Rob Gentry, David Gilmour / Quincy Jones / Giorgio Moroder

Rob Gentry is a  keyboardist, producer, and multi-instrumentalist with over 20 years of experience. He has performed at iconic venues such as the Sydney Opera House, the Royal Albert Hall, and the Hollywood Bowl, collaborating with musical legends like Quincy Jones, Pete Tong, Giorgio Moroder, and Damian Lazarus.  We chat to Rob on his career...

The post Rob Gentry, David Gilmour / Quincy Jones / Giorgio Moroder appeared first on The Keyboard Chronicles.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
My struggle with keyboards is that it's like so often you're just like in the mix.
You could be playing the complete wrong thing, but like that doesn't really ruin a gig.
Hello and welcome to the Keyboard Chronicles podcast for keyboard players.

(00:20):
I'm your host David Holloway and I'm pumped as always to be here with you as is my fellowpumped person Paul Bindig.
How are you?
I'm pumped.
It's as simple as that.
I'm absolutely pumped.
You're only human.
So yeah, look, we're both pleased to be here and we were particularly pleased to have justcome off a chat with the amazing Rob Gentry.

(00:40):
So Rob, just literally in the last, I think it's under a week or anyway, in the last sevento ten days.
has come off an amazing tour with David Gilmore playing some of the worlds, or at leastthe US and Europe's biggest venues, Madison Square Garden and the Royal Albert Hall and
Hollywood Bowl and so on.
We talked to Rob about that in quite some depth, but also he has played or worked withanyone from Quincy Jones to Georgia Morota, you name it, we cover it, Paul.

(01:09):
Yeah, we sure do.
And it was a really, really nice chat.
One of the things I took out of it
which you will certainly hear as you listen to the podcast or view it, if you're lookingat it on YouTube, was the very wide variety of music that our guest was absolutely into.

(01:29):
So Rob was really, has a really diverse range of influences.
And it just reminded me, it's important to be open-minded and taking different influencesbecause you can take that anywhere.
yeah, that was something I really got out of it.
You know, absolutely.
So we'll let you jump in and have a listen and we'll see you after the show.

(01:56):
Rob, it's an absolute pleasure to have you on the show, sir, and you're looking prettyfresh for a guy that's just come off an incredibly intensive tour.
How's the jet lag and fatigue?
Thanks.
Yeah, it's okay.
I thought I crushed it, and then a few days later, I was sort of waking up at, you know,3am, 4am, you know, wide awake.

(02:16):
In fact, like, yeah, 4am last night, it was a current.
So, who knows?
But, you know, it's always worth coming back this way.
I lived in LA for a bit, and...
coming back to London would always suck.
So I'm used to it.
Yeah, no, absolutely.
So I do want to talk just briefly.
Obviously, we've mentioned the introduction, you've just come off the tour with DavidGilman, we're obviously going to go into that in quite a bit of detail.

(02:40):
But just how, as an experienced musician, how do you deal with the of the come down from abig tour like that, where you're playing some of the biggest venues in the world, or even
if you're playing smaller venues, how do you adjust back to
quotation marks normal life.
What's your approach?
Still figuring it out.
My approach this time was to book in a 345 minute background jazz gig the night after Ilanded with some friends at a members club in town.

(03:08):
Not sure I'd do that again, but I mean, yeah, it's a great, it's a fun gig with my friend,like double bass and tenor and I just sing and play some standards as a piano there.
But yeah, that was definitely a bit of a struggle.
Sort of the third set.
You just be like, man.
Why did I do this?
And then, I went straight into an ad job with a friend making some music for an ice creamcommercial.

(03:33):
So my attitude this time was just to get straight back into it.
But yeah, I mean, all the usual things like sleep and exercise and eating well, but thatkind of doesn't always happen.
Yeah, I mean, it's inevitably going to have a pretty big come down after doing something.
I don't know.
Yeah, for me, this was like quite a big gig.
Absolutely.

(03:53):
Yeah, it's a huge gig.
course.
Of course it would be.
absolutely.
Do you ever get the urge to let's say you've just played these huge gigs with with DavidGilmore and and now you're doing a commercial and maybe the the director or the producers
giving you a hard time?
Do you feel like going, don't you know who I am?
Don't you know what I just did?
No, well, luckily that ad was with I do a lot of that work with like a dear friend ofmine.

(04:18):
So he doesn't put up with any of my bullshit.
So it's a
brings straight down to Earth, which is the way it should be anyway.
No, don't think I've ever been.
Yeah, never been tempted to pull those kind of things.
I wish I could or felt more comfortable.
I'd love to be just a bit more arrogant.
It must be really We have a saying in my band, Rob.

(04:40):
We have a saying in my band, Rob, where we just go around and say, don't you know who Ithink I am?
It sort of takes the sting out of it.
Don't you know who I think I am?
yeah.
All of those are great.
Can you tell me who I am?
I don't know who I am right now.
That's more the case of where am I?
Who am I?
Yeah.
Obviously it was a very big tour.

(05:01):
Would you better share maybe one or two just highlights?
What were some of the, for you, what were some of the big highlights of playing a tour ofthat magnitude?
Oh man, so many.
the, I guess starting off just in terms of like the actual shows, the highlights probably.
that Albert Hall was playing, Royal Albert Hall in London.

(05:25):
Those, so we did six in Rome, six in London at the Albert Hall and then three in LA at theHollywood Bowl.
There's a fourth one in LA at this new arena called the Intuit Dome.
And then five at Madison Square Garden in New York.
So yeah, the Royal Albert Hall shows, that was the first time it felt, I mean, the Romeshows felt great, but it's just the nature of them being outside.

(05:52):
was really nice to get into the Albert Hall, a venue that I kind of know quite well,played there a lot, but just to have that many dates in a row there.
And yeah, just getting into more of an enclosed, kind of setting and you can just feel thecrowd a bit more and hear them.
And so, yeah, the highlights of, yeah, a couple of those Royal Albert Hall shows wereincredible.

(06:14):
I really enjoyed the Intuit Dome in, in LA.
it's just something about that arena is,
It's brand new.
think it's September was when they opened it.
So yeah, that felt like coming out on stage there and just, I don't know, that feltamazing.
And then, I mean, obviously the last night at Madison Square Garden was pretty emotionalfor everyone and was also, yeah, that was pretty amazing.

(06:39):
But there's just so many, many little highlights just, you know, the whole process hasbeen incredible.
Yeah, absolutely.
And I have to ask Royal Albert Hall,
Rob, I had the privilege of being there a few months back, sadly not playing just as atourist.
Were you ever tempted to jump on the organ at Soundcheck?
Because the organ there is absolutely amazing.

(06:59):
So they don't really keep it open to many people.
I've playing there for maybe, well, I don't know how funny it is, but my first ever gig atthe Royal Albert Hall was in 2002 with Rob Harris when I was still a music student.
Obviously he's had quite the fall from...
Yeah, anyway, nothing about him.

