November 6, 2022 • 58 mins
On today’s episode of Creative Space, we have the pleasure of chatting with Steve Addabbo. He’s a music producer, songwriter, audio engineer and Grammy winner who’s helped launch the careers of artists like Suzanne Vega and Shawn Colvin. He’s also owned Shelter Island Sound in New York City for over 30 years, where he’s produced and engineered for artists like Bob Dylan, Bobby McFerrin, Jeff Buckley, Olivia Newton John and many, many more.
His incredible musical journey is a testament to where creativity can take you when you “sit down and get it done.” All we have control over is following inspiration and doing the work. We never know where our creation will land, but sometimes, like in Steve’s case, it could resurface 45 years later in a major feature film or play a major role in the development of a technology that changes the world.
Steve has a lot of new projects you can check out, including Jim & Sasha Allen’s debut EP, 16 Borders, which he produced.
He just finished producing Tribute to a Songpoet, a 42-song tribute album to Eric Andersen featuring artists like Bob Dylan, Linda Ronstadt, and Steve himself covering Andersen’s songs.
And to hear Steve’s own music, definitely check out his album, Out of Nothing, which is available anywhere you stream music.
For more information on Steve Addabbo, you can visit: steveaddabbo.com and for more on his studio, Shelter Island Sound, visit: shelterislandsound.com.
To sign up for the weekly Creative Space newsletter, visit: eepurl.com/h8SJ9b.
To become a patron of the Creative Space Podcast, visit: https://bit.ly/3ECD2Kr.
SHOW NOTES:
0:00—Intro
1:09—How did we meet?
2:17—The magic of “Hot Diggity (Dog Ziggity Boom)” for a 5 year old
3:44—Singing for the bus driver
4:45—The guitar player next door
6:02—Wanting to do music professionally
6:45—How music literally saved Steve’s life (The Vietnam Draft Lottery)
8:42—How do you define creativity?
13:40—The true artist sits down and gets it done
15:50—How do you know when a work is complete?
20:32—The beginnings of Arbuckle
23:45—Opening for Bruce Springsteen in Philly
25:20—A major music placement 45 years in the making
30:10—Steve and Suzanne’s role in the birth of the mp3
35:00—The ”Tom’s Diner” remix
36:00—Writing “Left of Center” for the iconic film, ‘Pretty in Pink’
43:00—Working on Jim & Sasha Allen’s debut EP
50:00—Mixing Bob Dylan
51:16—Working on a 42-song tribute record for Eric Andersen
53:00—What’s next for Steve
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Jennifer Logue (00:11):
Hello everyone and welcome to another episode
of creative space, a Podcastwhere we explore, learn and grow
and creativity together. I'myour host Jennifer Logue. And
today we have the pleasure ofchatting with Steve Addabbo.
He's a music producer,songwriter, audio engineer and
Grammy winner, so cool, who'shelped launch the careers of
(00:34):
Suzanne Vega, and Shawn Colvin.
He's owned Shelter Island Soundin New York City for over 30
years. And he's produced andengineered artists like Bob
Dylan, Bobby McFerrin, JeffBuckley, Olivia Newton, John,
and many, many more. He's also afriend of mine and a wonderful
human. Welcome. Welcome toCreative Space. Do you?
Steve Addabbo (00:56):
Hi, Jennifer.
Thanks for having me. This isfun.
Jennifer Logue (00:59):
It's such an honor. Oh, my gosh. And I see
you're in the studio. So yeah, I
Steve Addabbo (01:03):
figured we'd do a studio shoot here. Why not?
Jennifer Logue (01:06):
Love it? So we're gonna jump right into it.
Actually. I wanted to how did wemeet again, we talked about this
a little bit, but we
Steve Addabbo (01:18):
were trying to figure this out. You seemed
mean, you have a better memorythan me. You seem to think we
were at a one of these narrowmusic supervisor meetings that I
held at the studio here thattest Taylor runs out from
California, where we, they bringin music supervisors, and people
pitch their music. So I gotteninvolved with her. And maybe
(01:40):
maybe that's where you maybe youcame to one of those. I can't
imagine where else we met. Yeah,I
Jennifer Logue (01:46):
think that's what it was. But then we ended
up collaborating on a few songs,which was so cool. And yeah.
Steve Addabbo (01:55):
They're still going to come out somewhere,
they will land somewhere.
They're good. No.
Jennifer Logue (02:00):
Well, that, if you think that, see if that
makes me feel really good. So
Steve Addabbo (02:04):
I do think we wrote some good pop songs.
They're
Jennifer Logue (02:08):
cool, putting it out into the universe. So we
never really got a chance totalk about your early life and
your upbringing. Your career hasdone so many cool things in your
career, Steve, so there's somuch to dig into. But when did
you first discover your love formusic?
Steve Addabbo (02:32):
You know, I could go back as early as second
grade, I think. It may it may beeven earlier than that. You
know, when I was four or five. Iremember. My parents had a small
record player, you know, and Ithink they had a version of
Perry Como was Hot diggity dogdiggity, it was a single. And I
(02:54):
still remember playing that whenI'm like four or five years old.
So that was kind of my firstinkling that I, you know, I
appreciated music or pop songs.
I mean, it's, it's a terriblerecord, if you listen to it now.
But, you know, for four or fiveyear olds, it seemed pretty
magical. And then I guess Iremember they can second grade.
I just can't remember my mom waswas kind of a she wasn't a
(03:16):
musician, but she would, youknow, sit down. We didn't have a
piano in the house. But mygrandmother had one. And she
used to sit down piano anddabble. And she would sing to
herself. So I think somewherethat, you know, she had some
kind of musical gene. She nevertook advantage of it that much.
And then I just started singingto myself. And I think it was a
(03:37):
very strange story that I was onschool bus coming home. I think
it's second grade. And the busdriver says, you come up here he
goes, sing, sing that songfascination for me. Now, how
does he know? I know how tosing. How does he know? I even
know this song. I still haven't.
(04:00):
I've never figured this one out,you know. And so somehow I
remember singing the song. Itwas fascination. I know, but I'd
add it at a you know, and maybeI learned from my mother, how
did I know the song? And how didhe know I could sing? And I'm
singing on the school bus tothis bus driver. And that was
that's all I remember. The wholething was like weird. And then
(04:24):
you know, yeah. And then lateron. You know, I got introduced
to the guitar. And when I wasabout, I guess, fourth or fifth
grade, I started dabbling,playing a little bit with it.
And then I had a next doorneighbor who was very
(04:45):
influential. It turns outbecause he was a he was an
electronic engineer, worked inavionics for Grumman, I think,
and he was in wedding bands onthe weekend. And he had this
great guitar set up in an echoPlex and and he just set up all
this stuff and I go over thereand listen to like, beautiful
old guitar stuff, you know. Sothat was pretty much good luck.
(05:06):
I'm gonna learn how to do this.
You know, that's what I want todo.
Jennifer Logue (05:09):
How long were you first started going over his
house? Oh, I
Steve Addabbo (05:13):
would say, I mean, he was right next door. So
I, you know, I would say I wasin fourth or fifth grade however
old dad is 10 or 11, somethinglike that, you know? And, and,
you know, just kind of hearing,you know, a guitar sounding that
good. That close up was like,Yeah, you know, when it was at
eight when he played very kindof standard kind of stuff wasn't
rock and roll, but it was still,you know, very impressive
(05:35):
sounding to me. So I was like,Yeah, I'm gonna learn how to do
this.
Jennifer Logue (05:38):
Nice. And he started playing guitar then like
Ron, yeah, great.
Steve Addabbo (05:42):
Yeah. And then my mom finally figured out that,
you know, I could take guitarlessons. And so we rented a
nylon string guitar from theschool. And I'd go there on
Saturday mornings, and juststart taking lessons. And and
that was that was, you know,that was kind of the beginning.
Jennifer Logue (06:00):
Awesome. When did he know you wanted to do
music professionally?
Steve Addabbo (06:04):
Oh, well, I think pretty much. Once I got once I
got into college, you know, andI was, you know, I was also on
both sides of the fence. Ireally liked the technical
world. I like to fiddle withelectronics, but I really liked
playing guitar and doing music.
So, you know, once I startedgetting into serious engineering
(06:26):
school was like, I don't know ifI really want to do this for my
whole living, you know, so Ijust kept playing guitar. And
then I started then I alsobecame a music major at the same
time, which helped me in thosedays, you needed to have a
college deferment to stay out ofthe draft, this was the Vietnam
War era. And if you didn't, andyou got a low number in the in
(06:49):
the draft lottery, I don't evenknow if you know what that is.
But there was a time I guess itwas clicking 1970 or 71, they
did a draft lottery wherebasically, they played bingo
with your life, there was 365balls with birth dates on them,
you know, and they pick them outin the first 120 Birthdays,
(07:13):
you're gonna get drafted thenext ones, maybe not. And if you
got lucky, and you got like,over 240, chances are you
wouldn't get drafted. So thatwas the first time I was in the
top 10. So I got my, my birthdaycame out almost immediately. And
I was like, damn, so Butluckily, I was. I had my two
(07:33):
esta Firmen, which kept chat,which kept out cool, because I
was a double degree guy doingmusic and engineering. I had an
extra year. And that extra yearproved to be crucial. Because
the draft ended in the spring ofmy final year of school. I had
already gotten the letter tocome down to Whitehall street
(07:54):
and get my physical.
Jennifer Logue (07:56):
Wow. So music saved your life?
Steve Addabbo (07:59):
I would say, you know, I would say having that
that music degree. Definitely. Imean, I don't know what I would
have done if I actually wasfaced with being drafted. I
mean, there was ways to getaround it or, you know, claiming
you have psychiatric problemsand building up there. I mean,
we there were ways people arerunning, running off to Canada.
I don't know if I'd ever beenthat brave to do that. But I
(08:20):
don't think it was. I justcouldn't imagine being in the
Army. I just wasn't. So luckily,I didn't have to deal with it.
Jennifer Logue (08:27):
Oh my gosh, well, we're all very lucky. You
a lot of music to make. So nowon to, you know, thoughts on
creativity and the creativelife. This is creative space. So
I asked this question ofeveryone. How would you define
(08:47):
creativity? Where does it comefrom?
Steve Addabbo (08:50):
Wow. Well, defining creativity, not an easy
question to answer, obviously,you know that but to me when I
feel like I'm creative, I don'teven know if this answers the
question is when you get into azone where you start to forget
about the material world aroundyou and what you're dealing with
(09:14):
on a day to day basis. And youget into this world where
something emerges, you know,whether it's from your
unconscious or conscious whereyou start it. And for me, it was
it was writing music and when Istarted writing, I wrote my
first song I don't think I was19 even know if I was I might I
don't even know if I was playingguitar at that point. So it
(09:34):
might have been like 10 or 11years old. My uncle had given me
this little portable batterypowered tape recorder with the
little three three inch wheelsthree and a half inch wheels on
it and I would do my own radioshow counting down the top 10
and stuff and then one day I youknow, I started I just wrote my
own song was kind of a take offon a Beach Boys song about a
(09:56):
fast car or something wasterrible, but it was you know,
it was like Just started towrite a song for no reason. So
you know, I think I think a lotof people have very different
ways of getting to theircreative core. Some people are
very disciplined about or otherpeople just wait for the muse to
hit them. But I think I thinkwhen it's the best is when all
(10:19):
of a sudden, you just, and a lotof times for me, if I first sit
down at the guitar, and I'm noteven thinking, I just start
playing something, like, it'd bepretty cool like that, maybe I
could do something with this,you know, then then you start to
think about it. And then, youknow, either the door opens or
the door slammed in your face,and you go, this is going
nowhere. But where that, wherethat drive comes from to do
(10:45):
that, or just even that abilityto sit down and go, Okay, I'm
gonna put this together now. AndI really need a better second
line or, you know, you write agreat first line, and that's
like, great. Now, if the writethe rest of the song, what is
this about? You know, I don'tknow, I don't really know. So
you know, but where thatcreative juices spring from, you
(11:08):
know, for me, also, it's justjust sitting down and playing
the guitar, it puts you in azone that disconnects you from a
lot of the material world, andyou just kind of get in there.
And all of a sudden, it's like,if you've done your homework,
practicing the guitar over theyears, and you can just kind of
not think about where yourfingers are going and just kind
(11:28):
of start to just play. I mean,that comes from a place it's
very much like improvising, youjust come from a place where
you're not really thinking, butyour body and emotions are, are
are leading the way. And itstarts to you start to get into
the spot where the stuff comesout. And you don't even know
(11:49):
where it's coming from go, did Ijust do that? I didn't know
where that is, you know, andwhat did I do? 10 minutes ago, I
don't really remember now, youknow, so it's elusive that, you
know, it's elusive to get intothat zone. And, you know, there
are times when you feel likeyou're more receptive to it. And
then there are times when youjust feel like you're knocking
(12:12):
your head against the wall. AndI mean, other people. I mean, I
know people like, especially thewriters in Nashville, you know,
they have their, their regimenand they go on to have these
three hour co writing sessionswith people and they really kind
of push themselves to get intothat zone. I think that's a lot
of the success of a lot ofpeople that they actually, you
(12:34):
know, they just basically saythey show up, you know, if you
show up, and you start to do it,something maybe will happen if
you don't show up, we thinkabout doing it, then you get
nothing, you know,
Jennifer Logue (12:45):
you gotta take action.
