in a couple of cases, they were put low by the virus that held us all prisoners for nearly 30 months. Guitarist Martin said that the band was just “crawling out of the wreckage” in 2021, reconvening in February to record what became the album THAT’S A FACT JACK! and somehow managing to play about forty-five dates through the end of the year. Now, the Headhunters are back on the road and coming to the Effingham (Illinois) Performance Center, just a few hours up the road from Greg’s adopted home of Glasgow, Kentucky. With opening act Confederate Railroad in tow, he has guaranteed a good time for all. When asked what can be expected on April 2 in Effingham, Martin said, “It’s gonna be like somebody opened the corn crib and let a bunch of hogs in. It’s gonna be a frenzy of Rock and Roll, Country and Blues. Naw, man… we’re gonna have a great time. We always love playing that part of the state; it’s always a blast. We got a lot of fans. Yeah. I think you’re gonna see some guys just happy to be out playin’ music again.”

THE KENTUCKY HEADHUNTERS (Greg Martin) (photo credit: CHRISTIE GOODWIN)

As excited as the guitarist was to get back to playing live, he was just as excited to tell us about his other career and, naturally, our conversation eventually ambled into a discussion about Greg’s LOWDOWN HOEDOWN program on WDNS radio out of Bowling Green. The three hour Blues-intensive show airs Monday nights beginning at 7:00 Central time and streams at wdnsfm.com. Brother Greg is a true musicologist and traditionally delves into the roots and the seedy underbelly of the beast we call Rock and Roll… don’t expect any type of genre segregation with this show as the man was raised on AM radio when it didn’t matter what kind of music was being played as long as it was good. You can expect the same type of show from the Headhunters. What a great way to spend a Saturday night! For ticket information, head over to the Performance Center’s site, the-epc.org.

DO THE ARCHITECTURAL WATUSI Live Music Preview Music Features/Interviews | Darren Tracy | March 26, 2022 | Blues Rock Confederate Railroad Country Music Country Rock Doug Phelps Effingham IL Effingham Performance Center Fred Young Greg Martin Live Music LOWDOWN HOEDOWN Music Music Preview Rhythm and Blues Richard Young Rock and Roll Southern Rock The Kentucky Headhunters WDNS-FM

MARTIN BARRE: LEFT OF CENTER

Martin Lancelot Barre is one of the unsung heroes of Rock and Roll. As Tony Iommi’s replacement in Jethro Tull, he created and played some of the most recognizable riffs in the history of the electric guitar. I mean, who hasn’t marveled at the power of his opening salvo to “Aqualung” or the monstrous crunch of his work on “Locomotive Breath?” And, who can forget the epic, bone-crushing CREST OF A KNAVE, which won the first Grammy awarded for Heavy Metal Album? Standing stage left with Jethro Tull for more than 43 years, Mister Barre was Ian Anderson’s “left-hand man” and so much more. As Anderson was moving more toward a solo career in the early ‘90s, Martin branched out as well, finally having the chance to display his songwriting prowess on such albums as A SUMMER BAND (1993), STAGE LEFT (2003), and BACK TO STEEL (2014), alongside several live albums.

Now, Martin Barre is bringing the music of Jethro Tull – AQUALUNG in particular – to the magnificent, intimate Wildey Theatre in Edwardsville for two nights, January 21 and 22. This year marks the fiftieth anniversary of Tull’s most well-known, most successful album (AQUALUNG, if you weren’t paying attention; actually, the record was released in 1971 but, you know… lockdowns and pandemics and such) and, since no one else was taking advantage of such an event, Martin and his band decided that they would. And, they aren’t coming alone… original Tull drummer Clive Bunker is appearing on (at least) the Midwest leg of the tour; keyboardist Dee Palmer, who was an integral part (as David Palmer) of the Tull machine for many years as an arranger, conductor and writer before having an actual “player” credit on SONGS FROM THE WOODS, has opted out of this tour due to health concerns amid the ongoing COVID scare. Martin declares that he and his group (vocalist Dan Crisp, bassist Alan Thomson and drummer Darby Todd) are more than up for the challenges presented by Ms Palmer’s absence. Clive, Dee and the Martin Barre Band can be heard (and seen) in all their glory on the latest release, a DVD called LIVE AT THE WILDEY, recorded during their 2019 tour. As far as other surprises this time around, Martin promised this writer – over a cup of tea and a telephone call – “Oh, there’s definitely surprises. Well, let me think… one, two, three, four… certainly four pieces of music that we’ve never played before. We swap it around… I mean, I always love throwing in something that’s really left of center. I really enjoy people being in shock.” It sounds like a great night of Rock and Roll,with plenty of Tull and an ample sampling of tunes from the Martin Barre Band, to boot!

DO THE ARCHITECTURAL WATUSI Live Music Preview Music Features/Interviews | Darren Tracy | January 16, 2022 | Alan Thomson AQUALUNG AQUALUNG 50TH ANNIVERSARY TOUR Blues Rock Classic Rock Clive Bunker Dan Crisp Darby Todd Dee Palmer Edwardsville IL Hard Rock Jethro Tull Live Music Martin Barre Martin Barre Band Music Music Preview Progressive Folk Rock Progressive Rock Rock and Roll Wildey Theatre

SHE GIVES ME FEVER

A LOVE-NOTE TO PEGGY LEE, ONE OF THE GREATEST SINGER/SONGWRITERS OF THE RECORDING ERA (by STEVE WAGNER)

A tip of the top hat and genuflection to Miss Peggy Lee, today celebrating the centennial of her birth. Peggy has long been one of my very favorite singers, from the day a friend turned me onto her album SUGAR ‘N’ SPICE in 1984. In the years since, I have delved deeply into her catalog, which is truly a gift that keeps on giving. Peggy was a towering figure in 20th century popular music. A singer for the ages, she was also one of the most accomplished lyricists in music history, and mostly at a time when very few women were songwriters, much less singer/songwriters. She was an innovator throughout her six-decade career, and, like most great artists, was restless, experimental, uncompromising, and a perfectionist. It is said she ran her sessions with no patience for lip, or amateurs. One simply did not question Miss Lee’s taste, or decisions, if one wanted to stay on her record.

PEGGY LEE, 1946 (photo credit: RAY WHITTEN PHOTOGRAPHY/MICHAEL OCHS ARCHIVES/GETTY IMAGES)

As someone who really values great vocals, I find Peggy’s oeuvre to be an indispensable primer on what makes a great singer a great singer. Frankly, most current singers leave me cold – I’m distracted and irritated by the faux emotion, self-indulgent delivery, calculated moans, endless vocal gymnastics at the expense of melody, and puzzling lack of awareness of what THE SONG is asking for. Peggy never exhibited such rookie behavior; she accomplished what every song called for with the exact opposite approach – rich tone, perfect pitch, intuitive timing, impeccable phrasing, and thoughtful understatement. She was a master of the “less-is-more” style, which I find much more moving than the egoic wailings we are frequently inundated with now. Peggy’s voice flourished across so many styles and genres – pop, jazz, cabaret, torch, blues, and comedy/novelty – while always remaining utterly singular and instantly recognizable.