(07:21):
But I've been going there like quite a lot over the years, but I've never had to had achance to play on the organ until this time when Greg filling gains, who was the other
keyboard player on this gig, hooked it up and kind of surprised me after one of the showsjust like, Rob, come, just follow me.
So yeah, I got to got to play the organ for the first time there with with Greg alongside,which

(07:47):
in itself is yeah just on so many levels this gig is just like it's pretty mental yeah imean that's that's that's an amazing experience in itself just sitting there playing the
organ with greg filling gains as you do and why not roll out a hole yeah yeah well whatelse you gonna do right so let's let's talk a little bit about the the gig as you've

(08:10):
called it luck and strange so you recorded a heap of keyboard
parts, synthesizer, piano organ parts on the album.
I'm fascinated to firstly understand how you got the gig.
How did this come about for you to have that opportunity to record on the album?
So it started, I guess, David and Polly's wife were looking for a producer.

(08:33):
So they found a guy called Charlie Andrew, who produced much of all Jay and other amazingproducer.
And he had a session with Adam Betts and Tom Herbert drums and bass.
And they both recommended me when he asked about keyboard players who might sort of suitthat kind of thing.
So it's basically a recommendation from Adam and Tom, who I'm eternally grateful for too.

(08:57):
And yeah, so they called me, think it was basically this time last year.
So even though he'd done the session with Adam and Tom, he had a session with Steve Gadbooked in for a week at Christmas.
So basically my first introduction to David was going into British Grove, which is MarkKnopfler's studio, with David, Steve Gad, and Guy Pratt for a week, which was pretty wild.

(09:32):
Yeah, we did a bunch of stuff there for a week and I thought that was it.
I was just like, I mean, that's an amazing Christmas present.
And then they got me back for four.
think it was four extra days, just keyboards down in Hove, Brighton, South Coast ofEngland.
David has another studio.
And yeah, that's when I did most of the other, yeah, like grand piano, B3, for Fisa,Rhodes, Wurlitzer, and then all of my stuff that I took as well.

(10:03):
And yeah, like super long days, just, I mean, it was amazing.
Yeah, because I mean, when you're in that situation, I just want to get as much.
recorded as possible and yeah, just an incredible experience.
Yeah, well, and I'm really interested in obviously, as you said, just the names there, youyou're working with the cream of the crop musicians and you're also a cream of the crop

(10:26):
and very accomplished musician yourself, but I don't think anyone doesn't understand thelegacy of someone like David Gilmour.
I wonder how that feels, you know, when you're first working with someone like that andpeople of that ilk and you're meeting them, is it just, you know, here I am, I'm getting
the job done and I'm sure there is that.
But are also sort of aware of a, I don't know, a presence or the weight of what you'redoing at the time?

(10:46):
Or is it just knuckle down and do it?
I mean, it's a bit of all of that, I guess.
Yeah.
I mean, to go into the studio, yeah, with David and also Steve Gad, I mean, it's like whathasn't he done?
You know, and it's, and Guy on bass as well was just like phenomenal career and player.
And yeah, it's, yeah, it's quite, can be quite overwhelming.

(11:10):
But then also it just kicks in, you take your gear like you do to any other gig or sessionand set up and just kind of go, just do the thing.
But yeah, it's pretty, it's definitely in the back of your mind.
Like how do I, you know, I know someone like David is that, you know, my dad is a PinkFloyd fan and I went to see them back in like early seventies and

(11:39):
I've grown up with some of those albums and yeah, when you're in the studio and you hearone of David's demos and you just like one guitar bend, you're like, I know that sound.
that's, I remember that.
Yeah.
It's, it's a pretty crazy moment, but then also it's just, yeah, you attack it, likeattack, you know, approach it like any other kind of music experience where you're just

(12:06):
like what's needed here.
How can I make this better?
And obviously being, you know, sensitive to what's going on around you.
And yeah, it was a very relaxed, like welcoming environment.
All the engineers at British Grover, lovely.
It's an amazing studio.
Everything works.
I've got all these old like EMI desks and just an incredible amount of stuff.

(12:30):
and yeah, Steve Gad was lovely.
Guy was lovely.
mean, it's, Dave was very welcoming.
He had Polly there and then Charlie, the producer and Matt.
Clasby's engineer, everyone was just great.
was like hard to, as much as you might be nervous, that it sort of dissipates because it'sjust, you know, everyone's there to do something good.

(12:53):
There's no, so, I don't know if that answers the question, but.
Yeah, exactly.
No, that does not.
Nicely.
Thanks, Rob.
And I'm just interested, you mentioned you bought some of your own stuff.
So I mean, I'm assuming most of our viewers and listeners have
Listen to Like and Strange by now.
It's an amazingly diverse album, although it's, it's, the actual album has done abeautiful job of conceptually linking it all together.

(13:17):
It sounds like a whole piece, but there's, yeah, you're doing everything from sort ofsynth work to through to, you mentioned, piano B3, electric piano and so on.
What, was the own gear that you bought to the party and was there anything that stretchedyou during the recording?
Yes.
So I took.
I didn't really know what the vibe was going into it.

(13:39):
But Charlie, I just had a brief chat with him beforehand and he just tried to bring asmuch stuff, like some weird sounds.
And I don't know.
I bought, I took my Pianet, P, Pianet, my Mega FM, which is this little, that's heactually, like that guy, which is an amazing FM synth from the

(14:04):
Sega Mega Drive chip, but it's got a really like dirty, it's got a lot of character for anFM synth.
I love us.
I love that thing.
My OB six, my Moog matriarch.
I'm just going to go with Moog, even though I feel like a dick pronouncing Moog that way,being a Brit.

(14:26):
Matriarch, Charlie brought his, Prophet five or 10, but the reissue of the Prophet.
And I think that was it.
There might have been something else, yeah.
I think there might have been a Juno 60 as well, but that wasn't mine.
But I mean, I know that inside out.

(14:47):
So yeah, that was the kind of stuff I had around me.
And then I had a few pedals that helped.
Yeah, I was running the Pianet through Octave pedal and a bunch of other stuff, whichyeah, it was interesting to find out some kind of what made it onto the album.
Because obviously like that first week it was
Some of the tracks are, well, a lot of them were like really early stages and maybeweren't lyrics and it's hard to know what was going to work.

(15:13):
anyway, yeah, but that was a gear.
But in terms of what stretched me definitely, I guess we'll get onto it, but yeah, likeHammond, I wouldn't say, I mean, I would now, but last year I wouldn't really say I'm like
a Hammond player in terms of like specialists kind of.
So that was a bit, you know, I had a few.
There was this one track we did just, yeah, Steve Guy and me on organ.

(15:38):
That was kind of the most fun bit, I think, of the week.
They turned the click off and it was just this like Al Green kind of groove.
It's a tune that turned into Dark Envelopment Nights.
And that was, But in terms of, yeah, just some Hammond stuff.
Yeah, anyway.
No, that's great.
I got the sense, just from listening to you talking.

(16:02):
that maybe you were allowed to be quite involved in the creative process from a sounddesign perspective and bring different ideas and sonic textures to the album.
Right?
Yeah, that was what so, mean, testament to sort of David's openness and Charlie being thesort of producer and guy is in terms of welcoming.

(16:26):
I mean, especially the four days down just doing the keyboards.
Yeah, I was really surprised how
kind of like gnarly, especially on the matriarch, know, it's like semi-modular stuff.
My favorite, I don't know, like routing, I can't remember, basically putting the filtersback into themselves.

(16:46):
And you can really get like an awesome kind of sort of fizzy, overdriven, especially ifyou like have all the oscillators, like there's four oscillators.
And if you have them all up in the mixer going into the filter and then add different bitsof resonance.
That's, it's a pretty kind of like destructive kind of like kind of sound.