Steve Addabbo (12:47):
I think so I think, you know, a lot of, I
think a lot of art is in acertain sense. What's the right
word, I don't want to saymechanical, but just, it's the,
it's the people who have havethe ability to sit down and do
it. And a lot of us don't, and alot of us are just too busy
(13:07):
doing so much other stuff. Youknow, I'm actually working on my
new song called busy doingnothing, which kind of kind of
speaks to this, you know, andit's, I've just got to get it's
basically done, but I gotta Igotta finish it, but it it's
like, oh my god, I got no timefor this. I've got no time for
that. I mean, I'm busy doingnothing, what am I doing, you
(13:27):
know, but in the day is like mycutoff time for this. And it's
like, the true artists, puts allthat stuff aside, and then
starts to and just gets down toit and all and, you know, having
been around some really trueartists like Suzanne Vega, or
Eric Anderson, or they just,this is central to their core,
(13:48):
you know, we're I'm kind oflike, well, I'm an engineer, I'm
a producer, I'm a guitar player,I write songs, sometimes I've
got all these other things goingon. So it's very hard for me to
just fashioned myself as asongwriter, again, today
creative zone. And there aredifferent types of creative
zones, there's the ones whereyou're trying to write is also
the ones where you're trying towork on help someone else when
I'm producing somebody, to, toyou know, help them realize what
(14:14):
they're trying to get to andcertainly being creative in a
way of working with someonewho's trying to do a vocal which
is one of the hardest things ofthat we all do, you know, in a
studio trying to get get to aspot where it's exciting and
honest and the singers reallyconnecting with the song and
then therefore connecting withme through the speakers, which
(14:37):
is my job and as being aproducer to to make that happen.
So there's that creative zonewhich I love being in also
because all of a sudden you'reyou're in a tunnel together.
You're trying to get to theother end and and it's very much
like being in a tunnel acreative zone, I think because
you're just kind of in there andyou're you're working with what
you have and trying to keep youknow keeping them voices say
(15:00):
this sucks, you suck, what areyou doing this for Go, go do
something else. And, you know,once you can beat away those
demons and stuff and just let itflow, then it kind of it does
parallel in a lot of differentways, you know, making a record,
writing a song, doing a mix, youknow, it's like all these all
(15:21):
these steps to making a recordto making music all involve a
little different level or areaof creativity. And it's still a
fascinating thing for me to doit. Because when you really get
there, and then you can actuallysit back and listen to what you
didn't like it. That's a goodspot to be in. Oh, it doesn't
(15:42):
always happen, you know, it'shard to get to that spot.
Jennifer Logue (15:45):
It No, it doesn't. And, you know, that
kind of lens on another questionthat I had? How do you know what
a work is complete? Like, how doyou know for you when a song is
done? Or when a mix is done? Orbecause you can perpetually keep
going with it?
Steve Addabbo (16:03):
Well, yeah, especially today, with all we
have at our fingertips, youknow, we can make, you can get
into such nitty gritties minutdetails that no one will ever
notice. I think there's just apoint where it's satisfying, and
you feel like you've, you'veyou've put in almost the right
(16:25):
way to say this, you feel likeyou have examined, especially
that getting a mix, let's sayhit start there. It's, it's so
it's so variable, and it has somany solutions, you know,
there's so many possibilities,that it's very hard to keep, you
know, keep keep your eye on theball and just and just just
(16:48):
really create and create a mixthat really works. And what does
that mean? That means a mixthat, that comes out of the
speaker sounds good, makespeople want to listen to the
song and makes people want tolisten to the singer makes
people want to listen to thestoryline. And, and all the
technical, more mumbo jumbo thatwe do to get there is is behind
(17:11):
the scenes and you don't see it.
So how do you know when it'sdone is one that all that kind
of goes away? And you'relistening? And all of a sudden
you go, Oh, that sounds like asong now? And you're done? I
mean, that's usually what thepoint, I guess was, you know
what, that sound? That soundslike a song now it's okay, you
know? Yeah, maybe the guitarpart could be a half a dB lower
and adverse, you know, but maybenot, maybe it's actually good
(17:32):
that way, because it's notreally going to matter that much
to the other outside listener ifthe guitar is a half a dB louder
or not in that verse, because aslong as it's not distracting
from the vocal line. It's it'shard to know when you're really
done. But at a certain point,it's like, well, I've pretty
much done everything I cansounds good to me, I can sit
(17:52):
back and listen to it and notgo, Oh, crap that's in the way
or no, I really can't hear thatthird line of that verse, I
gotta go back in and get that upa little bit. Or the bass is
really too loud, or oh my god,it's just endless, you know. So
you could mix forever. But Ithink there was a certain point
when you go, Okay, this is done.
And also, same thing withwriting a song, I think, at a
(18:15):
certain point, you started thefirst line of the first person
and maybe the rest of the versecome, then it may be figured out
it might be if the second verseand yeah, have a chorus idea, we
have the chorus of the first.
And but then as you just play itthrough, you go, yeah, this is
done. And of course, the bestway to figure out if your song
is done is to go play in frontof an audience. And see if they
(18:35):
take their cell phones out in asecond verse, are they listening
to you? You know, because, and Itell that a lot of my artists,
you know, a lot of people wantto come in here, I just just
wrote a song, I want to recordit, I'm going to play it and for
anybody to play it out therenow. Play it out there and then
come back in and do it. Andyou'd be amazed, just you know,
right away, you know, if you'resinging, doing a song live in an
(18:57):
audience and something's notright, the second verse is
lagging, or it's notinteresting, or so, I mean, I
think that's when your song isdone. And when you actually play
it in front of play in front ofan audience and they they follow
you all the way through. Youfeel really good at the end of
it.
Jennifer Logue (19:15):
That's a great way to go about just when you
decide to record something, likeHave you played it, some of my
best songs have been ones thatI've you know, written in bands
and we got to see the audience'sreaction you get to get a feel
for it. And I mean, I findmyself rewriting the song a lot
(19:37):
as it's being performed,
Steve Addabbo (19:39):
rewriting it as a performer. Yeah. That I think
that's part of the process. Ithink it's really a really
important part of the processbecause once once you mean I
always like to have extra earsaround either when I'm mixing
or, or that when you're whenyou're playing the song for an
audience or even if it's sixpeople doesn't really matter,
(19:59):
but You know, right Oh, you kindof know that yeah, this is a
complete work and and it'sworking. You know, I see people
responding to it. I see themfollowing the storyline and I, I
feel the connection and then Igo yeah, this is this works.
This is a good song. You knowit. So then yeah, then then
you're finished writing it.
Jennifer Logue (20:22):
Cool. So when you create something, I love the
story about your song with yourband Arbuckle. It's, you never
know when something's going toland. No, you know, Andrew, once
you create something that takeson a life of its own, you have
no control over how peopleperceive it where it goes, but
(20:43):
you did your job and you steppedup to the plate. You You know
brought it to fruition and nowit's in the world for people to
enjoy. And sometimes how manyyears ago right? We'd love to
hear this story. I love thisstory so much about your song.
Steve Addabbo (21:00):
Well, when I was in college, you know, I was
Yeah, I was. I was at StonyBrook University. My my next
door neighbor in the dorm. Mybuddy Ron Fierstein had a rock
band in Brooklyn. He'd go backevery weekend. And but him and I
were both kind of folkies atHardy like Cat Stevens. I like
(21:21):
James Taylor. And so we we kindof teamed up and did an acoustic
duo and we were writing songs hewould write his we weren't
running so writing together buthe had his songs I had my songs
and we we played around thecoffee houses and on it Stony
Brook and a couple off offcampus. We opened up for Joshua
Jr. Once it was like our biggig. And eventually we melded
(21:42):
our folk songs or acoustic songswith his rock band and formed a
band. And one of the members ofthe band, had some connections
he worked. He was an intern atbillboard or something and he
found these producers who werelooking for a young band. And
they came down to see us we hada they had a rehearsal space in
(22:03):
Brooklyn, I was commuting fromStony Brook to Brooklyn to
rehearse in between classes, andthey liked this and we got up we
got a record deal and I wasbarely a senior in high school
in that was actually had a yearanother year to go on school
because it was a five yearperson now so so my last my last
year I was on the road doinggigs plus going to the studio, I
(22:27):
got to work at media SoundStudio B which is a legendary
place in New York City to recordour first record and came out on
a label called Musical records.
And originally, the name of theband was circus but for some
reason we didn't think that wascool. Since my friend Ron was
kind of heavyset that timebecause that was his way of
(22:48):
staying out of the draft to beoverweight, which was he was
successful with. It wasunbelievable way to go through
this thing out of Vietnam, youknow, and somehow his friends
used to nicknamed them FattyArbuckle. So this name Arbuckle
was kind of floating around.
Little did we know that fatty?
Arbuckle was a complete pervertchild molester. What we didn't
(23:11):
know that. Oh, no. There was nothere was no internet internet
stuff out, you know. That's anunusual name. No one's no band's
name. So we renamed the bandArbuckle. And it's such a
terrible name. But anyway. Andthat was the record that came
out on musical records in late72. I guess it came out. And we,
you know, we got some localradio play, and we got to open
(23:39):
up for Bruce Springsteen at theRoxy theater in Philadelphia.
Oh, after his first record, hedrew 200 people there. It's a
600 seat theater. And it wasreally a great it was one of my
great nights because he was upin the dressing room. And he saw
me take out my guitar, he handsme a wire we're jamming up and
his rest dressing room and he hesat down and watched our whole
(24:01):
set, you know, and then comes upa meet the top planes fills up
the band. Nice, it's good. Andthen he then I sit down and
watch his show. And it blows usout of the water. We were in
kindergarten and he was like, hewas in a Ph. D. I mean, it was
just I don't think I've everseen a band that great. Now the
originally street band withDavid Sanchez on keyboards. It's
(24:22):
just like, damn, and the songand the way he was it was just,
I mean, it was I mean, I wasembarrassed that he actually saw
my watch.
Jennifer Logue (24:32):
Because I think we're all harder on ourselves.
Steve Addabbo (24:36):
Man, you know, but I mean, he was.
Jennifer Logue (24:38):
So you have it, seen it differently. Got it. So
cool. Steve
Steve Addabbo (24:42):
differently.
Yeah. I mean, he was but he wasjust after his first record. And
this is, you know, and he wastalking to me and he was and
record companies unhappy. I onlysold 30,000 records. And then,
of course, you know, two yearslater, I'm in Brooklyn, driving
a taxicab in between gigs thatpay the rent. And he's on the
cover of Time Magazine. And Iwas like, holy moly, you know,
(25:02):
is like this can really happen,you know. So it was it was quite
the quite the eye opening thing.
So anyway, one of the songs I'dwritten, Ron wrote more of the
songs that I only had like twosongs that I wrote on the
record. In this one song calledA New Day, I remember hearing it
in my living, there was astation on Long Island called W
(25:24):
li are very influential FM rock,progressive station at the time.
And I was sitting there, and mymom was there. And all of a
sudden, my song came on theradio. And it was like such a,
you know, one of those momentslike, oh, my gosh, you know,
it's like, wow, it's really onthe radio and guy said he liked
it, blah, blah, blah. There wasno, no real hit from the album.
(25:49):
We, you know, we toured a littlebit. But, you know, mostly,
mostly the, we I think we didcut a second record, but it
never really came out. I don'tthink we had enough material.
And that was kind of the end ofit. You know, when I basically
forgot about Arbuckle for like,45 years, or whatever it was,
you know, because it was like,okay, you know, it was fun. We
(26:10):
did it. Yeah, we were BruceSpringsteen. That's a cool story
in the open for dark. But howcan a medicine show once that
was fun, but then I just wentoff to be a road musician. We
had a country trio for a while,and I played in the show band
for a few years cool. making myliving playing guitar, though.
It's fun.
Jennifer Logue (26:30):
But then 45 years later, you get word that
aren't the song, a new day isbeing featured in a Shirley
MacLaine film, The Last Word,which is really cool.
Steve Addabbo (26:45):
It's totally out of the blue. I had nothing to do
with it, I guess. Because at thetime, you know, we knew nothing
about the business. So we signedaway all our publishing, not the
writer share, but the ourpublisher share. And at some
point, I guess it was the guyswho produced us. I guess they
they took the other part of thepublishing and at one point,
(27:05):
when they sold it to anothercompany, but someone was
actually working their catalog,and they were looking for
authentic 70s music. They didn'twant sound like they wanted
something that was recorded inthe 70s. And somehow, some way,
they picked that song. It's theonly song I sang on the record
to buy the wow, that's cool. RonRon was the mace basically the
(27:25):
lead singer. And I get thiscall, you know, can you see the
Bible from our buckle? And I'mlike, I couldn't be know what
this was about. And this lawyerin LA was like, Well, you know,
we've placed your song and thismovie in the barn, we just want,
(27:46):
you know, to to sign off on it.
