June 11, 2025 • 43 mins
We caught up with Robbie as he was in throes of releasing the first three of ten solo albums he’s releasing this year. We talk on the creative processes surrounding that, music and education more broadly, and also cover off some interesting ground during the various times Robbie has toured with other notable musicians. To...
The post Robbie Gennet, Solo Artist / Lisa Marie Presley / Educator / Journalist appeared first on The Keyboard Chronicles.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:06):
Welcome to the Keyboard Chronicles podcast.
For keyboard players, I'm your host, David Holloway, and I'm pumped as always to be herewith you.
And my brother in arms is back amongst a very busy, busy schedule.
How are you, sir?
I'm glad to be back.
I've been having massive FOMO, not being able to be part of the last couple of interviewsand they sounded wonderful.
can't wait to hear them when they come out because as we record this, they haven't beenreleased yet.
(00:30):
But David, I'm glad to be back.
Yes.
And it's good to be back with Mr.
Robbie Jeanette.
So as you'll hear, we cover quite a bit of ground with Robbie as always.
He's undertaken the ambitious task this year of releasing 10 albums in one year.
We definitely talk about that, let alone his career as a touring musician and as aneducator too, that we do have a lot of interesting chats about educating and notation
(00:53):
versus by year and all sorts of interesting stuff as well.
So no, it was a pleasure talking with Robbie.
I'll let you listen to him and we'll talk to you after the show.
Robbie, it's a pleasure to have you on the show, sir.
(01:14):
How you doing?
Good, thank you
Yeah, good.
Thank you.
I thought we'd kick off.
You've got one hell of a year coming up, Robbie.
You've announced that you, I'd call it a creative tsunami of releasing 10 albums thisyear.
So I know one of them is already out and we've had listened to that and it's great.
So tell us a little bit about what you've got planned for this year.
(01:36):
So I recorded all of this music about six years ago.
My house had burned down in a fire, which was tricky.
I lost my instruments, a lot of my previous art and memorabilia and all that, my studiospace and all that.
And then the pandemic locked down soon after.
It's kind of a one-two punch.
So in this period of turmoil, trying to get back home and then being locked down to home,I had a lot of time to reflect and focus.
(02:00):
And I was working with very minimal tools, but
my creative juices were flowing and I just started writing all these songs and recordingthem as I went, not even thinking I was going to release these, just recording them for my
own purposes.
They were like my soundtrack to dealing with all of this.
And oh as time went by and I got to this past year, I decided that I was going to releaseall this music.
(02:23):
Why?
Because all of these songs are done.
They're my songwriting and performances and whatnot.
I could have waited to get into some big studio like back in the day, we all have thatmentality, but
Honestly, I feel these are great representations of my songs.
I like to produce myself because then if I want the base up, I put the base up.
I'm getting my version of me, if you will.
lot of times with producers, they'll get their version of you rather than a better versionof your version of you.
(02:47):
So we worked through that.
But as I put these songs together in the structure of albums, which is the era that I grewup in, it just felt right.
And actually I've been watching a lot of clips from Rick Rubin and I'd read his book oncreativity and it really spurred me to say,
Why hold back?
Why not do this?
Why not just go for it?
And so I'm two albums into a 10 album roll and that's actually leading to another projectthat I had started work on right before the fire in a studio.
(03:16):
So it's like all of this happened after that and it's leading up to that.
So it's a interesting flip flop, but really why hold back nowadays, right?
Why hold back anything.
That's right.
just, I'm fascinated.
mentioned Rick Rubin's book.
And if you look over one of my shoulders, you'll see it actually sitting there with thegray book there.
So tell us what you particularly took from that.
(03:37):
Cause Rick is a bit of a Zen sort of guy.
He talks very broadly about concepts and so on.
So yeah, what did you take from that that did help you with this project?
tell you the biggest inspiration was, you know, release things, just put it out and thenput the next thing out and then the next thing.
And also really, again, you're doing it for yourself.
Other people are going to hear it.
Other people are going to see it, but really you're creating this for yourself and allthis music I had created for myself.
(04:02):
really rang true in that uh respect.
And he just kind of gave me the freedom to just say, you know what, I'm going to put allthis music out and then more music after that.
And once I bring these songs to the live stage, that will kind of
take it to its natural next step.
But I really, I felt like I'm sitting on all these songs.
I've written probably over 800 songs in my catalog and most haven't been released.
(04:26):
And so I decided to remedy that by putting all these albums together.
I created all the album art.
I recorded everything but about four drum tracks.
had a great friend of mine, Michael Jerome, a wonderful drummer, play on a couple of tunesI needed, but everything else is me from top to bottom, writing, performing, recording,
Did it.
and that's why my mom says discipline.
(04:46):
Yeah, you're clearly very disciplined and very productive, I think is a lesson we can alltake as musicians, because it can be easy to procrastinate or find reasons not to do
things.
So I think we really admire this dedication to releasing material.
Every musician has that fear.
Every artist probably is it good enough?
What if I release it and nobody cares yada yada?
(05:09):
Rick Rubin just get it out there.
Just put it out and then put the next thing out.
Don't even while they're looking at that thing.
You're already under the next.
I'm fully in that mode and it feels great and I love these songs.
I've been sitting with them for a couple of years and they've been my soundtracks.
So now it's very interesting to have other people hearing, you know songs that were verypersonal.
Well, that's actually the next thing I wanted to ask you about.
(05:29):
clearly, as you said, the creative process was to some degree driven by a reallychallenging circumstance at the house, not having all the tools and instruments you might
have normally had.
And clearly that sparked the muse in you to get creative.
these albums get released, what sort of a journey will we be taking on as a listener tomatch your focus?
(05:50):
Well, there's multiple journeys woven in.
One of the things that happens as these albums unfold is the styles change to where by theend of this year, you'll have even less of an idea what to call me, what to label me, how
to categorize me.
And ultimately I feel that the greatest artists are categorizable or labelable only bytheir name.
(06:11):
And so when you hear music by David Bowie, is it rock, jazz, cabaret, soul, funk, blues?
Yes.
My next record, which comes out in April, there's a song that is the most Steely Dan songI could have ever possibly tried to and achieved to write.
It's like, just channeled my Fagin and that's going to come as a big change to the stuffjust before it.
(06:32):
And I love that.
And then there's a lot of synth oriented stuff that's coming later.
So it's very hard in my mind to tag what it is I'm actually doing.
So this journey is for me about not redefining myself or even defining myself.
It's about challenging the
idea of what actually defines somebody.
And so in the lyrics, in the music, there's a lot of things I want people to hear.
(06:55):
And I feel like as a lyricist, the people that I aspire to, that I read, that I chew into,that Neil Peart and Bob Dylan and Bernie Toppin, these are the people that I want to be in
the realm of.
So I take my writing seriously.
Sometimes, as you know, with a line you might
go for a rhyme and it changes the whole meaning of the line and you step back and you go,okay, that's great.
(07:16):
I didn't even mean that, but there it is.
So there's a certain extent to that, but I think the journey is not so much, whoa, whathappened to me?
It's more about getting through it and coming out on the other side with more than before,you know?
Love it.
No, that's, that's brilliant.
And obviously, I mean, to get to the stage of releasing this amount of material, you'vegot many years of, of chops and touring and performance behind you.
(07:42):
So I do want to cover that off a little bit.
So I mean, you mentioned before we started recording, you've been to Australia on tour.
So let's just talk about a couple.
And I'm actually at the end of this segment, Robbie, going to ask you to identify who arehighlights for you.
Cause we, it's easy for us to pick out.
You alleged big names, but they're not always the most memorable playing and performanceexperiences, but we will start with the big names.
(08:04):
So let's talk about your amazing sort of time with Lisa Marie Presley.
sort of around, I around 10 years ago, 10 to 12 years ago.
Tell us about how that came about and what you learned from that experience.
That was an incredible experience.
I came about that my friend Damon Fox, who was playing keyboards with her, had anopportunity to be a musical director on a TV show with Linda Perry, who we also worked
(08:28):
with.
So he engaged me as a sub and it was for less than a month, but I had to rehearse andpractice as if I was going out for a year because it was two keyboards on the right, know,
a piano on the left, a sampler where I had to hit the D key at the second bar.
and sing harmonies.
was a, had my work cut out for me.
It was one of those kind of gymnastic gigs.
(08:49):
It was just one keyboard.
That would be one thing, but I had to literally do all this crazy stuff, but it was great.
And the shows wound up with a performance in Graceland in the jungle room, which wasfilmed and it was done for Dodge trucks or something like that.
It's not online now.
I can't find it and I'm dying to see it again, but we set up in the jungle room and I wasjust.
(09:10):
hanging out and then I looked up and there's Priscilla Presley leaning against the wall.
It kind of hit me for a moment, the gravity of where I was, then I just kind of wiped itoff.
after all was said and done and we were breaking down, I walked out and I had a nicemoment at night alone by Elvis's grave just to give him my respects and regards.
you know, these little moments happen because of the music and where you went, but she wasa very interesting person to be in her circle and work with and she treated me very nice.
(09:39):
I have nothing but nice things to say.
Yeah, no, absolutely.
I mean, going from one extreme to the other, Robbie, mean, Lisa Marie to Everclear isanother one I know a band you've played with.
I'm obviously quite a guitar-driven band, but what, again, what was your role there andwhat were your learnings?
So much like I played with a band called Seven Mary Three, I played both keyboards andguitar.
So I kind of whatever they needed me to do.
(10:00):
And I sang a lot of backup harmonies.
So with Everclear, I came in and this is actually, I got a lesson from the Everclear tour.
They said to me, learn all the rock stuff.
And I had all these different albums of theirs.
So I started charting out all the rock stuff.
And then they sent me a set list the night before on the flight to Portland had 40 tuneson a 10, which I haven't even touched.
(10:21):
So I make my charts.
and I go and I fly and I roll in with my rolly bag to the club.
All the equipment's set up, band's about a half an hour out, right?