(17:07):
and that's all over the album, which is amazing.
mean, like mix very low, but yeah, stuff like that.
And then, yeah, and then like putting that into big reverberation delays and just some ofthe stuff on the mega FM as well that made it in sort of.
Yeah.
All the PNN, it like through the octave pedal, just, yeah, a lot of things I wouldn't haveexpected going into it in terms of.

(17:32):
David's previous work or think Floyd or that.
So yeah, it was like an amazing experience to get to kind of do all my usual stuff.
as well as the, you know, meat and potatoes kind of things.
And that probably leads me to the question, Rob of obviously going on tour to play thealbum and all the other songs that are covered in the set list.

(17:55):
You and Greg obviously needed to divide up parts.
What, was the discussion and the approach?
to how you both played on tour and what did you need to adjust once you went into thetouring environment?
Yeah, that was tricky.
Obviously because different cities like London, LA, and also Greg was on tour with Totobasically up until like the first or second day of rehearsals.

(18:19):
Like he was playing the Hollywood Bowl with them like on the Sunday and we were going inon the Monday.
So he arrived like a little bit after that, but we had a few Zoom chats.
I guess, yeah, so was quite last minute it felt a bit like, and yeah, it sort of spokethrough, I'd kind of gone through.
basically, just to rewind, like the previous tour, Greg did that.

(18:43):
And I was kind of figured I'd be taking the role.
So I'd had, I have the B3 and the Whirlets are on top and then all my stuff and Chuck,that I was playing before I listened to what he was doing.
I just.
figured like I'd be doing that stuff.
And then with regard to the new album, it's like, well, I have all those instruments thatI recorded on.

(19:06):
So I guess I just took the view that I'll be playing, you know, like the weird MOOC shitand the kind of mega FM and like some of the piano stuff, which leaves because Greg's done
a lot of piano and strings on the previous tour as well.
So yeah, we just sort of picking and choosing what we're going to do.

(19:27):
It's like
Yeah, because it's like, okay, we've only got two hands each.
And trying to figure out who does what makes the most sense.
So for some things I was just doing kind of like textual stuff.
And he was doing more of the main kind of like piano bits and other things.
There's one tune where I do this kind of semi sort of classically kind of, I don't know mybest like Mike Garcin impression.

(19:51):
I saw the interview that you guys did with him.
Actually, it was amazing.
sort of Aladdin Sane kind of vibe.
So I was doing piano on that.
And but yeah, it was sort of a real mix of things.
But in general, I mean, just my setup on stage meant that I was doing Yeah, like thepiano, the mega FM, the Mo stuff, and then bits of piano, and then load a B3 and well,

(20:19):
it's a, it was these all these like off beats on the album that were done on piano, but Ikind of did them on Whirly.
anyway, sorry, tangents.
can easily get into that.
That's, that's, that's fascinating.
It's actually fascinating, Robin.
I mean, are you, are you preparing pretty much totally organically yourself and Greg, andwhat I mean by that, are you using laptops, main stage stuff like that to, samples, all

(20:43):
that sort of stuff, or it's a little bit more, yeah, so yeah, wasn't really sure goinginto it, how are we going to do it all?
and I took.
Yeah, initially I had like a load more gear and like more pedals and things, then itquickly became apparent that it'd be too much to like fiddle around with all this stuff,
you know, when you've already got, you know, expression pedal on the B3 and Leslie fastand slow, sustained on the world.

(21:09):
It's a sustain on the Nord expression pedal on the Nord expression pedal on the MOOC.
You know, it's just kind of like, there's a lot of footwear and you don't want to beworrying about, Oh shit, did I turn the delay pedal off?
It's all that stuff.
So I sampled.
bunch of stuff into my Nord or chopped up.
had both Greg and I had the stems for the album.

(21:30):
So yeah, we chopped a bunch of stuff up.
He was running a main stage rig.
So all of his stuff was off the laptop.
And then mine was, yeah, I just put it in my Nord basically.
So I sampled quite a few notes of my PNN through the octave pedal and chopped that up, putthat across the keyboard.

(21:51):
And then there's some tunes where it's like, I dunno, I'd like plucked the piano string.
I sampled those in as well.
or grab them off the record, depending if they were like clean or not.
So yeah, quite a lot of prep.
And yeah, but my, all my stuff was just, just the keyboards just cause I don't like I'veused after and after with main stage a lot in the past, but I just, it's a peace of mind

(22:18):
thing.
having
with all the other keyboards, I just like to be able to control things.
Yeah.
Not have to worry about my I'm hearing you.
No, absolutely.
And so obviously you don't get to play gigs of this complexity of this scope, Rob, withouthaving a hell of a career to date and let alone your upbringing.

(22:38):
So let's jump back, you know, maybe a decade or two or maybe three to when you were achild.
And what was your musical upbringing that led you to developing a career in music?
I guess at the start I started playing keyboard when I was five, maybe six.
Can't remember.
And that was, I think, my parents got me like a Casio for Christmas one year.

(23:03):
So I'm like toy keyboard and I liked it.
And then I think I asked if I could have lessons.
So they got me some like, yeah, Saturday morning, a bar, the music shop in the nearesttown.
It was like a Technics.
sponsored or Technics brand music shop in the UK that Technics had.

(23:26):
I think it was basically either like Yamaha or Technics.
And this was a Technics one where they kind of like push their products, you know, you'regetting lessons on their keyboards, essentially.
So yeah, did that every Saturday.
And then they had this competition every year.
And I was too young to end to sort of take part in that.

(23:47):
I was good enough to perform there.
So that was my first gig was like when I was seven, I think, in front of like 500 peoplethis theater playing, you know, the James Bond theme or something.
yeah, the early years were just like a ranger keyboard, you know, like left hand holding atriad, you know, melodies with the right hand.

(24:09):
And that continued for quite a good number of years.
And then I had some piano lessons with a lady called Barbara Taylor, but
That still wasn't on a real piano.
It was on like a Clavonoba or something.
It was basically not until secondary school when I was 11 that I started having classicalpiano lessons.

(24:29):
And even then it was like half an hour a week.
And then eventually like an hour a week and did all the like ABRSM grade stuff.
Yeah.
So I was trying to condense this into, yeah.
So growing up was kind of like.
I was really into rock and roll, like Chuck Berry and Little Richard and all that kind ofstuff on the piano.

(24:50):
I my first like school concert when I was 11, I played Great Balls of Fire, pretty muchlike as Jerry Louis does it.
And yeah, I was like super into that kind of thing, but always improvised.
But also on the keyboards, you could kind of, they had quite sort of okay sequences, so Icould like sequence in different things.

(25:12):
So I've always been into guitar solos.
So I would just like layer up Queen tracks and Zeppelin and just kind of, think, yeah,when I was sort slightly embarrassing to think back now, I did like the show must go on by
Queen to my classroom when I was like 13 or something.
Too much sort of confusion.

(25:33):
I mean, it sounded amazing, not the singing, but the backing track.
I'll stand by.
I'm Freddie Mercury.
But yeah, the backing track was pretty good.
Anyway, so yeah, I did all that and then went to music college, ended up at a place calledGuildhall School of Music and Drama, which is like one of the main conservatoires in
London.
And yeah, I the jazz course, but the thing, the reason I picked that place was because youcould also do classical.

