I interviewed Troy Luccketta and Rizz of Rizz & The Believerz. We discussed: - How Troy, a rock drummer best known for his work with Tesla, met and created a band with Rizz, whose style is a mix of rock, reggae, and hip hop - Recording in Jamaica in Bob Marley's studio - The unique vocal effect Rizz can do - Their debut single, “Don’t Stop Tryin” - And more Rizz & The Believerz website: https://rizzandthebelieverz.com/ "Don't Stop Tryin" video Kim Wilson of clients the Fabulous Thunderbirds: This band is amazing. Drummer Rudy Albin played with Brother Jack McDuff for six years. He plays with James Hunter and the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra. The guy is a monster musician. Steve Kirsty is an incredible bass player who's played so many incredible jazz gigs in New York. Guitarist Johnny Moeller's got his own take on Blues and R&B. Then you've got the secret weapon, Bob Welsh, who plays incredible keyboards and incredible guitar. Knows it all backwards and forwards. His accompanying is incredible.
They are all fantastic musicians who appreciate the fact that I like to improvise every second. Colin Devlin of clients The Devlins: If a song has a great keyboard part, a great bass line, or a great vocal melody, you want to get the other stuff out of the way sometimes. I think it's about simplicity. The space in between the notes is just as important.
I spotted a friend in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. One wall on the first level features this old promo photo from radio station KROQ in Los Angeles. The lady in the middle with the blonde hair is Dusty Street, who passed away in October of last year.
This was not her favorite look, but the 80s were a rough decade for Dusty. Proudly clean and sober in the 90s, she laughed about the occasional run-in with people who suggested they used to hang out together. She would say, “Did we meet in the 80s? Oh. I’m sorry. There is a lot I do not remember from that time.” And although this may not have been her first choice for a photo, it is great that she adorns the Rock Hall. She was never inducted. Although, as I discovered, the museum doesn’t really acknowledge most of the people who were inducted. (More on that another time.) So, she is one step ahead of them. But she definitely deserves to be there. She was a rock radio pioneer, a friend and champion of many musicians, and a lover of music. I spoke with singer / songwriter JM Stevens. We discussed:
- His new album, Nowhere To Land - The lyric “I heard you sneaking in / Guess you forgot to WD40 the hinge” - The Gibson J45 guitar he wrote about in the song "Cherry Sunburst" - Also being the album producer and mixer - And more Just finished recording an interview with Dean Roland of Collective Soul. He always looks ready to step on stage. I always look ready for emergency medical attention.
Cris Cohen: What defines this album to me and you guys (in general) are these complementary opposites. You have a lot of intense stuff. But within the same song, you will suddenly pull back. It will be stripped down to just a simple chord, simple vocals. How much of that is planned ahead of time and how much of that is what comes out through your jam sessions?
Joel Ekelof of Soen: I would say it's planned in a sense that… it goes without saying in the band that you never put yourself as an individual musician above the song. You need to deliver what is necessary. If you have some complicated technical pattern that you want to express, then that's fine. But it has to be for the purpose of the song and the greater good. Sometimes when you strip it down to just a chord and vocals, that's very important for the dynamics in the music, to have that tension and release, making the music breathe in in a sense. It's not our idea. It's the oldest idea in music history of course. But I think it's necessary. In really mainstream music today, you take sugar and you put sugar on top. And that's not so inspiring. You need to have that kind of blend. It's always been like that. And it's funny today that music gets so one-sided, especially mainstream music. I think that will tire people out. Because what you want is the equilibrium, the balance between… Cris Cohen: Push and pull. Joel Ekelof: Yeah. Exactly. At least for me anyways, it makes it just as fascinating when you listen to the album the second time, the third time. There are parts that maybe you did not notice the first time that stand out more upon re-listening, because there is so much going on. I am an awful drummer. You would not be able to tell the difference between me playing the drums and someone who just happened to be seated at a kit the moment he had a seizure.
But I contend that taking lessons and learning the basics made me a better listener… and thus a better interviewer of drummers like Troy Luccketta (pictured)… and thus a better content specialist for drummers like Daniel Glass and bands like Huey Lewis & The News, Cowboy Mouth, etc. It helped me develop a better understanding of the effort and skill involved in playing the drums. It taught me that even a basic groove played with great feel is harder to pull off than you think. Even a little bit of music education and effort improved my insights, my analysis, my questions, and my content creation. Another glamorous action shot. This is what I look like when I am listening to music in preparation for an interview or client meeting. Actually, this is often what I look like when I am listening to music just for fun. I never understood people who put music on as background noise while they work. If music is playing, it tends to be what I focus on. Everything else becomes background noise.
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April 2024
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