And there's a there's a sync feeand did it on and is it a fine?
You know, so me, I basicallymade more money in that sync fee
than entire two years of beingin Arbuckle, you know, the band
was making $50 a gig maybe if wewere lucky, you know, so it was
it was and in then I got to seethe movie, and they use it in a
scene where she's going down tosee her daughter and they're
(28:08):
driving along the Pacific coastor something. And it's literally
on for like, two minutes in thebackground. You know, and they
make guitar solos in there. AndI had to laugh at it. You know,
it's like it's so it's such apristine little guitar solo, you
know, I'm so but but Yeah, andlike, you know, while it shows
up on my ass cap, you know, thestatement they played it for a
(28:30):
week in Germany and
Jennifer Logue (28:35):
back then you didn't know 45 years ago. The
song would resurface in such abig way. Yeah, it's so cool. So
such
Steve Addabbo (28:44):
a 70s lyric I had a rap with a wonderful friends
like, you know, there wasn't rapmusic back then. Rap man, you
were having a conversation youknow, and I listened to that go
boy, it's so seven days thatlyric
Jennifer Logue (28:55):
Well, you can't get more seven isn't that song?
Steve Addabbo (28:58):
Oh, no, no, you know, but yeah, but yeah, I
mean, the movies not that bad. Iyou know, I have you know, I
think I know where ShirleyMacLaine is these days but man
happy and it's actually kind ofa cute movie she wants to. She
wants to find someone and writeher a bitch obituary. And then
(29:21):
the writer she hires can't findanyone say a good word about
herself. This gets kids. It's acute idea. Fabulous, fabulous
movie, but it's not bad. Youknow?
Jennifer Logue (29:31):
I love the concepts. I thought it was
really well done. The writer inme. Yeah, love loves it. So, in
my research for this episode, Ifound out some things about you
that I didn't know about that. Ithink a really
Steve Addabbo (29:48):
good no but no.
Jennifer Logue (29:50):
Yeah, you know.
So I know you co produce Tom'sDiner for Suzanne Vega. Yep. But
I didn't realize it was thatsong that made her The mother of
the mp3. Yeah. And you did therecording. Can we talk about
that? That's so cool.
Steve Addabbo (30:06):
Yeah, sure. I mean, I didn't know about this
either for quite a while later.
And then story emerged about Dr.
Brandenburg. When we wererecording solitude standing,
which is the album that Tom'sDiner is on, Tom's diner opens
the album and it's an acapellasong, because that's the way she
did it on in her show, it waslike, let's just do it that way.
(30:28):
Let's not produce it. Let's justlet her do a cup, you know. So
basically, we were up inBearsville studios up in
Woodstock. Excuse me, which is abeautiful old studio no longer
there. It's huge. It's like abig huge barn is the recording
room. And everyone from the bandand Dylan, I mean, everyone went
(30:52):
through that place. So here I amtrying. So here I am trying to
record Suzanne Vega singingacapella song and this cavern,
you know, so I kind of, we haveto go blow it all up and make
sure it's not too echoey. And,you know, we were still in the
(31:13):
world of tape back thenobviously, we were using studio
24 track machine. And it waslike, and I was, I was into like
having really great sound forher and my production. So I
decided I would record it on abrand new Sony digital f1 which
is basically a Betamax tapemachine hooked up to this little
(31:35):
processor. And it was really theearly one of the earliest
digital recordings. Digitalrecording technology that was
around was only for two tracks,but I only needed one track for
her. So you know, we did aboutseven takes, I think we pick the
third take. And the master forthat is actually a Betamax tape.
(31:56):
You know, it's actually that'show that's how the digital
information was stored. They usevideotape and they did that for
many years. Even when all the CDcraze came around, they were
using three quarter inchvideotape. So that was the
master and we mixed it out anda&m Studios with Shelly axis and
(32:20):
that was pretty much it, youknow, and we started the song
with them started the album withan acapella song and then we
pretty much went right into Lucaafter that it was like a slam
dunk, you know, slam dunk kindof beginning of an album to get
there, get your attention whenthe acapella song and then have
those the production of Lucacome in. And and yeah, I mean, I
(32:42):
had no idea. So the story goesthat Dr. Brandenburg was was
tweaking his algorithm for thismp3 Because they were trying to
figure out a way to make digitalfiles smaller, so they could be
sent over phone lines, and, youknow, eventually through the air
streaming, without too muchdata. So they were trying to
(33:03):
figure out a way to eliminatealmost 90% of the data and still
make it sound good. So hethought he had a pretty good
thing going. And then he heardthe acapella version of Suzanna
goes, you know, I shouldprobably test it on that.
Because, you know, it's prettybare. And so when he did it, it
sounded terrible. The book wasjust like, digitized, nasty
(33:25):
stuff going on in there. And soit's like, he says, in his
little interview goes, it causedme a lot of trouble. Oh my gosh,
yeah. So they had a good so hewent back in and he had to
figure out a way to get rid ofthe digital distortion on that.
And he said, he probablylistened to that song four or
5000 times. That's crazy. So andthen but eventually, you know, I
(33:49):
mean, we all take the mp3 forgranted and considering they're
throwing away 90% of the files,the bits to make it sound it's
pretty miraculous that it soundsas good as it does, you know?
Jennifer Logue (34:01):
Yeah, but I mean, that song is like, what's
the standard for every mp3 tocome after?
Steve Addabbo (34:09):
That is so cool me I cannot tell you you know,
all around the world. As soon asyou start singing that melody
everybody knows what it is. Youknow, it's so crazy it is
literally the first thing Iheard her perform. You know when
I saw her the very first timebefore we had done any work
together she was opening it folkcity and we were looking for an
(34:32):
artist to develop and she justcame out and started the did is
it's pretty bolted start tostart a you know a set like that
and but it was really cool. Andthat's why we started the album
that way because we had the songfor the first record salt the
salt to standing record was oursecond album. For some reason it
(34:53):
didn't I didn't want to put iton the first record. It didn't
seem like it fit. And I'm gladwe didn't because It just it
just exploded. I mean, Luke iswhat exploded on the second
album and then Tom's diner. Thefirst one of the early remix
remixes that the the duo DNAfrom England did it without our
(35:14):
permission they took her voteacapella vocal and put a beat
upon it beat on him. And thatkind of opened up the frickin
door for sampling and so theassets that song really landmark
in a couple of different ways.
Jennifer Logue (35:29):
Yeah. History making song Hakuna, who
Steve Addabbo (35:33):
got a simple such a simple song, you know, such a
sip, but it's such a catchylittle Melody. Melody, remember
that, folks? Remember that?
songwriters. Melody?
Jennifer Logue (35:42):
That's my favorite part of a song, Steve.
I don't know. I don't know aboutyou. Sure. So, you also co wrote
the song left of center withSuzanne Vega. Will the iconic
film Pretty in Pink? I got toask, first of all, how did that
opportunity come about? To writefor the movie?
Steve Addabbo (36:03):
Well, that's that's the that's the advantage
of being on a major labelbecause we Suzanne was on a&m
records. And a&m was a veryartists oriented label. And they
was run by Herb Alpert, who wasgreat musician, trumpet player.
And Jerry Moss was his businesspartner. That was the a&m
Alberta moss. And so they werevery supportive of new artists.
(36:27):
And when we got Suzanne signedto them, she became part of the
family and they would dowhatever they they could do to
get her frame it, you know, justmake her successful. That's the
word successful, right. And sothey were working on this new
(36:48):
soundtrack for a new John Hughesfilm, they had done one with the
Breakfast Club. And they woulddo in a follow up, which was
going to be pretty in pinkwouldn't even know it was called
that at the time. And they sentus a script, they said Susannah
script, to say we'd like you tosubmit a song for this, maybe we
can get you on the soundtrack.
Sounds good. So we're on theroad. Not that at that point, I
(37:12):
was still touring with the banda bit just as a manager,
overseeing just the day to daydetails a lot, you know, being
on the road, just kind of beingan extra hand there. I had
started out doing live sound,but then I can't we kind of, I
punted, that was too much work.
(37:32):
And we hired somebody who'sprobably better at it anyway. So
um, so that was good. LittleRobin. Dana came in. And so, you
know, we're on the road, and shehas a script. And we're, we're,
I think we're in San, we're onour way to San Francisco. And I
think it's a Monday, in onThursday, a&m was hoping we do a
(37:55):
demo for this new song. So Isaid, Oh, Susanna, how you doing
on that new song? He goes, whatnew song? Oh, no. Something like
that. I go, have you even lookedat the script? She goes, No.
Look at the script. Look at thescript, because Oh, okay.
Sometimes she had to be pushed alittle bit. And so she looked
(38:15):
good. I don't move it at it. I'mgonna go find something, you
know, so, so just scribble somestuff down. You know, whatever.
So so she's, she's on the bus,and she's looking at the, you
know, reading some of thescript, and she's kind of
writing some stuff in hernotebook. It goes, well come up
with anything. Is that I don'tthink so. It's not gonna work.
No, go. So let me so she showsme this. Like, it's a one point
(38:36):
I see down in the corner. Shewrote left to center. I said, I
like that left the center. Itsounds like a good title. So she
goes, Okay, so she wrote somelyrics. So then we're in San
Francisco on Monday, we'redriving down. I think. I think
we're in LA on Tuesday. OrWednesday, maybe Tuesday, we get
there. And I go, Suzanne, weknow we have Have you written
anything? She would? No not not.
I have some words that don'thave music. That Okay, I'm
(38:58):
coming down. So, go down there.
It's numerous in like in theafternoon, motel in LA. And I
just sit down and like, like Isaid before, I just kind of
start playing the guitar in thatlittle guitar that guitar lick
did bad, bad. It just came outof nowhere. You know, I was just
(39:19):
like I said, okay, yeah, this iscool. And she will see I like
that and I was just startedsinging the words. And we put it
together and like a couple ofhours. And I didn't even really
have the chords totally workedout for the bridge but it was
like Okay, and so she she prettymuch had enough lyric if you
notice, there's no second verse.
It's like two first verses ifyou're listening to the slugs
like okay, well, but we she gotaway with it. And on Thursday we
(39:40):
went in. It was either Thursdayor Friday of that week. We went
into an amp studios just myselfand her, me and her. And we laid
it down just acoustic you know,I was playing the acoustic
guitar and she was singing it.
And we no overdubs. Anythingthat was it. That was the demo.
We got it. I wish I had thatdemo, I don't know where that
(40:01):
is, I don't know, the awesome tohear. I don't know where I knew.
I don't know where that is, andand it got accepted into the
movie. Wow, it was like, wow,okay, and so then there's like,
I gotta know, you got to produceit, you know, and you got to do
it up a little bit. And since,you know, since they had liked
the acoustic version that wedid, I figured I'd keep it kind
(40:22):
of acoustic a and and being ona&m records, you know, they
said, Well, why don't we have aguest artists to give a little
more star power because no onereally knows Suzanne yet was
after her first record, we maybe sold 90,000 records in the
art on her first record inAmerica, you know, which wasn't,
was respectable, they didn'tthink she'd go past 15 or 20,000
(40:45):
records when they signed her andthey thought that would be okay,
because first record, so she wasdoing okay. And they said, Well,
you know, Joe Jackson is on ourlabel, maybe he can come in and
play some piano one I want totell ya. So all of a sudden, you
know, I had a recording sessionthat I had Joe Jackson coming
down the lane, some piano onewas just this was, you know, for
(41:07):
me, I mean, I had really justproduced Suzanne's first record.
And so this was like a reallyfun opportunity. Of course, I
was a little nervous workingwith Joe Jackson. But he was
fine. And you know, he did somebeautiful piano work and a
couple of souls the end, and Iremember him saying me, tell him
away, you know, you got to tellme if you if this is good
enough. And I go, you know, it'sgood enough. It's fine. You had
(41:27):
a beautiful solo at the end,they didn't want to, you know,
keep going home. Try one more,try one more, you know, plus we
run analog these those days, wecan have independent tracks. And
you know, so we submitted it, Idid the mix, so we mixed mine
and mix it with somebody else atthat point. And I'm Harvey
Goldberg, maybe, yeah, and thenso we submitted the mix. And the
(41:50):
record company heard it. Andthey thought maybe it was
compared to the rest of thesoundtrack. It was a little
lightweight in terms of theproduction because I'd gone for
the more acoustic thing. Andthey said, Why don't you work
with Arthur Baker, and he'll putsome, you know, little more beef
into it, I got fine. I didn'tcare. It was my I had to have
the song, I was going to get itin the movie. So I got to work
with Arthur Baker, who was veryfamous in those days for kind of
(42:11):
the, you know, really big snaresound and drum beat and stuff.