PEGGY LEE on THE FRANK SINATRA SHOW, 1957 (photo credit: WALT DISNEY TELEVISION/GETTY IMAGES)

It would be impossible to summarize her long career here, suffice to say it is very telling that it closely mirrored that of Frank Sinatra’s throughout the decades. They both had their introductions as singers fronting the top big bands of the swing era – Frank with Tommy Dorsey and Peg with Benny Goodman – with both quickly becoming breakout stars on their own. Both dominated the charts as solo artists in the 1940s. Peg scored over twenty Top 40 songs in that decade, with her “Mañana (Is Soon Enough for Me)” the number one song of 1948, and Capitol Records’ top-selling single for sixteen years, until the Beatles’ “I Want to Hold Your Hand” in 1964. Both branched into acting in the mid-50s with Oscar-nominated performances (Frank for FROM HERE TO ETERNITY, Peg for PETE KELLY’S BLUES), and both also pioneered the concept album during this period (Frank with IN THE WEE SMALL HOURS, and Peg with BLACK COFFEE). Both managed to survive the explosion of rock and roll, maintaining a consistent chart presence throughout the ‘60s – indeed, they were really the only two singers from the big band years to remain commercially viable through that decade, even recording songs that are now considered amongst their best work. And both were ultimately defined by seminal songs late in their games – Frank for the testimonial “My Way” and Peg for the existential “Is That All There Is?” – which finally garnered her a Grammy for Best Vocal Performance in 1969, at the height of the classic rock era.

PEGGY LEE on stage (photo credit GEORGE RINHART/CORBIS HISTORICAL/GETTY IMAGES)

As a songwriter, Peggy is up there with the greats. She collaborated with many giants of the form – Harold Arlen, Mel Tormé, Victor Young, Cy Coleman, Sonny Burke, and Duke Ellington. Her songs graced numerous films, among others THE JAZZ SINGER (1952); TOM THUMB (1958); ANATOMY OF A MURDER (1959); THE RUSSIANS ARE COMING, THE RUSSIANS ARE COMING (1966); WALK, DON’T RUN (1966); THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER (1968); and, of course, Disney’s LADY AND THE TRAMP (1955), for which Peg composed the songs, and sang and voiced the parts of the female characters, not to mention two very devious Siamese cats. So many of her songs are timeless standards: “It’s a Good Day,” “Golden Earrings,” “I Don’t Know Enough About You,” “Johnny Guitar,” “Don’t Smoke in Bed,” “Mañana,” “He’s a Tramp,” and “I Love Being Here with You,” just to name a few. And while her career-defining hit “Fever” was originally penned by Eddie Cooley and John Davenport, Peggy added two original verses (“Romeo loved Juliet… ” and “Captain Smith and Pocahontas… ”) for her definitive version, and also came up with the idea to transpose the key up a half-step for each verse, which perfectly communicated the “rising temperature” motif. When the dust settled, her songs had been recorded by the cream of 20th century crooners and canaries: Bing Crosby, Ella Fitzgerald, Judy Garland, Nat “King” Cole, Tony Bennett, Sarah Vaughan, June Christy, Mose Allison, Della Reese, Jack Jones, Perry Como, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Junior, Annie Ross, Elvis Presley, Nina Simone, Mark Murphy, Dionne Warwick, Michael Feinstein, kd lang, and Madonna.

PEGGY LEE with PAUL MCCARTNEY, 1976 (photo credit: JAMES FORTUNE)

If you’ll indulge me a few anecdotes I feel speak to Peg’s unique impact: She gave Quincy Jones a commercial biz leg-up in the early ‘60s, hiring the jazz wunderkind to arrange and produce for her. She gave her longtime lover Robert Preston singing lessons in preparation for his role as Harold Hill in THE MUSIC MAN. She was a favorite of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, charting one of their gems, “I’m a Woman” in 1962, which stands with Leslie Gore’s “You Don’t Own Me” as a proto-feminist anthem. Jerry and Mike claim that a few years later she threatened to have their legs broken if they didn’t give her “Is That All There Is?” (which also became the first hit to feature Randy Newman, who was arranger). She was the inspiration for “Miss Piggy” on THE MUPPET SHOW and essentially the genesis of the Jessica Rabbit character in WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT, her immortal “Why Don’t You Do Right” the song Jessica breathlessly sings to a mouth-agape Bob Hoskins. In addition to cutting nearly every substantial tune from the Great American Songbook, she recorded songs by rock/pop innovators Burt Bacharach, Carole King, Jimmy Webb, George Harrison, John Sebastian, Buffy Saint Marie, and Ray Davies. Paul McCartney, a huge fan, specially wrote the song “Let’s Love” for her in 1973, one of her last singles. kd lang, one of today’s most acclaimed singers, considers Peggy to be a primary influence. Peggy’s nightclub performances are the stuff of legend – extended residencies at Basin Street East in New York in the early ‘60s attracted a veritable who’s who of show business glitterati nightly. The Beatles were said to have wanted to attend when they first came over to do the Sullivan Show, but knew that Beatlemania would overwhelm the club and respected her too much to disturb. And finally, Peggy sang at Louis Armstrong’s funeral. Mic drop.

PEGGY LEE at the first Grammy Awards, 1959 (photo credit: WILLIAM CLAXTON/courtesy: DENMONT PHOTO MANAGEMENT

If you have the time (and who doesn’t, these days?) I implore you to explore this incredible artist. Recommended albums: BLACK COFFEE (1956); DREAM STREET (1957); BEAUTY AND THE BEAT (1959); BASIN STREET EAST (1961); and MINK JAZZ (1963). Below, please find several songs and videos that I hope bring Peggy’s brilliance into deeper perspective.

Enjoy, and HAPPY 100TH BIRTHDAY, PEGGY!

First, here is an amazing film of Peggy at Basin Street, performing “See See Rider” with a presence that is, in a word, riveting. Tell me she doesn’t have the most expressive face this side of Elvis.

Peggy’s celebrated score for Disney’s LADY AND THE TRAMP in 1955 remains among her best known and most beloved work. It’s easy to hear why. Both the lyrics and vocal delivery are laced with lighthearted humor and cleverness. The two most famous songs from the movie – “He’s a Tramp” and “The Siamese Cat Song” – easily rank with the very best in the entire Disney animated film canon.

““He’s a Tramp”

““The Siamese Cat Song”

A wonderful example of Peggy’s singular approach to the blues, “I’m Looking Out the Window” is a simple sad chord progression in no hurry whatsoever to reach its destination, and only becomes a blues number because of the way Peggy interprets it. She takes what would be a straightforward melody and bends it into a poignant lament on waiting for a love that never arrives. Note that her take on this tune uses the same structural trick as her version of “Fever,” bouncing the key up a step with every other verse. This would normally produce a sense of hopefulness, or at least growing excitement. Peggy tempers this expectation by phrasing the lines more and more languidly as the song progresses.