(25:59):
Basically on the jazz course, there was, I don't know, was like me and another guy, GeorgeFogle on piano, four sax players, one bass player, a guitarist and a singer.
think that was that was like the year group.
But then on the classical course, there were 20 classical piano players, and I had all thesame tuition as them for the first two years.

(26:21):
So you're doing like all the classical shit, but then the jazz course as well.
So yeah, that was like, I did that and then into the world.
But I was like always gigging.
was at school rock bands with my mates, they're playing, you know, like Guns N' Roses,Oasis, Metallica, I was singing and playing keys.
trying to like stretch to hit some of those notes.

(26:45):
Yeah, I think with Talent Show we did like Sweet Child of Mine into status quo rockin' allover the world.
Anyway, so yeah, that was like the early, early years and then yeah, just into like moregigging and that's everything from like sitting in bars, singing, playing piano, hosting
like sing-alongs to playing keys with like soul singers.

(27:10):
doing rock things and yeah, so that was that stuff.
But yeah, in terms of like more kind of, I don't know, legit sort of things, I don't know,it's been a real mix.
Everything from, there's a guy called Chris Norman that I toured with in 2007 or somethingand he was in a band in the 70s called Smokey and then he had like a really big career in

(27:32):
Germany and sort of old kind of rocker, like really great.
So.
did a tour with him, was playing acoustic and singing, I was playing piano.
And then the next year did the same thing, but with a string quartet that was aroundEurope.
There was this band called the Heritage Orchestra, which initially came out of my musiccollege, but I didn't, I never played with them up until like 2012.

(28:01):
And the bass player who's a friend, he couldn't do it.
And they were going to Sydney.
so they asked me basically because needed someone to like cover some bass guitar, butmain, but also like a ton of keys.
So my, guess, technically my first gig on bass guitar was at Sydney opera house, which waspretty daunting.

(28:24):
And it was easy kind of like, it's like pick, joy division.
It's like joy division reimagining, the guys from that band, like Matt Carver.
and but yeah, Chris Wheeler, Buckley, they sort of reworked a bunch of these Joy Divisiontunes.

(28:44):
So was kind of with amazing visuals as well.
But yeah, that was at the Sydney Opera House.
That was in like the second room.
And then the first night we did in the main room, we did Van Gellis's score to BladeRunner.
So doing all those like CSAT bits and rows and anyway, And then actually the next year wewent back, Giorgio Moroder.

(29:05):
his music basically.
So he was there, did like the voiceover that he does on that Daft Punk track, played allof his tunes.
Yep.
And yeah, so with that Heritage Orchestra, done like a ton of stuff and it's really variedlike Goldie, it's 25th, no, the 20th anniversary of his album Timeless we did at the
Festival Hall in London.
And then like a lot of gigs at the Royal Albert Hall collaborating with different artists.

(29:28):
The Scott Walker one with Jarvis Cocker and John Grant and
Loads just loads of amazing artists being kind of brought together.
So, yeah, there's that.
Yeah, I don't know.
There's lots of different stuff I've done, like dance projects.
Yeah.
Or rock stuff.
It's quite varied.
Varied is an understatement, Rob.

(29:50):
And you've sort of partly answered.
So that's not rambling at all.
You've actually preempted some questions.
So the scope of your career is huge.
So I was going to call out two giants and one of them you've already mentioned, but I'dalso love
you to call out maybe ones that aren't perhaps as well known that you've learned a lotfrom.
the two I'm obviously going to call out are Quincy Jones, who passed recently, which isobviously a huge loss.

(30:13):
Tell us about whatever involvement you had there.
So Jules Buckley, who conducts the Heritage Orchestra, or used to, he, don't know, notsure how he initially got introduced to Quincy, but did.
So it was through
Yeah, his involvement.
The first gig we did with Quincy was in, I think it was 2018 at the O2 Arena in London.

(30:39):
I think it was his 85th birthday, I think.
So it's basically just like a whole concert of just his back catalog from big band stuff,Sinatra and basically all the way through, you know, his...
solo album, George Benson, Michael Jackson, his film work, TV, I just like, yeah, anyway,he doesn't need an introduction.

(31:09):
His music.
So yeah, it was a, was like a one-off gig at the 02, playing that.
And then on that gig, was mostly doing, were two keyboard players, I was doing like synth,mostly all the synth stuff.
And then the following year we had, yeah, it was another one at the 02.
the accords arena in Paris and we closed out the Montreux Jazz Festival.

(31:33):
And for that one, I decided that I wanted to do like more of the road stuff just becauseit's a bit more kind of like fun, especially like some of the comping.
It's more more part of the groove and some synth stuff as well.
But yeah, so the yeah, that year we did those three shows.
And yeah, like different so it was

(31:53):
The band, like two keyboard players, two guitarists, drummer, percussion, and then likehorn section.
I mean, it sounded incredible.
I still remember being on stage at Montreux.
It's rare that I find I can kind of zoom out and just be fully in appreciation of what'sgoing on.
Those run of gigs definitely had a few of those moments.

(32:16):
Just like, man, this is like, sounds amazing.
And it's with some of my oldest friends.
felt like it never been played as good as that or at least it just felt great.
All the strings, percussion, the singers, like, yeah, my friend, Vula Malinga, and takingcare of the singers and then different guests as well.

(32:38):
It was a random, Richard Bonner and Marcus Miller, guested on one song one night and itwas just, yeah, an incredible experience.
And then I did another couple of other shows that Quincy wasn't.
So with those ones, Quincy was just hanging on stage basically.
Then he conducted the last couple of tunes, but he was definitely more there just to kindof like enjoy it all and like have, you know, he'd be interviewed a little bit on stage.

(33:08):
And yeah, I, yeah, that was just an amazing experience to meet him and just to get to playsome of that music to such a high level with, mean, Jules Buckley did an incredible job.
Yeah, all around.
Pretty cool.
Yeah, absolutely.
And I mean, you've already mentioned the other giant that I've been dying to ask about,that's Giorgio Morata.

(33:28):
when I mean, it's not about me, but one of my guilty pleasures is his album with PhilOakey in the 1980s.
It's one of my favorite albums of all time.
But obviously he's had a massive catalog, including you mentioned the brilliant work hedid with Daft Punk.
Just on top of what you've already said, I mean, did you meet the great man?
What's your his influence on your your playing?

(33:50):
So in terms of influence, probably not that my influences, I guess we can get into that.
But yeah, like, yeah, he was there, rehearsal and gig and got to chat and he was lovely.
Quite comical stories and just, yeah, just like lovely dude.

(34:10):
And yeah, getting to play.
Yeah, I hadn't again, I hadn't really realized like quite how much stuff he'd done.
even just different film work or whatever.
just like, yeah, a concert like that where you're doing sort of kind of front to back ofsomeone's career, you really get to see the breadth of it.
And yeah, incredibly inspiring.

(34:33):
And especially when you get to like go into figuring out what sounds, how to programdifferent synth patches or what's needed on different things.
So yeah, that was pretty incredible to do.
It's just all those kind of gigs.
It's just such a shame.
was just like, that was just like a one-off in Sydney.
So you like all that work in and you like shed it and kind of like get everything as closeas possible.