I go up, the keyboard setup's all set up, guitars get handed to you, you know, it's nice.
You don't have to change a string.
So I hit the keyboard, it's all nice.
He goes, yeah, you just switch and the next song comes up.
It's beautifully set up.
So I hit the guitar and I hit the keyboard and I said, is this guitar tuned down?
(10:44):
He goes, yeah, the whole set's tuned down a half step.
So now I have 28.
to re-chart 40 songs a half step down, which on guitar, that's not a problem.
Keyboard, that's an entirely different world.
And so all that I had done with my teaching and learning, writing my book, The Key of Oneand whatnot saved me because I was able to chart 40 songs, band walks in, hey, how you
(11:06):
doing?
We start playing and everything went according to plan because of how I had preparedmyself for that kind of instance, or for any instance really, but.
That was the ultimate test.
And afterwards I said to myself, all right, now I feel like I've done somethingprofessional and you know, my, I, what I do and what I teach and how I'm thinking it
works.
So it's a lot of what I taught later on at musicians Institute to a lot of differentmusicians, mostly in private counseling, because the official music education didn't
(11:34):
really have a place for what I was teaching, which was all the stuff that they leave out.
And we're definitely going to cover that off to Robbie as well.
mean, just on that, I mean, my first go-to with half an hour to go and everything beingdown half a step is to go for the transpose, but given the complexity of the rig, it's not
as easy as just sitting at transpose button.
So it's not worth the risk.
And people who get used to charts, I mean, they sent me albums that weren't out yet.
(11:56):
There were no charts.
So even if you make charts and you show up with charts spread out, it's not the way to doit.
I had a lot of students actually at MI that were very much into charting and I'm notdenigrating charting or notation, but I said, you're going to show up to an audition.
There's going to be 10 other people there to play that same role and none of them aregoing to have charts.
So, you know, the charts are to learn and then you put them away.
(12:19):
So that's where the rubber meets the road.
You know, when it works, works.
And when it doesn't, you lose the gig.
ah
No, exactly.
And Robbie, so standouts throughout your performance career of, so I've, I've, I've listedtwo, but just fascinated on what stood out to you as, particularly memorable gigs or
people you've worked with, collaborators and so on.
(12:40):
I mean, there is a long list and some of them are one-off things.
got to play with Alan Parsons.
One night I got to jam with Robbie Krieger and some of the guys from Little Feet, know,different things like that.
But when I toured with Nick Lachey when he was a big pop star, we did one of thoseChristmas shows where they have all the stars of the time.
And I played a sold out Madison Square Garden and hung out with Bruce Springsteen.
(13:04):
you know, it was like, that was one of those nights.
I'd say Graceland.
is another.
That was a pretty big moment.
But look, you when you're out on your first tour and you play, you know, uh a storiedvenue for the first time and some of the venues I played early on, I played CBGBs, I
played the limelight, you know, they're long gone, but dear to my heart.
You mentioned before, uh Key of One, and we'd love to explore the philosophy behind thatand what that is for our listeners and viewers.
(13:29):
before we do, I'd like to take this right back.
We always love to ask all our guests about their musical upbringing and what influencedyou right at the start as a young person and your formative years and that journey that
got you to where you are today.
So if you could share a bit of that with us.
I would say that my parents having an old piano in my house, an acoustic piano, the one Ithink my dad learned on when he was growing up, not a great piano, but a piano was the
(13:54):
absolute portal to my future because it was not a situation where I was being pushed intolessons or I was going to school for it.
I I took lessons from six to 14 and then quit and I'm self-taught.
So I just had a love for it.
And actually one of the last teachers I had, this guy Rick, who I still would love to findand I've never located him again.
(14:15):
And at the end of each lesson of what he was supposed to teach me, he would teach me someblues or boogie woogie riffs.
And then come back the next week and say, so did you do your work?
I said, no, but listen, and I do the riffs.
And at that point, he should have probably just started teaching me every single coolthing he knew and let the rest fly.
But long story short, it started my love for boogie woogie and blues piano playing.
also grew up, my parents played a lot of Billy Joel and Elton John.
(14:38):
And that at the, you know, as you grow up, those are kind of the ones who piano man, youknow,
rock and roll guys and you can't help but want to emulate that kind of thing.
also was a huge fan of Rush, I still am.
And so that's when I picked up the bass, which is my second main instrument and uh know,Geddy Lee bass and keyboards.
And then years later learning that it was actually Neil, the quiet guy and the drumswriting all the words.
(15:02):
That band was very, very instrumental and I, you know, learning and playing and listeningand first rock concert I went to without my parents.
First one with my parents was the Bee Gees.
So that's another
band that was on all the time growing up and a lot of that music and the sensibilities andthe harmonies, I mean, you just cannot help but be swept up in that.
(15:22):
So I did not go to college for music, but when I was in college, I was jamming withpeople.
And when I got back, I'd really decided that music was what I wanted to do.
And I started my first band and got my first tour and all that kind of stuff after that.
But it really was a matter as I'm sure you've talked to a lot of people.
I had no choice.
I needed.
to play music and it was all I wanted to do.
(15:45):
And so here I am.
So tell us about that part of your journey.
as you said, you're at college, you're not studying music, music is drawing you to it.
You're jamming, you're forming bands.
What does that look like for you at the time and how does that morph into...
I'll tell you that there's a word that I will give you and to me it is the ultimate driverof success in any arena, but especially in music and that is curiosity.
(16:13):
So I was a curious musician.
So I went to as many concerts as I could when I was in my teenage years.
And when I went to college, I did the same thing.
I actually had a roommate who was really into heavy metal.
And so he had all these different cassettes and I had a car and he didn't.
So I drive us to see different bands and stuff like that.
And then after college, I just started seeing every band I could.
I
(16:33):
would drive around.
lived in Florida, that's where I grew up.
So I would drive to different cities and see music.
I knew how to get tickets, stay out in line for tickets for the metal shows.
So I'd go get tickets for the Almond Brothers that way and get up in the third row.
And I got to see a lot of people that are no longer with us, but every single time that Isaw a show, I needed more.
(16:57):
playing music, listening to music, jamming with friends, getting with other people who hada love for music and sharing stuff.
A good friend of mine, Frank down in Florida was a blues guy, go over his house and hewould just play me all these different types of blues music that I described.
I was self-educating.
I was an auto-didact on every level.
And when I was about early 20s, I went to a record store, which they still exist outthere, I'm sure, and a guy, Bob Perry, who's still down there in Miami, Blue Note, and I
(17:25):
went in and I said, Bob,
I need jazz." what do mean?
said, well, I grew up in rock and roll and I don't have any jazz in my life.
And I know it's really important music and there's all these luminaries and stuff, butit's like an ocean and I don't know where to dip my foot in.
He said, well, what do you think of when you think of jazz?
It kind of the saxophone and a dark smokey club.
I mean, I had no reference at all.
(17:46):
He said, well, I'll put something on, walk around, let me know what you think.
I came back up.
I loved it.
It was Kind of Blue, which is a great entry level album for people.
So I took that home and then I started to, you you branch out from there and like, Ireally like Paul Chambers.
And then you find them on the Roy Haynes rev, you you, do that.
But also around that time, I got into really hard, the Crusaders and a band called stuffat a New York and both of those bands were doing session work, tons of session work.
(18:14):
So I started branching out in the jazz funk soul seventies, eighties era.
to all that stuff, just following Richard T and following Joe Sample and following EricGale and started to find other records.
now I have a huge album collection and I have kind of a phonogenic memory.
So everything I've ever heard is really accessible in my mind.
(18:36):
Yeah.
Wow.
And that probably applies really well, Robbie.
mean, you've given some great insights into your upbringing and you mentioned before aboutlessons.
So let's talk a little bit about Kia One and the website and the book and so on.
just, I know it's hard to encapsulate, but just your broad philosophy on teaching someoneto learn music.
I will tell you the broad philosophy is notation is not music.
(19:00):
Notation is a phonetic language.
And I want to always go on record and say, I have no problem with notation.
I don't denigrate it.
People who read well, do well with it.
The problem is when you're only reading and you take away the sheet music and you'resitting in front of a piece of furniture, that's bad.
So when I looked at that and I looked at how things came easily to me, I had to reverseengineer how I was thinking.
(19:23):
I realized that we don't teach music as a language and everybody I've ever asked in theentire world, hey, do you think music is a language?
No one's ever said no.
If we're going to teach music as a language, then we have to look at the mechanics of alanguage.
So when you grow up, the first word you say, mama or whatever it is, and then everythingthat you learn from every book you read, every song, every person that speaks, every
colloquialism, every, everything you learn, all the vocabulary is in your brain, but theact of speaking is improvisatory.
(19:51):
you don't pull a script out your pocket to say, how do you do to anybody?
So if improvisation is the main mechanic of a language skill, and we're going to teachmusic as a language skill, then that has to be a big part of the way that we start.
And the way that I was started in lessons is here's the sheet music, every good boy doesfine.
And there was no place for that.
And at Musicians Institute, it was very similar in all the theory and the harmonic minorand all this stuff.
(20:15):
And none of it was sinking in.
I'd have people come into counseling crying.
and I'd sit with them and I'd talk to them and I'd say, look, let's really figure outwhat's going on here.
And it's very easy to get, especially younger students, into improvising and into singingand scat singing and stuff like that.
And to me as a teacher, I need to do two things.
(20:35):
One, give the correct information and the whole picture, but two, increase the curiosity.
Because that's, if you're curious, you will dig, you will find, you will go, you will, youknow, search.
And do you think over time, Robbie, and this is coming from someone who also can't sightread or remotely go close to it.
Um, do you think over time, the necessity of charts in most areas of music has actuallylessened?
(21:00):
So I understand there are things like stage musicals and so on where you can argue chartsare still pivotal, but yeah, I mean, do you think it's lessened over time overall?
I mean, outside of classical music and outside of music for film and TV and musicalsmaybe, when do you go see a band, rock, soul, funk, whatever, that all has charts up on
(21:23):
stage?
