Greg Bieck, Hall & Oates / Dave Stewart / Tim McGraw

Greg Bieck is an accomplished pianist and music producer who has has collaborated with numerous high-profile artists, including Jennifer Lopez, Hall and Oates, Ricky Martin, Beyonce, Tim McGraw, and Savage Garden to name just a few. We try to cover as much of Greg’s amazing work as we can, so strap in for a fun...

The post Greg Bieck, Hall & Oates / Dave Stewart / Tim McGraw appeared first on The Keyboard Chronicles.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
You know, I'm done.
Like, I'll never work again.
They said, they said never come back.
Hello and welcome to the Keyboard Chronicles, a podcast for keyboard players.
I'm your host David Holloway and I'm thrilled as always to be here with you and I'm alwaysthrilled to be here with my brother in arms, the Oates to my hall or maybe you're the hall

(00:24):
to my Oates or I think I just said the same thing in reverse.
Bindig, how are you?
Mate, I'm going well, although, correct me if I'm wrong, aren't Hall and Oates these daysnot best of mates anymore?
Well, there is that.
Is that a bit of us?
Is that where we're going to end up?
Yeah, look, I think that's a sign of success when you start falling out.
So he's open.

(00:44):
Yeah, I'd love to be a squill in the air and then we can sue each other for the rest ofour lives.
That'd be great.
So no, it's great to be here.
And we don't mention Hall and I's just ingest our guest this episode is Mr.
Greg Beek.
As you'll hear, Greg has played an amazing role in both the production and playingcapacity with Darrell Hall in particular.

(01:07):
but also some Hall of Notes work and played on Daryl's House.
I'm assuming, Paul, you've seen Daryl's House.
What an amazing show that is.
Can I just say this to anyone who listens to our podcast or watches us on YouTube?
If you haven't seen Live at Daryl's House, just go and watch it.
It's the best.
I don't know any musician who doesn't like it.

(01:29):
It's such a cool show.
It really is cool.
So yeah, so we talked to Greg about his amazing career.
It's sort of a
hybrid keyboard playing and production show this time and he has lots of fascinatinginsights and including some great stuff about working with Dave Stewart and lots, lots
more.
So we'll let you go listen and we'll talk to you after the show.

(02:02):
Greg, how are you sir?
It's an absolute pleasure to have you on the show.
Hey, nice to see you and I'm doing great.
Thank you so much, David.
Glad to be here.
No, it's a pleasure.
And so I thought we'd kick off this episode just asking about your 2024 to date.
I'm not that there's much left of it, but you've had a busy year, I assume as usual.

(02:23):
What's happened for you this year?
This year's been great.
It's been a real toss up.
I'm actually working with a new band on Warner Records that I recorded about 30 demos forand I got this one demo that really somehow made it upstream and so I just finished the

(02:44):
production and mix on it and it was great.
had Aaron Sterling on drums and Craig Young and I had taken a song that they had done onguitar and adapted it for piano and put all this cool stuff on it and
So I just actually mixed it and turned in the mix last week and I think it got approved.
that's, was a very acoustic, organic piano bass thing.

(03:04):
And then I've done some programming and synth stuff.
And I think I started the year working with this Christian artist who's popular name EllieHolcomb.
She's a really kind of acoustic artist who really likes textures and ambient sounds.
And yeah, it's been a busy year.
the Darrell Hall record with.

(03:26):
Dave Stewart came out this year.
think I recorded that the previous year, but that came out this year and I bought thevinyl, which I love vinyl.
So that was kind of exciting.
So it's been all over the place, which it is.
Yeah.
No, and we're definitely going to talk about a few of those things you've just mentioned.
I know that's great.
so tell us a little bit to start off Greg about your musical upbringing.

(03:49):
What started you off in music and gave you the passion that's driven you through to today?
Sure, well, you know, that's a really good question.
And I was actually thinking about that a lot, like things that I heard as a young age.
And I don't know you all in the UK, you know, if you know this, but we had this showcalled Mr.
Rogers World.

(04:09):
Did you all have that?
Fred Rogers, you know, there's a Tom Hanks movie about that.
was talking to my buddy, a great guitar player.
He was like in Dave Matthews, but he's a big session guy.
The music behind that show as a young age was this beautiful
Lester something like I can't the guy's name It'll come to me when we're done But it wasthis great bebop jazz piano and I remember as a kid somehow that music got in got in

(04:34):
somehow and it was all piano based improvised just Unbelievable stuff and I always justsomehow was drawn to the piano and I remember my grandmother was like a church organist
church secretary and she had this piano they moved, you know in the states here we got
Wisconsin, then they got Texas way in the bottom.

(04:55):
They moved to the Southest part of Texas.
So they left me the piano.
And I remember I didn't really have lessons when I started, but I'd kind of write thenotes out in letters next to the notes and just like taught myself the basics.
And then eventually got some lessons and, and it got me going.
had this really great teacher.
she's gone now, but she taught me to improvise, which thank God, cause I wasn't going tomake it as a legit classical player.

(05:20):
Cause I'd kind of start making up my own stuff.
in Chopin or Bach, it's really not encouraged.
And just on that, Greg, you've raised a fascinating point.
when you say she taught you how to improvise, I know that's hard to sort of frame up in aneasy response, but what did you learn from her about improvisation?

(05:41):
Well, I think that basically the most simple thing is taking a chord.
And she showed me how to, they had this thing they called mini style and maxi style, whichI've never heard.
don't know where she got it from, but it was kind of almost like ragtime piano where you'dkind of hit the root and the chord bounce back and forth.

(06:01):
And so I'd take like these songs, the songs would have chord symbols and she'd kind ofshow me how to move the chords up and down the keyboard.
So I wasn't doing anything sophisticated, you know, when I was younger, like adding chordtensions or
or substitutions like gospel, but it showed me that the notes are very flexible and whatyou have down in this area, in the middle, the high end, it's the same thing.

(06:27):
It's just up and down the keyboard.
I think that that made it really simple.
She wasn't pushing me to understand what a flat nine, sharp 11, flat 13.
I remember playing these simple songs, but the nice thing was the flexibility to the kindof...
get beyond what was printed on the page.
Yeah.

(06:47):
Yeah, so thinking about what you learned there, having that teacher was obviously quiteinspirational and said, so here's a student who maybe playing Chopin exactly as written on
the page isn't for him, but here's something that he's interested in and supporting you inthat regard.
How old are you when that's happening?
How does that then play out in your teen years as you maybe start thinking about playingin bands and

(07:13):
and then ultimately into becoming a professional musician.
Yeah, you know, it's funny, you know, we're shaped by the music around us, you know, and,you know, being in that age, pre-digital and then early digital, you know, so the first
part of your question to how it's shaped, you know, to playing in bands, well, I hadliterally no concept of what a band was or any of that stuff.

(07:34):
I just had my little piano lesson and I'd sit in the room with this older lady and play.
And no idea.
then where we were, you could join a jazz band.
And I don't remember, they're probably playing like a, not Sir Duke by Stevie Wonder, butone of those kind of cool songs.
And the music didn't have any notes.

(07:56):
It just had letters.
And I was like, gosh, what's going to happen?
So I watched the guy, the band director sit at the piano and play it.
And I think at that day, the other keyboard player was in there.
And so he just let me sit at it.
And so I just started copying what I saw, you know, and just, that's the best way to learnis just to be thrown into a situation where you're, don't know what's going on because if

(08:17):
you knew it would scare you and he wouldn't do it.
So I would just, I would just go with the flow and be like, okay.
So he's in an F chord and then he's not hitting the F chord.
He's kind of chilling out in the section.
And then he's, he's kind of going up higher and you know, just kind of copycatting Ithink.
And, that was kind of how anything for me kind of started this.
kind of seeing and being thrown into the moment.