(34:57):
And then it's like, it doesn't happen again, which was, it's always a bit kind of like,yeah, one kind of few more.
Yeah, that was a great experience as well.
You talked, you talked about your influences just briefly there, Rob.
And I think it would be a fascinating thing to explore with you.
You've worked with such a diverse range of artists over your career.
And in listening to some of your work, I detected maybe a bit of a love for some of thatearly 80s to mid 80s synth, almost post-punk type sounds that came out.

(35:26):
But I could be wrong.
I'm really fascinated to hear from you.
What inspires you and what's influenced you?
Yeah.
I guess, yeah, my influences maybe, I know I grew up like Patsy Klein and Johnny Cash andsome of my parents' music, like old sort of country things.
And then
Beatles, you know, I feel like there's always these key moments where your like mind isblown by something that you hear and like hearing Queen for the first time did that

(35:54):
hearing Sly and the Family Stone for the first time.
I mean, I used to love Johnny, I still do Johnny Cash.
The Beatles definitely did that.
Discovering Bowie, Zeppelin.
Basically a lot like late 60s and 70s stuff like as a child.
It wasn't until maybe late teens.

(36:15):
early 20s, definitely late teens, maybe even music college, really hearing those StevieWonder albums properly for the first time.
like Donny Hathaway, Donny Hathaway Live.
Yeah, the Sly stuff.
And then Prince.
Yeah, growing up, it was very much soul, but also like a lot of rock, like Deep Purple wasone of my favorite things growing up.

(36:38):
Just love, I loved John Lord.
And in terms of keyboard influences,
John Lord is probably up there way more than some of the other like legends, know, likeRick Wakeman and Keith Emerson who write amazing, but they didn't touch me in the same way
as something like Purple did.
And yeah, like Stevie Wonder, influence.
I got to do a gig last year with Corey Henry.

(37:01):
We did the, basically all of InnoVisions and a few extras.
Yeah, like with Corey singing and playing.
Hammond and Rhodes and then Stanley Rudolph, who's Stevie Wonder's drummer and has beenfor the last like 13 years, whatever.
He was on kit and I was playing synth bass on that.

(37:23):
Again, with like full orchestra and a bunch of other guest singers.
was like three people.
Yeah, me, Corey and then Ross and Alex.
There was, I think it was like three or four Rhodes on stage, like three Clavinets, ton ofsynths.
Yeah, anyway, yes.
But that learning all those bass lines for that and really getting into that sound, Ithat's formed a big part of my like playing style, especially since bass and just since in

(37:51):
general.
other than that, it's like guitarists like Brian May, McQueen or Hendrix or I mean, it'sjust, it's too many.
I like guitarists a lot.
Just guitar solos on my keyboard.
Yeah.
I always regret not having a guitar sooner.
But then I guess my keyboard playing wouldn't
be as it is.

(38:12):
Yeah, I mean, there's a lot of influences.
You mentioned 80s stuff, like obviously my solo artist career, that sort of synth 80sthing comes out pretty strongly.
And I think that was, yeah, I feel like hearing Prince for the first time, I guess myinfluences are sort of Prince's influences.
Obviously Prince is huge influence, but before that...

(38:36):
coming up with like Little Richard and Sly Stone and sort of James Brown and all thosekinds of things.
It's already baked into a lot of that music or parliament and it's, yeah, I didn't reallylisten to a lot of 80s stuff growing up.
was like later on, maybe in my 20s and then listened to D-Train and Cameo and all thosekinds of bands.
was just, those grooves and yeah, sort of like Linn drums and yeah, with Michael Jacksonstuff and Prince and just, yeah, that like funk stuff.

(39:03):
But there's just so much music that's just, you know, there is.
I love Nine Inch Nails.
love Cousin Roses and Metallica and I don't know, Outcast, Tribe, Core Quest, it's like,it's all quite, you know, and not mentioning all the like the jazz stuff.
So yeah, there's a bunch in there.
I love Monk.

(39:26):
I don't know if yeah, lots of, I could be here for days talking about that.
Yeah.
That's a great call out there, Rob, though.
No, thank you.
That's amazing.
And just, you know, because you're not busy enough, I know you have done some extensiveproduction throughout your career and I believe you obviously run your own studio now.
Now, tell us, you know, how that came about and how that's going and your approach in anera of where sadly a lot of people do things virtually, how you make that work.

(39:53):
Yeah, I mean, it's definitely, I'm trying to do, put more emphasis on that, but most of mycareer has been playing live.
or other people's studio things.
over the last, I mean, I've always produced on laptop.
I mean, it goes back to like those arranger keyboards when I was kid, like justprogramming up all these tracks.
It's, basically not done anything different.

(40:15):
I'm just doing the same thing now as I did then, but with Ableton and with more gear andlike guitar and bass and drum machines and things.
But yeah, I produced...
co-produced and co-wrote an album with Damien Lazarus and the Ancient Moons, which wasthis sort of like sort of dance project of as a DJ, Damien Lazarus and me and another

(40:37):
friend, Ben Chetwood, worked with him bringing this sort of like live thing to the danceworld.
And that was really amazing to be involved with.
I've produced some other like sort of soul stuff, singing with Alexia Coley, sort ofthrowback kind of soul things.
It's been, I haven't put as much
time into it as I would have liked.

(40:58):
now with a bit of time off January, I'm going to get back, put my studio back together.
Cause you know what it's like when I'm just at home at the moment, this is like, I've justgot like an upright and some bits and pieces, but I've got a studio down the road.
Um, which again, it's not, it's very much sort of DIY vibe, but yeah, I've got like all mykeyboards, another upright in there, some nice mics.

(41:23):
And so I do, yeah, I can do like remote sessions from there.
and have artists over.
I've got a EP coming out with a friend, Jolliffe.
He does a lot of drum and bass, but it's more of like a techno kind of thing.
Four track that we did, mostly using a bunch of like art and my electron drum machine.

(41:44):
Anyway, producing.
I want to do more of it.
It's really fun to just kind of be in the studio and not have to play and just listen toother people playing and suggest things.
So definitely want to do more of it and hopefully I'm just going to look through to see,just find some different artists really, I guess, to inspire me and see if they want to

(42:08):
work together.
But yeah, in of solo stuff, I've got a lot of that, that various points throughout mycareer I've had energy for it or, you know, that's been a big part of my...
music is sort of, you I sing and play and play a bit guitar and love to just like dress upand kind of dance around doing my own tunes.

(42:36):
And lucky, like really lucky to work with some like amazing drummers in that settingbecause often I do it, you know what it's like, was like no budget.
So often I do it just like me and a drummer, like two keyboards drummer, maybe someoneelse as well.
Yeah, I've done a lot of that and I hope to do more of that soon as well.

(42:59):
For that sort of work, Rob, what would be your favorite keyboards to go to to bring thatsort of music to life and thinking about the EP that you're do you think you'd be working
with from a keyboard hardware perspective?
It really depends on, I mean, for that dance thing, we deliberately, so I'm kind of alwayscaught between two places of

(43:24):
like knowing that limitations are the best thing that can happen to my brain.
So I don't, you know, it's like overthink stuff and constant, you know, all the usual,whilst also being a bit of a, having the nerd like problem solving thing of like, but it
doesn't do this, but how can I figure that out?
You know?

(43:44):
So I mean, with that EP, we deliberately were like, we're just going to use the 2600 andlike the, what's it called?
I always forget the name of it, the analog rhythm, Mark II, the Electron.
So basically use those two things and then my Mega FM as well.
And the stuff that I'm doing going forward, it's probably gonna focus around those.