And, and so he added someproduction touches to it. And
he's very nice and didn't, youknow, it was very respectful of
me. And then we got to mix itagain with him. And that's the
version that's on the record,you know, and so he has not gone
away from the 1986 it's now 37years.
Jennifer Logue (42:34):
It's iconic.
It's so cool to have a song inthat film. Yeah.
Steve Addabbo (42:38):
And the soundtrack when platinum, you
know, and yeah, it paid off verynicely. So
Jennifer Logue (42:45):
cool. Um, so now flash forward. To You know,
today, you just produced the 16borders EP, for Jim and Sasha
Allen, which is a history makingfather son duo on the voice.
Steve Addabbo (43:01):
I didn't realize that history making parts so you
research that a little more. Imean, I just I thought they
might have had some other transartists there. This, you know,
Sasha, had trans, trans thin,middle high school there. So
Jennifer Logue (43:15):
yeah, well, the it's 21 years of this show,
Sasha was the first openlytransgender artists to make it
past the battle rounds. 31 yearsto make it past the battle
rounds. show's been on for 21years. It's been on for 21
years. Apparently. I, I don'twant to think
Steve Addabbo (43:35):
for a couple of seasons. I'm 20. Holy cow vibing
in a cave.
Jennifer Logue (43:40):
I mean, I didn't look at this. I'd read this
online, so maybe I should factcheck it again. I'll read it in
the show notes. Make sure it isactually we have the internet
right here. So let's
Steve Addabbo (43:51):
check it out.
Because I mean, I understand youknow, American Idol. But you
know, that was
Jennifer Logue (43:57):
Oh God see what does say 2121 21 Season Season
Steve Addabbo (44:02):
while still here we go while still if they do two
seasons a year.
Jennifer Logue (44:07):
Okay, so, okay, so fact checking myself. It's
actually 21 seasons, and itstarted in 2011.
Steve Addabbo (44:19):
All right. Okay.
Because yeah, I can do that.
Jennifer Logue (44:21):
Yeah, that's acceptable.
Steve Addabbo (44:23):
Okay. Stan, you stand Correct.
Jennifer Logue (44:26):
I stand corrected.
Steve Addabbo (44:30):
out now, if there was an Internet back then this
band name Arbuckle would neverhave happened. I'm telling you
to right now.
Jennifer Logue (44:38):
You would have had a different name.
Steve Addabbo (44:41):
Probably. Yeah.
And the name didn't I don'tthink the name helped us. It
might hurt us. Who knows?
Jennifer Logue (44:48):
But yeah, let's talk about the 16 borders EP.
It's four songs. And it just gotreleased, right?
Steve Addabbo (44:55):
Yeah, just a few weeks ago, you know, just came
out and it's another The thingthat is completely came out of
the blue you know, as as you gothrough this and your producer
and you meet you meet a&r peoplealong the way. And, you know,
being in the business now for solong while I was a&r people were
very young when they started,you know, and I met them. And
(45:18):
now they're in more powerfulpositions. And David Walther,
who was originally I think, ana&r rep at RCA. I don't know
1520 years ago, maybe we hadconnected and done some stuff
together over the years. And heknew some, my younger engineers,
and he was always aware of me.
And once in a while, we'll sendstuff in, when when I guess it
(45:39):
was Monty Lippmann, who runshead of Republic records party
UMG decided they wanted to signthese, you know, signs, Jim and
Sasha. It got dumped in David'slap. Okay, you know, make a
record with them. So David's,you know, and this is like a
(46:03):
fairly acoustic duo in this dayand age. So he's like, Dave was
like, who would help him dothis? Go, Steve can do this?
Yeah, like I, you know, I gotthey got to remember. And so I
got the call and I met them. Andyou know, it was really fun and,
and we basically did that thing.
And four days, you know, we wentthrough, you know, a few more of
their songs. And it was a realpleasure to work with them.
(46:25):
They're both really talented.
Sasha beautiful voice and Jimwho wrote writes the songs and
multi instrumentalist playsguitar, keyboards, mandolin,
accordion, you name it. And Irecord I wanted to record them
pretty much alive, because Ithought what they did was live,
the harmonies, they work offeach other live, I didn't want
(46:47):
to just go okay, now Jim, you dothe basic track with the torn
your vocal, I'm gonna add Sasha,I just didn't think it would
work that way. So I set them up,you know, in my room separated
them enough in case you know, wedo want to fix a line here or
there, I'll be able to. Andwe've pretty much recorded the
whole thing live mean, the firstday we spent going through
different songs just trying tosee you know, which ones might
(47:11):
be the better ones to record.
And because we were we, theytold us we could record four
songs for an EP. And so wepretty much spent the first day
getting acquainted and gettinggetting the sound together,
learning what they can do whatthey can't do. Sasha didn't want
to play guitar at all, I wantedhis dad to do it. So you know,
(47:32):
first that we kind of did thatthe second day, we actually
started, you know, going fortakes and we picked the four
songs, we might have done acouple of songs each day. And
then I added I added some basson it and electric guitar on 16
borders. And then Jim did someexternal or some other overdubs
on keyboards. And, you know, didsome rough mixes on Friday and
(47:54):
sent that off, and everyoneloved it. And I finished up the
mixes soon after that. And thatwas pretty much it. And it'd be
five days, you know, we weredone with it. Wow. And, you
know, I was really happy withit. They were really happy with
it. And I think, I think I'vedone a lot of first albums in my
career. So I have I have been agood bedside manner for it, I
(48:15):
guess. And plus, they were verytalented. It was just a joy to
work with. And to the key to mewas their harmonies because
that's something that'spriceless, because you don't get
one last time there's a fatherson duo came out anywhere. I
can't think of get your researchteam on it and see because I
don't know. Yeah, I don't Idon't really can't think of one.
(48:38):
So it's like, well, this is kindof unique, you know, and a
little bit harkens back to theEverly Brothers little bit,
sometimes it's Simon andGarfunkel, you know, it's a
little bit that through malevoices, but um, I didn't want to
imitate anything, I just wantedto figure out what was right for
their songs and not reallychanged them too much, but just
kind of raise the bar a littlebit for them. And I you know, I
(49:02):
think I think it came outbeautiful. And, and also, I
didn't want to add a lot ofstuff to this one, you know, I'm
hopefully this will besuccessful enough. And we can go
back in and maybe we get a realdrummer next time. I don't know,
you know, we upped the ante alittle bit. But it was it was
really, you know, out ofnowhere, you know, all of a
sudden, you know, not havinganything out on a major label
(49:23):
for years. It was another one ofthose things like well, I guess
if you stick around long enough,and you've done some good work
in the past, maybe you know, theworld takes care of you a little
bit.
Jennifer Logue (49:35):
Yes, I believe that. I believe that Steve? That
is wonderful. So I gotta askwhat's next for you? I know
you're going on tour with EricAnderson.
Steve Addabbo (49:48):
Yeah, well, um you know, if I knew the answer
that question I probablywouldn't be doing something else
but even what's next? I neverquite know what's next. Um, I'm
still involved with the withSony re mixing or mixing for the
first time Bob Dylan outtakes wehave a new one coming out in
(50:09):
January at a time out of mindalbum on a one CD worth of
unreleased stuff from that, youknow, alternate takes that were
really quite good. Daniel Lanoisproduced it originally and
record it. So it's a reallywell, well recorded, well
recorded album. I work I do alot of work for the archives to
(50:34):
were issuing some Leonard Cohenconcerts from 1970 to more for
copyright purposes. But after 50years, they have to renew the
copyrights. So they, theyrelease them somewhere in Europe
for two weeks. And then theythey retain the copyrights and
no one can use theseperformances for anything else
without going through Sony. Soit's just something record
companies have to do, you know,for their business. So, you
(50:58):
know, we've been doing thatgoing through those, and it's a
lot of work right there. Now, wejust finished this 42 Song
tribute record to Eric Anderson,which is all of Eric's songs
performed by friends of hisacquaintance of his people who
(51:18):
love his music. And so it's 42different productions of
different songs of his that it'sslated to come out. I think it's
next week, maybe October 19th, Ithink was the official day. Oh,
and it's a timing. Yeah, it's atriple CD, believe it or not,
and plus, you know, being uponline and stuff and, but we
(51:41):
have some track by Genesee, andwe have an unreleased track by
Bob Dylan. We have one of yourlocals, Eric Brasilien. Did a
track beautiful came out great.
You know, I should have the listin front of me. But there's so
many people like Dan Navarro,Lucy kaplansky, Cliff Eberhardt,
(52:01):
a lot of a lot, Larry Campbell,and Teresa. So many, I can't
even remember more. But there'ssome really, some people did
some amazing stuff on this. Soit's really and it's very
eclectic record since draws onLenny key that track I mean, all
(52:23):
different, all different typesof versions of the song. So that
that's been going on for about ayear and a half. And that's a
big project. And I had to put itall together, you know, putting
42 songs from differentproducers in different mixes,
and people did it on GarageBandpeople did it in big studios and
trying to make it sad, it was itwas a lot of work. So that's,
(52:43):
that's that, you know, formyself, you know, the the person
I'd get to last? Why net neverseem to have enough time to book
myself. You know, I'm hoping todo at least a few more. Maybe an
EP, I don't know if I have it inme to do another whole album
yet. But you know, I've got I'vegot a cup, we've got about four
(53:04):
or five songs kicking aroundthat, you know, I should just,
you know, maybe I'll just getnot busy for a while and just go
okay, now's the time to do it,you know, and just kind of get
in there and just show up andget in the creative zone and get
these things done.
Jennifer Logue (53:20):
I mean, why not just take a few weeks for you
know, the holiday or something?
Steve Addabbo (53:25):
Yeah. Well, seems easy doesn't it seems like a
very simple concept.
Jennifer Logue (53:32):
But when you're busy getting
Steve Addabbo (53:34):
a concept, and then there's the studio, that
one, you know, they keep tellingme to pay electric bill. I mean,
okay, ya know, so you got tokeep it running. But I've got
one track on the Eric Andersontrack, which I can use as a
starter and it came outbeautiful. And I really did. So
I'm very happy with that. And soyeah, I mean, that's pretty much
(53:55):
it. What's going on right now?
You know, it's more than Ithought, because I tell you in
the summer, it seemed like well,I mean, I was working on the
ERIC records, a lot of stuff wasgoing on, but it didn't seem you
know, not until the end, theSasha and Jim thing we did back
in February. Oh, so once you'reon a major label, these things
take time, you know, and finallythey, they get it together and
they release it, you know, ontheir release schedule. So
(54:17):
there's these big gaps, and wecan do all this stuff. And then
you just sit and wait, they'regonna put it out. They're gonna
put it out. And so they did.
Jennifer Logue (54:26):
Anticipation.
Yeah, very exciting. Well,Steve, it has been a pleasure
and there's so much more we cantalk about I feel like we're
gonna have to do like a part twoeventually. Because
Steve Addabbo (54:39):
if I live long enough, yeah, we'll do so much
stuff. Yeah, it's like a longtime. Now, a lot, a lot. A lot
of stories in between all thosethat we mentioned, you know, and
but, you know, I still getexcited by doing this. It's
still exciting to, to work onstuff. You know, I'm also
helping my friend Mark Burr.
ergo, who has this album ride,he writes songs kind of about
(55:02):
the great, great West, you know,out there. And I've been playing
with him live. And he's, andhe's trying to get some songs
and movies and stuff. So we'rejust, I'm helping him mix his
record now too. And it's aninteresting process. So there's
so there's all these littleprojects that are scattered
around, you know, so you keepbusy, for sure. I keep busy, you
(55:22):
know, so it's like me, I kind ofdemand I can book me so yeah, so
yeah, I'm not going to complainabout that. That's for sure.
Jennifer Logue (55:32):
You're in demand. See, that's a beautiful
thing.
Steve Addabbo (55:35):
And we have to write some more songs because we
wrote some cool pop songs. Oh,my gosh,
Jennifer Logue (55:39):
that is happening. Okay, good. So yeah,
I have a few pieces. I'm like,Oh, these, you know, this hook
would be good to write withSteve to finish fleshing it out.
Yeah. And you always make myvocal sounds so good. Steve.
Magnus, the warm like you bringout the warmth and vocals.
Steve Addabbo (55:59):
Yeah. Well, let's, you know, you want you
want people to listen to him.
You know, you don't want him tobe edgy and nasty. Can you turn
the volume down? You want peopleto turn the volume up?
Jennifer Logue (56:09):
Yeah, yeah. I think the vocal is the hardest.
Of course, it requires. I mean,
Steve Addabbo (56:14):
it was the hardest to record. But I think
it's the hardest. Certainly thehardest to perform. And I think
it's the hardest to present.
Because it's, it's, it's 90% ofany record. Let's face it, you
know, so it's not, it's all youknow, sugar and candy is sort
of, but you know, the vocalstill has to really speak.
Jennifer Logue (56:38):
For more on Steve visit Steve adubato.com.