I mean, you really don't.
So the idea of being able to read charts, I I came full circle because when I wasfinishing up at Musicians Institute, these albums that I was working on for myself, it's
all orchestrated and I wanted to do it myself.
took classes, continuing education requirements at MI in orchestration.
I took classes in everything Afro Cuban drumming.
(21:44):
really took a lot of classes to enrich myself, but then I worked with great musicians whotaught me further better how to chart.
So now I can write great string charts.
And I've also the past couple of decades, I've been playing out here in a thing called theValley Ragtime Stomp, which is on hiatus right now because we lost our place, but that was
really important because I started to learn standards, which I never did growing up.
(22:07):
So it was all about music from before the 50s.
So I had to really dig and find tunes that I could get with.
So even now I'm learning stuff, not just by ear or by chords, but off of sheet music andcharts to keep my skills up and to learn new things.
I've just got the Charleston under my fingers and just working through things because itinterests me and I love it.
(22:28):
And it's fun.
But I also in that, that pursuit of making myself better at things that I want to bebetter at and
If I can chart for strings, now I can chart for horns and I'm working with that, butthat's not concert pitch.
know, so all these albums that I'm doing forced me to make charts and then to look at myown songs in a way I never had, which is, yeah, there's, you know, a bar of five there.
(22:52):
And I didn't even think about that, you know, cause I'm just playing the piano.
So it was, was really important, but going full circle back charts are not what I thinkare of main importance now for most music.
And I think.
especially in DJ culture and EDM and all that kind of stuff.
There's not even musicianship is necessary, but I know great musicians who can read chartsamazing.
(23:15):
know unbelievable musicians who can't read a chart at all.
But I think that there's something to be said for educating oneself and, you know, keepingyour skillset wide.
Robbie you gave us a word before, curiosity and just listening to you give that lastanswer that I can see that curiosity still burns within you.
You're constantly learning and listening and growing.
How do you pass that gift of curiosity onto your students?
(23:38):
You know, I like to think in the realm of Dick Van Dyke and Willy Wonka and you have to belike exuding, I mean, it has to be coming out of your pores.
And when I had taught to some elementary and charter school classes a couple of years backand that was really instructive and eye-opening, but I always was getting them into the
(23:59):
music and talking about the stories.
And when I think back on the teachers that I had,
The ones that were the most exciting were the ones that would jump up on the desk andraise the imaginary sword and bring it to life.
And so I wanted to always give people that excitement and sharing music and hear andlisten to this and let's talk about this and let's watch this and look at this guy play
and listen to what this person did.
(24:20):
And so you don't know what's going to be somebody else's spirit animal.
might not be Richard T or it might not be Elton John, but you also have to recognize that.
everybody's going to have a different level of interest and some people may beintrinsically uncurious and what can you do?
But I think everybody can be made to be a little bit more curious, let alone a lot.
(24:43):
then who knows what can happen.
That's right.
No, we'll put, oh mean, all this talk about charts for a lot of us growing up in the lateseventies and eighties into the nineties.
If we weren't reading charts, the equivalent of charts for us were keyboard magazine,because at least you could check out the gear and also learn a lot of great theory and
other stuff as well.
(25:03):
So obviously you were a senior contributor at keyboard magazine.
Tell us about how that relationship developed.
And obviously keyboard magazine is no more.
I know it sort of sits within the music.
developed on a day or I used to go to the NAMM show all the time, which I don't anymore.
And back in 98, I was on an early tour, young guy out on the road and I fell on a piece ofglass and it severed all the tendons to my finger and I had to get operated on and I
(25:27):
finished the tour left-handed.
was a wild experience.
And I was at the NAMM show and I was talking to musician magazine and I ended up writing apiece for them on what happens when you get injured on the road without insurance.
And then
I went up to keyboard and I was like, you you guys should have this and this and this andthis.
And they're like, well, why don't you write it?
And I'm like, maybe I'd love to.
So I ended up doing a thing once a month where I would bring out an old record and tellpeople about it why they should listen to it and got to share a lot of things that I love.
(25:55):
But um then I got, know, when I got to interview people and get into their studio space orgo see the show and talk to them on stage, you know, I have no shortage of questions.
So whether I'm in George Duke's studio or, you know, Devo's studio or wherever I am, mean,
I have a million things I can ask and I got to interview Donald Fagan once and I had ahalf an hour and it ended up going for 45 minutes because we just got wrapped up in a
(26:17):
conversation.
Cause I asked him not is there gas in the car or whatever people would ask him, but Isaid, you know, the night fly was set in the fifties and comic carry out is set in the
future.
Do I detect some sort of a sci-fi timeline?
And we got into talking about science fiction and Alfred Bester and how he thoughtHeinlein was a fascist and all this great stuff.
So
You know, mean, that time at Keyboard Magazine was amazing, but so much of it was just mesaying, hey, what if, hey, how about this?
(26:43):
Hey, how about that?
And the next thing you know, I'm up at 5 a.m.
getting a phone or from Steve Winwood going, my gosh, I can't believe I'm talking toSteve.
That's amazing.
which editors did you work under Robbie?
I haven't gone back through my archive.
my well, um, I all of them Mitch Gallagher Ernie ride out Steve for yeah, maybe Dominic Imean I have to go back and see who was there But I know who was there last Yeah, and that
(27:09):
was a sad ending.
I mean, I love that magazine now the archives aren't even available online
No, I look, yeah, there's been so many chats over the years about, I mean, think there wasmusines were talking about digitizing the whole archive.
I'm yet to see that happen yet.
It's so needs to happen.
don't know how we make it happen.
oh
And really interesting information, great articles, great information charts, differentthings.
(27:32):
mean, should all be available.
Even digitising all the plastic records.
Like, you know, I'd love to see all that stuff.
Yes.
So no, thanks, Robbie, for that.
Yeah, over to you, Paul.
Well, I was just reflecting on the fact that when one reads your writing, Robbie, and Ireally encourage our listeners to do so, and we'll put some links in the show notes in
relation to that.
(27:53):
I get a sense of real love for and care for language and words.
And you actually started off talking about music as a language.
I'm interested in as someone who has uh obviously written professionally in terms of wordson a page, but also writing words for music.
And you mentioned earlier, like one word
a rhyme can change the meaning or an interpretation of a line.
(28:14):
I'm just fascinated in your perspective of that and then maybe the juxtaposition writingprose, writing songs, your thoughts on that and how that links.
tell you, I've always been a voracious reader.
I've always had a bookshelf and books around me.
My mom dropped me at the library.
I mean, could not stop reading.
So a lot of the writers who affected me early on, whether it was Roald Dahl's book growingup, reading the different Danny Champion of the World and Charlie and the Chocolate
(28:41):
Factory or Lord of the Rings, which I'm currently reading out loud to my son after a longjourney of reading, kind of in the, I think the last hundred pages of The Return of the
King.
I just always loved literature.
I'd say poetry, Charles Bukowski was a very big touchstone for me because I hadn't readsomebody that wrote like that.
And he's still, I don't want to use the term spirit animal, but he's still one of thosepeople that I can get into his writing and really there's such a raw humanity in there.
(29:10):
But I read a lot of fiction, read a lot of nonfiction, but I love great writing.
love great turn of phrase and I love language.
I speak Spanish as well and
You know, that's a fun language to engage in and I've written some music in Spanish andwhatnot but really it's just a love of language a love of words a love of rhymes a love of
tumbling things around and turning things I love writing lyrics because When you're tryingto truncate a thought into a single line and make that line kill You really got to boil it
(29:40):
down when you look at hip-hop.
It's more like okay.
We need 2 000 lines stretch stretch stretch
Um, and there's great rappers who have amazing skills, uh, in that respect.
I've done some hip hop stuff in my past and written rap, and that's a different kind of achallenge because it is tons of space to fill while a song, especially the chorus of a
song, you're really getting down to like uh a one thought that really transcends, youknow, I love a good turn of a phrase.
(30:07):
love just hearing somebody sing something that means something.
And I love songs as delivery systems for thoughts.
Because I think you sing a song, you're not conscious so much of what you're singing.
And some of those thoughts can really seep into the brain.
love asking questions in my songs because then the listener asks the question tothemselves and your brain circles around on that.
(30:28):
You know, I mean, some songs are great for singing out loud together, you know, and BobMarley wrote, get up, stand up, stand up for your rights.
Nobody went around saying that.
And then there's everybody's saying it out loud to themselves and each other.
So the power of a song beyond any book to me is.
killer delivery system, is why I keep writing songs and working at it.
(30:49):
Yeah, thank you for that answer.
A wonderful perspective.
You remind me of I read an interview with Isaac Asimov, the great science fiction writer,and he said, very similar to what you just said, he said, writing a short story is so much
harder than writing a novel because you've got to place each word behind the list of thereader's ear or in their pocket.
So you've to choose the words carefully.
So I think that aligns with your philosophy on writing a song.
(31:10):
You've got a short amount of time to really get maximum power with those words.
Right.
And then sometimes you, you know, you might need a filler word and again, it changes themeaning or sometimes you're looking for rhyme, you find the rhyme, you, you know, back
right the line and then you've said something that you didn't intend.
that's why it's hard.
You know, if you're listening to my songs, it's not like I'm saying like I did this andthis happened to me.
(31:30):
It's thoughts and things swirling around.
Ultimately, I think the songwriter wants their songs to fit into the lives of the listenerin a way where
I take myself out of the way.
When Elton John's on stage singing How Wonderful Life Is, Cause You're in the World, he'sthinking about what's a catering afterwards.
Everybody else in the audience, the you is something different.
Their lover, their friend, their god, their dog, their parent, whatever.
(31:53):
So I love the idea of a song, and especially the lyric, being open enough to differentinterpretations and multiple interpretations.
Yeah, wonderful.
And look, speaking of delivery systems for songs, we are of course all keyboard playersand keyboard nerds, us people on this podcast, so we need to ask you what are your
favorite keyboards at the moment?