(44:09):
But then, you know, I just got the Moog Muse and just, yeah, it's annoying.
like I've got, I've been really good about like not having too much gear or trying sellstuff, but then.
You get other bits and pieces.
we never just got this like Oberheim T05, it's like really small compact for gigging.
But then it's just like another thing to just like, you get distracted.

(44:33):
So anyway, to answer the question, I don't know.
I feel like my palette of choice at the moment, I'm really in love with the Mega FM.
I think the synth sounds, even though the Electron, that's a drum machine, it's got theoscillators, especially since the most recent update that came out lot this year and the
trackings.
really improved so you can really play it like across quite a few different octaves.

(44:54):
It sounds great.
Um, yeah, it's, I really like my PNN as well.
I basically bought that because I didn't, I'm not going to be carrying a rose around.
Some people do, but that's not, not for me.
And wireless is too expensive.
I wish I'd never sold mine, but yeah, PNN was just kind of a great little thing forgetting like that electromechanical world without it being the heaviest thing.

(45:20):
You can like pick up with one hand.
I really answered the question, but it depends on the gig as well.
I was really long for simplicity, but I don't always achieve it.
One of my favorite gigs I've ever done, I ever did was Joan as police woman out of NewYork.
And it was just her Joan singing, playing guitar on keys, Parker Kindred on drums.

(45:41):
And I had left hand mode bass, right hand, kind of like organ and some north.
And that was still one of my favorite.
kind of gigs and like a proper roast as well.
I was way younger.
And yeah, just the way that both of them sort of encouraged but also critiqued.

(46:04):
It was just an incredible like month or whatever it was of touring with them.
And no way to hide.
It's just like, especially when you've got Yeah, yes.
going through Ampeg.
SVT?
No, that's amazing.
And look, you mentioned about simplicity is your aim.
I think there are two golden rules of keyboard players.
One is that you aim for simplicity, but usually end up with a complex rig.

(46:27):
The other one is that keyboard players usually aren't recognized on stage or invisible.
And I do know you had that fun experience even on this tour with David Gilmer in Rome.
You got forgotten one night.
It it warms the cockles of every keyboard player's heart out there that no matter howsuccessful you are, you will get forgotten.
Yeah.

(46:48):
Yeah, don't worry about it.
Yeah, that was funny.
happened a couple of times on that tour.
Yeah, it was funny on that because yeah, sort of going around the band and then sort ofDavid just sort of and everyone kind of motioning and then just fuck on the mic.
And Rob Jertre.
Yeah.
But I mean, I don't take that personally.
It's just, yeah.

(47:10):
No, of course.
the keyboard players are definitely we're definitely the it's one of my least favoritethings about keyboards.
It's funny, like, sort of listening to a few of your episodes and being like, yeah,because I've always felt a bit like, I'm not just a keyboard player.
it's like, I'm very much sort of like nerdy.

(47:32):
Not all keyboard players are nerdy, but like I very much fit the bill of a keyboard playeras well.
it's like, and I love that.
And I'm really good at it.
But also, I don't like many contexts where keyboards are.
I'd like...
I love playing synth bass because you're going to be felt and you have power over like theharmony and also the groove.

(47:55):
My struggle with keyboards is that it's like so often you're just like in the mix.
You could be playing the complete the wrong thing, but like that doesn't really ruin a giglike it does, you know, if you're playing drums or bass or singing.
So, but yeah, but also I love, you know, especially on like that album is David.

(48:15):
Gilmore thing just that sound world.
love creating sound worlds and that's something as keyboard players we get to do probablymore than any other instrument.
can just like, even just from one little synth thing, can really, it just, it makeseverything make sense.
But yeah, that's right.
I think creating sound worlds is a perfect way to put it.

(48:37):
I mean, sometimes those sound worlds can come.
crashing down around our ears, particularly in the live environment.
Rob, have you had any memorable train wrecks on stage that you can laugh about now?
No, I mean, I just I guess the thing with me is just I'm always so consistent and on onthe money that nothing ever goes wrong.
Yeah, there's been a few.

(48:59):
I mean, I think the the one that still brings dread is there was I was depping for a mateof mine with the band.
We were playing in Hamburg at the Mojo Club, it's like 800 cap place sold out.
And that rig was drums, the vocalist, keyboards, yeah, two keyboard players.

(49:23):
But what I was doing was controlling the whole of the set with Ableton.
So the drums were linked to triggers in Ableton.
There was no track, but I was playing a lot of what was happening with the keys.
The other keyboard players rig was linked to the Ableton that I was controlling.
I also was playing a bit of guitar and a bit of bass.

(49:45):
And yeah, it was just a nightmare.
The first start just setting up, you know, when you get into a show and it's just likeyou've been traveling all day and you're just a bit tired.
Like the input jack on the guitar was screwed.
I was like, okay, deal with that in a bit.
Setting up the thing.
But yeah, like midway through the gig, everything just stopped working and I couldn'tfigure out why.

(50:06):
And you're just like...
that thing where you're just trying to keep and I couldn't keep playing because it wasjust a mini controller.
And I mean, this was my friend's setup.
So I, you know, my golden rule with keys is like, if you're having laptop, cool, but likealways have one hardware thing that you can play.
Cause I feel like I can jam like give me a monosynth and a beat like it's going to befine.

(50:30):
Like you can fill time chat.
da da da, but had none of that.
So everything just stopped working.
And yeah, just like 800 faces just staring at you or under three people on stage.
And so that was a pretty hellish moment.
You'd like restart the laptop.
It's not that what is it and just going around everything and then before recognizing thatthe like USB cable on my friends like old battered keyboard had just like come out just a

(50:52):
tiny little bit and it stopped communicating.
And yeah, that was that was a pretty geek.
Yeah.
But I mean, there's been loads of things where you start the gig having done sound checkand you've left this sound check patch on the wrong thing, or like the expression pedals
are when it should be down, or the pedals, whatever.

(51:16):
Or like with the Hammond, you haven't a draw browser where you can see them, but then thepreset key doesn't match the draw.
Stuff like that on a dark stage that you can't see.
Yeah, Pete Tong gig I do, I beat the classics of old dance music with a big orchestra.
Yeah, like the O2 Arena every year.

(51:36):
There's been before we had the laptop setting as program change messages, you'd have tochange it before each song just like dick.
And it's there's a few tunes that I start.
And there was one tune, I think it was like Strings of Life sort of done jingle jinglejingle jingle.
So like rave classic.
And instead of it being like a Korg M1, it came on this kind of like comedy synth, like

(52:02):
to 20,000 people.
So yeah, there's loads.
like, that's another podcast.
it's all we get.
It's nice to know that the people we admire look up to human like the rest of us.
I feel like it I think it's been mentioned on here by other guests on the show that the Ithink the golden rule of

(52:23):
accidentally playing the incorrect patches that incorrect patch will be the most lousedobnoxious inappropriate possible thing that you could possibly pick for that moment.
there's most recent tool where it's just like just piano vocal stripped down likebeautiful and I'm just playing like one drawbar out like rule, you know, and the previous
song is still on the kind of like all drawbars out and you're just like, just sort ofquick.

(52:47):
Cool.
No, don't know.
It's okay.
love nords, but there are
they're so dumb with having the I never use the transpose button, but just the fact thatit's on the panel.
And if you're like flailing away, sometimes it can get it and yeah, that's happened acouple of times.
Like you can't set transpose to zero.