(08:39):
then, then, but then synthesizers.
I remember, remember hearing Pink Floyd's The Wall.
We had this, you know, my last name's Beak.
It's like a bird's beak, but it's German, it's spelled very funky.
And we had the shop teacher, Paul, with really long hair and my two buddies.
They all had long hairs.
We call them the long hairs.
And I was a clean cut nerdy, super nerdy kid.

(09:00):
And we had this band called Beak and the Long Hairs that played at these football games.
And I had, I,
I remember I had my first keyboard, which is a Yamaha DX21.
I couldn't afford the DX7.
The DX21 didn't have the velocity-sensitive keys, and it was an 8-Op instead of a 16-Op.
I have a DX7 sitting right over here.
It's funny to smile at me.

(09:20):
But that DX21 was the starting point, and somehow I had graduated to a Mirage sampler.
I remember getting the samples from the Pink Floyd, you know, we don't need no education.
I had my record player, which is this giant wooden record player with an RCA cable goingto the input, the mono input on the Mirage.

(09:41):
And so for these games, these basketball games, my favorite thing would be play a cliplike the sample of Pink Floyd's, know, whatever it was, you know, we don't need no
education.
then we'd start rocking it.
And, I was like, this is fun.
you know, and I guess it was a band, you know?
so I just kind of doing my nerdy thing with it and, it was fun.

(10:03):
So how are you at this stage, Greg, when this is happening?
Well, I know that early piano for me started probably maybe in third grade, but I had kindof figured out, remember the sound of music.
My dad had all this sheet music stuffed into a piano bench.
And so I'd take it out, look at it.
And there's this old guy, I think, isn't that Roger Miller?
Yeah, Roger Miller, which I think his sibling or his child is a singer songwriter inNashville.

(10:30):
funny, Roger Miller sing along with Mitch Miller or Mitch Miller.
It's all these old song books and I'd sit there and try to figure it out.
But third, third grade is when I actually started the lessons.
That's when I was like, okay, I need to have some education on what I'm doing.
So, and then the band stuff probably by seventh or eighth grade, you know, and I havepictures of all this and man, you know, I was nerdy, but back then it wasn't cool to be a

(10:53):
nerd.
Maybe it never was.
I don't know, but you know, but that gave me an outlet.
that in the AV club and all that stuff.
I would get out of class just to go and play in band.
And then later they had the Mac SE and they were expensive.
didn't have one.
I had a Commodore 64 with this.

(11:14):
I don't know if anyone cares about this, but it had the cartridge and it was Sonos Ithink.
And it had like an eight track MIDI sequencer going to my DX21 with like one MIDI cableout of this cartridge.
And you plug the cartridge into play like Pac-Man or something, and you take thatcartridge out and plug the cartridge in to have the MIDI cable, plug it into the DX21, and

(11:35):
then I can orchestrate.
It was an amazing piece of gear that, Yeah, I mean that's cool.
I was going to say, Greg, I think there'd be a high care factor amongst our listeners andviewers about this stuff, because I think essentially, most of us, think...
If we're honest, we were nerds when we went through high school.

(11:56):
And so that's how we ended up being keyboard players.
And I think we love this stuff.
So thank you.
Thank you for sharing that.
So I'm interested in how do we go from a beak in the long hairs to maybe somethingslightly more professional?
And what point did you start to think, well, music could be a thing for me, maybe.
When did that happen for you?
Yeah.
Well, this was a real, you know, I don't know if you think of your life as these moments,but I have these moments in my life there.

(12:22):
pretty crystal clear and I had a pretty crystal clear moment, you know, in high school,which, you know, probably around 14, like when you're junior year of high school in the
States here, you are basically looking at your college, you know, because the next year,your senior year, you have to make the decision already.
So the junior year, and there were about three schools and I was really into programming.

(12:45):
Back then it was like basic COBOL, Pascal, Fortran.
I don't know if we touched on C, if that was even out yet, but the basics of programming.
was very into programming these little programs.
And every program I made is the same thing.
Like you ask a question and show a picture and then they go over here.
It's like, well, okay, that took me like five hours to make this little computer program.

(13:06):
And then music, I had both of these little things and I was like, huh, okay, well, musicseems a lot more fun, but computers are fun.
then the error checking and the bug checking, the hours of that.
were frustrating.
I remember having this thought, okay, music.
And I thought, well, I want to go for the best and I feel like I'm pretty good.
And in Wisconsin, the competition wasn't like New York City or whatever.

(13:30):
mean, so I might've shot too big for myself, but I applied to Berklee and the Chick CoreaElectric Band, which, God, I love Chick Corea.
I got it really, okay, so I was into like Tangerine Dream.
I remember one of my first concerts was Tangerine Dream and talk about analog synths.
Nowadays, it would have been a million dollars worth of synthesizers on the stage.

(13:51):
mean, they had stacks of Rhodes Chroma and like all this killer stuff.
I didn't know what it was and cables everywhere and just a brilliant show.
I was really into New Age music and I met a jazz guy and says, you can't listen to thatstuff.
It's one chord.
You got to play bebop and jazz stuff.
So then I got into jazz and you know, for better or for worse, I was really practicingbebop and transcribing Charlie Parker solos and stuff like that.

(14:17):
I applied to Berkeley and I up getting a scholarship to Berkeley from making with twocassette decks.
And then I probably at that time had a little bit better Mac, not the Mac classic, but thenext notch up.
I did like light years from electric band and I programmed it on my keyboard.
And then I figured out, I think, I don't think I had a multi-track, he had a four trackcassette.

(14:39):
My buddy who was way older than me, he's probably in his forties.
I was like 18.
He came over and like played a soprano sax and we did light years.
And I did the drums and bass and great track.
I was actually listening to that recently.
So I sent that in and got a scholarship to Berkland.
like, okay, I can, you know, it wasn't a full ride, it's like something like, it's like,okay, you know, come over here.

(15:01):
And then I went from feeling like, I'm pretty good.
I heard like Abe LeBuriel was in the, he was graduating the year that I started as thePaul McCartney's drummer.
And in the, when you'd walk down the lunch room, you'd walk down these steps and there isthe practice room M1.
And I was like,
Good God, who's that playing?
sounded like the drums sound like an orchestra.
Like how many hands does this guy have?

(15:22):
And I peeked in there and, you know, Abel Aboriel Jr., know, Abel Aboriel's son wasplaying in the project band.
And then I was like, my God, what happened?
I'm in the wrong place, you know, but I stuck it out.
fortunately, and man, that place is awesome.
So, you know, in the Midwest, in my little circle, Beacon of Long hair is, you know, I wasdoing all right, but now we've got like the best.

(15:46):
You know, and Prince's drummer, I played a lot with him.
passed away.
Ben Butler, who's Sting's guitar player was there.
Good buddy of mine.
There's so many.
Ryan Shore, who's score is like Superman, all that stuff like Danny.
I was there with, and buddies with all these killer musicians and players at that time.
And I guess that's probably typical for Berkeley.

(16:07):
It's kind of a magnet, you And I some people say, it's not cool to graduate.
You gotta be like John Mayer and go a semester and then drop out.
But I stayed the whole time.
I wasn't cool.
I'm sticking around.
I was an RA in the dorm too.
And, everyone was smoking.
I don't know if we can say this keyboard thing, but they're smoking pot all day.
And I was just like, well, I'm never gonna get anything done.