One of the great, and still mostly overlooked, tunes from the standards era, this longing ballad (written by THE WIZARD OF OZ composer Harold Arlen in 1941) was recorded by nearly everyone, but never became a sizable hit for anyone. Among those who cut “When the Sun Comes Out” were the likes of Ella Fitzgerald, June Christy, Tony Bennett, Mel Tormé, and Nancy Wilson. Notably, it was one of Barbra Streisand’s earliest recordings, the B-Side of her first single, 1962’s “Happy Days Are Here Again” (later re-recorded for THE SECOND BARBRA STREISAND ALBUM in 1963). But to my ears, Peggy’s version is the best of them all. She never strays from the melancholy feeling the lyrics demand, never falls prey to affecting a “big finish” beyond allowing her voice to become more emotional as the narrative builds. The arrangement rightly follows suit. This is a song that is meant to evoke, not entertain, and Peggy’s version does just that, perfectly.

A great example of how to subtly turn a jazz number into relatable pop, “I’m Gonna Go Fishin” is a co-composition by Peggy and Duke Ellington featured in the classic Jimmy Stewart courtroom drama ANATOMY OF A MURDER in 1959. Peggy’s lyric masterfully matches the jazzy intervals while winking at the listener throughout. She’s out to “catch me a trout,” alright, and her vocal supplies all the needed innuendo even if one can’t discern the barely concealed true intent in the lyric.

Paul McCartney loved Peggy, and composed this soft nugget for her in 1973, where it became one of her last singles and the title of the album on which it was featured. “Let’s Love” is unmistakably a McCartney melody, but Paul clearly strove to create a song that would allow for and accent Peggy’s personal style. This is one that every Beatle fan should know and serves as both love letter and testament to Peggy’s bedrock influence on the pop artists and songwriters—at least the respectful ones—who followed in her footsteps.

Peggy should absolutely be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and not just as an influencer, but as a singer who deftly made the transition from easy listening into the more hard-edged styles of the rock era. This recording alone should be enough to deem her worthy. Written by the great songwriting team of Leiber and Stoller, “I’m a Woman” ranks with their best, and Peggy simply hits it out of the park.

Peggy’s two most famous songs show the wide range of her talent as a vocalist, bringing precisely the right emotion to the needs of each. “Fever” is the quintessential torch song, and Peggy sings it with a brusque beguile that is always on the verge of boiling over while maintaining a shrewd detachment. This wise woman schools us on sex as she works us into a lather. Conversely, “Is That All There Is?” is the ultimate world-weary take on life and loss and the eternal question of “to be, or not to be.” I remember being stunned, at the age of nine, by the directness of this song, as I realized what Peggy was really singing about. This is one of the most unique songs to dominate the 20th century pop charts, and Peggy sings it like someone who has lived it. Because she had.

“Fever”

“Is That All There Is?”

DO THE ARCHITECTURAL WATUSI HEY, MA! WATCH THIS Movies Music Features/Interviews Streaming Video Television | Steve Wagner | May 26, 2020 | Benny Goodman Big Band Music Duke Ellington Frank Sinatra Jazz Music Music Feature Musical Paul McCartney Peggy Lee Pop Music Quincy Jones Rhythm and Blues Robert Preston Singer/Songwriter Soundtrack Music Streaming Video THE LADY AND THE TRAMP

JUST AFTER ZERO: ALCHEMEDIC

(SELF-RELEASED; 2020)

Any time a new artist releases a full CD, they should be applauded. It takes a whole lot of courage and chutzpah to put a disc out these days and to feel you have something worthwhile to add to the cultural dialogue. For the listener, your general response will be based on two things: “What is different about this entity?” And maybe, “Do the songs grab me?” What we’ve got here is a Saint Louis act called Just After Zero, the musical brand name for one John Liming, who has a flair for observing the nonsensical, consumerist realms of existence, impressive musical chops, and a preoccupation with the sometimes-cinematic and sometimes just taxing side of life. There is cynicism and humor running through these ten songs, and above all, a keen diarist’s sense of the absurd. Fortunately, Liming has the raw beginnings of a pretty original style here, with a healthy dose of David Byrne-ish quirkiness (although Liming’s lyrics are more personal and his delivery less detached) and a touch of Nick Cave’s brooding but vulnerable side. The inherent drama of his vocal delivery works fine when the arrangements match it, which fortunately they do on at least half the compositions on his debut, ALCHEMEDIC. And you get the sense you’ve just met a highly original new songwriter.

JUST AFTER ZERO (John Liming) (uncredited photo)

Liming wisely begins the disc with his strongest track, “Coming Down,” an ultra-cool little chunk of sonics with edgy acoustic guitar, bass, and an insistently simple drumbeat that you’ll tap your foot to. He’s in masterful control here; the guitar playing is terrific, with an economic and surprising electric solo a couple moments in and possibly the best vocal on the record. There’s a vague sense of threat that the narrator is sharing, with the line “I should get out of this town” repeated enough to qualify as a hook. Musically, this is just a solid song all the way. “Backlot” starts with a similarly bracing riff, although it is shorter, and keeps the attention on Liming’s voice. This may be an acquired taste for some… but he doesn’t really sound exactly like anyone else, which I’d say is good. There is a slight tinge of implied paranoia but also a strong sense of survival determination that makes the journey he takes you on less jittery than it might have been otherwise. My favorite of his odd little tunes is “Electric Cicadas,” which is Liming adding memorable flourishes to the template he’s created for himself. There’s undeniable punk-ish energy happening here. “These electric cicadas got me down,” he sings repeatedly, with a brittle, wiry electric guitar solo popping up at just the right moment. And I like the “Oh, no, no, no” exclamation, the best use of that kinda thing since Paul Simon in “Paranoia Blues.” Good stuff, with kinetic energy!

<a href="http://justafterzero.bandcamp.com/track/building-code-under-fire">Building Code Under Fire! by Just After Zero</a>

“Building Code Under Fire” will remind you of a Talking Heads title, “Love Goes to a Building on Fire,” and it takes on messed-up societal processes, a thing Liming seems to think about a great deal. The drama is supplied entirely by Liming’s vocals and a solid acoustic guitar track. Then it’s time for an atypical highlight, “Harvest Song (C’est la Vie),” which is airplay worthy. Serious existential contemplation is taking place here, as Liming sings “I met the devil in a truck stop, he was waiting for a ride/He snapped his fingers to the radio that was playing from inside.” A little bit later, we get “I met the devil in a truck stop and he reeked of kerosene/He said, you better pay attention when you see the things I see.” This is a well-constructed tune that features the most singable chorus on ALCHEMEDIC, and it’s fun to ponder what might have prompted this composition. Another voice and acoustic guitar thing, the song proves Liming cares about the songwriting process… he has good ideas to spare, certainly one of the requirements for an adventurous new artist. “Only Monika” is a somewhat dour little tune that may have a girl’s name in the title but clearly it’s NOT “only Monika” causing the blues here. Then we get another surprise – “Tex Mex,” which is a rather zippy little instrumental that shows Liming can really play guitar, quite energetically, in fact. This is a nice trick for a newcomer to have up their sleeve. And “Irene’s Call” begins with part of a computerized voice talking about credit eligibility, which the subsequent song then proceeds to make a mockery of. Liming’s close attention to the irritations of modern life should provide him material for plenty of future songs, no doubt. He does sarcasm pretty well.