(53:08):
So if you hit the button, it's on and then it's going to be yeah, like a summit, whateverit is.
So that's happened again.
Yeah, all these people play a things where it's just Yeah, gear.
Yeah, I'm hearing you.
No, great stuff, Rob.
Thank you.
We're on to our more traditional questions now.
And the other one is Tag, a keyboard player.
Is there someone out there?

(53:28):
And we hugely appreciate that you've listened to a couple of the shows.
Is there someone out there that you would love to find out more about yourself as aplayer?
I don't know if you've had him.
Jake Sherman.
He plays with Michelle.
He's amazing.
My mate, he plays drums with her and him.
And actually Jake.

(53:49):
and Abe, they have a duo.
Abe Browns, he's Australian.
I met him in LA.
We played a bunch of shows, my solo stuff together.
He's an incredible drummer and just incredible musician.
Anyway, Jake Sherman, keyboard player with Michelle and Abe and a of other people.

(54:11):
I just saw them play in London at Coco.
He was playing Hammond, Rhodes, and I think he had like sub 37 or something.
but he sounded amazing.
So yeah.
So the other thing we traditionally ask all our guests, Rob, is there the impossiblequestion, which is there five desert island disks, the five albums they could not do
without.
I believe we gave you some advance notice to be kind to you here.

(54:33):
Yeah, we got this.
still nowhere.
I feel like this stuff is so linked to like childhood and sort of reminiscing.
So I'm just going to stick with that because it changes all the time.
But Deep Purple.
machine head.
I could still I love I love that album.
And from like a keyboard like organ players, perspective and guitar.

(54:57):
Anyway, probably a Bowie one.
I don't know.
Let's just say Aladdin thing.
Knacking Cole.
Probably some kind of like, I remember listening, I used to escape to the library beforelike jazz band and listen to either Iron Maiden or Knacking Cole and there was this like
anthology three disc set of
just like a bunch, he's such an amazing piano player as well as singer.

(55:20):
So you're neck and cold, probably slime the family stone fresh.
mean, all of those are changeable, but one thing that isn't is Ravel string quartet.
He only did one.
And I don't, I can't remember the name of the best quartet doing it.
They all very, there's always something, you know, a bit different between them, theirinterpretation.
But yeah, the Ravel string quartet is like one of my favorite pieces of music.

(55:42):
And often listen in like airports or on planes and just.
just chills me out even though it's quite like intense at points.
So yeah, Queen, mean.
Beautiful, thank you.
Yeah.
I mean, Freddie, yeah, there's a certain voices like Mack and Cole, but also FreddieMercury just always, I don't know.
And it's hard to pick an album because it's like Night of the Opera or Day of the Races,but then equally just sort of like a greatest hits or anthology, just because the amount

(56:10):
of like incredible tunes and the albums featured a lot more like weird musical bits thatwere fun, but.
Anyway, yeah, I could go on and on.
I'm just like over caffeinated and that's the first part of the day.
Well, thank you for those, those cool album recommendations and we'll pop them in our showlinks for sure.
And plenty of big fans of all those artists amongst our listening community.

(56:33):
That's for sure.
So we're going to finish up Rob with our quick fire 10.
And what that is, is we have got 10 questions for you.
Nice quick questions, quick answers, first thought that comes into your mind and
I'm going to kick off with this one, which is a tricky one.
What's the first album you ever heard?
Don't know, but probably either Nat King Cole or Dean Martin or Johnny Cash or PatsyCline, something like that.

(56:59):
At least it wasn't Rolf Harris.
That's good.
fuck no.
Just as a side, sorry to interrupt.
And obviously what Rolf Harris was found to have done and we won't bore listeners with it,but it was awful and he deserved every punishment he got plus some.
It's such a sad downfall for him as an artist.
I actually saw him many years ago.
He was an amazing painter and artist and performer, it's such a talent.

(57:21):
Doesn't excuse the behavior.
No, no, no.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Like, yeah.
Yeah, exactly.
All the non-UK and non-Australian listeners, and we have a lot, will be madly Googling RobHarris.
Who is this guy?
What did he do?
We apologize in advance for when you find out.
Just go onto YouTube and Google Jake the Peg and you'll never be the same again.

(57:43):
All right.
Most important pre-gig ritual, Rob, what do you like to do to feel settled before a show?
Learn the tunes.
I mean, I don't know.
Still working that one out.
I know people would meditate and yeah.
Probably quite a lot of stress and needless worry.
But yeah, in an ideal world, go for a run, have a shower, turn up like relaxed.

(58:08):
Yeah.
Very good.
If you hadn't been a musician, what career choice do you think you would have made?
Something in sport.
I used to play volleyball for East of England and I was a good swimmer.
So some kind of like physiotherapy.
I wouldn't have been, I wasn't good enough to be like
any kind of like elite athlete, but working behind the scenes in sport or with the bodyand you know, yeah, like physio or sports medicine and food nutrition.

(58:41):
I don't know something of that.
Yeah.
And I think from from memory, Rob, you're like myself, you're an incredibly short guy,aren't you?
I'm six foot three.
So I assume you're around that level.
Just below that six to but yeah, lots of
Oh man, do you find keyboard stands are just not high enough?
It's hard if you want to sit and stand, I find.

(59:02):
So you've either got to do one or the other.
And yeah, if you want to have something in the middle, it's quite difficult.
Yeah, I love standing and I can never get anyway.
Yeah, actually, that's a really interesting aside.
It's worth exploring that a little while compared to you two giants.
I'm only 5'11", but I'm tallish.
And I find that's a bit of a struggle to that.
And I think for people who are

(59:24):
six foot or taller, must be, if you like standing, that must be annoying to get keyboardstands to be the right height for sure.
There's a business opportunity for someone.
the only one that I know for a fact and it's one I use, I use the K &M Spider Pro and evenon a two keyboard rig, you can get the bottom tier high enough that it's okay.
But yeah, you're right, it's a challenge.

(59:46):
Yeah, it's not a favorite because I know, so I was just going to say mostly like the onesthat do go high enough, they still, they wobble all over the shop.
and like I jump up and down a lot on certain gigs.
It's just the keyboard's like, what?
So I generally have it where you just like have a lower stand and then have a road case ontop.
yeah, it's things that don't get talked about enough.

(01:00:07):
No, exactly.
No, couldn't agree more.
And speaking of jumping up and down, Rob, what's your favorite electronic music sub-genre?
I know you mentioned drum and bass, but what do you particularly love either playing orlistening to?
So in terms of dance music and dancing, quite like
Well, dancing's all like old soul records.

(01:00:28):
But in terms of like electronic dance music, just the old Detroit stuff.
And then some newer people, they're all quite, the ones I like are sort of all quitethrowback.
Someone like Theo Parrish, Moody Man.
There's a UK guy called Mr.
G, he's incredible.
I like it when it's got some grit and dirt to the sounds.

(01:00:49):
I don't like anything too shiny and plastic sounding.
But yeah, sort of old school house and techno.
I mean, and some harder stuff as well.
I remember seeing Squarepusher years ago doing a set and it was just the most facemelting, incredible thing.
Obviously people like Squarepusher and Apex and less dance music though.
But yeah, in terms of dance music, kind of like 120, 125 BPM, old school kind of, youknow, 909s and just some dirt.