(16:29):
So remember having a fan in my dorm room just blowing the smoke away just so could nothave this contact high to finish whatever, you know, they didn't have math at Berkeley.
They had acoustics, which is kind of math, but you know, it was a fun place.
It was, it was really good time, you know, being in Boston and all that.
I was lucky for my parents.
It's expensive.
God knows how much it costs now.

(16:49):
But I remember working as an RA and we just sit and play music all night and I had aquarter inch Fostex 8 track with some sec weird board.
And then at that point, I think I had an EMAX, I had an SQ80, then I got a Proteus.
I was always switching MIDI gear and flip flopping and I remember the Simpty track, you'dhave to print and I'll have fun stuff.

(17:13):
that you back then you had to really work to get stuff recorded.
Nowadays you pull out your laptop and let's do 300 tracks.
But I mean that you had a really, you had the efficiency of tracks back then you had tomake it count.
So it's a fun time to learn.
And so Greg, after you graduated, how did you merge into your first professional job?

(17:35):
when did you first start making a regular living out of music?
Yeah, well, the first gig I ever did, it was me and I think a friend who
It's like might be up for a Grammy at Berkeley.
But so I would took this commercial class and I thought, my gosh, this is going to behopeless if this is how to make money.
But they said, listen to the radio and then cold call people and sell commercials.

(17:57):
So I cold called this place called Daphne's fantasy photography, which I found out lateras boudoir like naked pictures.
We made like Daphne's fashion photography.
And then I remember I didn't run for
Ipswich Clambake, you know, and like I made I think for the fashion photography, I maybemade $75 for the commercial.

(18:20):
But then out of Berkeley, I got jobs playing like I played on the world's nicest cruiseship.
Like I played solo piano.
And, and I played on like probably the world's crappiest cruise ship.
And then I worked my way up, but I was I played on cruise ships.
And they always have solo piano.
And so I'd literally sit there and practice all day because when the

(18:40):
boat was at sea, was like literally nothing to do.
There's no internet, know, and you couldn't sit there and stream, you know, reality shows.
So you'd, you'd sit there and practice all day.
And so I, and I remember on the cruise ship, I had like the wind controller, which I stillhave.
and then I had like a small keyboard and a big keyboard and had Fatar bass pedals andprobably an HR 16 drum machine, which I'd program all these beats in.

(19:05):
And I'd be playing solos with my right hand and playing bass with my feet and you know,just
So I was making money.
was actually probably back starting sophomore year of college.
was probably when I wasn't in school, I was making money playing on these ships and youknow, so, so now that's not like playing on records, but it was important for me to

(19:25):
practice, you know.
So that's, that's probably when I realized, okay, I can do this.
I don't know if you remember if you're in New York city, there was this block.
It was the 48th street in Manhattan and that was the music row of New York.
It's right where the ball drops.
If you watch the Times Square ball and there's like a Smiler's grocery store in thecorner.

(19:47):
And then you have the street and there's Sam Ash.
There was Rudy's, which had vintage guitars.
There was like an accordion store with old, old Polish or Italian guys selling theseaccordions.
And then there's Manny's.
And I remember selling, you know, music and, you know, gear.
And it kind of taught me the hustle a little bit.

(20:07):
Some of these guys are merciless and how these New Yorkers, how they'd sell stuff.
Like they'd be like, you know, guys says, well, I got to talk to my wife and you're like,you got to have, ask your wife to make decisions for you.
And just like this horrible and you'd get a gold star if you made your commission or a reddot or a black.
And if you had the red, you know, which is terrible.

(20:28):
If you had too many of those in a row, you're fired.
So you had to sell all this music here.
And I sell, sold Pro Tools.
And I remember I had a JV 1080 that
you can get stuff at cost.
I got Pro Tools for like half price and I think I got the Roland and I started buyingSIMPS.
Any dollar I had, I'd buy stuff.
Just load up on, you know, I didn't know much about microphones or tube stuff.
Back then that stuff wasn't cool, but you know, it's more of the crappier stuff likeAlesis, you know, like nowadays, you you want an EMT or something like that.

(20:56):
I wish I was smart.
I would have bought all that stuff up, but I had like a quadroverb and you know, maybethey'll come back in style.
never know.
But yeah, everything comes back in style, Greg.
Yeah.
sure does.
Yeah, right.
And I'm really interested and I thought we might explore some of the artists you've workedwith to come back because we are actually fascinated with the recording stuff.

(21:18):
And you've just mentioned a whole bunch of stuff that I'd like to explore.
But let's do it via some artists and we might jump maybe even ahead to today because Iknow you mentioned the Dave Stewart, Darrell Hall.
yeah.
So let's talk about just even
That's probably the culmination of all your skills and experience.

(21:38):
So tell us about your initial involvement with Darrell, because I know you've worked on acouple of his albums.
I know you've been on the wonderful TV show, Darrell's House, and then Dave Stewart beinginvolved.
Just tell us about that experience more broadly and what you brought to it.
that's a thank you.
And you know, you're helping organize my thoughts.
So thank you, David, for the questions that keep me on track.

(21:59):
So to get to Darrell Hall and to get into that session,
There was a famous, he's still around, huge mega producer, unbelievable talent namedWalter Athanasia.
And he was the keyboard guy, I wish I could show you pictures, but we had midi racks,floor to ceiling, like four of them.
It's just stuff like seven Trinities or Tritons and then like, know, Studio One, Moogs andall these just great synths.

(22:29):
And that was in the early 2000s.
I was his programmer engineer.
I remember they had an SSLJ.
And the reason I got to Hall & Oates is because Walter Afanasia produced some Hall & Oatesstuff a long time ago, maybe late 90s, early 2000s.
And Hall & Oates was signed to Tommy Mottola.

(22:53):
And Walter A.
was Tommy Mottola's guy.
So Walter A.
wrote the entire Mariah Kisry Christmas record and
you know, tons of stuff, every Kenny G, like you name it.
So when I was working for him, was programming for like, I did Beyonce and Jessica Simpsonand Savage Garden and all this stuff.
And I ended up end up getting to, you know, work and watch his excellence and his skill oflike working with artists and stuff like that.

(23:19):
And anyway, Tommy, you know, I'm not gonna say anything I don't want to get, you know, introuble, but they didn't go so good with Hall of Notes and they, you know, so I'm
I remember I transitioned Walter from Opcode Studio Vision to Logic.
And because I was really into Logic, I had started with Digital Performer and then gone toStudio Vision and then we ended up on Logic.

(23:46):
So Logic was great.
You can do all this stuff.
So that was a wonderful gig.
But anyway, after I left there, I moved to Los Angeles and in Los Angeles I had
a publishing deal with Warner Chapel where I'd done all this music.
Having a great time and I got a call from T-Bone who was the bass player from Hall & Oatesand T-Bone ended up being one of my great musical mentors and he asked me to come help and

(24:17):
co-produce with Darryl and John in New York.
And so had my own, you know, five foot tall midi rack and I remember it was like fivegrand to ship it to LA and it had, I had a lot of cool stuff in there.
had like
Minimoog bass type stuff and and a lot of Roland I was really into Roland samplers So Ihad two or three f7 60s, which I still have in the basement I think I had an f7 70 an MPC

(24:42):
2000 and I think I had a really nice Waldorf Q Maybe yeah, I think that was in the racktoo So I took that midi rack with me and end up working in they were recording on the do
it to love record
Do It For Love record.
were recording some great music.
And I came in and started changing drums and parts and they were like, we love this.