And for more information onShelter Island Sound, visit
Shelter Island sound.com. Andthank you so much for tuning in
and growing in creativity withus. I'd love to know what you
thought of today's episode. Whatyou found most interesting what
you found most helpful. You canreach out to me on social media
(57:00):
at Jennifer Logue or leave areview for creative space on
Apple podcasts so more peoplecan discover it. I appreciate
you so much for being here inthe beginning stages of this. My
name is Jennifer Logue. Andthanks for listening to this
episode of creative space, whichI do export using mp3. So thank
(57:21):
you, Steve, Suzanne and Dr.
Brandenburg until next time.
(57:48):
For more on Steve, visit Steveadubato.com. And for more
information on Shelter IslandSound, visit Shelter Island
sound.com. And thank you so muchfor tuning in and growing in
creativity with us. I'd love toknow what you thought of today's
episode. What you found mostinteresting what you found most
helpful. You can reach out to meon social media at Jennifer
(58:10):
Logue or leave a review forcreative space on Apple podcasts
so more people can discover it.
I appreciate you so much forbeing here in the beginning
stages of this. My name isJennifer Logue and thanks for
listening to this episode ofcreative space, which I do
export using mp3. So thank youSteve, Suzanne and Dr.
Brandenburg. Until next time,
Hello everyone and welcome to another episode
of creative space, a Podcastwhere we explore, learn and grow
and creativity together. I'myour host Jennifer Logue. And
today we have the pleasure ofchatting with Steve Addabbo.
He's a music producer,songwriter, audio engineer and
Grammy winner, so cool, who'shelped launch the careers of
(00:34):
Suzanne Vega, and Shawn Colvin.
He's owned Shelter Island Soundin New York City for over 30
years. And he's produced andengineered artists like Bob
Dylan, Bobby McFerrin, JeffBuckley, Olivia Newton, John,
and many, many more. He's also afriend of mine and a wonderful
human. Welcome. Welcome toCreative Space. Do you?
Steve Addabbo (00:56):
Hi, Jennifer.
Thanks for having me. This isfun.
Jennifer Logue (00:59):
It's such an honor. Oh, my gosh. And I see
you're in the studio. So yeah, I
Steve Addabbo (01:03):
figured we'd do a studio shoot here. Why not?
Jennifer Logue (01:06):
Love it? So we're gonna jump right into it.
Actually. I wanted to how did wemeet again, we talked about this
a little bit, but we
Steve Addabbo (01:18):
were trying to figure this out. You seemed
mean, you have a better memorythan me. You seem to think we
were at a one of these narrowmusic supervisor meetings that I
held at the studio here thattest Taylor runs out from
California, where we, they bringin music supervisors, and people
pitch their music. So I gotteninvolved with her. And maybe
(01:40):
maybe that's where you maybe youcame to one of those. I can't
imagine where else we met. Yeah,I
Jennifer Logue (01:46):
think that's what it was. But then we ended
up collaborating on a few songs,which was so cool. And yeah.
Steve Addabbo (01:55):
They're still going to come out somewhere,
they will land somewhere.
They're good. No.
Jennifer Logue (02:00):
Well, that, if you think that, see if that
makes me feel really good. So
Steve Addabbo (02:04):
I do think we wrote some good pop songs.
They're
Jennifer Logue (02:08):
cool, putting it out into the universe. So we
never really got a chance totalk about your early life and
your upbringing. Your career hasdone so many cool things in your
career, Steve, so there's somuch to dig into. But when did
you first discover your love formusic?
Steve Addabbo (02:32):
You know, I could go back as early as second
grade, I think. It may it may beeven earlier than that. You
know, when I was four or five. Iremember. My parents had a small
record player, you know, and Ithink they had a version of
Perry Como was Hot diggity dogdiggity, it was a single. And I
(02:54):
still remember playing that whenI'm like four or five years old.
So that was kind of my firstinkling that I, you know, I
appreciated music or pop songs.
I mean, it's, it's a terriblerecord, if you listen to it now.
But, you know, for four or fiveyear olds, it seemed pretty
magical. And then I guess Iremember they can second grade.
I just can't remember my mom waswas kind of a she wasn't a
(03:16):
musician, but she would, youknow, sit down. We didn't have a
piano in the house. But mygrandmother had one. And she
used to sit down piano anddabble. And she would sing to
herself. So I think somewherethat, you know, she had some
kind of musical gene. She nevertook advantage of it that much.
And then I just started singingto myself. And I think it was a
(03:37):
very strange story that I was onschool bus coming home. I think
it's second grade. And the busdriver says, you come up here he
goes, sing, sing that songfascination for me. Now, how
does he know? I know how tosing. How does he know? I even
know this song. I still haven't.
(04:00):
I've never figured this one out,you know. And so somehow I
remember singing the song. Itwas fascination. I know, but I'd
add it at a you know, and maybeI learned from my mother, how
did I know the song? And how didhe know I could sing? And I'm
singing on the school bus tothis bus driver. And that was
that's all I remember. The wholething was like weird. And then
(04:24):
you know, yeah. And then lateron. You know, I got introduced
to the guitar. And when I wasabout, I guess, fourth or fifth
grade, I started dabbling,playing a little bit with it.
And then I had a next doorneighbor who was very
(04:45):
influential. It turns outbecause he was a he was an
electronic engineer, worked inavionics for Grumman, I think,
and he was in wedding bands onthe weekend. And he had this
great guitar set up in an echoPlex and and he just set up all
this stuff and I go over thereand listen to like, beautiful
old guitar stuff, you know. Sothat was pretty much good luck.
(05:06):
I'm gonna learn how to do this.
You know, that's what I want todo.
Jennifer Logue (05:09):
How long were you first started going over his
house? Oh, I
Steve Addabbo (05:13):
would say, I mean, he was right next door. So
I, you know, I would say I wasin fourth or fifth grade however
old dad is 10 or 11, somethinglike that, you know? And, and,
you know, just kind of hearing,you know, a guitar sounding that
good. That close up was like,Yeah, you know, when it was at
eight when he played very kindof standard kind of stuff wasn't
rock and roll, but it was still,you know, very impressive
(05:35):
sounding to me. So I was like,Yeah, I'm gonna learn how to do
this.
Jennifer Logue (05:38):
Nice. And he started playing guitar then like
Ron, yeah, great.
Steve Addabbo (05:42):
Yeah. And then my mom finally figured out that,
you know, I could take guitarlessons. And so we rented a
nylon string guitar from theschool. And I'd go there on
Saturday mornings, and juststart taking lessons. And and
that was that was, you know,that was kind of the beginning.
Jennifer Logue (06:00):
Awesome. When did he know you wanted to do
music professionally?
Steve Addabbo (06:04):
Oh, well, I think pretty much. Once I got once I
got into college, you know, andI was, you know, I was also on
both sides of the fence. Ireally liked the technical
world. I like to fiddle withelectronics, but I really liked
playing guitar and doing music.
So, you know, once I startedgetting into serious engineering
(06:26):
school was like, I don't know ifI really want to do this for my
whole living, you know, so Ijust kept playing guitar. And
then I started then I alsobecame a music major at the same
time, which helped me in thosedays, you needed to have a
college deferment to stay out ofthe draft, this was the Vietnam
War era. And if you didn't, andyou got a low number in the in
(06:49):
the draft lottery, I don't evenknow if you know what that is.
But there was a time I guess itwas clicking 1970 or 71, they
did a draft lottery wherebasically, they played bingo
with your life, there was 365balls with birth dates on them,
you know, and they pick them outin the first 120 Birthdays,
(07:13):
you're gonna get drafted thenext ones, maybe not. And if you
got lucky, and you got like,over 240, chances are you
wouldn't get drafted. So thatwas the first time I was in the
top 10. So I got my, my birthdaycame out almost immediately. And
I was like, damn, so Butluckily, I was. I had my two
(07:33):
esta Firmen, which kept chat,which kept out cool, because I
was a double degree guy doingmusic and engineering. I had an
extra year. And that extra yearproved to be crucial. Because
the draft ended in the spring ofmy final year of school. I had
already gotten the letter tocome down to Whitehall street
(07:54):
and get my physical.
Jennifer Logue (07:56):
Wow. So music saved your life?
Steve Addabbo (07:59):
I would say, you know, I would say having that
that music degree. Definitely. Imean, I don't know what I would
have done if I actually wasfaced with being drafted. I
mean, there was ways to getaround it or, you know, claiming
you have psychiatric problemsand building up there. I mean,
we there were ways people arerunning, running off to Canada.
I don't know if I'd ever beenthat brave to do that. But I
(08:20):
don't think it was. I justcouldn't imagine being in the
Army. I just wasn't. So luckily,I didn't have to deal with it.
Jennifer Logue (08:27):
Oh my gosh, well, we're all very lucky. You
a lot of music to make. So nowon to, you know, thoughts on
creativity and the creativelife. This is creative space. So
I asked this question ofeveryone. How would you define
(08:47):
creativity? Where does it comefrom?
Steve Addabbo (08:50):
Wow. Well, defining creativity, not an easy
question to answer, obviously,you know that but to me when I
feel like I'm creative, I don'teven know if this answers the
question is when you get into azone where you start to forget
about the material world aroundyou and what you're dealing with
(09:14):
on a day to day basis. And youget into this world where
something emerges, you know,whether it's from your
unconscious or conscious whereyou start it. And for me, it was
it was writing music and when Istarted writing, I wrote my
first song I don't think I was19 even know if I was I might I
don't even know if I was playingguitar at that point. So it
(09:34):
might have been like 10 or 11years old. My uncle had given me
this little portable batterypowered tape recorder with the
little three three inch wheelsthree and a half inch wheels on
it and I would do my own radioshow counting down the top 10
and stuff and then one day I youknow, I started I just wrote my
own song was kind of a take offon a Beach Boys song about a
(09:56):
fast car or something wasterrible, but it was you know,
it was like Just started towrite a song for no reason. So
you know, I think I think a lotof people have very different
ways of getting to theircreative core. Some people are
very disciplined about or otherpeople just wait for the muse to
hit them. But I think I thinkwhen it's the best is when all
(10:19):
of a sudden, you just, and a lotof times for me, if I first sit
down at the guitar, and I'm noteven thinking, I just start
playing something, like, it'd bepretty cool like that, maybe I
could do something with this,you know, then then you start to
think about it. And then, youknow, either the door opens or
the door slammed in your face,and you go, this is going
nowhere. But where that, wherethat drive comes from to do
(10:45):
that, or just even that abilityto sit down and go, Okay, I'm
gonna put this together now. AndI really need a better second
line or, you know, you write agreat first line, and that's
like, great. Now, if the writethe rest of the song, what is
this about? You know, I don'tknow, I don't really know. So
you know, but where thatcreative juices spring from, you
(11:08):
know, for me, also, it's justjust sitting down and playing
the guitar, it puts you in azone that disconnects you from a
lot of the material world, andyou just kind of get in there.
And all of a sudden, it's like,if you've done your homework,
practicing the guitar over theyears, and you can just kind of
not think about where yourfingers are going and just kind
(11:28):
of start to just play. I mean,that comes from a place it's
very much like improvising, youjust come from a place where
you're not really thinking, butyour body and emotions are, are
are leading the way. And itstarts to you start to get into
the spot where the stuff comesout. And you don't even know
(11:49):
where it's coming from go, did Ijust do that? I didn't know
where that is, you know, andwhat did I do? 10 minutes ago, I
don't really remember now, youknow, so it's elusive that, you
know, it's elusive to get intothat zone. And, you know, there
are times when you feel likeyou're more receptive to it. And
then there are times when youjust feel like you're knocking
(12:12):
your head against the wall. AndI mean, other people. I mean, I
know people like, especially thewriters in Nashville, you know,
they have their, their regimenand they go on to have these
three hour co writing sessionswith people and they really kind
of push themselves to get intothat zone. I think that's a lot
of the success of a lot ofpeople that they actually, you
(12:34):
know, they just basically saythey show up, you know, if you
show up, and you start to do it,something maybe will happen if
you don't show up, we thinkabout doing it, then you get
nothing, you know,
Jennifer Logue (12:45):
you gotta take action.
Steve Addabbo (12:47):
I think so I think, you know, a lot of, I
think a lot of art is in acertain sense. What's the right
word, I don't want to saymechanical, but just, it's the,
it's the people who have havethe ability to sit down and do
it. And a lot of us don't, and alot of us are just too busy
(13:07):
doing so much other stuff. Youknow, I'm actually working on my
new song called busy doingnothing, which kind of kind of
speaks to this, you know, andit's, I've just got to get it's
basically done, but I gotta Igotta finish it, but it it's
like, oh my god, I got no timefor this. I've got no time for
that. I mean, I'm busy doingnothing, what am I doing, you
(13:27):
know, but in the day is like mycutoff time for this. And it's
like, the true artists, puts allthat stuff aside, and then
starts to and just gets down toit and all and, you know, having
been around some really trueartists like Suzanne Vega, or
Eric Anderson, or they just,this is central to their core,
(13:48):
you know, we're I'm kind oflike, well, I'm an engineer, I'm
a producer, I'm a guitar player,I write songs, sometimes I've
got all these other things goingon. So it's very hard for me to
just fashioned myself as asongwriter, again, today
creative zone. And there aredifferent types of creative
zones, there's the ones whereyou're trying to write is also
the ones where you're trying towork on help someone else when
I'm producing somebody, to, toyou know, help them realize what
(14:14):
they're trying to get to andcertainly being creative in a
way of working with someonewho's trying to do a vocal which
is one of the hardest things ofthat we all do, you know, in a
studio trying to get get to aspot where it's exciting and
honest and the singers reallyconnecting with the song and
then therefore connecting withme through the speakers, which
(14:37):
is my job and as being aproducer to to make that happen.