So we're off screen where you can't see I had a Hohner D6 Clavinet and a Fender Rhodes 73.
(32:19):
I had a Wurlitzer burned in the fire, had a Minimoog burned in the fire.
had a lot of the synths that you'll hear on the records coming up.
98 % of them are in the program Reason, which is the program that I record in.
I love Reason.
It's been an amazing tool.
I work so quick in it.
saving templates and different things, but it's really become such an amazing tool.
(32:41):
I'm surprised more people don't use it out there, but I'm going to be the guy out thereshowing people what you can do with it.
But all this sense internally, and I know a little bit about enough of that synthesis totweak and, you know, not just use the, the, the sounds that come with it.
But I think it's a, it's a great program.
And that's been the bulk of what I've done after the fire.
(33:03):
A friend of mine at IK multimedia sent me this little iRig keyboard.
And that's what I've been using ever since.
That's been my interface.
So all the synths that I've played, everything except for one song on the current record,Sunday Driver, the solo I did on a little micro cord because it had a sound I could not
get anywhere else.
(33:23):
And I was really going for that Steve Winwood, Ark of a Diver, a Prophet kind of sound.
it just like literally the defaults.
I like, I just have to use this.
So um I did.
So there you go.
That's amazing.
And we have a standard question that sends shivers of dread through everyone.
It's the Desert Island Discs question, Robbie.
So what are five albums that if you have to pick them, what that you couldn't livewithout?
(33:47):
I'm so glad you asked and I'm going to go back to albums that opened me up when I wasyoung.
The first one, Jet Bec Blow by Blow.
I did come prepared.
Max Middleton, Clavinet, Rhodes, amazing record, but also musically amazing.
Every instrument George Martin produced and did the string arrangements.
I this is an all-time Desert Island disc for me.
(34:09):
I still listen to this and still marvel at it and groove to it.
Again, my parents grew me up on Elton John.
So we listened to like
greatest hits and some of the records.
But once I started acquiring my own, this was the Bible.
111770.
If you're a piano player, not a keyboard player, piano player, and I am, and I should saymy main piano is a Kawhi upright that I have, which I love.
(34:30):
I've been a Kawhi player for a long time.
My main stage keyboard is an older Kawhi MP piano.
this album, take me to the pilot.
mean, every riff and lick that he's doing on here, this is a wealth.
If there's a...
piano player out there watching and they're like, I've never heard of that record.
Run, don't walk, right?
So with Billy Joel, I could bring out both 52nd Street and The Stranger, but I probablywould say that Songs from the Attic, where he went back and did his earlier stuff, left an
(35:01):
equally big mark.
I I'll always love these records and Zanzibar, Rosalind, Desize, all that.
I mean, they're ingrained in my psyche, but the Songs from the Attic was cool.
It's live.
Seeing the lights go out on Broadway, all that kind of stuff, all the early songs, thatreally opened me up into the Billy Joel world.
So I'd say for Billy, that magic period, was big for me.
(35:22):
Third, this is not a record most people would pick.
Crusaders, this is a record called Images.
I got this on cassette for no reason other than I just picked it up and I probablylistened to this record a thousand times.
I love it.
And it's not one of their best known records.
And actually the second song on the record,
When I made mixed CDs, I would skip it because it's like a snoozer.
(35:42):
It should have been the last one on the record, know, like, like Diamond Dust on Blue EyedBlue.
But this one or or Dust on Archibald Diver.
But this album, Joe Sample, all of the playing, everything about it, just I come back toit.
I know all the sax lines.
I can sing them.
And I'm going to give you one that's way out of the box.
But to me, this was one of the most important records of my youth, not just for therecord, but the movie as well.
(36:07):
Yeah.
much lambasted, much derided, but the greatest Beatles indoctrination tool ever made forchildren.
I guarantee you, you put this movie and this album on for kids, they will love The Beatlesforever.
a um lot of people in, when this movie came out, evidently didn't like it.
They thought it was cheesy.
Who knew the seventies cheesy and they thought it was making fun of The Beatles andwhatnot.
(36:31):
But when you look at this record, when you look at the credits on it, mean, George Martinproduced Jeff Emmerich engineered
You have the Tower, Power, Horns.
You have basically, okay, so I'm not gonna go into the whole story, but when Jeff Beck didBlow by Blow, he came over to the States without the rhythm section, Phil Chen and Richard
(36:51):
Bailey, and he ended up getting a band together with Bernard Purdy on drums and one of myfavorite all-time bass players, Wilbur Bascom, on bass.
After that was all done, he had gone back to England, was playing with this bandHummingbird, George Martin called, said, hey, I'm doing this Beatles movie, and I want you
to come over.
and I got Bernard and I got Wilbur and I want you to bring Robert Hawaii, your guitarplayer and hummingbird.
(37:12):
So the band on this Sgt.
Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club band soundtrack is the American Blow by Blow touring band witha different guitar player.
And then the credits on this, Jeff Beck's in there and Larry Carlton's in there.
It's like, you know, and Peter Frampton and the Bee Gees.
It's like, what is there not to like?
But I love those versions.
I love it.
(37:32):
You know, that movie opened me to Aerosmith.
That movie opened me to Earth, Wind and Fire.
Super important and any kid that grows up with that as my kids did just falls in love withit.
anybody out there who's some dude in their 60s or 70s who's still hating on that movie,cut it.
I think that's no, couldn't agree more, Robbie.
(37:53):
And I think that's a great way to, to encapsulate our chat today because I mean, yourpassion for, for that movie and your passion just for music and curiosity, as you
mentioned, it is obviously infectious.
And I have no doubt has had an impact on a bunch of students and other people throughoutthe years.
And we certainly appreciate the time we spent with you.
can't thank you enough for that.
(38:14):
And we're looking forward to seeing well.
As you know, another 8 albums to come this year and looking forward to seeing what comesbeyond that.
Yes, anybody out there who's into music, I hope you will tune in because it's not just onething.
It's kind of a little something for everybody.
So I'm really looking forward to you guys hearing it.
And I'd love to circle back towards the end of the year and see what you thought.
(38:43):
And there we have it.
yeah, look, that was a really fun chat.
Robbie certainly had lots of fascinating perspectives and I just love his perspective oneducating and times have certainly changed with music and I think we've got to adapt.
No doubt about it and I love the passion that clearly came through.
You know, he was talking about the teacher that metaphorically jumps up on the table andswings the invisible sword is the one who inspires him.
(39:06):
And I feel like he has so much energy and enthusiasm for and passion for his educationthat I would love to be a student in his class.
I'm sure it'll be a wonderful experience.
Absolutely.
And look, I know we side swiped into Keyboard Magazine a little bit, but given themajority of our audience of a mature age, sort of over the age of 35, most of us remember
(39:28):
Keyboard Magazine and some of us were there from the very start.
I wasn't, but I was there from sort of the early eighties.
It was such an iconic part of all our lives as keyboard players.
And I know I had the privilege only twice of writing articles.
um
I remember just pitching Ernie right out over and over and finally him agreeing to givingme a go and just doing two articles for keyboard magazine and thinking, well, I've died
(39:50):
and gone to heaven.
Let alone someone like Robbie, who was a senior contributor, who was doing a lot morework.
Yeah, it was just an amazing part of our lives.
Well, I think for a lot of keyboard players of our vintage and similar, David, KeyboardMagazine was very, very formative for a lot of us.
And times have changed now.
(40:11):
So we can all be writers for Keyboard Magazine in our own blogs and websites.
And so listeners and viewers, that's a reminder to make sure that you get onto, there'smore to us than just the podcast.
Get onto our website.
And David's written some really wonderful articles there.
There's also some other little contributions that you can check out.
We've a couple.
That's right.
(40:31):
You've written a couple and we're now doing the Weekend Warrior profile.
So if you'd just like to even checking out fellow players, we've got about seven or eightof them and many more to come.
we get a chance, we've had a lot of responses.
So it is worth checking out.
So that's keyboardchronicles.com.
But otherwise, thank you for listening and a huge thanks to our gold and silversupporters.
So particular shout outs to the wonderful Tammy Katcher from Tammy's Musical Studio.
(40:55):
Thank you as always, Tammy.
Um, the brilliant Mike at midnight mastering.
know you've mentioned before, Paul, you've been working with Mike.
Hey, we've nearly finished our project as we record this and it's coming up really good soI can't recommend Mike.
Two things, one the quality of what he's doing is wonderful but the second thing is veryeasy to deal with and communicates really well.
(41:17):
He gets onto things quickly so very professional in his demeanor as well as his output soI can't recommend him highly enough David.
Excellent.
The brilliant Dewey Evans from the sunny land of Wales, as I'd like to say each episodenow, shout out to you Dewey.
And last but definitely not least, Dave Bryce and the team at the musicplayer.com forums.
We always love hanging there and there's lots.
(41:39):
And Paul, I'm going on a road trip tomorrow to drive about an hour and half north of whereI am to pick up my Viscount Legend I organ and I'm excited.
So you need to, I don't know what we need to do, are we doing a live stream or whetherwe're dovetailing into one of these little chats we have in the podcast, but we need a
review.
Yeah, I have to do a review.
(41:59):
Maybe first gig.
I've got a gig coming up in about a month where I will try and bring it and do a bit of amini review and read through of the legends.
And it is wasted on me.
not just being modest.
I'm not much of an organ player and I feel bad because they're only few came to Australiaand I managed to just by fluke that my music shop managed to get one.
So you're very pleased to and yeah, we'll do that.
(42:22):
Will it come to Adelaide?
for those who don't know, David's band and my band, we're going to play a show together,which, you know, that's not as easy as it sounds because we live a thousand miles apart.
So we're going to do a double headline show and I want to know is that coming?
Is the Viscount coming?
uh
not because I'm not driving and I'm flying.
(42:44):
I think I'm going to risk the Made X on the flight.
I'm not sure I risked the Viscount.
Probably what I would do.
Yeah.
That's probably what I would do.
Yeah.
It's a shame.
So no, thank you all out there for listening.