(25:06):
remember, I think I really got the job.
I got really good headphone mixes for the vocalist.
And as an engineer, you know, that is one of the great things you can do is you can makeit easy for them to sing and they get a sound that they're really excited about.
Then, you know, they're like, my gosh, I just love how my voice sounds, because at the endof the day, that's

(25:26):
That's one of the most important things, know, the vocals and if it's compelling.
So I spent hours getting these headphones right.
And I remember renting like, which ended up being a $30,000 microphone, but an Neumann M49microphone, which is just, it's hard to go wrong with that microphone.
You can put that in front of anything.
And so I was like, well, it's a Hall of Notes.
I I want the best.

(25:47):
And so I ended up spending all this money, but that kind of became my thing when I wasengineering is, you know, just making sure I get the vocals right.
the best sound, the best environment, a fun vibe.
And I kind of learned that stuff from Walter A.
He says, you know, really got to get the artist to trust you because at the end of theday, it's not the record label that's hiring you.

(26:08):
You know, when you do a production contract, it's with the artist, the artist gets inadvance, they get their money, you know, they have all their managers and their team.
And when you sign that production contract, you're, basically being hired by the artist.
And then the artist is, is kind of your, your guy.
So
So I ended up really just focusing on making sure that I was delivering stuff that gotthem excited.

(26:32):
Because sometimes when you're, you know, the worst thing is if you're in the studio andsomeone, you know, asks you, Hey, can you play that one more time?
Like, I did it right the first time, you know, come in with that attitude and, and you gotto make it fun.
I mean, sometimes you're in the studio for eight hours.
spend two of it playing ping pong or, or a pool or tennis or goofing off or whatever, butthat's all part of it.

(26:53):
Cause you eventually you're like,
you just get in this mode.
so I kind of learned all that from Walter A, just the whole hang and be positive.
And I can't remember who it was who said this, but I just want to be useful, you know,become my attitude in the studio, no matter what it is.
And always do my best.
Cause another guy said this, like, you know, when you're in the studio, you got to do yourbest.

(27:15):
Cause if you start settling and doing kind of a crappy job, what if it becomes, you can'tturn that off?
What if, what if that becomes your
you're a new best, you know what mean?
You get used to hearing this, this oddest, and eventually you're like, you just, you know,I'll just start settling and getting worse and worse.
and there's a whole army of new kids coming out, you know, that are unbelievably talented.

(27:37):
like a shark, you gotta keep swimming, you know, you can't just sit here.
So, I had some really great mentors.
I remember, worked for this guy who was Shotka Khan's bass player, and I really got intobass and drums and the importance of.
having the programming or live drums and the bass all work with the melody and that's whatT-Bone, T-Bone was the bass player on Saturday Night Live for many, many years.

(27:58):
So, you know, he'd make me sit around, listen to the meters, you know, and George PorterJr.
and Joni Mitchell Blue and all these great recordings.
You just sit around, listen to music together and you know, that's, you know, that becamea huge part of who I am and what I like and how I proceed today.

(28:19):
All these
lessons I've learned.
I try never to forget them because if you don't learn the lesson, you keep getting thetest.
So if I end up doing something crappy, I'll just end up biting me down the That's right.
No, absolutely.
look, I think that's an amazing perspective.
And you mentioned about not settling for second best.

(28:39):
I can't imagine Dave Stewart as a guy that's ever settled for second best.
For us down in Australia and in UK,
He's iconic and obviously not just through the Eurythmics, but his production work.
What was your experience there and what did you learn as both a producer and player fromhim, for example?

(29:00):
I was really blessed to get to spend a lot of quality time hanging out with Dave Stewarton this trip.
I would go to the beach in the morning and I'd see this guy and I see him with a shirt on,so I'm not used to seeing him with his shirt off, but this guy had lot of tattoos, he
looked really cool.
Maybe that's Dave and we kind of walked over like, hey, how are you doing?

(29:22):
And we'd sit there and he'd tell me all these stories and even gave me a copy of one ofhis books that he had written.
But it was a great experience.
And what's great about Dave that you can't underestimate is keeping it weird.
So like in Nashville, you know, or wherever, New York or whatever, there's this kind ofperfectionism.

(29:44):
And boy, nothing sometimes can be more boring than perfectionism.
You know, like, this just right or pronounce this word just right or, I mean, sometimesmaybe you need that, but the vibe and the, and the groove and the, whole experience is so
important that that perfectionism and music is, know, and he would tell me stories andthese are secondhand, they'd say hearsay in the court of law.

(30:08):
But like, you know, I remember him telling me him and Annie Lennox would have this vibewhere they had a ring.
And you tell me if you heard this and they throw the ring in the console and wherever thering landed, they had to turn up that fader.
They had to crank it and they were always trying to keep it weird.
And we'd sit there and listen to recordings that he had done and it's killer.
he, you know, has really used the synthesizer technology to the best he can.

(30:33):
mean, how great does that stuff sound?
And they had just the most minimal stuff.
He was one of the first guys to use that, that sequencer on that keyboard, you know.
Sweet Dreams or whatever, mean, it's iconic.
mean, it's just legendary.
but in the studio, it was really nice.
Basically, we doing this record.
He had a big giant knee board.

(30:54):
It was right off the, you know, the beach.
It's beautiful area.
And they had the console.
And then I set up my own rig in the other room.
And he had a lot of stuff mapped out and then give it to me.
And then I started adding synths.
And I'm really in love with this.
Behind me, I have this blue Udu.
super sick synthesizer.
my gosh, what a great synth.

(31:16):
And I ended up putting that on everything.
It's just, what a sound.
And I even showed Dave, said, J, you probably want to buy this.
And he was like, my God.
So that's on every track.
And then I brought a controller and I have a zillion plugins.
Dave is anti-plugin.
He was like, and I get that.
Like I have a really great microphone, a great modified U67.

(31:37):
If I use that mic properly, I don't need 40 plugins on the vocal track.
you know, and, thus I'm going for a pop thing with lots of effects and stuff.
But, I try to recreate stuff as much as I can by moving the microphone, changing amicrophone, you know, playing with an analog synth and then plugins, of course, you know,
they, they're creative tools.

(31:57):
You don't want to eliminate a tool just for no reason, but, that man, was, was sitting inthere and I'd send files and we had a cable going from the B room where the drums were to
the main room.
And so they'd flip a switch and I'd play the track with it they'd be like, yeah.
And then a couple of times he'd come in and I remember that the Omni chord on one song, hewas like, yeah, do strings.

(32:18):
He let's do weird strings.
He started playing the Omni chord and I happen to be, I love, I play that thing all thetime and it's, play some accordion.
So the buttons are arranged like my accordion buttons on the left hand.
So I was like, well, here we go.
Let's go.
so he held his iPhone over the Omni chord and I played the, this cool string chordal part.

(32:39):
on the Omnicord and then we MP3'd the track from Dave Stewart's phone to the studio megacomputer on the Neve and that ended up being the string part.
I was thinking like, Dave Stewart, he's going have these mega VOX AC 30s and these megaamps and he was like, well, sometimes, yeah.
Or like he had this little tiny little amp that was like, probably weighed about fourpounds.

(33:04):
And my God, that sounded good.
It's very experimental.
I think that inspired me the most.
Just seeing how you've got all these tools, you don't have to sit there and do whatsomeone else told you is right.
Someone said, you've got to use something with EL34 tubes or 12AX7 tubes and you've got toset it here.
Forget all that.
If you like it, it's good.