JUST AFTER ZERO (Adam Long, John Liming) (uncredited photo)

At times, a few of these songs aren’t too far past demo stage; Liming benefits from the ones that feature drums, which were played by Ralph Noyes. Liming handles guitar, bass on some songs and of course, vocals. There is a theatrical bent to many tracks, and when Liming gets the balance just right, as on “Coming Down,” “Electric Cicadas,” “Backlot” and “Harvest Song,” you really feel you’re being courted by a bracing new talent. The man has something to say, an eccentric style and presence and a pretty good flair for arrangements. I think we’re going to hear more from him for sure, and the riffs and refrains from some of these tunes are already firmly lodged in my brain. That seems like a pretty good sign to me.

ALCHEMEDIC can be ordered from Bandcamp at: https://justafterzero.bandcamp.com/album/alchemedic. Physical CDs can be ordered for $10 from JustAfterZero@gmail.com.

FIVE QUESTIONS WITH JOHN LIMING OF “JUST AFTER ZERO”

Q1: What is the significance of branding yourself as “Just After Zero” rather than your own name?

John: Truthfully, I was tired of people mispronouncing my last name. The original plan was to go by “One”, a three-way reference between the track from Metallica’s …AND JUSTICE FOR ALL album, which was the first guitar song I learned in high school, my status as a one-man act, and coming up with the name around 1:00 AM the morning before my first open mic. But I worried about it getting mixed up with “Won” and “1”, so I switched over to the more memorable and easily communicated “Just After Zero.”

Q2: Every artist ends up getting asked about their stylistic touchstones or influences. So, what are yours? They don’t just have to be musical artists. But what would you say are the things that led you to making your kind of music?

John: Funnily enough, my biggest influence is from film, not music. I’ve always been a big fan of low budget horror movies, particularly the shot-on-video variety that popped up after the renaissance of cheap VHS camcorders and digital editing software. It’s fascinating seeing filmmakers not much better off than myself just throw themselves at a production and make something on a shoestring budget with precious little technical skill, driven only by a desire to make the movies that scared them as teenagers. The movies end up sweaty, generally ugly, and always fascinating in their interpretation of universal fears. They taught me to not shy away from imperfection, or at least not to trade technical competency for impulse. This inspiration also serves as fodder for a few songs on ALCHEMEDIC, specifically “I Write Horrorshows,” “Backlot,” and “Building Code Under Fire!,” all very literally about the different aspects of cheap production values. Musically, a huge influence of mine is Primus’ Les Claypool. His ability to turn mundane people and places into macabre jokes and character studies is uncanny and guides a lot of my songwriting efforts. Also, “Puddin’ Taine” makes for a fantastic vocal exercise before a performance along with “Life During Wartime” from Talking Heads’ STOP MAKING SENSE album. That’s my hot tip to any musician readers out there.

Q3: “Electric Cicadas” is one of my favorite songs of yours. It’s got a hypnotic weirdness to it. What inspired this song? How would you summarize it for the casual listener?

<a href="http://justafterzero.bandcamp.com/track/electric-cicadas">Electric Cicadas by Just After Zero</a>

John: Glad you like the song! I once had to fill out a ReCAPTCHA to log into a website (one of those tests where you type in a couple of words to prove you’re not a robot) and my words were “electric” and “cicadas.” I started thinking about how ungodly irritating a robotic cicada swarm would be (a combination of obnoxious clicking and bits of hot metal banging into windows at all hours, aluminum legs landing unprompted on your arms with no malice but no real purpose, nobody’s really quite sure why anybody invented something so loud and invasive but surely somebody had a good reason for it), and the words sounded fun to say together. So the song just wrote itself as an acoustic guitar song I could play on the open mic circuit. Then when I got the chance to do a full treatment of the song, I took the formerly human acoustic guitar parts and stripped all the warmth out of them with aggressive gates and filtering to get the feeling of chaotic sterility across.

Q4: Is it fair to say you are more of an introvert than an extrovert overall? What kind of release does music provide for you? It seems on the evidence that you are pretty driven… is there tension for you between ordinary survival type stuff and the energy and focus it takes to make music?

John: I’m an introvert normally, but Just After Zero provides me the chance to be an extrovert for a few hours at a time. In fact, this entire musician gig just started as a New Year’s resolution to play guitar at an open mic to convince myself to get out of my apartment a little and meet some new people. And as it happens, the Saint Louis open mic scene is bustling enough to support an independent musical career almost all on its own.

Music, to me, is the chance to tell a good joke or spark a conversation. When I learn something new (You ever notice how Building Code Under Fire is on every Universal movie newspaper? Wonder what’s up with that.) or come up with a weird hypothetical (You think there’s somebody out there that’s so down in the dumps that a call from a telemarketer is actually a formative event in their life?), the first thing I want to do is tell the nearest person about it. Music is a chance to share that insight and maybe, if I’m lucky, make somebody smile or think about that next spam call a little differently. There’s value in that. Making music is effectively a survival type activity at this point. I get twitchy and hyperactive if I go too long without it, so in that sense it jives really well with the more mundane psychological requirements like sunlight and spicy food.

Q5: Let’s imagine that this guy, we’ll call him Buford T Injustice, a fictional record industry dude, agrees to a meeting with you after hearing the awesome song “Coming Down.” He seems like he wants you to be honest, but you’re not sure. What would you say to him about your goals and aspirations for your music? How much compromising would you be open to, to sell records? If he pairs you up with some known producer, how much freedom would you give the producer? If Buford starts pissing you off, could you tell him you don’t like this direction, or would you quietly take all his suggestions under advisement?

John: I would approach Buford and ask him directly what he saw in “Coming Down” and what, specifically, he wants to see in my future work. I would expect some compromises to be asked of me and I would evaluate them fairly against what Buford would give me in exchange. I wouldn’t necessarily think of it as a chance to just sell records, though. I would try to think of it as Buford getting me in touch with people who want to hear my music, an extremely valuable resource for the increasingly dense musical landscape we’re living in. I would accept the chance to work with a producer on the condition I still get to play guitar and write my own songs. One of the unique aspects of a one-man band is that you don’t get a lot of creative input or pushback, so that could be a really good chance to take Just After Zero somewhere interesting.

<a href="http://justafterzero.bandcamp.com/track/only-monika-acoustic-cover">Only Monika (Acoustic Cover) by Just After Zero</a>

Buford’s pissing me off would be a shame but I’ve worked for irritable bosses before. I would try to keep impartial and determine how much of the friction is actually impacting Just After Zero’s music. Some personal disagreements and irritation are a small price to pay for a publishing deal. If the music begins to suffer or my existing fans start disagreeing with the direction, it would be time to consider hitting the road.