(01:01:18):
Yeah.
I'd go to an Apex twin dance party, but that's just me.
Sorry, over to you, Paul.
No worries.
Favourite gig you've ever done?
I'm just going to be fully ego and just be playing with my band in 2011 at a club inLondon.
It's really fun getting to sing my tunes with a really amazing band.

(01:01:39):
Yeah.
But yeah, I mean, there's too many and it's just, Yeah.
It's like, not sure.
And favourite city you've played, Rob, if that's possible.
I know.
I lived in New York for a few years and I loved some of the shows I did there.
Just in like, divey little basement places.
Yeah.

(01:02:00):
Yeah.
Again, too many.
New York.
How about a song that you used to love, but now you've plowed it to death and you're notquite as much in love with it?
I can't, nothing comes to mind, but I'll just say, I'll give the opposite answer.
As in superstition, it's like a song that grew up loving.

(01:02:21):
played in function bands and destroyed it in across the country and then did it last yearwith Stanley and Corey and it was like the best that I've ever felt.
Just like that groove.
go,

(01:03:04):
Oh no, the band, The Last Waltz.
know it's technically not a documentary, that, it's been Desert Island Discs.
mean, fuck me, the band.
Just, yeah.
Just that whole thing, that whole concert, all the guests they have, but just seeing them,that's one of my favorite things.
So inspiring.
And yeah, speaking of keyboard players as well, like Garth Hudson and yeah, all of them.

(01:03:29):
Now, I don't know if we've already answered this or not, but we've got it here on the runsheet.
Name one thing you'd like to see invented that would make your life as a keyboard playereasier and I'm going to take taller keyboard stands as read.
Yeah, I mean, that would be the first thing a way it might exist.
But having been playing on a B3 for the last few months, and the way that the expressionpedal, like the travel of it.

(01:03:54):
And then I've got a crew my mojo, which is great.
But the the travel of the expression pedal is so damn short.
I'm sure someone can tell me that there's another one out there.
But that would be Yeah, but things like that, like, to be able to not be tied to justhaving to be like in front of the thing as well, like to be able to like have expression

(01:04:17):
pedal like further out on the world.
So that David has, had a super long cable with the sustain pedal, so I can have thesustain pedal like way out.
But yeah, mostly centered around those kind of things in the keyboard world.
Yeah.
No, I love it.
And the very last one, Rob, your favorite musical activity or hobby, something that keepsyou sane outside of music sounds like running is one of them.

(01:04:44):
But yeah.
Yeah.
Any kind of sport.
I played football with some friends yesterday morning, not to any high level, but fun.
Yeah.
Who's your favorite football team, Rob?
So yeah, I don't have one.
I'm a bit of a, yeah, I don't, I don't really have a team, but I love playing it.

(01:05:06):
And I'll watch like World Cups.
And if the game's on and like someone cares about it, it's fun to sort of get into it.
But yeah, what's your team?
Well, if I'm talking English Premier League, it's Tottenham.
Okay.
Yeah, I mean, all my cousins support Tottenham and my family's from there.
So, I mean, it's also like super close to where I live in London.

(01:05:28):
So, but it's either Tomtom or Arsenal, it was split between, yeah.
No, absolutely.
And I mean, it's a great team sport as is the teams you're, as are the teams you've beenpart of.
Rob, we can't thank you enough for taking this time.
It feels like as always, we've barely scratched the surface, but hugely appreciate thetime you've taken to speak with us and we will keep in touch and hopefully there's a

(01:05:50):
follow-up performance at the Sydney Opera House at some stage.
May it be so?
I'd love that.
Yeah.
Thank you so much.
both, yeah, Dave and Paul.
It's so nice to get to just nerd out.
And yeah, I've really enjoyed listening to some of the episodes I've caught so far.
just, yeah, there's not enough sort of keyboard centric things out there.

(01:06:10):
And yeah, I really appreciate you reaching out and yeah, allowing me to waffle on aboutstuff.
And there we have it.
We talked before the show how diverse the conversation was, Paul, and it was indeeddiverse.

(01:06:34):
Yeah, as I said in the intro, Rob's someone who clearly loves all kinds of music andbrings that great range of influences and knowledge to his playing.
it probably made him the perfect person to work with Gilmore on the Luckit and Strangealbum with all the different textures that he's helping to create there.
And I was...
As a big fan of David Gilmore, I was really delighted to hear that he seems like a personwho really let Rob put his own flavor into the recordings.

(01:07:03):
What did you think?
No, I agree totally.
And I thought it was amusing in just from a selfish viewpoint that in the last three fourepisodes, we've had two amazing keyboard players that have been meters from Greg Filling
Games.
Greg, the time has come.
I'm not saying Greg's declined because there's no way we've gotten a message to Greg, butGreg, the time has come.

(01:07:23):
You need to be on our show Greg, it's as simple as that.
It would be an honour sir.
So no, it was great and really appreciate it as I said Rob's time so we look forward tokeeping in touch.
So again thank you all out there for listening.
By the time you hear this it's pretty much a happy new year to everyone for 2025 and we'recertainly excited for the new year and we will have talked a little bit more about that in

(01:07:48):
our most recent live stream if you want to go and check that out what we've got plannedfor 2025.
But also a quick shout out to our gold and silver sponsors, Mr.
Dewey Evans from the lovely country of Wales who also joined us on the last live stream.
So huge thank you to Dewey.
To Mike, the amazing magician at Midnight Mastering.
Well, that was lots of M's.

(01:08:09):
That was good alliteration there.
Again, we couldn't do what we do without him and he does some wonderful work.
now, David, I'm just going to make a comment about that because I've reached out to Mike.
in the last week or so and I'm currently uploading some work for him to have a bit of alook at and play with from my band.

(01:08:31):
So we put our money where our mouth is here and yes, Mike is a great supporter of the showbut we would certainly only recommend people who we think will do a great job.
yeah, if you want to work done.
He's the better mate though, I need to disclose.
I did tell him that whatever he quoted you, we needed to double it but that's fine.
Luckily I'm so wealthy because I'm a musician.

(01:08:55):
So yeah, thank you, Mike.
And then the wonderful Tammy Katcher from Tammy's Musical Studio.
Thank you, Tammy, for your ongoing and long term support.
Much appreciated.
And last but definitely not least, the subject of Paul's t-shirt, the keyboard corner onthe musicplayer.com forums.
So do get on there for a chat about the nitty gritties of keyboards musicianship morebroadly.

(01:09:17):
It's well and truly worth doing.
So thank you again all out there for listening.
Do join us on all the socials and we are on Blue Sky for those of you that have joined theExodus from Twitter and I'm not getting into politics here but I know some people have
left Twitter.
We are on the Blue Sky platform, we're on threads, we're on Instagram, we're on Facebook.
We allegedly are on TikTok but I never upload there.

(01:09:39):
It's just a little bit too young for me.
Come on David, would you say that about yourself?
You're a young and sprightly guy.
We're ubiquitous, we're on Blue Sky, this is amazing.
Yeah, we are on Blue Sky, under We are actually everywhere.
We are everywhere.
This is so cool.
And then there's even good old fashioned email, editor at keyboardchronicles.com.
So yeah, again, thank you for listening.

(01:10:00):
We'll be back in a week or two and until then, keep on playing.