(33:25):
So that was great.
So I was just thinking, Greg, when you were talking about the intro to Sweet Dreams, thaticonic synthesizer.
sequencing and as you said as soon as someone hears the first two notes of that they knowexactly what that is.
From your own perspective all the different artists that you've worked with and thedifferent collaborations you've done either as a player or in the recording process is

(33:49):
there anything you look back on?
You know that was me I'm really proud of that that's a decision I made or influence I hadthat you know that's that's a something I really look back on I'm really pleased I made
that decision or influenced the artist to try that.
Thank you.
Yeah.
You know, there's a song that became a pretty big hit.
Walter A.
was, knew I loved you before I met you.

(34:10):
And I would do the same thing.
I just love my own space.
And so I took the track to Walter A.
Studio and I added like the synth and the little moving drum loop, which became a hugemega hit.
And, you know, on my own, I was just like, well, I just need some cool little movement.
And, you know, I'm always trying to do that.
It's many times, even, you know, I wrote a song for a little big town and

(34:32):
And I was like, okay, well that started from something that I played.
And I think it's important for me and for everyone to remember, like these ideas,sometimes they come as a flash and then they're gone and you might never get it again.
So I always try to record them.
Not that I ever listened to all of them.
I listened to some of them, but when you get that little flash of inspiration, just likeone of the Hall of the songs, you talk about mistakes and how they become good.

(34:57):
There's these happy accidents.
There's this one song that I end up becoming a writer on and when a Darrell's big biggestlike records that we've done the Christmas record and It probably stemmed out of me like
listening to his chords and playing it wrong and he ended up liking it better But itreally changed the whole vibe of the song because I listened to and I was like well This

(35:18):
is what I probably just did what I would do instead of doing perfectly what he was doingand he goes that's so good and I go.
I'm playing it different.
I don't know.
Yeah, that's great I said I I didn't know I was just playing
It's like, you know how you get in a space in your brain where you're kind of notanalytical, you're kind of more floaty and going with it.
I try to get there, you know, instead of being in that, you know, perfect vibe.

(35:41):
so, so yeah, that happens a lot in, and there was a period when I was working with WalterA that hit after hit that we worked on, like with stuff I worked on.
And it's a really fun feeling where you hear something you did and all of a it's on theradio, you know?
So, it's like a drug.
I'm kind of craving it and now with this new band I'm working with, I just love that.

(36:03):
Yeah, absolutely.
That's amazing, thank you.
And I do have to ask, as a producer and a player, you get to work with a range of artists.
So you've mentioned pop artists and the whole gamut of what you cover.
I'd argue two of the most critically panned but most popular and amazing musicians areKenny G and Michael Bolton.

(36:25):
So they're the people that...
you know, some musicians, I don't know what it is, but particularly down here tend to mockor whatever, but I can imagine they're amazing to work with.
And just tell us about what you learned from working with people like that who have reallywide appeal and have a particular really distinctive sound.
Well, that you said right there, the sound.

(36:46):
So Kenny G had his rig, which was, think a Tealum 170.
And back in the day, then it was one of the
DBX 160, like half rack with the wooden sides.
And I can't remember what preamp.
And then he had the 48 channel digital back then.
And he would go and meticulously craft and get these great solos.

(37:07):
Cause he can play like he can just sit down.
And I know he started as a session musician, him, Jeff Lorber, all these great New Yorksession players, you know, we're making money doing sessions, but he would really craft
and comp.
And back then we were analog comping, not analog, I mean,
not as in moving files and Pro Tools, but we're using a digital tape machine.
We have these comp boxes.

(37:28):
There's think 16 buttons.
And so a vocal phrase or a Kenny D sax solo would come through and then you want to go.
And when you push the buttons, did an automatic crossfade.
So you could push buttons in the middle of a note, flip tracks and you wouldn't hearclicks.
It was a very expensive system that was a non-digital system.

(37:49):
You'd plug all the tracks into it and you can just go beep beep beep and you'd heardifferent tracks.
And all meticulous.
my gosh.
And Michael Bolton, just meticulous on those vocals.
Like, like, the end of the world is like, says me right.
just, that kind of focus I think is what those guys both equally demonstrated.
They were just super focused on what the vibe was and Darryl Hall too.

(38:12):
Like sometimes he'd sing something and, and he'd be like, I hate how I sound on that.
And I'd be like, really?
But see Darryl Hall is going for this Philly soul.
you know, Marvin Gaye, like, Isley Brothers, you know, Al Green vibe.
So he doesn't want to hit something heavy handed.
He can, he can, he can sing like a Michael Bolton, but for his style, he's like nevergoing to want to sound like that.

(38:36):
So they know they have this filter of what they want as an artist.
And with this current band I'm working with, the singer's like, I can sing that, but Idon't want to sing that.
That's not me.
That's not who I am as an artist.
And, and as a producer.
Sometimes I'll think like, I really want them to do this, but it's their voice and I'msupposed to be amplifying their voice.
So, you know, I think with all these artists, it's getting them to trust you.

(39:01):
You know, I'm like the frame, you know, where the music's all the frame and they're thepicture, trying to maximize that, you know, get the most resolution out of that picture.
So that was a really good lesson with those guys.
Speaking of lessons, Greg, you might've...
You made a comment before which I think I'm going to steal.
You said something like, if you don't learn the lesson, the test will come again.

(39:24):
yeah.
Yeah, I love that idea.
And I'm interested in what would you share with, let's say someone was starting out as anaspiring professional keyboard player in the industry.
What are some of the things you've learned that would be, you'd love to pass on?
Yeah, that's such a good question.
As a keyboard player, there's like a maturity level, right?

(39:45):
That like now I'm
I'm older than I was.
And I think the best thing that people nowadays can do as a keyboard player is really relyon their ears.
And if I see a lot of young keyboard players, I see a lot of them going, well, this is thepiano sound.
This is like keyscapes.
And this is the best because it's keyscapes.

(40:08):
I'm like, it's keyscapes is the best.
I'm like, okay.
So because you paid what $400 for it, and it's like 30 gigabytes.
That's the best sound.
Like what about this one here that's only like three megabytes and it's kind of soundscooler.
Cause you know, so it could be like a dance song and you got this C seven, you know, 40gigabyte grand sound and like it's a dance sound.

(40:31):
It's like, check out how funky this sounds though.
Like, you know I mean?
Use your ears instead of the gear.
I mean, I've just been, just been said to death, but that, that is something that I canfall.
you know, I'll get some new plugins.
Sometimes my worst mixes is when I get a new suite of plugins and I'm like, okay, let'suse this.
And then I'm like, God, this sounds terrible.
I, cause I haven't found the good stuff, you know, or you get a new sample library.

(40:54):
There's like, you know, 1600 sounds and there's like five good sounds in there, you know,and you have to make your own sounds.
So the most important thing is, know, to the dine on ear be true, you know, listen to,listen to your ear, listen to how it makes you feel instead of the technical stuff.
and if you're playing,
It's a universal thing.
You don't have to be Corey Henry.

(41:14):
Like how good is Corey Henry or Jacob Collier or Hey, you know, Jesus, you know, theseguys so good, right?
You know, yeah, they're really good, but you know, it's that like the number one song inthe radio right now.
You know, it's like a lot of really big mega producers and great keyboard players are bassplayers because you know, the bass kind of gets you moving and it gets you moving out of
your seat and the groove in the pocket.