DO THE ARCHITECTURAL WATUSI Music Features/Interviews Music Reviews Streaming Audio | Kevin Renick | April 21, 2020 | Acoustic Music Adam Long Bandcamp Folk Music John Liming Just After Zero Music Music Feature Pop Music Ralph Noyes Rock and Roll Singer/Songwriter Streaming Audio

DOING MY BEST TO BE BRUCE: THE BRUCE KULICK INTERVIEW

Bruce Kulick plays guitar. He has played with everyone from Michael Bolton to Billy Squier to Meat Loaf and, of course, a couple of little bands called Kiss and Grand Funk Railroad, Bruce has shared the stage with some of the best known artists in the world and jammed with some fairly unique bands… just because he likes to challenge himself. He spent twelve years touring and recording as a member of Kiss and just completed seventeen years as a member of Grand Funk Railroad, alongside original members bassist Mel Schacher and drummer Don Brewer and two other “new guys,” singer Max Carl and keyboard player Tim Cashion. Most recently, he has recorded two singles with his wife, Lisa (the original “If I Could Show You” and the classic holiday song, “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”), and is looking forward to further exploring that creative avenue in the still-new year.

In an interview recorded on January 10, in anticipation of an upcoming Grand Funk show in – virtually my own backyard – Effingham, Illinois (at the beautiful Effingham Performance Center), Bruce discussed playing with Kiss members Gene Simmons, Ace Frehley and Eric Singer over the previous weekend, at the launch party for THE GENE SIMMONS VAULT EXPERIENCE; a few memorable road experiences with his brother, Bob, and Meat Loaf; the music industry and taxes; and, of course, that l’il old American Band, Grand Funk Railroad. We had penciled in a 15 to 20 minute time slot for this talk; after a few generalities about logistics and such, I realized we had been going at it for 45 minutes. Thanks for the time, Bruce.

GRAND FUNK RAILROAD (Mel Schacher, Bruce Kulick, Max Carl, Don Brewer, Tim Cashion) (publicity photo)

THE MULE: So, obviously, you’ve been a member of Grand Funk for eighteen, nineteen years…

BRUCE: Technically, we just finished seventeen and we’re starting our eighteenth year.

THE MULE: Okay. How did you get the gig?

BRUCE: Well, I was contacted by Don Brewer back in ‘99. It was the middle of the year, I believe. He reached out to me via e-mail and at first I thought it was maybe somebody pranking me, even though I had met him in the past, but I didn’t know him well. He reached out and… I was in New York, actually, helping my parents move to California, but said I’d get in touch next week when I came back. Then, we finally… I thought it would be best to have an actual phone conversation and we chatted about what was actually happening, which was the fact that Mel and Don were going to move forward and they already had a terrific singer, Max Carl, and they were looking for a guitar player and would I be willing to come up to Michigan to do some rehearsal to see what it all kinda felt like, if it would work.

So, I did and, it went rather well. I was pretty nervous because it’s another iconic band that suddenly need a guitarist. But, I really did like Mel and Don and I thought Max was a terrific singer. And, then, from that point, the next time I got together, they had the keyboard player who we’ve had, as well. for all these years, Tim Cashion. And that was Grand Funk Railroad. By the end of ‘99, after us getting together, to rehearse enough, we started to perform. I think we only did one gig in ‘99. Technically, 2000 was our first real year of playing. It’s amazing, it’s been seventeen years, now going into the eighteenth and the same guys. We’re really all getting along very well and we love playing this music. There are some new songs, but generally it’s a lot of the hits from Grand Funk.

THE MULE: I was gonna ask if you’d known Don and Mel before, but you kinda answered in that, so…

BRUCE: Well, I would want to qualify it just by saying that, Mel I never met before meeting him in Michigan. But, Don Brewer… we had a very interesting kind of crossing paths by… I was working with Michael Bolton and we did a tour that opened up for Bob Seger. For many, many tours, Don Brewer’s been the drummer for Bob Seger and, this was 1983. Don had a big beard, I remember. I remembered meeting him and we were on tour, I think, almost three weeks with the guys, so we all got to k now each other a little bit and hang out. And, actually from that tour, Don Brewer wound up meeting his… the woman that he’s married to, because she was actually someone that we were friends with, Michael Bolton and I.

It was really interesting that… There’s even a little modern connection to that, in the fact that, this past year, we opened, one of the few dates that Seger did before he had that injury, you know, with his back, which he, I believe, is having surgery for and he’ll be back out on the road. But, Grand Funk opened for Bob Seger in Indianapolis. It was very exciting because I know some of the people in that band, as well, for years and, of course, Don’s wife, Sunny came and knows those guys from all the tours. (Laughs) I remember saying to Sunny backstage, in front of Don, “This is really weird!,” because here we are, on Bob Seger’s stage. and this is how we all kinda met each other, in a sense, and here we are all together so many years later and there’s 24,000 people out there. And, of course, the gig was huge success for us and that’s all great. So, that’s one of the wonderful things in the music industry, is that, kinda how you meet someone way in the past and you don’t realize how that… You know, if I met Don in ‘83, it wasn’t ‘til ‘99 that I had the opportunity to actually play a guitar with him. That’s a long time and, then here we are, it’s 2018 and I’m still playing guitar with the guy. It’s really kinda cool, you know? And, in a sense, it’s similar to me jamming with Ace and Gene over the weekend. Which was very surreal, too. But, I love that about the music industry. That’s why it’s always great to keep your connections. You never know.

THE MULE: I remember reading that Grand Funk was kind of an influence when you were just getting into the business. So, what is the favorite part about being in this band?

BRUCE: Well, I always saw Grand Funk, when I was young, as kind of like the American version of the British rock trio, like a Cream but, they were just a little more… hence, the “Funk” word. They were a little more funky. It wasn’t as… They definitely weren’t trying to emulate anything British, they were more R and B, in a way. Hence, hits like “Some Kind of Wonderful” and “Locomotion” and stuff like that. But, I did love the rhythm section. Don and Mel… Oh, my God! I mean, Mel was like… he had the original name “God of Thunder,” which was kinda ironic, of course, from my Kiss years with that song. And, Don being just a powerhouse on the drums. The well respected drummer who had the flamboyant drum solo back in the ‘70s.

So, for me, they were really unique because they were American and they weren’t trying to copy anything British but, there they were with all that energy. I think that’s how they were able to sell out Shea Stadium, you know, when they did that gig and broke records at certain times of their big years. So, I was pretty… I remember my first call after Don and I had the chat was to speak to the manager that Kiss was using for some of the years I was in the band, Larry Mazer. I said, “Grand Funk, Don Brewer just called me about being in the band. What do you think?” “Oh, that’s awesome. You gotta do it. That’s great.” I mean, I already knew it was great but, I did want to bounce it off of a business guy. I was always, you know, aware of the band, a fan of the band and quite flattered to asked to be… to have the opportunity to be in the band. It was really quite flattering for me.

GRAND FUNK RAILROAD (Mal Schacher, Max Carl, Don Brewer, Bruce Kulick, Tim Cashion) (publicity phot)

THE MULE: Next year… ‘69. The band’s gonna celebrate fifty years. Are there any plans afoot for a major tour?

BRUCE: That’s a good question. It’s kinda funny that I hadn’t thought of that yet. Obviously, Don and Mel being the original guys and everything, I’m sure they’re very aware of that but, whether or not they have something planned or are trying to coordinate something with the record company or agent, I’m not sure. But, it could make for an interesting story or a great marketing… that’s for sure.