Do drop us a line anytime at editor at keyboard chronicles.com.
are on all the socials.
We're on sub stack.
We're on Patreon where we appreciate your support as well.
But yeah, look, keep on playing and until next time we look forward to speaking.
Welcome to the Keyboard Chronicles podcast.
For keyboard players, I'm your host, David Holloway, and I'm pumped as always to be herewith you.
And my brother in arms is back amongst a very busy, busy schedule.
How are you, sir?
I'm glad to be back.
I've been having massive FOMO, not being able to be part of the last couple of interviewsand they sounded wonderful.
can't wait to hear them when they come out because as we record this, they haven't beenreleased yet.
(00:30):
But David, I'm glad to be back.
Yes.
And it's good to be back with Mr.
Robbie Jeanette.
So as you'll hear, we cover quite a bit of ground with Robbie as always.
He's undertaken the ambitious task this year of releasing 10 albums in one year.
We definitely talk about that, let alone his career as a touring musician and as aneducator too, that we do have a lot of interesting chats about educating and notation
(00:53):
versus by year and all sorts of interesting stuff as well.
So no, it was a pleasure talking with Robbie.
I'll let you listen to him and we'll talk to you after the show.
Robbie, it's a pleasure to have you on the show, sir.
(01:14):
How you doing?
Good, thank you
Yeah, good.
Thank you.
I thought we'd kick off.
You've got one hell of a year coming up, Robbie.
You've announced that you, I'd call it a creative tsunami of releasing 10 albums thisyear.
So I know one of them is already out and we've had listened to that and it's great.
So tell us a little bit about what you've got planned for this year.
(01:36):
So I recorded all of this music about six years ago.
My house had burned down in a fire, which was tricky.
I lost my instruments, a lot of my previous art and memorabilia and all that, my studiospace and all that.
And then the pandemic locked down soon after.
It's kind of a one-two punch.
So in this period of turmoil, trying to get back home and then being locked down to home,I had a lot of time to reflect and focus.
(02:00):
And I was working with very minimal tools, but
my creative juices were flowing and I just started writing all these songs and recordingthem as I went, not even thinking I was going to release these, just recording them for my
own purposes.
They were like my soundtrack to dealing with all of this.
And oh as time went by and I got to this past year, I decided that I was going to releaseall this music.
(02:23):
Why?
Because all of these songs are done.
They're my songwriting and performances and whatnot.
I could have waited to get into some big studio like back in the day, we all have thatmentality, but
Honestly, I feel these are great representations of my songs.
I like to produce myself because then if I want the base up, I put the base up.
I'm getting my version of me, if you will.
lot of times with producers, they'll get their version of you rather than a better versionof your version of you.
(02:47):
So we worked through that.
But as I put these songs together in the structure of albums, which is the era that I grewup in, it just felt right.
And actually I've been watching a lot of clips from Rick Rubin and I'd read his book oncreativity and it really spurred me to say,
Why hold back?
Why not do this?
Why not just go for it?
And so I'm two albums into a 10 album roll and that's actually leading to another projectthat I had started work on right before the fire in a studio.
(03:16):
So it's like all of this happened after that and it's leading up to that.
So it's a interesting flip flop, but really why hold back nowadays, right?
Why hold back anything.
That's right.
just, I'm fascinated.
mentioned Rick Rubin's book.
And if you look over one of my shoulders, you'll see it actually sitting there with thegray book there.
So tell us what you particularly took from that.
(03:37):
Cause Rick is a bit of a Zen sort of guy.
He talks very broadly about concepts and so on.
So yeah, what did you take from that that did help you with this project?
tell you the biggest inspiration was, you know, release things, just put it out and thenput the next thing out and then the next thing.
And also really, again, you're doing it for yourself.
Other people are going to hear it.
Other people are going to see it, but really you're creating this for yourself and allthis music I had created for myself.
(04:02):
really rang true in that uh respect.
And he just kind of gave me the freedom to just say, you know what, I'm going to put allthis music out and then more music after that.
And once I bring these songs to the live stage, that will kind of
take it to its natural next step.
But I really, I felt like I'm sitting on all these songs.
I've written probably over 800 songs in my catalog and most haven't been released.
(04:26):
And so I decided to remedy that by putting all these albums together.
I created all the album art.
I recorded everything but about four drum tracks.
had a great friend of mine, Michael Jerome, a wonderful drummer, play on a couple of tunesI needed, but everything else is me from top to bottom, writing, performing, recording,
Did it.
and that's why my mom says discipline.
(04:46):
Yeah, you're clearly very disciplined and very productive, I think is a lesson we can alltake as musicians, because it can be easy to procrastinate or find reasons not to do
things.
So I think we really admire this dedication to releasing material.
Every musician has that fear.
Every artist probably is it good enough?
What if I release it and nobody cares yada yada?
(05:09):
Rick Rubin just get it out there.
Just put it out and then put the next thing out.
Don't even while they're looking at that thing.
You're already under the next.
I'm fully in that mode and it feels great and I love these songs.
I've been sitting with them for a couple of years and they've been my soundtracks.
So now it's very interesting to have other people hearing, you know songs that were verypersonal.
Well, that's actually the next thing I wanted to ask you about.
(05:29):
clearly, as you said, the creative process was to some degree driven by a reallychallenging circumstance at the house, not having all the tools and instruments you might
have normally had.
And clearly that sparked the muse in you to get creative.
these albums get released, what sort of a journey will we be taking on as a listener tomatch your focus?
(05:50):
Well, there's multiple journeys woven in.
One of the things that happens as these albums unfold is the styles change to where by theend of this year, you'll have even less of an idea what to call me, what to label me, how
to categorize me.
And ultimately I feel that the greatest artists are categorizable or labelable only bytheir name.
(06:11):
And so when you hear music by David Bowie, is it rock, jazz, cabaret, soul, funk, blues?
Yes.
My next record, which comes out in April, there's a song that is the most Steely Dan songI could have ever possibly tried to and achieved to write.
It's like, just channeled my Fagin and that's going to come as a big change to the stuffjust before it.
(06:32):
And I love that.
And then there's a lot of synth oriented stuff that's coming later.
So it's very hard in my mind to tag what it is I'm actually doing.
So this journey is for me about not redefining myself or even defining myself.
It's about challenging the
idea of what actually defines somebody.
And so in the lyrics, in the music, there's a lot of things I want people to hear.
(06:55):
And I feel like as a lyricist, the people that I aspire to, that I read, that I chew into,that Neil Peart and Bob Dylan and Bernie Toppin, these are the people that I want to be in
the realm of.
So I take my writing seriously.
Sometimes, as you know, with a line you might
go for a rhyme and it changes the whole meaning of the line and you step back and you go,okay, that's great.
(07:16):
I didn't even mean that, but there it is.
So there's a certain extent to that, but I think the journey is not so much, whoa, whathappened to me?
It's more about getting through it and coming out on the other side with more than before,you know?
Love it.
No, that's, that's brilliant.
And obviously, I mean, to get to the stage of releasing this amount of material, you'vegot many years of, of chops and touring and performance behind you.
(07:42):
So I do want to cover that off a little bit.
So I mean, you mentioned before we started recording, you've been to Australia on tour.
So let's just talk about a couple.
And I'm actually at the end of this segment, Robbie, going to ask you to identify who arehighlights for you.
Cause we, it's easy for us to pick out.
You alleged big names, but they're not always the most memorable playing and performanceexperiences, but we will start with the big names.
(08:04):
So let's talk about your amazing sort of time with Lisa Marie Presley.
sort of around, I around 10 years ago, 10 to 12 years ago.
Tell us about how that came about and what you learned from that experience.
That was an incredible experience.
I came about that my friend Damon Fox, who was playing keyboards with her, had anopportunity to be a musical director on a TV show with Linda Perry, who we also worked
(08:28):
with.
So he engaged me as a sub and it was for less than a month, but I had to rehearse andpractice as if I was going out for a year because it was two keyboards on the right, know,
a piano on the left, a sampler where I had to hit the D key at the second bar.
and sing harmonies.
was a, had my work cut out for me.
It was one of those kind of gymnastic gigs.
(08:49):
It was just one keyboard.
That would be one thing, but I had to literally do all this crazy stuff, but it was great.
And the shows wound up with a performance in Graceland in the jungle room, which wasfilmed and it was done for Dodge trucks or something like that.
It's not online now.
I can't find it and I'm dying to see it again, but we set up in the jungle room and I wasjust.
(09:10):
hanging out and then I looked up and there's Priscilla Presley leaning against the wall.
It kind of hit me for a moment, the gravity of where I was, then I just kind of wiped itoff.
after all was said and done and we were breaking down, I walked out and I had a nicemoment at night alone by Elvis's grave just to give him my respects and regards.
you know, these little moments happen because of the music and where you went, but she wasa very interesting person to be in her circle and work with and she treated me very nice.
(09:39):
I have nothing but nice things to say.
Yeah, no, absolutely.
I mean, going from one extreme to the other, Robbie, mean, Lisa Marie to Everclear isanother one I know a band you've played with.
I'm obviously quite a guitar-driven band, but what, again, what was your role there andwhat were your learnings?
So much like I played with a band called Seven Mary Three, I played both keyboards andguitar.
So I kind of whatever they needed me to do.
(10:00):
And I sang a lot of backup harmonies.
So with Everclear, I came in and this is actually, I got a lesson from the Everclear tour.
They said to me, learn all the rock stuff.
And I had all these different albums of theirs.
So I started charting out all the rock stuff.
And then they sent me a set list the night before on the flight to Portland had 40 tuneson a 10, which I haven't even touched.
(10:21):
So I make my charts.
and I go and I fly and I roll in with my rolly bag to the club.
All the equipment's set up, band's about a half an hour out, right?
I go up, the keyboard setup's all set up, guitars get handed to you, you know, it's nice.
You don't have to change a string.
So I hit the keyboard, it's all nice.
He goes, yeah, you just switch and the next song comes up.
It's beautifully set up.