(41:36):
There's a reason for that.
You know, it's so,
You know, it's this funny joke, like, what's the difference between a jazz musician and acountry musician?
You know, a country musician plays three chords in front of thousands of people, right?
And a jazz musician, you know, play thousands of chords in front of three people.
Like, you know, that's good to do all that.
And now it's better jazz, you know, coming back.

(41:58):
But there's no right or wrong way.
And I've been, I've made that mistake where I've had people, I remember I producedsomething that was successful and someone came, you can't do that.
You can't do that.
And I'd be like, okay, you know?
And then like, you can't listen to that, you know?
It's usually based more on their anger and frustration than reality.
Because, you know, tell that to Dave Stewart.
He broke all the rules with these recordings there.

(42:19):
And they're smashes, you know, one after another, you know, from working with YouTube andNo Doubt to, you know, Tom Petty.
It's one after another, you know?
The real breaking is cool.
So, yeah, listen to the ear.
Yeah, that's where it's at.
Great perspective.
Thank you.
And look, we will talk a little bit about keyboards and you may not recall this Greg, butthe reason I reached out to you to come on the show aside from your amazing career is you

(42:48):
actually utilized some resources we'd pulled together from other websites.
So we didn't create these, but it was basically a tutorial on how to upload sounds to aDX7.
I remember.
Yeah.
You're very kindly emailed and thanked us for.
for providing that.
Again, I do check out the article though, it's interesting because I do want to givecredit to all the other people that it links to because I've done nothing beyond pull it

(43:13):
together.
Sure, it's very helpful though, thank you.
That's okay.
So tell us about your favorite keyboards and I you mentioned the DX7Z.
Like I'm fascinated in today's world, you're still using the DX7 and if so how, but alsointerested in what else you tend to be your go-to pieces.
Well, I tell you what, I was given the DX7.

(43:35):
I've been lucky and people kind of, find these things and they give it to me.
So I was given, I've used it a few times, but not as much as I should.
I really like it.
I love the attack FM synthesis when it hits compared to analog.
Analog there's always this little delay, like you're waiting for the capacitor to heat upor whatever.
And the digital is like, bam, it's like a cat.

(43:57):
It's just like right there where the analog is like a kind of a slow dog.
So I like it, but I haven't been utilizing it much, but I really love my Moog Source,which is right behind me for bass.
You know, it's probably because I'm too cheap to buy a real mini Moog, but the actual realMoog Source for bass, my God, it's so hard to beat.
It just sits in the, and I think mine is from some famous band in New York.

(44:21):
I can't remember if it was Modest Mouse or one of those bands used it on a song, but man,that thing, and you know I love about it too?
The battery's dead.
So every time I have to program in the sound, but I love starting from scratch becauseevery time I get a little bit quicker and a little faster, you know, it's got that memory
kind of button where you push the buttons.
But I mean, it is hard to not get that to fit into a track.

(44:44):
Something about I have Trilogy bass sounds and there's a really good patch in the Trilogyplugin called ATC Creamer, which is the ATC-1 studio electronics bass, which was the synth
that I had.
I love that synth, but my dial-up basically the same
preset on the source and just because of the actual physical volts and voltages comingthrough there, just somehow does something that the plugin doesn't do.

(45:09):
The Udu is super great.
And then what I've been doing lately that I've been really enjoying is using guitar pedalsand stop boxes with my synthesizers.
And for years and years I resisted that because every digital synth has zillions ofdigital effects in it.
But the source...
And then the Udu are pretty limited in that regard.

(45:30):
So I've been really enjoying my timeline pedal and my little What is my little I have liketwo or three little pedals over here the walrus and and things like that and I have a list
of pedals that are on my my my list but I go through cycles with I really want to buy oneof those Roland Super JX at JX 10 I was at the keyboard store and I was like, I think I

(45:52):
have to get one of those even though it's
You can set me back two or three grand.
And I do have a Yamaha endorsement deal.
I love my montage.
Yamaha has been really good for me.
I mean, there's a lot of synthesis that you can just do in there.
And so I'm constantly designing sounds and you know what I love is like, I get a preset,you know, once you get the fundamentals of what oscillators, LFOs and ADSR, know, a

(46:15):
tactical sustain release, once you get that basic stuff, you know, you can go to any synthand you never use it before.
You'll hear a sound like, that's almost what I want.
Omnisphere, any plugin, and you can kind of craft the sound to fit where you need a slowerattack.
And so I just encourage everyone to at least start with a preset you like and then craftit instead of stock.

(46:38):
So I do a lot of sound design.
We do a lot of TV work here and always try and develop new sounds.
That's the name of the game.
So yeah.
Thank you, Greg.
Now we have a question we asked all of our guests.
And with your level of experience, I'm sure you'll have something for us here that will beworth hearing.

(46:59):
We'd love to ask about a train wreck.
So have you ever been involved in a situation, whether it's playing live or it could berecording in the studio, where there's an absolute train wreck that you've had to work
your way through?
Yeah, my God, yeah.
Like multiple, many.
And the biggest one, like the one that really wrecked me, the very embarrassing...

(47:22):
was me as a player on Broadway, right before the Tonys, this huge musical, one of thebiggest theaters, and I had learned the first act of a show as a pit player in Broadway.
They're not looking for improvisation skills.
You know, you have actors on stage that are looking for cues to sing their song.
No one cares about the piano player.

(47:43):
So anyway, I had learned this first act of a show, but I remember the poor cat whose gigit was.
It really nice guy, you know, he helping me out.
Anyway, he got deathly sick and was vomiting with a stomach flu.
And I didn't, back then I didn't do enough homework and I was only going to play the firstact and I was done.
So I was like, okay.
So he's like, you got to play the second act.

(48:03):
And I don't know the second act.
So I was kind of sight reading and it's just really complex jazz stuff.
Like it was, I mean, it was, it was out there.
And so I was sight reading, I was doing it, you know, I can sight read.
So I was playing it well, but what I did was the fatal mistake, just the worst mistake.
You know, they have these cues and you're in a orchestra pit and it's dimly lit, right?

(48:26):
And so you're sitting there and you know, I'm, I'm, I'm kind of at this point near the endof the show.
I'm feeling pretty good about myself.
I'm on Broadway and like, woo-hoo, you know, and you know, cause for the first set I'mpins and needles just following it.
So I'm starting to relax my guard a little bit and you know, people are making jokesbecause they played this show a thousand times.
So you're good job, but you're doing great.

(48:47):
Well, there was a scene in this show.
It's about hookers and.
pimps and basically, you know, there's all these songs and the main call girl, thecharacter that built the whole show on fall in love with what a great person, tortured
soul, you know, gets shot by this pimp and there's this horrifying red lights and it'sthis big scene.

(49:13):
Well, in the music, there's this pencil cue written in the top and it says, like, hold astring note on
We're using Kurzweil, so whatever those PC-12 or whatever, PC-88, whatever that thing wasback in the day, know, Kurzweil, you know.
And so you hold a high string note on patch number seven and it was written in pencil.
And so I didn't see that.

(49:34):
And so the conductor does this and instead of going, and this is right before they'regoing to shoot this, this hooker, you know, and they're all sitting there waiting for the
string note.
They've done it.
Instead of playing a high string note, I play.
It's like Harpo Marx piano like freaking craziest goofball piano solo.

(50:01):
They must have thought I had a stroke or something because they're all the whole theaterprobably like a thousand people.
I don't know how many people go to these Broadway shows.
The actors, the whole cast, they're like, what the what just happened?
Like, my God.
And you couldn't have
of the whole show, you probably couldn't have made a worse mistake than that.
And I remember David Spinoza, the legendary guitar player goes, Hey, good job, Like that,they told me never to come back.