So there's that creative zonewhich I love being in also
because all of a sudden you'reyou're in a tunnel together.
You're trying to get to theother end and and it's very much
like being in a tunnel acreative zone, I think because
you're just kind of in there andyou're you're working with what
you have and trying to keep youknow keeping them voices say
(15:00):
this sucks, you suck, what areyou doing this for Go, go do
something else. And, you know,once you can beat away those
demons and stuff and just let itflow, then it kind of it does
parallel in a lot of differentways, you know, making a record,
writing a song, doing a mix, youknow, it's like all these all
(15:21):
these steps to making a recordto making music all involve a
little different level or areaof creativity. And it's still a
fascinating thing for me to doit. Because when you really get
there, and then you can actuallysit back and listen to what you
didn't like it. That's a goodspot to be in. Oh, it doesn't
(15:42):
always happen, you know, it'shard to get to that spot.
Jennifer Logue (15:45):
It No, it doesn't. And, you know, that
kind of lens on another questionthat I had? How do you know what
a work is complete? Like, how doyou know for you when a song is
done? Or when a mix is done? Orbecause you can perpetually keep
going with it?
Steve Addabbo (16:03):
Well, yeah, especially today, with all we
have at our fingertips, youknow, we can make, you can get
into such nitty gritties minutdetails that no one will ever
notice. I think there's just apoint where it's satisfying, and
you feel like you've, you'veyou've put in almost the right
(16:25):
way to say this, you feel likeyou have examined, especially
that getting a mix, let's sayhit start there. It's, it's so
it's so variable, and it has somany solutions, you know,
there's so many possibilities,that it's very hard to keep, you
know, keep keep your eye on theball and just and just just
(16:48):
really create and create a mixthat really works. And what does
that mean? That means a mixthat, that comes out of the
speaker sounds good, makespeople want to listen to the
song and makes people want tolisten to the singer makes
people want to listen to thestoryline. And, and all the
technical, more mumbo jumbo thatwe do to get there is is behind
(17:11):
the scenes and you don't see it.
So how do you know when it'sdone is one that all that kind
of goes away? And you'relistening? And all of a sudden
you go, Oh, that sounds like asong now? And you're done? I
mean, that's usually what thepoint, I guess was, you know
what, that sound? That soundslike a song now it's okay, you
know? Yeah, maybe the guitarpart could be a half a dB lower
and adverse, you know, but maybenot, maybe it's actually good
(17:32):
that way, because it's notreally going to matter that much
to the other outside listener ifthe guitar is a half a dB louder
or not in that verse, because aslong as it's not distracting
from the vocal line. It's it'shard to know when you're really
done. But at a certain point,it's like, well, I've pretty
much done everything I cansounds good to me, I can sit
(17:52):
back and listen to it and notgo, Oh, crap that's in the way
or no, I really can't hear thatthird line of that verse, I
gotta go back in and get that upa little bit. Or the bass is
really too loud, or oh my god,it's just endless, you know. So
you could mix forever. But Ithink there was a certain point
when you go, Okay, this is done.
And also, same thing withwriting a song, I think, at a
(18:15):
certain point, you started thefirst line of the first person
and maybe the rest of the versecome, then it may be figured out
it might be if the second verseand yeah, have a chorus idea, we
have the chorus of the first.
And but then as you just play itthrough, you go, yeah, this is
done. And of course, the bestway to figure out if your song
is done is to go play in frontof an audience. And see if they
(18:35):
take their cell phones out in asecond verse, are they listening
to you? You know, because, and Itell that a lot of my artists,
you know, a lot of people wantto come in here, I just just
wrote a song, I want to recordit, I'm going to play it and for
anybody to play it out therenow. Play it out there and then
come back in and do it. Andyou'd be amazed, just you know,
right away, you know, if you'resinging, doing a song live in an
(18:57):
audience and something's notright, the second verse is
lagging, or it's notinteresting, or so, I mean, I
think that's when your song isdone. And when you actually play
it in front of play in front ofan audience and they they follow
you all the way through. Youfeel really good at the end of
it.
Jennifer Logue (19:15):
That's a great way to go about just when you
decide to record something, likeHave you played it, some of my
best songs have been ones thatI've you know, written in bands
and we got to see the audience'sreaction you get to get a feel
for it. And I mean, I findmyself rewriting the song a lot
(19:37):
as it's being performed,
Steve Addabbo (19:39):
rewriting it as a performer. Yeah. That I think
that's part of the process. Ithink it's really a really
important part of the processbecause once once you mean I
always like to have extra earsaround either when I'm mixing
or, or that when you're whenyou're playing the song for an
audience or even if it's sixpeople doesn't really matter,
(19:59):
but You know, right Oh, you kindof know that yeah, this is a
complete work and and it'sworking. You know, I see people
responding to it. I see themfollowing the storyline and I, I
feel the connection and then Igo yeah, this is this works.
This is a good song. You knowit. So then yeah, then then
you're finished writing it.
Jennifer Logue (20:22):
Cool. So when you create something, I love the
story about your song with yourband Arbuckle. It's, you never
know when something's going toland. No, you know, Andrew, once
you create something that takeson a life of its own, you have
no control over how peopleperceive it where it goes, but
(20:43):
you did your job and you steppedup to the plate. You You know
brought it to fruition and nowit's in the world for people to
enjoy. And sometimes how manyyears ago right? We'd love to
hear this story. I love thisstory so much about your song.
Steve Addabbo (21:00):
Well, when I was in college, you know, I was
Yeah, I was. I was at StonyBrook University. My my next
door neighbor in the dorm. Mybuddy Ron Fierstein had a rock
band in Brooklyn. He'd go backevery weekend. And but him and I
were both kind of folkies atHardy like Cat Stevens. I like
(21:21):
James Taylor. And so we we kindof teamed up and did an acoustic
duo and we were writing songs hewould write his we weren't
running so writing together buthe had his songs I had my songs
and we we played around thecoffee houses and on it Stony
Brook and a couple off offcampus. We opened up for Joshua
Jr. Once it was like our biggig. And eventually we melded
(21:42):
our folk songs or acoustic songswith his rock band and formed a
band. And one of the members ofthe band, had some connections
he worked. He was an intern atbillboard or something and he
found these producers who werelooking for a young band. And
they came down to see us we hada they had a rehearsal space in
(22:03):
Brooklyn, I was commuting fromStony Brook to Brooklyn to
rehearse in between classes, andthey liked this and we got up we
got a record deal and I wasbarely a senior in high school
in that was actually had a yearanother year to go on school
because it was a five yearperson now so so my last my last
year I was on the road doinggigs plus going to the studio, I
(22:27):
got to work at media SoundStudio B which is a legendary
place in New York City to recordour first record and came out on
a label called Musical records.
And originally, the name of theband was circus but for some
reason we didn't think that wascool. Since my friend Ron was
kind of heavyset that timebecause that was his way of
(22:48):
staying out of the draft to beoverweight, which was he was
successful with. It wasunbelievable way to go through
this thing out of Vietnam, youknow, and somehow his friends
used to nicknamed them FattyArbuckle. So this name Arbuckle
was kind of floating around.
Little did we know that fatty?
Arbuckle was a complete pervertchild molester. What we didn't
(23:11):
know that. Oh, no. There was nothere was no internet internet
stuff out, you know. That's anunusual name. No one's no band's
name. So we renamed the bandArbuckle. And it's such a
terrible name. But anyway. Andthat was the record that came
out on musical records in late72. I guess it came out. And we,
you know, we got some localradio play, and we got to open
(23:39):
up for Bruce Springsteen at theRoxy theater in Philadelphia.
Oh, after his first record, hedrew 200 people there. It's a
600 seat theater. And it wasreally a great it was one of my
great nights because he was upin the dressing room. And he saw
me take out my guitar, he handsme a wire we're jamming up and
his rest dressing room and he hesat down and watched our whole
(24:01):
set, you know, and then comes upa meet the top planes fills up
the band. Nice, it's good. Andthen he then I sit down and
watch his show. And it blows usout of the water. We were in
kindergarten and he was like, hewas in a Ph. D. I mean, it was
just I don't think I've everseen a band that great. Now the
originally street band withDavid Sanchez on keyboards. It's
(24:22):
just like, damn, and the songand the way he was it was just,
I mean, it was I mean, I wasembarrassed that he actually saw
my watch.
Jennifer Logue (24:32):
Because I think we're all harder on ourselves.
Steve Addabbo (24:36):
Man, you know, but I mean, he was.
Jennifer Logue (24:38):
So you have it, seen it differently. Got it. So
cool. Steve
Steve Addabbo (24:42):
differently.
Yeah. I mean, he was but he wasjust after his first record. And
this is, you know, and he wastalking to me and he was and
record companies unhappy. I onlysold 30,000 records. And then,
of course, you know, two yearslater, I'm in Brooklyn, driving
a taxicab in between gigs thatpay the rent. And he's on the
cover of Time Magazine. And Iwas like, holy moly, you know,
(25:02):
is like this can really happen,you know. So it was it was quite
the quite the eye opening thing.
So anyway, one of the songs I'dwritten, Ron wrote more of the
songs that I only had like twosongs that I wrote on the
record. In this one song calledA New Day, I remember hearing it
in my living, there was astation on Long Island called W
(25:24):
li are very influential FM rock,progressive station at the time.
And I was sitting there, and mymom was there. And all of a
sudden, my song came on theradio. And it was like such a,
you know, one of those momentslike, oh, my gosh, you know,
it's like, wow, it's really onthe radio and guy said he liked
it, blah, blah, blah. There wasno, no real hit from the album.
(25:49):
We, you know, we toured a littlebit. But, you know, mostly,
mostly the, we I think we didcut a second record, but it
never really came out. I don'tthink we had enough material.
And that was kind of the end ofit. You know, when I basically
forgot about Arbuckle for like,45 years, or whatever it was,
you know, because it was like,okay, you know, it was fun. We
(26:10):
did it. Yeah, we were BruceSpringsteen. That's a cool story
in the open for dark. But howcan a medicine show once that
was fun, but then I just wentoff to be a road musician. We
had a country trio for a while,and I played in the show band
for a few years cool. making myliving playing guitar, though.
It's fun.
Jennifer Logue (26:30):
But then 45 years later, you get word that
aren't the song, a new day isbeing featured in a Shirley
MacLaine film, The Last Word,which is really cool.
Steve Addabbo (26:45):
It's totally out of the blue. I had nothing to do
with it, I guess. Because at thetime, you know, we knew nothing
about the business. So we signedaway all our publishing, not the
writer share, but the ourpublisher share. And at some
point, I guess it was the guyswho produced us. I guess they
they took the other part of thepublishing and at one point,
(27:05):
when they sold it to anothercompany, but someone was
actually working their catalog,and they were looking for
authentic 70s music. They didn'twant sound like they wanted
something that was recorded inthe 70s. And somehow, some way,
they picked that song. It's theonly song I sang on the record
to buy the wow, that's cool. RonRon was the mace basically the
(27:25):
lead singer. And I get thiscall, you know, can you see the
Bible from our buckle? And I'mlike, I couldn't be know what
this was about. And this lawyerin LA was like, Well, you know,
we've placed your song and thismovie in the barn, we just want,
(27:46):
you know, to to sign off on it.
And there's a there's a sync feeand did it on and is it a fine?
You know, so me, I basicallymade more money in that sync fee
than entire two years of beingin Arbuckle, you know, the band
was making $50 a gig maybe if wewere lucky, you know, so it was
it was and in then I got to seethe movie, and they use it in a
scene where she's going down tosee her daughter and they're
(28:08):
driving along the Pacific coastor something. And it's literally
on for like, two minutes in thebackground. You know, and they
make guitar solos in there. AndI had to laugh at it. You know,
it's like it's so it's such apristine little guitar solo, you
know, I'm so but but Yeah, andlike, you know, while it shows
up on my ass cap, you know, thestatement they played it for a
(28:30):
week in Germany and
Jennifer Logue (28:35):
back then you didn't know 45 years ago. The
song would resurface in such abig way. Yeah, it's so cool. So
such
Steve Addabbo (28:44):
a 70s lyric I had a rap with a wonderful friends
like, you know, there wasn't rapmusic back then. Rap man, you
were having a conversation youknow, and I listened to that go
boy, it's so seven days thatlyric
Jennifer Logue (28:55):
Well, you can't get more seven isn't that song?