So I hit the guitar and I hit the keyboard and I said, is this guitar tuned down?
(10:44):
He goes, yeah, the whole set's tuned down a half step.
So now I have 28.
to re-chart 40 songs a half step down, which on guitar, that's not a problem.
Keyboard, that's an entirely different world.
And so all that I had done with my teaching and learning, writing my book, The Key of Oneand whatnot saved me because I was able to chart 40 songs, band walks in, hey, how you
(11:06):
doing?
We start playing and everything went according to plan because of how I had preparedmyself for that kind of instance, or for any instance really, but.
That was the ultimate test.
And afterwards I said to myself, all right, now I feel like I've done somethingprofessional and you know, my, I, what I do and what I teach and how I'm thinking it
works.
So it's a lot of what I taught later on at musicians Institute to a lot of differentmusicians, mostly in private counseling, because the official music education didn't
(11:34):
really have a place for what I was teaching, which was all the stuff that they leave out.
And we're definitely going to cover that off to Robbie as well.
mean, just on that, I mean, my first go-to with half an hour to go and everything beingdown half a step is to go for the transpose, but given the complexity of the rig, it's not
as easy as just sitting at transpose button.
So it's not worth the risk.
And people who get used to charts, I mean, they sent me albums that weren't out yet.
(11:56):
There were no charts.
So even if you make charts and you show up with charts spread out, it's not the way to doit.
I had a lot of students actually at MI that were very much into charting and I'm notdenigrating charting or notation, but I said, you're going to show up to an audition.
There's going to be 10 other people there to play that same role and none of them aregoing to have charts.
So, you know, the charts are to learn and then you put them away.
(12:19):
So that's where the rubber meets the road.
You know, when it works, works.
And when it doesn't, you lose the gig.
ah
No, exactly.
And Robbie, so standouts throughout your performance career of, so I've, I've, I've listedtwo, but just fascinated on what stood out to you as, particularly memorable gigs or
people you've worked with, collaborators and so on.
(12:40):
I mean, there is a long list and some of them are one-off things.
got to play with Alan Parsons.
One night I got to jam with Robbie Krieger and some of the guys from Little Feet, know,different things like that.
But when I toured with Nick Lachey when he was a big pop star, we did one of thoseChristmas shows where they have all the stars of the time.
And I played a sold out Madison Square Garden and hung out with Bruce Springsteen.
(13:04):
you know, it was like, that was one of those nights.
I'd say Graceland.
is another.
That was a pretty big moment.
But look, you when you're out on your first tour and you play, you know, uh a storiedvenue for the first time and some of the venues I played early on, I played CBGBs, I
played the limelight, you know, they're long gone, but dear to my heart.
You mentioned before, uh Key of One, and we'd love to explore the philosophy behind thatand what that is for our listeners and viewers.
(13:29):
before we do, I'd like to take this right back.
We always love to ask all our guests about their musical upbringing and what influencedyou right at the start as a young person and your formative years and that journey that
got you to where you are today.
So if you could share a bit of that with us.
I would say that my parents having an old piano in my house, an acoustic piano, the one Ithink my dad learned on when he was growing up, not a great piano, but a piano was the
(13:54):
absolute portal to my future because it was not a situation where I was being pushed intolessons or I was going to school for it.
I I took lessons from six to 14 and then quit and I'm self-taught.
So I just had a love for it.
And actually one of the last teachers I had, this guy Rick, who I still would love to findand I've never located him again.
(14:15):
And at the end of each lesson of what he was supposed to teach me, he would teach me someblues or boogie woogie riffs.
And then come back the next week and say, so did you do your work?
I said, no, but listen, and I do the riffs.
And at that point, he should have probably just started teaching me every single coolthing he knew and let the rest fly.
But long story short, it started my love for boogie woogie and blues piano playing.
also grew up, my parents played a lot of Billy Joel and Elton John.
(14:38):
And that at the, you know, as you grow up, those are kind of the ones who piano man, youknow,
rock and roll guys and you can't help but want to emulate that kind of thing.
also was a huge fan of Rush, I still am.
And so that's when I picked up the bass, which is my second main instrument and uh know,Geddy Lee bass and keyboards.
And then years later learning that it was actually Neil, the quiet guy and the drumswriting all the words.
(15:02):
That band was very, very instrumental and I, you know, learning and playing and listeningand first rock concert I went to without my parents.
First one with my parents was the Bee Gees.
So that's another
band that was on all the time growing up and a lot of that music and the sensibilities andthe harmonies, I mean, you just cannot help but be swept up in that.
(15:22):
So I did not go to college for music, but when I was in college, I was jamming withpeople.
And when I got back, I'd really decided that music was what I wanted to do.
And I started my first band and got my first tour and all that kind of stuff after that.
But it really was a matter as I'm sure you've talked to a lot of people.
I had no choice.
I needed.
to play music and it was all I wanted to do.
(15:45):
And so here I am.
So tell us about that part of your journey.
as you said, you're at college, you're not studying music, music is drawing you to it.
You're jamming, you're forming bands.
What does that look like for you at the time and how does that morph into...
I'll tell you that there's a word that I will give you and to me it is the ultimate driverof success in any arena, but especially in music and that is curiosity.
(16:13):
So I was a curious musician.
So I went to as many concerts as I could when I was in my teenage years.
And when I went to college, I did the same thing.
I actually had a roommate who was really into heavy metal.
And so he had all these different cassettes and I had a car and he didn't.
So I drive us to see different bands and stuff like that.
And then after college, I just started seeing every band I could.
I
(16:33):
would drive around.
lived in Florida, that's where I grew up.
So I would drive to different cities and see music.
I knew how to get tickets, stay out in line for tickets for the metal shows.
So I'd go get tickets for the Almond Brothers that way and get up in the third row.
And I got to see a lot of people that are no longer with us, but every single time that Isaw a show, I needed more.
(16:57):
playing music, listening to music, jamming with friends, getting with other people who hada love for music and sharing stuff.
A good friend of mine, Frank down in Florida was a blues guy, go over his house and hewould just play me all these different types of blues music that I described.
I was self-educating.
I was an auto-didact on every level.
And when I was about early 20s, I went to a record store, which they still exist outthere, I'm sure, and a guy, Bob Perry, who's still down there in Miami, Blue Note, and I
(17:25):
went in and I said, Bob,
I need jazz." what do mean?
said, well, I grew up in rock and roll and I don't have any jazz in my life.
And I know it's really important music and there's all these luminaries and stuff, butit's like an ocean and I don't know where to dip my foot in.
He said, well, what do you think of when you think of jazz?
It kind of the saxophone and a dark smokey club.
I mean, I had no reference at all.
(17:46):
He said, well, I'll put something on, walk around, let me know what you think.
I came back up.
I loved it.
It was Kind of Blue, which is a great entry level album for people.
So I took that home and then I started to, you you branch out from there and like, Ireally like Paul Chambers.
And then you find them on the Roy Haynes rev, you you, do that.
But also around that time, I got into really hard, the Crusaders and a band called stuffat a New York and both of those bands were doing session work, tons of session work.
(18:14):
So I started branching out in the jazz funk soul seventies, eighties era.
to all that stuff, just following Richard T and following Joe Sample and following EricGale and started to find other records.
now I have a huge album collection and I have kind of a phonogenic memory.
So everything I've ever heard is really accessible in my mind.
(18:36):
Yeah.
Wow.
And that probably applies really well, Robbie.
mean, you've given some great insights into your upbringing and you mentioned before aboutlessons.
So let's talk a little bit about Kia One and the website and the book and so on.
just, I know it's hard to encapsulate, but just your broad philosophy on teaching someoneto learn music.
I will tell you the broad philosophy is notation is not music.
(19:00):
Notation is a phonetic language.
And I want to always go on record and say, I have no problem with notation.
I don't denigrate it.
People who read well, do well with it.
The problem is when you're only reading and you take away the sheet music and you'resitting in front of a piece of furniture, that's bad.
So when I looked at that and I looked at how things came easily to me, I had to reverseengineer how I was thinking.
(19:23):
I realized that we don't teach music as a language and everybody I've ever asked in theentire world, hey, do you think music is a language?
No one's ever said no.
If we're going to teach music as a language, then we have to look at the mechanics of alanguage.
So when you grow up, the first word you say, mama or whatever it is, and then everythingthat you learn from every book you read, every song, every person that speaks, every
colloquialism, every, everything you learn, all the vocabulary is in your brain, but theact of speaking is improvisatory.
(19:51):
you don't pull a script out your pocket to say, how do you do to anybody?
So if improvisation is the main mechanic of a language skill, and we're going to teachmusic as a language skill, then that has to be a big part of the way that we start.
And the way that I was started in lessons is here's the sheet music, every good boy doesfine.
And there was no place for that.
And at Musicians Institute, it was very similar in all the theory and the harmonic minorand all this stuff.
(20:15):
And none of it was sinking in.
I'd have people come into counseling crying.
and I'd sit with them and I'd talk to them and I'd say, look, let's really figure outwhat's going on here.
And it's very easy to get, especially younger students, into improvising and into singingand scat singing and stuff like that.
And to me as a teacher, I need to do two things.
(20:35):
One, give the correct information and the whole picture, but two, increase the curiosity.
Because that's, if you're curious, you will dig, you will find, you will go, you will, youknow, search.
And do you think over time, Robbie, and this is coming from someone who also can't sightread or remotely go close to it.
Um, do you think over time, the necessity of charts in most areas of music has actuallylessened?
(21:00):
So I understand there are things like stage musicals and so on where you can argue chartsare still pivotal, but yeah, I mean, do you think it's lessened over time overall?
I mean, outside of classical music and outside of music for film and TV and musicalsmaybe, when do you go see a band, rock, soul, funk, whatever, that all has charts up on
(21:23):
stage?
I mean, you really don't.
So the idea of being able to read charts, I I came full circle because when I wasfinishing up at Musicians Institute, these albums that I was working on for myself, it's
all orchestrated and I wanted to do it myself.
took classes, continuing education requirements at MI in orchestration.