(50:28):
Right after that, that right after that is when that that girl got the huge record dealthat got me started with Sony.
So I was like, I'm done in music, I'm gonna work it, you know, I don't know, be anelectrician or something, you know, I'm done, like, I'll never work again.
They said, they said, never come back.
But then right after I did all these demos and this girl got a four million dollar recorddeal and they did all my studio and I end up getting a huge, I end up working with JLo

(50:52):
like a year later.
But, but my God, that for that night, I'm sure like, you know, any stomach ailments I havetoday, that's where I got them.
Like you can't, I mean, you couldn't have messed up.
It was right before the Tonys.
was like, Cy Coleman, like this legendary hero at witchcraft, like this, all thesebrilliant minds.
And then this doofus kid like,

(51:14):
I was probably 20 or something.
don't know.
But anyway, that was bad.
I mean, I still think about, remember it crystal clear.
So yeah, so that's my embarrassing.
Yeah, that's amazing.
That is an amazing story.
It is pretty bad.
So what was the musical, Greg?
it the life?
It was the life.
Good.
Yeah, there you was the life.

(51:35):
yeah, that was really good.
And it was a brilliant show.
And the orchestration.
I mean, there was so much masterful writing.
I can't remember the orchestrator.
He was one of the big art orchestrators.
Like music was just brilliant stuff.
And I appreciated that because I went to school for orchestration, like at Berkleearranging and that was my whole thing.
And it just takes such a giant dump on the show and play the wrong song.

(51:59):
I didn't mean to be, it was just so bad.
so anyway, but that, you know, that kind of, I worked out good because instead of beingthe, you know, Broadway pit musician, I ended up getting this work.
I worked for Tommy Matola right after that.
But you know, I still feel bad.
my God.
That was amazing.

(52:19):
Yeah.
They said, don't come back anymore.
No, that's always a good feeling.
Yes.
and, and Greg, I do want to ask you one of our other common questions is, we ask ourguests to tag another keyboard place.
So is there someone out there as a player that you've always admired that you would loveto hear more about their story?
Well, so one.

(52:41):
guy who's an artist.
I really like Steve Winwood.
mean, and he lives in Nashville, but how good are those records, right?
And there's a guy named Jimmy Braylauer who I met as a kid.
As a kid, I remember, do you remember Keyboard Magazine?
yes.
You know, isn't that great?
So as a kid, they used to have things called sound pages, and they had these little squarerecords.

(53:04):
And so fundamental for me being in music, and I still remember
It's those keyboard sound pages and you had to wait for it.
It's not like the internet where you have terabytes of data instantly.
You get that little thing and that's what you get.
Well, David Frank did a song that he wrote on one.
David Frank was the system and he don't disturb this group.

(53:28):
And I've talked to him and he's a really good cat for synthesizer stuff.
You guys want to talk to someone, this guy, he really influenced me.
He's a generation older than me.
He did Christina Aguilera, Genie in the Bottle, but he would really use synthesizer like asynthesizer.
And then Patrick Leonard was another guy.

(53:48):
was Madonna's guy.
He was a brilliant producer.
I really liked those cats.
Steve Winwood.
I've got to work with a lot of people I love like David Foster and Daryl Hall and WalterA.
And then today, some of these keyboard players, Jacob Collier, Corey Henry.

(54:08):
my God.
I it's so great.
you know, I don't know about you, but I'm always trying to grow.
So I see these little things that Instagram of some little lick or some little thing and Isave it and then I take it to my piano and try to get it on my fingers so I could do it.
So I'm fighting off dementia by trying to learn new licks.
Yeah.
It's great.
That's excellent.

(54:31):
And then we have the dreaded Diz it all and this question.
yeah.
So you're five albums that you could live without.
Thank you for this.
So I wonder if we'll cross over any, but I always really like, yes, 90125.
I probably bought that about six times in my life.
Owner of a lonely heart and changes.

(54:51):
I mean, for me, right.
and I just thought of another one.
my God.
Peter Gabriel.
So like that.
my God.
That, that stuff, that recording, it's how, you know, so great.
Chick Corea, Now He Sings, Now He Sobs.
I think that's the name of the record.
But, my gosh, that band is incredible.

(55:14):
T-Bone Wolf told me about Joni Mitchell-Blue.
and so it's not a keyboard record at all, but the voicings and her vocals on that and theexperiment, you know, it's just very soulful record.
So not so much in the keyboard sense.
And then for me, like the best of Charlie Parker would have to be on there.

(55:34):
I used to fight with anxiety and anxiety attacks.
And when I couldn't sleep, I had a 1948 Silver Tone record, record player, I would put onCharlie Parker vinyl records and the combination of the smoke from all the tubes burning
in the record player and then the Charlie Parker music, I was always out.

(55:55):
So I probably have anxiety on this desert island.
And then, yeah, Radiohead OK Computer, like that.
In Nashville, know we're in Nashville or Hillbillies, my buddy calls it rodeo head insteadof radio head.
radio head, okay, computer.
mean, that's, my God, that's just brilliant.
And there's so many more, but that's kind of a starter.

(56:17):
Thank you, Greg.
We'll list those in our show notes and great suggestions there.
Now, we'd love to finish off our show with what we call the quick fire 10.
So we're going to ask you 10 quick questions.
10 quick answers, the first thing that pops into your head.
And I will kick off with probably one of the hardest questions, which is what is the firstalbum you ever heard?

(56:42):
my God.
Okay, my mom had a record player.
Okay, well, I'm not sure if it's ever heard, but I remember consciously putting it in allthe time.
And it was The Kinks.
And it was on The Kinks.
Yeah, my mom had a really good record collection, so it The Kinks.
Nice.
No, good one.

(57:03):
Before a production session, Gregor, before a live gig, doesn't matter which, what is apre-gig ritual that you have to do to feel like you're central before you either produce a
session or play a gig live?
I usually pray and ask God to do the session for me or play, you know, pray, you know,right before this.

(57:25):
So that's been some of it for ever.
And I just did it recently.
So, yeah.
Great.
Nice one.
Thank you.
In the bathroom.
It has to be in the bathroom.
I don't know why, but it's always in the bathroom because I'm probably peeing because I'mnervous.
Very good.
Maybe the acoustics are good in there, even if you're doing it silently.
don't know.
Yeah, that could be.

(57:47):
Fantastic.
Now you mentioned electrician before, but I don't know if this will be your answer to thisquestion.
If you hadn't been a musician, what do you think your career choice would have been?
Probably computers or pilot.
I sell airplanes on the side.
And I've always been fascinated with airplanes.
So I've flipped these old vintage airplanes.
it'd be like computers, vintage airplanes, depending.

(58:09):
My mom might not have let me do an airplane thing, I'm not sure.
So probably computers.
And so I've got to ask, just you mentioned reality shows.
Is there not a show concept in, know, Greg Beak, Airplane Flipper?
Surely that's a reality show in our future.
There's so many of them.
There's so many of those shows right now and they're fricking terrible.
These guys are flipping airplanes and doing these crazy things that are so dangerous thatit's like, but my friend talks to me about a show that he wants me to kind of just help

(58:40):
with.
And it's related to airplanes and restaurants.
I like the idea of like going to far away places, you know, and your little tiny vintageplane and, then like go to some cool restaurants.
So that would be safer.
Yeah.
But the vintage airplane thing could be really dangerous.
Yeah, absolutely.