THE MULE: You played with a lot of… I’m gonna call ‘em “over-the-top” personalities throughout your career.

BRUCE: (Laughs) Okay. The music industry lends itself to that.

THE MULE: Are there any that stick out in your mind as, “I can’t believe this.” or, you know, maybe crazy tour stories or anything that you’d care to share?

BRUCE: Well, I mean, one of the first… I would have to say the first REALLY major artist that I toured with, even though I had some touring experience with some people that had some hits prior to the band I’m going to mention – or the name of the artist I’m going to mention – was Meat Loaf. And, Bob and I, my brother and I played guitar for Meat Loaf. That was for the original BAT OUT OF HELL tour. So, the album was already done. Todd Rundgren and those two guys did the record, Jim Steinman’s songs brilliantly put together with Todd Rundgren. I mean, this thing was quite an ambitious record. It was unique. It wasn’t a real band, it was Meat Loaf and Steinman writing the songs and, yet, you have nine people on stage. Okay. With Meat Loaf, you know, he had to have been over three-hundred pounds and he’s in a tuxedo. You get the picture. And you’re performing on stage with a full rock band of eight other people behind you… two keyboard players, two guitarists, background singers, drums, bass and, you know, it was kind of like a crazy rock opera gone mad and he was very physical. But, I have to say, there were many moments with the Meat Loaf tour where his actions, which were over-the-top theatrical musical art, in a sense, were pretty… In some ways, they certainly were disturbing and in other ways, I realized they’re brilliant. You know what I mean? So, I gotta say Meat Loaf really has always stood out as being someone that was quite… quite special as a performer. I mean, when I joined Kiss it was like “How do I keep up with Gene and Paul onstage?” These guys are incredible showmen on stage. Then I realized I can’t play and even try to move like these guys. I can’t do both and I think the important thing was to play the guitar. But, they were quite outrageous and it was quite exciting, of course, to have these two iconic players be some of the best showmen in rock. So, yeah, I’ve gotta admit, I’ve been blessed with some interesting gigs.

And, even on a band that wasn’t that famous, the Good Rats. Some people know of them, but not everybody. You got the lead singer, Peppi Marcello, he’s performing in shorts and basically looking like someone that would hang out at the ballpark and, you know, he’s holding a baseball bat. He’s running around the stage with that, singing very well songs that he mostly wrote all himself. So, I’ve always kind of… I would say performed with some flamboyant, in very unique ways, each of those artists having their own style of that.

THE MULE: Yeah. Uh… you did mention that you played with Gene and Ace and, Eric was a part of that, as well. Gene once told me that, once a member of the Kiss family, always a member of the Kiss family. That was kind of borne out in you and Eric playing with those two. If Paul and Gene were to make that call, would Bruce answer?

THE GENE SIMMONS VAULT EXPERIENCE LAUNCH PARTY, 2018 (Gene Simmons, Bruce Kulick, Eric Singer, Ace Frehley) (photo credit: ALEX KLUFT/ULTIMATE CLASSIC ROCK)

BRUCE: Well, obviously, what happened over the weekend when Gene presented his VAULT, it was the first of many of his opportunities in the fans’ hands that paid for it. That was really organic, how all that happened because, it was very well received, obviously. I know my social media is blowing up from me posting stuff about it. I know that fans love that kind of stuff, so now, it kinda poses that question. In the future, you know… ‘cause everyone’s always wondering when there’ll be the final big hurrah, of which I have no idea of when and if that’s going to happen. But, if it does, I finally… Things feel much more aware that they’re aware that the fans love it! Okay? I was aware that Ace was going to be there that day. I found out earlier in the day, actually. Eric actually told me and I already had a plan with Gene to show up later in the afternoon but, you know, not to be a part of anything other than to say “Hi,” you know. My wife’s never been to Capitol Records, which I’ve only been probably once or maybe twice and that’s such an iconic studio in LA. So, you know, support Gene, show up, say “Hi,” meet the fans. I knew it wasn’t going to be 1,000 people, it was only gonna be a hundred people but, knowing Ace went, I went, “oh, that’s kind of cool. I wonder what’s going on.” I remember texting my friend who bought the VAULT, who got there free, “What’s going on there?” He goes, “Ace and Gene are jamming and telling stories for the past 45 minutes,” or something. I was like, “Wow! That’s unbelievable!”

Then, of course, by the time I got there around six and took some photos with Gene and we talked about the VAULT and all and I said “Hi” to Ace, which was great he was still hanging around. Then Gene asked… Then Eric showed up, because he was rehearsing with Paul, I believe, that day, for this Japan tour. Then, the next thing I know, Gene goes, “Stick around. If you’d like to, you’re here, you should come on up.” (Laughs) It was like that. I was like, “Come up and do WHAT?” You know what I’m saying? I didn’t even know if there was more than one guitar in the building, okay? So, when I use the word “ORGANIC,” I mean it… with all capitals. Because I did not go there expecting to ever hold a guitar, did not go there expecting to be on a stage, of course, to sit up on stage to discuss the album and to greet the fans and talk about why he put it out and stuff like that. So, at that portion of the day, which happened later in the day… I believe Gene’s afternoon was supposed to be all meet and greet with people that bought it. But, with Ace showing up, it became… they took an hour break and wound up on stage chatting with each other and playing. In fact, I was just this morning, watching one of the things that I missed because I came later. But, that whole element of us all coming together was just really organic but, what I love about it the most, even though I… it, of course, it was a big thrill for me, was that I’m very aware that… Gene even got ahold of me the next morning, thanked me for coming down and everything. What my brother and I did on the cruise, everybody loved. I think it’s really evident to the Kiss guys that what you started with, “Once a member of the Kiss family, always a member of the family,” especially if you’re available and functioning in a healthy attitude. Obviously, anger, animosity and lawsuits means you don’t get invited to a party, right? That’s not the way the world works.

So, look, what will happen, I have no idea but, I do know that what happened on Saturday night was something that was very clearly in the right direction of showing the fans that in this case, certainly, that Gene gets along with Ace better than anyone may have thought for feared that he didn’t because there’s been times when they all say things about each other and I’ve always been on great terms with Gene but, I haven’t had many opportunities to be on stage with him. So, Eric and I have done things ourselves but, not with an Ace Frehley, except for UNPLUGGED and that’s why my reaction onstage was pretty funny. I said, “Wow, this is like UNPLUGGED, except 2018.” Of course, we were missing Paul but, still, just the elements of Eric, myself and Ace and Gene was just… I realized that it was like… completely not prepared, not planned, nothing. Maybe that made it more charming, made it more unique. I’m certain, though, it presents a new sense within Gene and Ace that fans want to see this. So, I can only hope that it could happen in the future.

THE MULE: Yeah. That would be awesome, actually, to see you take one more bow with ‘em.

BRUCE: Exactly.

THE MULE: Speaking of which, I just gotta say… no questions or anything but, REVENGE has gotta be my all time favorite Kiss album.