I took classes in everything Afro Cuban drumming.
(21:44):
really took a lot of classes to enrich myself, but then I worked with great musicians whotaught me further better how to chart.
So now I can write great string charts.
And I've also the past couple of decades, I've been playing out here in a thing called theValley Ragtime Stomp, which is on hiatus right now because we lost our place, but that was
really important because I started to learn standards, which I never did growing up.
(22:07):
So it was all about music from before the 50s.
So I had to really dig and find tunes that I could get with.
So even now I'm learning stuff, not just by ear or by chords, but off of sheet music andcharts to keep my skills up and to learn new things.
I've just got the Charleston under my fingers and just working through things because itinterests me and I love it.
(22:28):
And it's fun.
But I also in that, that pursuit of making myself better at things that I want to bebetter at and
If I can chart for strings, now I can chart for horns and I'm working with that, butthat's not concert pitch.
know, so all these albums that I'm doing forced me to make charts and then to look at myown songs in a way I never had, which is, yeah, there's, you know, a bar of five there.
(22:52):
And I didn't even think about that, you know, cause I'm just playing the piano.
So it was, was really important, but going full circle back charts are not what I thinkare of main importance now for most music.
And I think.
especially in DJ culture and EDM and all that kind of stuff.
There's not even musicianship is necessary, but I know great musicians who can read chartsamazing.
(23:15):
know unbelievable musicians who can't read a chart at all.
But I think that there's something to be said for educating oneself and, you know, keepingyour skillset wide.
Robbie you gave us a word before, curiosity and just listening to you give that lastanswer that I can see that curiosity still burns within you.
You're constantly learning and listening and growing.
How do you pass that gift of curiosity onto your students?
(23:38):
You know, I like to think in the realm of Dick Van Dyke and Willy Wonka and you have to belike exuding, I mean, it has to be coming out of your pores.
And when I had taught to some elementary and charter school classes a couple of years backand that was really instructive and eye-opening, but I always was getting them into the
(23:59):
music and talking about the stories.
And when I think back on the teachers that I had,
The ones that were the most exciting were the ones that would jump up on the desk andraise the imaginary sword and bring it to life.
And so I wanted to always give people that excitement and sharing music and hear andlisten to this and let's talk about this and let's watch this and look at this guy play
and listen to what this person did.
(24:20):
And so you don't know what's going to be somebody else's spirit animal.
might not be Richard T or it might not be Elton John, but you also have to recognize that.
everybody's going to have a different level of interest and some people may beintrinsically uncurious and what can you do?
But I think everybody can be made to be a little bit more curious, let alone a lot.
(24:43):
then who knows what can happen.
That's right.
No, we'll put, oh mean, all this talk about charts for a lot of us growing up in the lateseventies and eighties into the nineties.
If we weren't reading charts, the equivalent of charts for us were keyboard magazine,because at least you could check out the gear and also learn a lot of great theory and
other stuff as well.
(25:03):
So obviously you were a senior contributor at keyboard magazine.
Tell us about how that relationship developed.
And obviously keyboard magazine is no more.
I know it sort of sits within the music.
developed on a day or I used to go to the NAMM show all the time, which I don't anymore.
And back in 98, I was on an early tour, young guy out on the road and I fell on a piece ofglass and it severed all the tendons to my finger and I had to get operated on and I
(25:27):
finished the tour left-handed.
was a wild experience.
And I was at the NAMM show and I was talking to musician magazine and I ended up writing apiece for them on what happens when you get injured on the road without insurance.
And then
I went up to keyboard and I was like, you you guys should have this and this and this andthis.
And they're like, well, why don't you write it?
And I'm like, maybe I'd love to.
So I ended up doing a thing once a month where I would bring out an old record and tellpeople about it why they should listen to it and got to share a lot of things that I love.
(25:55):
But um then I got, know, when I got to interview people and get into their studio space orgo see the show and talk to them on stage, you know, I have no shortage of questions.
So whether I'm in George Duke's studio or, you know, Devo's studio or wherever I am, mean,
I have a million things I can ask and I got to interview Donald Fagan once and I had ahalf an hour and it ended up going for 45 minutes because we just got wrapped up in a
(26:17):
conversation.
Cause I asked him not is there gas in the car or whatever people would ask him, but Isaid, you know, the night fly was set in the fifties and comic carry out is set in the
future.
Do I detect some sort of a sci-fi timeline?
And we got into talking about science fiction and Alfred Bester and how he thoughtHeinlein was a fascist and all this great stuff.
So
You know, mean, that time at Keyboard Magazine was amazing, but so much of it was just mesaying, hey, what if, hey, how about this?
(26:43):
Hey, how about that?
And the next thing you know, I'm up at 5 a.m.
getting a phone or from Steve Winwood going, my gosh, I can't believe I'm talking toSteve.
That's amazing.
which editors did you work under Robbie?
I haven't gone back through my archive.
my well, um, I all of them Mitch Gallagher Ernie ride out Steve for yeah, maybe Dominic Imean I have to go back and see who was there But I know who was there last Yeah, and that
(27:09):
was a sad ending.
I mean, I love that magazine now the archives aren't even available online
No, I look, yeah, there's been so many chats over the years about, I mean, think there wasmusines were talking about digitizing the whole archive.
I'm yet to see that happen yet.
It's so needs to happen.
don't know how we make it happen.
oh
And really interesting information, great articles, great information charts, differentthings.
(27:32):
mean, should all be available.
Even digitising all the plastic records.
Like, you know, I'd love to see all that stuff.
Yes.
So no, thanks, Robbie, for that.
Yeah, over to you, Paul.
Well, I was just reflecting on the fact that when one reads your writing, Robbie, and Ireally encourage our listeners to do so, and we'll put some links in the show notes in
relation to that.
(27:53):
I get a sense of real love for and care for language and words.
And you actually started off talking about music as a language.
I'm interested in as someone who has uh obviously written professionally in terms of wordson a page, but also writing words for music.
And you mentioned earlier, like one word
a rhyme can change the meaning or an interpretation of a line.
(28:14):
I'm just fascinated in your perspective of that and then maybe the juxtaposition writingprose, writing songs, your thoughts on that and how that links.
tell you, I've always been a voracious reader.
I've always had a bookshelf and books around me.
My mom dropped me at the library.
I mean, could not stop reading.
So a lot of the writers who affected me early on, whether it was Roald Dahl's book growingup, reading the different Danny Champion of the World and Charlie and the Chocolate
(28:41):
Factory or Lord of the Rings, which I'm currently reading out loud to my son after a longjourney of reading, kind of in the, I think the last hundred pages of The Return of the
King.
I just always loved literature.
I'd say poetry, Charles Bukowski was a very big touchstone for me because I hadn't readsomebody that wrote like that.
And he's still, I don't want to use the term spirit animal, but he's still one of thosepeople that I can get into his writing and really there's such a raw humanity in there.
(29:10):
But I read a lot of fiction, read a lot of nonfiction, but I love great writing.
love great turn of phrase and I love language.
I speak Spanish as well and
You know, that's a fun language to engage in and I've written some music in Spanish andwhatnot but really it's just a love of language a love of words a love of rhymes a love of
tumbling things around and turning things I love writing lyrics because When you're tryingto truncate a thought into a single line and make that line kill You really got to boil it
(29:40):
down when you look at hip-hop.
It's more like okay.
We need 2 000 lines stretch stretch stretch
Um, and there's great rappers who have amazing skills, uh, in that respect.
I've done some hip hop stuff in my past and written rap, and that's a different kind of achallenge because it is tons of space to fill while a song, especially the chorus of a
song, you're really getting down to like uh a one thought that really transcends, youknow, I love a good turn of a phrase.
(30:07):
love just hearing somebody sing something that means something.
And I love songs as delivery systems for thoughts.
Because I think you sing a song, you're not conscious so much of what you're singing.
And some of those thoughts can really seep into the brain.
love asking questions in my songs because then the listener asks the question tothemselves and your brain circles around on that.
(30:28):
You know, I mean, some songs are great for singing out loud together, you know, and BobMarley wrote, get up, stand up, stand up for your rights.
Nobody went around saying that.
And then there's everybody's saying it out loud to themselves and each other.
So the power of a song beyond any book to me is.
killer delivery system, is why I keep writing songs and working at it.
(30:49):
Yeah, thank you for that answer.
A wonderful perspective.
You remind me of I read an interview with Isaac Asimov, the great science fiction writer,and he said, very similar to what you just said, he said, writing a short story is so much
harder than writing a novel because you've got to place each word behind the list of thereader's ear or in their pocket.
So you've to choose the words carefully.
So I think that aligns with your philosophy on writing a song.
(31:10):
You've got a short amount of time to really get maximum power with those words.
Right.
And then sometimes you, you know, you might need a filler word and again, it changes themeaning or sometimes you're looking for rhyme, you find the rhyme, you, you know, back
right the line and then you've said something that you didn't intend.
that's why it's hard.
You know, if you're listening to my songs, it's not like I'm saying like I did this andthis happened to me.
(31:30):
It's thoughts and things swirling around.
Ultimately, I think the songwriter wants their songs to fit into the lives of the listenerin a way where
I take myself out of the way.
When Elton John's on stage singing How Wonderful Life Is, Cause You're in the World, he'sthinking about what's a catering afterwards.
Everybody else in the audience, the you is something different.
Their lover, their friend, their god, their dog, their parent, whatever.
(31:53):
So I love the idea of a song, and especially the lyric, being open enough to differentinterpretations and multiple interpretations.
Yeah, wonderful.
And look, speaking of delivery systems for songs, we are of course all keyboard playersand keyboard nerds, us people on this podcast, so we need to ask you what are your
favorite keyboards at the moment?
So we're off screen where you can't see I had a Hohner D6 Clavinet and a Fender Rhodes 73.
(32:19):
I had a Wurlitzer burned in the fire, had a Minimoog burned in the fire.
had a lot of the synths that you'll hear on the records coming up.