(59:00):
Transpose button or adjust on the fly, Greg.
It sounds like you've got the training to be able to adjust on the fly.
You don't need the transpose button.
Yeah, I don't.
I've never used the transpose button.
though I know a lot of people who do and they're very super successful.
So I have no judgment.
It's just somehow it throws my brain off.

(59:22):
Like, and I when I play, I know where things get muddy or too thin.
It throws that part of my brain off where I end up sounding really muddy or thin in thepressure I'm pushing.
But there's nothing wrong with it.
So many great players use the transpose, but I just hadn't really got...
I was never good at it.
What's the favorite gig you've ever done?

(59:45):
I think my favorite...
There's a Hall of the record where we did live at the Hard Rock Hotel and it was our kindof solo record which I had produced and it was on VH1.
And I don't recognize myself on it because I think it was in kind of a dark period rightthen.
But that gig was so fun and it was with my buddy T-Bone and we were all staying in a hoteland hanging out and it was somewhere in Florida.

(01:00:08):
my God, that was so fun.
That was a blast.
that, that, they filmed it.
That was, that gig was my all time favorite and it was just wonderful.
And every once in a while I'll watch a little bit of it just for kicks.
The band, those guys, they're such great players.
So that was really fun.
Great, and favorite city you've played, Greg, if that's possible.
Hmm, well, I think it'd be in the Bahamas in this little island that I do some work at.

(01:00:36):
I love it down there.
That's the whole culture and the whole vibe.
It's great.
yeah.
Name a song that you used to love, but you've played it to death.
Well, that's pretty easy.
There's just so many of them.
Like, okay.
Frickin' Canon and D.
I call it Taco Bell's Canon.

(01:00:57):
But my god, that song just murders my soul when I hear it.
I literally play it two different keys or Fiori Lis.
It's not my idea, but Billy Joel's Piano Man, someone showed me the way to play it as thewhole tone man.
So instead of walking down diatonically in B flat or C whatever, I do it in whole plots.

(01:01:19):
But any three of those, like my god.
It's like if I don't make it to heaven, I'm in hell.
Those will be on soundtrack.
three.
Favorite music documentary or movie?
my favorite is the Stax documentary I just watched.
It's really great.
It's on HBO Stax Records.

(01:01:40):
my God.
What a brilliant.
just I just finished it.
I was on a road trip and brilliant.
It's so great.
Yeah.
What's one thing you would love to see invented that would make your life as a keyboardplayer easier?
I think like stuff related to the editing of tracks.

(01:02:00):
There's so many things that I do that I know could just be like a macro or I feel likeautomation into the DAW.
Some of the basic stuff that we all do every time.
I don't know, just more automation.
Because I have to do a lot of these songs and
Unfortunately, I don't have a lot of time, like it's always under a time constraint.

(01:02:21):
Now, I don't want someone artificially intelligence, you know, I don't want the creatingthe art so much, but just slowing down using the artificial intelligence to help the
creative process faster and smoother.
That kind of stuff.
I feel like I have a lot of ideas for that just ways to make the process more organic andfun.

(01:02:42):
Yeah, bring it on.
And last one, Greg, your favorite non-musical activity or hobby, what keeps you saneoutside of music and production?
I love running and spending time with my kids.
So running with my kids is, you know, usually me chasing after them.
Yeah, great.
No, that's excellent.
Greg, I can't thank you enough for spending the time.

(01:03:04):
It's hugely appreciated.
And I know we haven't covered a whole swathe of what you do, but it's just been amazinggetting your perspectives on what
what you have done and we can't thank you enough and yeah, we'd love to keep in touch inthe future.
thank you so much and I'm so glad.
Thank you for, you know, I remember I was looking at my DX7 and like, that's right,getting all those sounds and I was like, because I remember as a kid doing this and I was

(01:03:27):
like, my gosh, it's so complicated.
Thank God for having that info there.
I'm so glad we met.
Yeah, absolutely.
If you ever, you know, keep in touch and if you ever need anything from Nashville or viceversa, you know, you all are wonderful and I really like what you're doing.
I actually watch, I don't remember who it was.
but I watched a couple of the interviews you all had.
They're brilliant, really good.
You have some big people.
I'm kind of honored you asked me, but you have some big people on these.

(01:03:50):
So thank you.
Thank you for asking.
This is a treat.
And there we have it.
What a guy, Paul, what a guy.
Yeah, just really fun.
Really fun to talk to, as you've all just heard, and great sense of humor.

(01:04:13):
And look, think, David, we could have, I his career is so deep and he's worked with somany great artists, we probably could have talked to him for three hours, but we have to
respect Greg's time as well, of course.
Do you know, one thing that made my heart flutter, I was really delighted early on when hewas talking about
how he couldn't afford a DX7 so he got a DX21.

(01:04:34):
I thought of you.
Yeah, he and I are a similar age, or he and us are a similar age, and I was exactly thesame, although I had a DX9, but it's very similar to the DX21 in that it didn't have as
many operators, didn't have velocity sensitivity.
Basically, it was a terrible version of a DX7, but that was all I could get at the time,so yeah, it was cool.
And I think he's quite correctly not using it a lot.

(01:04:55):
the reason I had the stuff on our website is I bought a secondhand Dex7 a couple of yearsback and I did upload some sounds or whatever.
But at the end of the day, unless you've got a really specific project for it, yeah, it'sso set in time where it is that I didn't find it particularly useful and ended up on
selling it, which as you Paul, Paul, know, I tend to do quite often.

(01:05:18):
Well, Greg likes flipping airplanes, you like flipping keyboards.
That's right.
both know that.
It's interesting, isn't it?
I reckon with the DX7, as anyone avantage would know, David, every single hit pop recordin the 80s had DX7 on it and every video clip had someone using the DX7.
I guess in part that's what we all wanted when we were young adults.

(01:05:39):
But the problem with it was such a hard thing to program.
Everyone used all the stock sounds on it.
So therefore it really does put the keyboard very much of its time, which can make itsound a little bit dated to modern ears, unfortunately.
No, I'm in the hunt for a D50 next, but anyway, that's another story.
we better keep going.
So a big thank you to our Gold and Silver sponsors.

(01:06:00):
So first, Dave Bryce and the team at the musicplayer.com forums.
Can't thank them enough for their ongoing support.
Great forum if you'd like to hang out with other keyboard players, et cetera.
Highly recommended.
Mike and the team from Midnight Mastering.
Mike is an absolute legend and I've mentioned a couple of episodes now and it is coming.
We've got an extra episode with Mike and another great guy, Steve Gregory, talking aboutour membership in what was the world's first virtual band back in the 90s.

(01:06:28):
that's coming.
You know, David, I think I might have a project for Mike too.
I might need you to put me in touch with him.
think I need to do the job for him.
thank you for that recommendation and thank you, Mike, for your support.
Yeah, absolutely.
The wonderful Tammy Katcher from Tammy's Musicals.
She thank you Tammy for your ongoing and consistent support.
It's really appreciated.

(01:06:48):
And I don't think I've missed any.
and Mr.
Dewey Evans, the wonderful Dewey Evans, who is a just a solo supporter who, as you'll hearwhen we do a live stream before the end of the year, wrote a really cool book on playing
rock keyboards in the late 80s.
I think it was, but we're going to talk about that.
We've got Dewey coming on the show to talk about that.

(01:07:09):
So, Paul and I are looking forward to chatting with him.
Most importantly, we thank you out there as always.
So, yeah, do keep on enjoying playing and we'll be back in a couple of weeks and we'lltalk then.
And that was a fucking tortured ending.
Anyway.