KISS, circa 1992 (Eric Singer, Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, Bruce Kulick) (REVENGE publicity photo)

BRUCE: Well, thanks. I know, I get asked that question sometimes, “What’s your favorite one?” and, believe me, there’s many I love, all the ones that I was involved with, there’s huge highlights on each album but, I usually just gravitate to REVENGE and, a lot of time when I’m doing my meet and greets, I’m meeting fans, I may sign more ASYLUM or more CRAZY NIGHTS than REVENGE but, either way, I’m very proud of that album, for sure.

THE MULE: Speaking of which, I did meet you quite a while back. You were playing with Union and you signed a Blackjack album for me.

BRUCE: There ya go. I mentioned Michael Bolton before.

THE MULE: Yeah, yeah. It’s all cyclical, I guess. I wanna get into a couple more Grand Funk things but, I also gotta know, what other projects are you working currently on, like on your time off from Grand Funk between tours?

BRUCE: That’s a great question. I generally keep myself busy with whatever seems to come up, so, I know I was really very, very pleased that I was able to actually do a few sessions in December. You know, people reach out to me and say “Could we hire you to play guitar on my project?” Or my song. Or my band. Everything’s a little unique and I never say yes or get any further until I listen to see if they have some talent, what they’re about and what they’re hoping for me to play on. So, those things come out – and they came up often enough in 2017 – that I enjoy. I especially like it when there’s a real challenge to some of the stuff, not exactly what you’d think…

There’s one particularly interesting artist from Sweden who’s part of a band and they do theaters and sell out all the time in that part of the world. But, they’re doing “Why Do Fools Fall In Love” as a four man group and, one of the main singers, Robert Haglund, does his own smooth lounge rock, classic rock kind of thing and I just did a song for him. He actually covered a Peter Criss solo album track. I played guitars on it. But, he did it very unique. I loved… I like the Peter song. I wasn’t really familiar with it ‘til he shared it with me but, then, once I heard how he did it and made it his own, I was like, “This rocks!” You know, because it’s a good blend of Smooth Jazz and a rock song. You know what I’m sayin’?

THE MULE: Yeah, yeah. Kinda like, I guess, that character that Bill Murray played… the lounge lizard kinda guy that Bill Murray played on SNL.

BRUCE AND LISA LANE KULICK (uncredited photo)

BRUCE: Yeah. This is interesting, this guy. But, while things come up like that all the time, I still want to explore more things with my wife, Lisa. We put out a song last April. We actually have footage, a duet video and the two of us… I’ve had, I mean, I’m already looking at taxes for 2017. It’s the time of the year when it’s not too crazy and I get a chance to put things together and I realized that I had a really incredibly busy 2017. I’m very proud of it. And, I know that’s part of the reason I didn’t get to everything I wanted to but, we were able to put out a single and, of course, over the Christmas holiday because we kind of promised each other. We were actually hoping to put out a Christmas EP. Last year, the beginning of the year, we talked about it but, I was too busy with traveling and things like the cruise, the Kiss Kruise, and stuff like that prevented it. Grand Funk had more dates than the usual year, which was very exciting for us. So, I want to explore some more stuff with my wife, Lisa, on a few levels, musically and everything. The Christmas song we did got a great reaction on Facebook, of course.

What else? You know, I put out an interesting product this past 2017, where I did a mini-guitar of one of the guitars that were known from my Kiss years and then actually ordered a very small number of faux guitar from the guitar company and sold them myself. They sold out really quickly and I want to do more things like that in the future, all on a very limited basis. I’m not trying to become a mass-merchandise man, okay? Because I’d like to manage it… I’ve had a few people in the industry tell me, “I guess when you say limited, it really is limited.” I know a certain artist that I collect and I go, “Oh, it says limited. How many that I really make that was limited?” It’ll start out at 500, then it turns into fifteen hundred and you get number fourteen hundred. What happened here? Anyway, there’s a lot of that I wanna look at. But, there’s always stuff going on.

The band that I hired at my wedding, which is another band that’s very, very like Rat Pack but, they do… They’re called Nutty and they do also, like, Jazz versions of classic rock songs by mashing up things. Early last year, late ‘16, we put out… They did “Detroit Rock City” and I sat in with them at a local supper club place here in California and that thing just blew up on the internet. It was great. In fact, I’m going to go see them play tomorrow night and I know I wanna get together with them and try to do a little more experiments, jam with them a few more times over the course of 2018, in some clever way. I haven’t figured them out yet. I probably want to really have a good discussion with them. I really love, you know, just doing other things.

I’m sometimes too busy to do ROCK AND ROLL FANTASY CAMP, which I’ve been a counselor for… God, I’ve been working with David Fishof, who is the promoter of that, and I’ve been doing that since 2005 or ‘06 so, it’s been a long time. Sometimes, since I can’t always do the camps, I’ll wind up… But, I’ll get called up to do one the corporate gigs that David did before. The whole thing, which ALWAYS goes really well. What a thrill! One was this huge accounting company, who obviously have a very successful team that they’re willing to do a big convention and then have us entertain them one day and be a part of their team-building. I got jam with Nancy Wilson from Heart and I was the guitarist. We did “Barracuda” and “Crazy On You” and “Magic Man” and, man, what a thrill that was, along with some other very talented people that you would know their names, like Ian Paice and Tony Franklin, Teddy Andreadis.

So, you know what I mean. It just seems like I go from a Grand Funk gig to, I could jump into a session that week or that month. I’m off to do a corporate gig when I can and, then I’m thinking of merchandise to market that I feel the fans would really love, because if I was a fan of me, I’d love it. (Laughs) You know,,, I always put myself in that position, “What would I think if I was into me.” Because, I’ll always try to get, with anything with my name attached to it, I want really, really high quality stuff. I look forward to 2018 being really exciting and branching out and continuing with this kind of success that the last year proved to me. Very excited about it.

THE MULE: You know, the weird thing, I guess, about… thinking about this current incarnation of Grand Funk, it has been together longer than the original band and that’s including the time with Craig.

BRUCE: Right. That is pretty interesting, for sure. And, you know, it’s kinda like one of those statistics like where Eric Singer has been, of course, the drummer longer than Peter Criss ever was, i you accumulate all of the years. And, he’s probably the third in line with Gene and Paul. Fun facts.

THE MULE: Yeah, that is just wild.

BRUCE KULICK (photo credit: NANCY DAGATA)

BRUCE: The one point I want to make about Grand Funk. The one thing I always regretted is that they actually did kind of stop at times. You know what I mean? They weren’t always moving forward in one form or another, there were periods where they just completely stopped. Which makes our seventeen year milestone, I guess, pretty easy. You know what I mean?

THE MULE: Yeah. Yeah, kinda but, it’s still something to celebrate and look back on. What got me… Grand Funk, loved them since the beginning and, SURVIVAL may be my all-time favorite Grand Funk album but, after BORN TO DIE, they split. They were having arguments and everything during that album and Frank Zappa, of all people, called them up and said, “Hey, would you get back together and make an album with me?” So, that kinda says something about the power of that band.