Steve Addabbo (28:58):
Oh, no, no, you know, but yeah, but yeah, I
mean, the movies not that bad. Iyou know, I have you know, I
think I know where ShirleyMacLaine is these days but man
happy and it's actually kind ofa cute movie she wants to. She
wants to find someone and writeher a bitch obituary. And then
(29:21):
the writer she hires can't findanyone say a good word about
herself. This gets kids. It's acute idea. Fabulous, fabulous
movie, but it's not bad. Youknow?
Jennifer Logue (29:31):
I love the concepts. I thought it was
really well done. The writer inme. Yeah, love loves it. So, in
my research for this episode, Ifound out some things about you
that I didn't know about that. Ithink a really
Steve Addabbo (29:48):
good no but no.
Jennifer Logue (29:50):
Yeah, you know.
So I know you co produce Tom'sDiner for Suzanne Vega. Yep. But
I didn't realize it was thatsong that made her The mother of
the mp3. Yeah. And you did therecording. Can we talk about
that? That's so cool.
Steve Addabbo (30:06):
Yeah, sure. I mean, I didn't know about this
either for quite a while later.
And then story emerged about Dr.
Brandenburg. When we wererecording solitude standing,
which is the album that Tom'sDiner is on, Tom's diner opens
the album and it's an acapellasong, because that's the way she
did it on in her show, it waslike, let's just do it that way.
(30:28):
Let's not produce it. Let's justlet her do a cup, you know. So
basically, we were up inBearsville studios up in
Woodstock. Excuse me, which is abeautiful old studio no longer
there. It's huge. It's like abig huge barn is the recording
room. And everyone from the bandand Dylan, I mean, everyone went
(30:52):
through that place. So here I amtrying. So here I am trying to
record Suzanne Vega singingacapella song and this cavern,
you know, so I kind of, we haveto go blow it all up and make
sure it's not too echoey. And,you know, we were still in the
(31:13):
world of tape back thenobviously, we were using studio
24 track machine. And it waslike, and I was, I was into like
having really great sound forher and my production. So I
decided I would record it on abrand new Sony digital f1 which
is basically a Betamax tapemachine hooked up to this little
(31:35):
processor. And it was really theearly one of the earliest
digital recordings. Digitalrecording technology that was
around was only for two tracks,but I only needed one track for
her. So you know, we did aboutseven takes, I think we pick the
third take. And the master forthat is actually a Betamax tape.
(31:56):
You know, it's actually that'show that's how the digital
information was stored. They usevideotape and they did that for
many years. Even when all the CDcraze came around, they were
using three quarter inchvideotape. So that was the
master and we mixed it out anda&m Studios with Shelly axis and
(32:20):
that was pretty much it, youknow, and we started the song
with them started the album withan acapella song and then we
pretty much went right into Lucaafter that it was like a slam
dunk, you know, slam dunk kindof beginning of an album to get
there, get your attention whenthe acapella song and then have
those the production of Lucacome in. And and yeah, I mean, I
(32:42):
had no idea. So the story goesthat Dr. Brandenburg was was
tweaking his algorithm for thismp3 Because they were trying to
figure out a way to make digitalfiles smaller, so they could be
sent over phone lines, and, youknow, eventually through the air
streaming, without too muchdata. So they were trying to
(33:03):
figure out a way to eliminatealmost 90% of the data and still
make it sound good. So hethought he had a pretty good
thing going. And then he heardthe acapella version of Suzanna
goes, you know, I shouldprobably test it on that.
Because, you know, it's prettybare. And so when he did it, it
sounded terrible. The book wasjust like, digitized, nasty
(33:25):
stuff going on in there. And soit's like, he says, in his
little interview goes, it causedme a lot of trouble. Oh my gosh,
yeah. So they had a good so hewent back in and he had to
figure out a way to get rid ofthe digital distortion on that.
And he said, he probablylistened to that song four or
5000 times. That's crazy. So andthen but eventually, you know, I
(33:49):
mean, we all take the mp3 forgranted and considering they're
throwing away 90% of the files,the bits to make it sound it's
pretty miraculous that it soundsas good as it does, you know?
Jennifer Logue (34:01):
Yeah, but I mean, that song is like, what's
the standard for every mp3 tocome after?
Steve Addabbo (34:09):
That is so cool me I cannot tell you you know,
all around the world. As soon asyou start singing that melody
everybody knows what it is. Youknow, it's so crazy it is
literally the first thing Iheard her perform. You know when
I saw her the very first timebefore we had done any work
together she was opening it folkcity and we were looking for an
(34:32):
artist to develop and she justcame out and started the did is
it's pretty bolted start tostart a you know a set like that
and but it was really cool. Andthat's why we started the album
that way because we had the songfor the first record salt the
salt to standing record was oursecond album. For some reason it
(34:53):
didn't I didn't want to put iton the first record. It didn't
seem like it fit. And I'm gladwe didn't because It just it
just exploded. I mean, Luke iswhat exploded on the second
album and then Tom's diner. Thefirst one of the early remix
remixes that the the duo DNAfrom England did it without our
(35:14):
permission they took her voteacapella vocal and put a beat
upon it beat on him. And thatkind of opened up the frickin
door for sampling and so theassets that song really landmark
in a couple of different ways.
Jennifer Logue (35:29):
Yeah. History making song Hakuna, who
Steve Addabbo (35:33):
got a simple such a simple song, you know, such a
sip, but it's such a catchylittle Melody. Melody, remember
that, folks? Remember that?
songwriters. Melody?
Jennifer Logue (35:42):
That's my favorite part of a song, Steve.
I don't know. I don't know aboutyou. Sure. So, you also co wrote
the song left of center withSuzanne Vega. Will the iconic
film Pretty in Pink? I got toask, first of all, how did that
opportunity come about? To writefor the movie?
Steve Addabbo (36:03):
Well, that's that's the that's the advantage
of being on a major labelbecause we Suzanne was on a&m
records. And a&m was a veryartists oriented label. And they
was run by Herb Alpert, who wasgreat musician, trumpet player.
And Jerry Moss was his businesspartner. That was the a&m
Alberta moss. And so they werevery supportive of new artists.
(36:27):
And when we got Suzanne signedto them, she became part of the
family and they would dowhatever they they could do to
get her frame it, you know, justmake her successful. That's the
word successful, right. And sothey were working on this new
(36:48):
soundtrack for a new John Hughesfilm, they had done one with the
Breakfast Club. And they woulddo in a follow up, which was
going to be pretty in pinkwouldn't even know it was called
that at the time. And they sentus a script, they said Susannah
script, to say we'd like you tosubmit a song for this, maybe we
can get you on the soundtrack.
Sounds good. So we're on theroad. Not that at that point, I
(37:12):
was still touring with the banda bit just as a manager,
overseeing just the day to daydetails a lot, you know, being
on the road, just kind of beingan extra hand there. I had
started out doing live sound,but then I can't we kind of, I
punted, that was too much work.
(37:32):
And we hired somebody who'sprobably better at it anyway. So
um, so that was good. LittleRobin. Dana came in. And so, you
know, we're on the road, and shehas a script. And we're, we're,
I think we're in San, we're onour way to San Francisco. And I
think it's a Monday, in onThursday, a&m was hoping we do a
(37:55):
demo for this new song. So Isaid, Oh, Susanna, how you doing
on that new song? He goes, whatnew song? Oh, no. Something like
that. I go, have you even lookedat the script? She goes, No.
Look at the script. Look at thescript, because Oh, okay.
Sometimes she had to be pushed alittle bit. And so she looked
(38:15):
good. I don't move it at it. I'mgonna go find something, you
know, so, so just scribble somestuff down. You know, whatever.
So so she's, she's on the bus,and she's looking at the, you
know, reading some of thescript, and she's kind of
writing some stuff in hernotebook. It goes, well come up
with anything. Is that I don'tthink so. It's not gonna work.
No, go. So let me so she showsme this. Like, it's a one point
(38:36):
I see down in the corner. Shewrote left to center. I said, I
like that left the center. Itsounds like a good title. So she
goes, Okay, so she wrote somelyrics. So then we're in San
Francisco on Monday, we'redriving down. I think. I think
we're in LA on Tuesday. OrWednesday, maybe Tuesday, we get
there. And I go, Suzanne, weknow we have Have you written
anything? She would? No not not.
I have some words that don'thave music. That Okay, I'm
(38:58):
coming down. So, go down there.
It's numerous in like in theafternoon, motel in LA. And I
just sit down and like, like Isaid before, I just kind of
start playing the guitar in thatlittle guitar that guitar lick
did bad, bad. It just came outof nowhere. You know, I was just
(39:19):
like I said, okay, yeah, this iscool. And she will see I like
that and I was just startedsinging the words. And we put it
together and like a couple ofhours. And I didn't even really
have the chords totally workedout for the bridge but it was
like Okay, and so she she prettymuch had enough lyric if you
notice, there's no second verse.
It's like two first verses ifyou're listening to the slugs
like okay, well, but we she gotaway with it. And on Thursday we
(39:40):
went in. It was either Thursdayor Friday of that week. We went
into an amp studios just myselfand her, me and her. And we laid
it down just acoustic you know,I was playing the acoustic
guitar and she was singing it.
And we no overdubs. Anythingthat was it. That was the demo.
We got it. I wish I had thatdemo, I don't know where that
(40:01):
is, I don't know, the awesome tohear. I don't know where I knew.
I don't know where that is, andand it got accepted into the
movie. Wow, it was like, wow,okay, and so then there's like,
I gotta know, you got to produceit, you know, and you got to do
it up a little bit. And since,you know, since they had liked
the acoustic version that wedid, I figured I'd keep it kind
(40:22):
of acoustic a and and being ona&m records, you know, they
said, Well, why don't we have aguest artists to give a little
more star power because no onereally knows Suzanne yet was
after her first record, we maybe sold 90,000 records in the
art on her first record inAmerica, you know, which wasn't,
was respectable, they didn'tthink she'd go past 15 or 20,000
(40:45):
records when they signed her andthey thought that would be okay,
because first record, so she wasdoing okay. And they said, Well,
you know, Joe Jackson is on ourlabel, maybe he can come in and
play some piano one I want totell ya. So all of a sudden, you
know, I had a recording sessionthat I had Joe Jackson coming
down the lane, some piano onewas just this was, you know, for
(41:07):
me, I mean, I had really justproduced Suzanne's first record.
And so this was like a reallyfun opportunity. Of course, I
was a little nervous workingwith Joe Jackson. But he was
fine. And you know, he did somebeautiful piano work and a
couple of souls the end, and Iremember him saying me, tell him
away, you know, you got to tellme if you if this is good
enough. And I go, you know, it'sgood enough. It's fine. You had
(41:27):
a beautiful solo at the end,they didn't want to, you know,
keep going home. Try one more,try one more, you know, plus we
run analog these those days, wecan have independent tracks. And
you know, so we submitted it, Idid the mix, so we mixed mine
and mix it with somebody else atthat point. And I'm Harvey
Goldberg, maybe, yeah, and thenso we submitted the mix. And the
(41:50):
record company heard it. Andthey thought maybe it was
compared to the rest of thesoundtrack. It was a little
lightweight in terms of theproduction because I'd gone for
the more acoustic thing. Andthey said, Why don't you work
with Arthur Baker, and he'll putsome, you know, little more beef
into it, I got fine. I didn'tcare. It was my I had to have
the song, I was going to get itin the movie. So I got to work
with Arthur Baker, who was veryfamous in those days for kind of
(42:11):
the, you know, really big snaresound and drum beat and stuff.
And, and so he added someproduction touches to it. And
he's very nice and didn't, youknow, it was very respectful of
me. And then we got to mix itagain with him. And that's the
version that's on the record,you know, and so he has not gone
away from the 1986 it's now 37years.
Jennifer Logue (42:34):
It's iconic.
It's so cool to have a song inthat film. Yeah.
Steve Addabbo (42:38):
And the soundtrack when platinum, you
know, and yeah, it paid off verynicely. So
Jennifer Logue (42:45):
cool. Um, so now flash forward. To You know,
today, you just produced the 16borders EP, for Jim and Sasha
Allen, which is a history makingfather son duo on the voice.
Steve Addabbo (43:01):
I didn't realize that history making parts so you
research that a little more. Imean, I just I thought they
might have had some other transartists there. This, you know,
Sasha, had trans, trans thin,middle high school there. So
Jennifer Logue (43:15):
yeah, well, the it's 21 years of this show,
Sasha was the first openlytransgender artists to make it
past the battle rounds. 31 yearsto make it past the battle
rounds. show's been on for 21years. It's been on for 21
years. Apparently. I, I don'twant to think
Steve Addabbo (43:35):
for a couple of seasons. I'm 20. Holy cow vibing
in a cave.