98 % of them are in the program Reason, which is the program that I record in.
I love Reason.
It's been an amazing tool.
I work so quick in it.
saving templates and different things, but it's really become such an amazing tool.
(32:41):
I'm surprised more people don't use it out there, but I'm going to be the guy out thereshowing people what you can do with it.
But all this sense internally, and I know a little bit about enough of that synthesis totweak and, you know, not just use the, the, the sounds that come with it.
But I think it's a, it's a great program.
And that's been the bulk of what I've done after the fire.
(33:03):
A friend of mine at IK multimedia sent me this little iRig keyboard.
And that's what I've been using ever since.
That's been my interface.
So all the synths that I've played, everything except for one song on the current record,Sunday Driver, the solo I did on a little micro cord because it had a sound I could not
get anywhere else.
(33:23):
And I was really going for that Steve Winwood, Ark of a Diver, a Prophet kind of sound.
it just like literally the defaults.
I like, I just have to use this.
So um I did.
So there you go.
That's amazing.
And we have a standard question that sends shivers of dread through everyone.
It's the Desert Island Discs question, Robbie.
So what are five albums that if you have to pick them, what that you couldn't livewithout?
(33:47):
I'm so glad you asked and I'm going to go back to albums that opened me up when I wasyoung.
The first one, Jet Bec Blow by Blow.
I did come prepared.
Max Middleton, Clavinet, Rhodes, amazing record, but also musically amazing.
Every instrument George Martin produced and did the string arrangements.
I this is an all-time Desert Island disc for me.
(34:09):
I still listen to this and still marvel at it and groove to it.
Again, my parents grew me up on Elton John.
So we listened to like
greatest hits and some of the records.
But once I started acquiring my own, this was the Bible.
111770.
If you're a piano player, not a keyboard player, piano player, and I am, and I should saymy main piano is a Kawhi upright that I have, which I love.
(34:30):
I've been a Kawhi player for a long time.
My main stage keyboard is an older Kawhi MP piano.
this album, take me to the pilot.
mean, every riff and lick that he's doing on here, this is a wealth.
If there's a...
piano player out there watching and they're like, I've never heard of that record.
Run, don't walk, right?
So with Billy Joel, I could bring out both 52nd Street and The Stranger, but I probablywould say that Songs from the Attic, where he went back and did his earlier stuff, left an
(35:01):
equally big mark.
I I'll always love these records and Zanzibar, Rosalind, Desize, all that.
I mean, they're ingrained in my psyche, but the Songs from the Attic was cool.
It's live.
Seeing the lights go out on Broadway, all that kind of stuff, all the early songs, thatreally opened me up into the Billy Joel world.
So I'd say for Billy, that magic period, was big for me.
(35:22):
Third, this is not a record most people would pick.
Crusaders, this is a record called Images.
I got this on cassette for no reason other than I just picked it up and I probablylistened to this record a thousand times.
I love it.
And it's not one of their best known records.
And actually the second song on the record,
When I made mixed CDs, I would skip it because it's like a snoozer.
(35:42):
It should have been the last one on the record, know, like, like Diamond Dust on Blue EyedBlue.
But this one or or Dust on Archibald Diver.
But this album, Joe Sample, all of the playing, everything about it, just I come back toit.
I know all the sax lines.
I can sing them.
And I'm going to give you one that's way out of the box.
But to me, this was one of the most important records of my youth, not just for therecord, but the movie as well.
(36:07):
Yeah.
much lambasted, much derided, but the greatest Beatles indoctrination tool ever made forchildren.
I guarantee you, you put this movie and this album on for kids, they will love The Beatlesforever.
a um lot of people in, when this movie came out, evidently didn't like it.
They thought it was cheesy.
Who knew the seventies cheesy and they thought it was making fun of The Beatles andwhatnot.
(36:31):
But when you look at this record, when you look at the credits on it, mean, George Martinproduced Jeff Emmerich engineered
You have the Tower, Power, Horns.
You have basically, okay, so I'm not gonna go into the whole story, but when Jeff Beck didBlow by Blow, he came over to the States without the rhythm section, Phil Chen and Richard
(36:51):
Bailey, and he ended up getting a band together with Bernard Purdy on drums and one of myfavorite all-time bass players, Wilbur Bascom, on bass.
After that was all done, he had gone back to England, was playing with this bandHummingbird, George Martin called, said, hey, I'm doing this Beatles movie, and I want you
to come over.
and I got Bernard and I got Wilbur and I want you to bring Robert Hawaii, your guitarplayer and hummingbird.
(37:12):
So the band on this Sgt.
Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club band soundtrack is the American Blow by Blow touring band witha different guitar player.
And then the credits on this, Jeff Beck's in there and Larry Carlton's in there.
It's like, you know, and Peter Frampton and the Bee Gees.
It's like, what is there not to like?
But I love those versions.
I love it.
(37:32):
You know, that movie opened me to Aerosmith.
That movie opened me to Earth, Wind and Fire.
Super important and any kid that grows up with that as my kids did just falls in love withit.
anybody out there who's some dude in their 60s or 70s who's still hating on that movie,cut it.
I think that's no, couldn't agree more, Robbie.
(37:53):
And I think that's a great way to, to encapsulate our chat today because I mean, yourpassion for, for that movie and your passion just for music and curiosity, as you
mentioned, it is obviously infectious.
And I have no doubt has had an impact on a bunch of students and other people throughoutthe years.
And we certainly appreciate the time we spent with you.
can't thank you enough for that.
(38:14):
And we're looking forward to seeing well.
As you know, another 8 albums to come this year and looking forward to seeing what comesbeyond that.
Yes, anybody out there who's into music, I hope you will tune in because it's not just onething.
It's kind of a little something for everybody.
So I'm really looking forward to you guys hearing it.
And I'd love to circle back towards the end of the year and see what you thought.
(38:43):
And there we have it.
yeah, look, that was a really fun chat.
Robbie certainly had lots of fascinating perspectives and I just love his perspective oneducating and times have certainly changed with music and I think we've got to adapt.
No doubt about it and I love the passion that clearly came through.
You know, he was talking about the teacher that metaphorically jumps up on the table andswings the invisible sword is the one who inspires him.
(39:06):
And I feel like he has so much energy and enthusiasm for and passion for his educationthat I would love to be a student in his class.
I'm sure it'll be a wonderful experience.
Absolutely.
And look, I know we side swiped into Keyboard Magazine a little bit, but given themajority of our audience of a mature age, sort of over the age of 35, most of us remember
(39:28):
Keyboard Magazine and some of us were there from the very start.
I wasn't, but I was there from sort of the early eighties.
It was such an iconic part of all our lives as keyboard players.
And I know I had the privilege only twice of writing articles.
um
I remember just pitching Ernie right out over and over and finally him agreeing to givingme a go and just doing two articles for keyboard magazine and thinking, well, I've died
(39:50):
and gone to heaven.
Let alone someone like Robbie, who was a senior contributor, who was doing a lot morework.
Yeah, it was just an amazing part of our lives.
Well, I think for a lot of keyboard players of our vintage and similar, David, KeyboardMagazine was very, very formative for a lot of us.
And times have changed now.
(40:11):
So we can all be writers for Keyboard Magazine in our own blogs and websites.
And so listeners and viewers, that's a reminder to make sure that you get onto, there'smore to us than just the podcast.
Get onto our website.
And David's written some really wonderful articles there.
There's also some other little contributions that you can check out.
We've a couple.
That's right.
(40:31):
You've written a couple and we're now doing the Weekend Warrior profile.
So if you'd just like to even checking out fellow players, we've got about seven or eightof them and many more to come.
we get a chance, we've had a lot of responses.
So it is worth checking out.
So that's keyboardchronicles.com.
But otherwise, thank you for listening and a huge thanks to our gold and silversupporters.
So particular shout outs to the wonderful Tammy Katcher from Tammy's Musical Studio.
(40:55):
Thank you as always, Tammy.
Um, the brilliant Mike at midnight mastering.
know you've mentioned before, Paul, you've been working with Mike.
Hey, we've nearly finished our project as we record this and it's coming up really good soI can't recommend Mike.
Two things, one the quality of what he's doing is wonderful but the second thing is veryeasy to deal with and communicates really well.
(41:17):
He gets onto things quickly so very professional in his demeanor as well as his output soI can't recommend him highly enough David.
Excellent.
The brilliant Dewey Evans from the sunny land of Wales, as I'd like to say each episodenow, shout out to you Dewey.
And last but definitely not least, Dave Bryce and the team at the musicplayer.com forums.
We always love hanging there and there's lots.
(41:39):
And Paul, I'm going on a road trip tomorrow to drive about an hour and half north of whereI am to pick up my Viscount Legend I organ and I'm excited.
So you need to, I don't know what we need to do, are we doing a live stream or whetherwe're dovetailing into one of these little chats we have in the podcast, but we need a
review.
Yeah, I have to do a review.
(41:59):
Maybe first gig.
I've got a gig coming up in about a month where I will try and bring it and do a bit of amini review and read through of the legends.
And it is wasted on me.
not just being modest.
I'm not much of an organ player and I feel bad because they're only few came to Australiaand I managed to just by fluke that my music shop managed to get one.
So you're very pleased to and yeah, we'll do that.
(42:22):
Will it come to Adelaide?
for those who don't know, David's band and my band, we're going to play a show together,which, you know, that's not as easy as it sounds because we live a thousand miles apart.
So we're going to do a double headline show and I want to know is that coming?
Is the Viscount coming?
uh
not because I'm not driving and I'm flying.
(42:44):
I think I'm going to risk the Made X on the flight.
I'm not sure I risked the Viscount.
Probably what I would do.
Yeah.
That's probably what I would do.
Yeah.
It's a shame.
So no, thank you all out there for listening.
Do drop us a line anytime at editor at keyboard chronicles.com.
are on all the socials.
We're on sub stack.
We're on Patreon where we appreciate your support as well.
But yeah, look, keep on playing and until next time we look forward to speaking.
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