BRUCE: I know. Look, I’ll run into some of the guys from Van Halen… I remember running into Michael Anthony and Eddie’s brother, Alex, at the Admiral’s Club in Dallas, for American Airlines. You know, I’ve met them through the years, mostly from my Kiss years. “Hey, what are ya doin’?” and I’d see they were on tour and, “Oh, I’m just coming back from a Grand Funk gig,” and, “Oh, my God! Grand Funk! My favorite band! Oh, my God!” I mean, it’s stuff like that that blows my mind, of course. And, look, I’m one of the very fortunate musicians to be able to say that if I meet a stranger and they didn’t recognize me or know anything and say, “Oh, you play guitar?” and, if that came up, “Well, who’ve you played with?” And, I can say, “Grand Funk and I used to play with Kiss. You know, I always get a huge reaction from one of those bands. It’s funny that the Grand Funk one… I actually can say that it’s almost 50/50. Obviously, more people know Kiss but, if they know of those bands and they know music, it’s real interesting how many people react to Grand Funk but won’t react to Kiss or know… Of course, if they used to be a Kiss fan, they probably don’t have to ask me who I’ve played with if they’re a Kiss fan.

THE MULE: With this long history with Grand Funk, I know that Don and Mel are both incredibly creative people and so are you and the other guys in the band, Tim and Max. Will there ever be an album of new material with this current line-up?

BRUCE: You know, it’s interesting. Obviously, kind of longer ago, closer to when we were first getting together, we did put some new things in the set that we still do, because Max is a great songwriter and, of course, Don can write, all of us can write but, we also know that the gigs that we do, it’s… The majority of the reason why we’re booked is the name and the hits that the band had. What was kind of funny was, probably fifteen years ago, even a few years into me playing with them, the record industry was still in flux but, there was still a very healthy record business and, of course, fast forward to now and how everything’s going to streaming and people… Many, many iconic bands don’t bother putting out new records, you know, and that’s why that equation keeps getting challenged as to, even if Don and Mel had the desire to, would they feel, in a business sense, that it was something viable, that they want to do. I mean, I can speak for myself, not them but, my last record was put out in 2010 and I’ve been really hesitant about moving forward with a brand new record, with new material. It’s easy… I can put out a single with my wife. Can I put out a single for myself? That would be a lot easier than a full record.

So, your question is even bigger than just “Can Grand Funk do a new record and put it out?,” it’s just what’s going on in the music industry. I think it’s where Don and Mel before might have been, “Well, we do a few new things in the set and we just wanna be this touring band” and, it’s not about trying to put out a new product or whatever their kind of desires are about where they see the Grand Funk brand going. But, it’s kinda funny, at the time, in the years when it was probably a lot easier, they really didn’t choose that route and, now, I think it’s even more, kinda like, most people do the PledgeMusic to sell their music, if they have the desire to do that. I don’t know. I gotta read this article I saw. Something about “Music Industry Is In Trouble” by Paul McCartney. I wanna read what that’s about because it;s gonna be really interesting. Beause I think Paul McCartney has put out some really good full records in the past fifteen years and I doubt if any of them are gold and… Could you have a more famous person? I doubt if Ringo sells very, very, very well. I mean, he’s the most iconic drummer in the music business and a Beatle.

But, I don’t know what to tell you when it comes to, “Will you put something out?” I get posed the same question about me, too. It’s always really, kind of a frustrating thing to an artist to kind of wrap their heads around it. Wow… we’ll see what happens. Touring, thank God, is healthy because people like to see live music and, when I’m onstage, I am thrilled to be performing. The travel part, I don’t love. You know, I love to go to different places and meet the people. But, it’s always, “Thank God people still have the desire to see live music!” Of course, with their cell phone in their hand (Laughs), recording every moment of it!

THE MULE: So, what can… the people and their cell phones expect in Effingham on the 27th? What kind of show are you going to give ‘em?

GRAND FUNK RAILROAD (Bruce Kulick, Mel Schacher, Don Brewer, Max Carl, Tim Cashion) (publicity photo)

BRUCE: Well, it’s going to be interesting, because actually, in 2017, we started to tinker around with the set and bring out a couple of things we hadn’t played in a while. We did a New Year’s date, which went very well, in Minneapolis at a casino up there but, it’s kind of exciting now that I never know… Are we including the new ones, are we only doing one, do we do both? We only did one at that show but, I don’t know. And, maybe Don has some ideas about some others, too, that we might be looking at. I think, in that way, I’m giving you kind of a little… What I’m saying is that Grand Funk always puts on a very entertaining show with many hits that everybody knows. It’s really interesting how we’ve created some sets and, even though we adjust the set from time to time, that there’s not really a… It really builds excitement throughout the evening and, no matter what condition people are from the first song, we know they;re going crazy by the encore and, generally, more likely going crazy much, much sooner, like in the middle of the show. It’s gonna be a lot of really, in a way I can call it good time rock ‘n’ roll.

And, the vocals that these guys pull off are incredible. Max is the perfect lead singer and, then you’ve got Don and, Tim sings like a bird. So, the three of those guys, it’s incredible what the vocals are. I’m always so blessed to listen to that. Then, there I am playing with that rhythm section of Mel and Don, who are top-notch and admired by many of the musicians that cane after them. I’m doing my best to be Bruce, who wants to put a little bit of whatever the Grand Funk sound was attached to who I am, which is, I’m brought up on good ol’ classic rock guitar, Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Beck and all of that… and, Jimmy Page. I just rock out. I do rock a little harder, I would say, than what Mark Farner did but, always with a lot of respect for Mark’s riffs and how Mark helped craft those songs. It’s quite a show. I mean, people really, really, really enjoy it. I can’t believe how many of my Kiss fans that, high in mind, maybe knew the name but, they didn’t realize… “That’s a Grand Funk song? I didn’t know that!” I always get that reaction from the people that I know were at the show, they either write me or email me after the show or something.

So, the band’s terrific, something I’ve been very proud of all these years. So, if you’re anywhere near there and, I know that’s a good venue because I know a lot of bands, I’ve heard from the guys that have performed there. I’m really hoping for the people to get the opportunity to come see us because, it’s memorable.

THE MULE: It is a great room. Really, I mean… it’s awesome!

BRUCE: It’s a little far from everything (Laughs) but, we’ll make due.

THE MULE: The staff there, they are so accommodating. It’s just amazing. You’re gonna love it.

For more information about the Effingham show, check out the Grand Funk tour page and, for all things Bruce Kulick, go here or here.

DO THE ARCHITECTURAL WATUSI Music Features/Interviews | Darren Tracy | January 21, 2018 | Ace Frehley Bob Kulick Bob Seger Bruce Kulick Classic Rock Don Brewer Effingham IL Effingham Performance Center Eric Singer Gene Simmons Glam Rock Grand Funk Railroad Hard Rock Jazz Kiss Lisa Lane Kulick Live Music Max Carl Meat Loaf Mel Schacher Michael Bolton Music Music Feature Nutty Paul Stanley Peppi Marcello Pop Music Rhythm and Blues Robert Haglund Rock and Roll ROCK AND ROLL FANTASY CAMP The Good Rats Tim Cashion

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