Jennifer Logue (43:40):
I mean, I didn't look at this. I'd read this
online, so maybe I should factcheck it again. I'll read it in
the show notes. Make sure it isactually we have the internet
right here. So let's
Steve Addabbo (43:51):
check it out.
Because I mean, I understand youknow, American Idol. But you
know, that was
Jennifer Logue (43:57):
Oh God see what does say 2121 21 Season Season
Steve Addabbo (44:02):
while still here we go while still if they do two
seasons a year.
Jennifer Logue (44:07):
Okay, so, okay, so fact checking myself. It's
actually 21 seasons, and itstarted in 2011.
Steve Addabbo (44:19):
All right. Okay.
Because yeah, I can do that.
Jennifer Logue (44:21):
Yeah, that's acceptable.
Steve Addabbo (44:23):
Okay. Stan, you stand Correct.
Jennifer Logue (44:26):
I stand corrected.
Steve Addabbo (44:30):
out now, if there was an Internet back then this
band name Arbuckle would neverhave happened. I'm telling you
to right now.
Jennifer Logue (44:38):
You would have had a different name.
Steve Addabbo (44:41):
Probably. Yeah.
And the name didn't I don'tthink the name helped us. It
might hurt us. Who knows?
Jennifer Logue (44:48):
But yeah, let's talk about the 16 borders EP.
It's four songs. And it just gotreleased, right?
Steve Addabbo (44:55):
Yeah, just a few weeks ago, you know, just came
out and it's another The thingthat is completely came out of
the blue you know, as as you gothrough this and your producer
and you meet you meet a&r peoplealong the way. And, you know,
being in the business now for solong while I was a&r people were
very young when they started,you know, and I met them. And
(45:18):
now they're in more powerfulpositions. And David Walther,
who was originally I think, ana&r rep at RCA. I don't know
1520 years ago, maybe we hadconnected and done some stuff
together over the years. And heknew some, my younger engineers,
and he was always aware of me.
And once in a while, we'll sendstuff in, when when I guess it
(45:39):
was Monty Lippmann, who runshead of Republic records party
UMG decided they wanted to signthese, you know, signs, Jim and
Sasha. It got dumped in David'slap. Okay, you know, make a
record with them. So David's,you know, and this is like a
(46:03):
fairly acoustic duo in this dayand age. So he's like, Dave was
like, who would help him dothis? Go, Steve can do this?
Yeah, like I, you know, I gotthey got to remember. And so I
got the call and I met them. Andyou know, it was really fun and,
and we basically did that thing.
And four days, you know, we wentthrough, you know, a few more of
their songs. And it was a realpleasure to work with them.
(46:25):
They're both really talented.
Sasha beautiful voice and Jimwho wrote writes the songs and
multi instrumentalist playsguitar, keyboards, mandolin,
accordion, you name it. And Irecord I wanted to record them
pretty much alive, because Ithought what they did was live,
the harmonies, they work offeach other live, I didn't want
(46:47):
to just go okay, now Jim, you dothe basic track with the torn
your vocal, I'm gonna add Sasha,I just didn't think it would
work that way. So I set them up,you know, in my room separated
them enough in case you know, wedo want to fix a line here or
there, I'll be able to. Andwe've pretty much recorded the
whole thing live mean, the firstday we spent going through
different songs just trying tosee you know, which ones might
(47:11):
be the better ones to record.
And because we were we, theytold us we could record four
songs for an EP. And so wepretty much spent the first day
getting acquainted and gettinggetting the sound together,
learning what they can do whatthey can't do. Sasha didn't want
to play guitar at all, I wantedhis dad to do it. So you know,
(47:32):
first that we kind of did thatthe second day, we actually
started, you know, going fortakes and we picked the four
songs, we might have done acouple of songs each day. And
then I added I added some basson it and electric guitar on 16
borders. And then Jim did someexternal or some other overdubs
on keyboards. And, you know, didsome rough mixes on Friday and
(47:54):
sent that off, and everyoneloved it. And I finished up the
mixes soon after that. And thatwas pretty much it. And it'd be
five days, you know, we weredone with it. Wow. And, you
know, I was really happy withit. They were really happy with
it. And I think, I think I'vedone a lot of first albums in my
career. So I have I have been agood bedside manner for it, I
(48:15):
guess. And plus, they were verytalented. It was just a joy to
work with. And to the key to mewas their harmonies because
that's something that'spriceless, because you don't get
one last time there's a fatherson duo came out anywhere. I
can't think of get your researchteam on it and see because I
don't know. Yeah, I don't Idon't really can't think of one.
(48:38):
So it's like, well, this is kindof unique, you know, and a
little bit harkens back to theEverly Brothers little bit,
sometimes it's Simon andGarfunkel, you know, it's a
little bit that through malevoices, but um, I didn't want to
imitate anything, I just wantedto figure out what was right for
their songs and not reallychanged them too much, but just
kind of raise the bar a littlebit for them. And I you know, I
(49:02):
think I think it came outbeautiful. And, and also, I
didn't want to add a lot ofstuff to this one, you know, I'm
hopefully this will besuccessful enough. And we can go
back in and maybe we get a realdrummer next time. I don't know,
you know, we upped the ante alittle bit. But it was it was
really, you know, out ofnowhere, you know, all of a
sudden, you know, not havinganything out on a major label
(49:23):
for years. It was another one ofthose things like well, I guess
if you stick around long enough,and you've done some good work
in the past, maybe you know, theworld takes care of you a little
bit.
Jennifer Logue (49:35):
Yes, I believe that. I believe that Steve? That
is wonderful. So I gotta askwhat's next for you? I know
you're going on tour with EricAnderson.
Steve Addabbo (49:48):
Yeah, well, um you know, if I knew the answer
that question I probablywouldn't be doing something else
but even what's next? I neverquite know what's next. Um, I'm
still involved with the withSony re mixing or mixing for the
first time Bob Dylan outtakes wehave a new one coming out in
(50:09):
January at a time out of mindalbum on a one CD worth of
unreleased stuff from that, youknow, alternate takes that were
really quite good. Daniel Lanoisproduced it originally and
record it. So it's a reallywell, well recorded, well
recorded album. I work I do alot of work for the archives to
(50:34):
were issuing some Leonard Cohenconcerts from 1970 to more for
copyright purposes. But after 50years, they have to renew the
copyrights. So they, theyrelease them somewhere in Europe
for two weeks. And then theythey retain the copyrights and
no one can use theseperformances for anything else
without going through Sony. Soit's just something record
companies have to do, you know,for their business. So, you
(50:58):
know, we've been doing thatgoing through those, and it's a
lot of work right there. Now, wejust finished this 42 Song
tribute record to Eric Anderson,which is all of Eric's songs
performed by friends of hisacquaintance of his people who
(51:18):
love his music. And so it's 42different productions of
different songs of his that it'sslated to come out. I think it's
next week, maybe October 19th, Ithink was the official day. Oh,
and it's a timing. Yeah, it's atriple CD, believe it or not,
and plus, you know, being uponline and stuff and, but we
(51:41):
have some track by Genesee, andwe have an unreleased track by
Bob Dylan. We have one of yourlocals, Eric Brasilien. Did a
track beautiful came out great.
You know, I should have the listin front of me. But there's so
many people like Dan Navarro,Lucy kaplansky, Cliff Eberhardt,
(52:01):
a lot of a lot, Larry Campbell,and Teresa. So many, I can't
even remember more. But there'ssome really, some people did
some amazing stuff on this. Soit's really and it's very
eclectic record since draws onLenny key that track I mean, all
(52:23):
different, all different typesof versions of the song. So that
that's been going on for about ayear and a half. And that's a
big project. And I had to put itall together, you know, putting
42 songs from differentproducers in different mixes,
and people did it on GarageBandpeople did it in big studios and
trying to make it sad, it was itwas a lot of work. So that's,
(52:43):
that's that, you know, formyself, you know, the the person
I'd get to last? Why net neverseem to have enough time to book
myself. You know, I'm hoping todo at least a few more. Maybe an
EP, I don't know if I have it inme to do another whole album
yet. But you know, I've got I'vegot a cup, we've got about four
(53:04):
or five songs kicking aroundthat, you know, I should just,
you know, maybe I'll just getnot busy for a while and just go
okay, now's the time to do it,you know, and just kind of get
in there and just show up andget in the creative zone and get
these things done.
Jennifer Logue (53:20):
I mean, why not just take a few weeks for you
know, the holiday or something?
Steve Addabbo (53:25):
Yeah. Well, seems easy doesn't it seems like a
very simple concept.
Jennifer Logue (53:32):
But when you're busy getting
Steve Addabbo (53:34):
a concept, and then there's the studio, that
one, you know, they keep tellingme to pay electric bill. I mean,
okay, ya know, so you got tokeep it running. But I've got
one track on the Eric Andersontrack, which I can use as a
starter and it came outbeautiful. And I really did. So
I'm very happy with that. And soyeah, I mean, that's pretty much
(53:55):
it. What's going on right now?
You know, it's more than Ithought, because I tell you in
the summer, it seemed like well,I mean, I was working on the
ERIC records, a lot of stuff wasgoing on, but it didn't seem you
know, not until the end, theSasha and Jim thing we did back
in February. Oh, so once you'reon a major label, these things
take time, you know, and finallythey, they get it together and
they release it, you know, ontheir release schedule. So
(54:17):
there's these big gaps, and wecan do all this stuff. And then
you just sit and wait, they'regonna put it out. They're gonna
put it out. And so they did.
Jennifer Logue (54:26):
Anticipation.
Yeah, very exciting. Well,Steve, it has been a pleasure
and there's so much more we cantalk about I feel like we're
gonna have to do like a part twoeventually. Because
Steve Addabbo (54:39):
if I live long enough, yeah, we'll do so much
stuff. Yeah, it's like a longtime. Now, a lot, a lot. A lot
of stories in between all thosethat we mentioned, you know, and
but, you know, I still getexcited by doing this. It's
still exciting to, to work onstuff. You know, I'm also
helping my friend Mark Burr.
ergo, who has this album ride,he writes songs kind of about
(55:02):
the great, great West, you know,out there. And I've been playing
with him live. And he's, andhe's trying to get some songs
and movies and stuff. So we'rejust, I'm helping him mix his
record now too. And it's aninteresting process. So there's
so there's all these littleprojects that are scattered
around, you know, so you keepbusy, for sure. I keep busy, you
(55:22):
know, so it's like me, I kind ofdemand I can book me so yeah, so
yeah, I'm not going to complainabout that. That's for sure.
Jennifer Logue (55:32):
You're in demand. See, that's a beautiful
thing.
Steve Addabbo (55:35):
And we have to write some more songs because we
wrote some cool pop songs. Oh,my gosh,
Jennifer Logue (55:39):
that is happening. Okay, good. So yeah,
I have a few pieces. I'm like,Oh, these, you know, this hook
would be good to write withSteve to finish fleshing it out.
Yeah. And you always make myvocal sounds so good. Steve.
Magnus, the warm like you bringout the warmth and vocals.
Steve Addabbo (55:59):
Yeah. Well, let's, you know, you want you
want people to listen to him.
You know, you don't want him tobe edgy and nasty. Can you turn
the volume down? You want peopleto turn the volume up?
Jennifer Logue (56:09):
Yeah, yeah. I think the vocal is the hardest.
Of course, it requires. I mean,
Steve Addabbo (56:14):
it was the hardest to record. But I think
it's the hardest. Certainly thehardest to perform. And I think
it's the hardest to present.
Because it's, it's, it's 90% ofany record. Let's face it, you
know, so it's not, it's all youknow, sugar and candy is sort
of, but you know, the vocalstill has to really speak.
Jennifer Logue (56:38):
For more on Steve visit Steve adubato.com.
And for more information onShelter Island Sound, visit
Shelter Island sound.com. Andthank you so much for tuning in
and growing in creativity withus. I'd love to know what you
thought of today's episode. Whatyou found most interesting what
you found most helpful. You canreach out to me on social media
(57:00):
at Jennifer Logue or leave areview for creative space on
Apple podcasts so more peoplecan discover it. I appreciate
you so much for being here inthe beginning stages of this. My
name is Jennifer Logue. Andthanks for listening to this
episode of creative space, whichI do export using mp3. So thank
(57:21):
you, Steve, Suzanne and Dr.
Brandenburg until next time.
(57:48):
For more on Steve, visit Steveadubato.com. And for more
information on Shelter IslandSound, visit Shelter Island
sound.com. And thank you so muchfor tuning in and growing in
creativity with us. I'd love toknow what you thought of today's
episode. What you found mostinteresting what you found most
helpful. You can reach out to meon social media at Jennifer
(58:10):
Logue or leave a review forcreative space on Apple podcasts
so more people can discover it.
I appreciate you so much forbeing here in the beginning
stages of this. My name isJennifer Logue and thanks for
listening to this episode ofcreative space, which I do
export using mp3. So thank youSteve, Suzanne and Dr.
Brandenburg. Until next time,
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