March 23, 2025 • 39 mins
Andy James is a Flamenco/Jazz Vocalist, Dancer + Artist. Andy joins me to talk about her time growing up in Melbourne, Australia, recording, touring + more! Her new album, "Happy People" was released on March 7, 2025. Get the album wherever you get music and on her website.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello, Hello, Hello, and welcome to TFTC. This is my
little corner of the world over to you. Thank you
for joining me today. This is exciting. I speak with
somebody who is into flamenco and jazz. Her name is
Andy James, touring the United States as I'm speaking here
in early March of twenty twenty five. Thank you so much.
(00:23):
We have such a great talk about how jazz and
flamenco are refused together to create this new album she
came out with called Happy People Get It. Wherever you
get music Andy James, just look her up. She tells
you the URL when we are speaking. It is just
a lot of fun. She's on the road as well.
She was speaking from Beverly Hills, California, so doing her thing.
(00:47):
It's really fun. And she's staying in a hotel that
allows cats to stay there, so I was really excited
about that as well. So March twenty fourth, here we are.
It is World Tuberculos this day. I mean maybe it's
for awareness. I don't think it's something you want to
really go ahead and celebrate, but something more to celebrate
as a National Cheesecake Day, which I don't really eat
(01:09):
that much. Cheesecake, but there's a day dedicated to that.
So here we are late March of twenty twenty five,
heading into where we already just got into spring, heading
more deeply into spring. Not looking forward to more severe
weather that is foreshore, which we get here in the
southeastern United States quite a bit actually as we head
(01:30):
into spring. So hopefully no damage, hopefully no tornadoes. Prayers
and hoping that nothing like that occurs. So again, thanks
for coming along here on my journey. Andy is just
a wonderful artist, a wonderful vocalist, also a flamenco dancer.
She's been doing this since she was nine years old,
(01:51):
been singing probably since she was about four. Her parents
were very, very very gifted as far as being artists,
and that's rubbed off on her obviously. So she grew
up in Melbourne, Australia. She's been all over the world,
so she's got a great diverse set of a background
for sure. So I hope you enjoy my chat with
(02:15):
the wonderful artist Andy James. I'll talk with you all
on the other side of this.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Last night.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
Okay, So you're on the road, You're in Beverly Hills.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
Yeah, we're in a hotel we have cats.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
Oh gosh, a cat friendly hotel.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Yeah, and I let us have them.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
Oh ok, you of cats. Yeah, I would always have
one come to the back door all the time, which
just sack out with me as I'm working here all day. Yeah. So,
how was your gig last night in Beverly Hills. Where
did you play?
Speaker 2 (02:53):
It was quite fun, it really was. It was packed.
We had two reviewers there. I loved it.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
Oh, excellent, excellent, great, So yeah you travel.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
It was so rainy and cold last night to not before.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
That's hard to believe. Yeah, and they needed the rain
out there in California. That's it's been so dry. And
then good excellent, Well, good to see that you're on
the road, you're touring, you're invigorated. It still seemed to
have energy. That's good. And thanks for joining me in
(03:31):
the morning. As we're talking, it's it's kind of early there. Yeah. Yeah,
well we get oh good, good. Yeah, you're not out
too late, I would say, no, good, Well, great to
see you and how much you're active. And you have
(03:53):
a great new album, Happy People. So an apropos title
at this time of the year or in our culture,
really not enough people are being happy, So I mean,
is that where did you get that title from?
Speaker 3 (04:09):
Oh, we just wanted to spread some good feelings and
you know, make people feel better about things, and we
want to feel happy ourselves.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
It's kind of tough time.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
So yeah, what was like recording the project? How long
did it take out?
Speaker 2 (04:26):
It took us four months.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
We recorded in Italy, we recorded in Seville, we recorded
in New York. A's fifteen Originals, So it took a while.
That's not counting the writing obviously.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
Right, been sort of something that we've been thinking about
for a long time because it's a mixture of flamenco and.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
Jazz.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
Been fusing flamenco and jazz, and there's a whole history
behind that, and it's an interesting combination. As you hear
in this new album, you could just really feel that fusion.
So you must have been inspired by those genres for
probably most of your life.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
That's exactly right.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
Since I was since I moved to Spain, and my
mother was a jazz singer too, so she'd loved to
seeing all sorts of different styles actually, and so I
was inspired by that. My father was a flamenco ficionado,
so we used to listen to a lot of flamenco
and a lot of jazz, and then we moved. I
met Piero, well, I met I moved to Spain, and
(05:33):
then I met Piero and then he moved to Spain
and we flamenco danced for quite a few years in
Spain with with some great artists, got with Theo and
from on Himnez and Antonio Canalez and a few others.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
So yeah, yeah, and you have a connection with chick Corea.
It's really just somebody who we just so admire here
in the stay. It's it's got to be so incredible
and inspiring.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
Yeah, he was wonderful. He was very encouraging.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
He would come to Spain and he'd come to the club.
We'd go to all night clubs called Candelas, and we'd
got out all night clubs and he thought he thought
it was a great idea, was very inspiring. So you
should do your flamenco jazz album and so that was great.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
It was very lucky.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
Yeah. Yeah, and this is sixteen tracks, happy People. It's
seventeen seventeen. Was there a bonus on there? I was?
I listened to it a few times.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
Yeah, I'm sorry, you're right. One didn't make it.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
It'll be the B side to a single. Maybe that's
the oh that happens. There's always a throwaway track in
there somewhere.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
There's two covers, yes, and flamenco version of Caravan, which
I don't think it's been done before.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
So that was great.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
Yeah, name of your very first album and you did
a reworking of that track for this is this is
your closing track Caravan?
Speaker 2 (07:01):
Yes, that's right, Yeah, we did it.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
We did in twenty eighteen, we released an album called
Caravan and we did a completely different.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
Version of it. But this flamenco version is something that
I wanted to do for it.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
It's always a lot of fun to do a cover
that's completely different to anything else that. I don't think
flamenco version of Caravan has been done before twelve eight
twelve eight.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
So what inspired you to do two covers for this?
Besim mucho in Caravan? Were those two tracks just really
special to you? Is that something that you always aspire
to do or you did live and then you finally said, okay,
now we're going to put this on an album.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
Best know, Muto is one of my favorite songs. It's
one of the most.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Romantic songs I've ever heard, so and I sing it
in Spanish, so.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
Because I speak Spanish and I wanted to do that,
And I also wanted to do Caravan because of the
fact that it was such a different version, such a
flamenco sounding version.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
So I like to do favorite covers that I love,
you know, slip them in there.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
Oh yeah, yeah, absolutely, absolutely so. And it just harkens
back to your roots and everything that inspired you. So
you have a real uh, your variety of where you
have been. And so you grew up in Melbourne, Australia.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
Yes, I grew up in Melbourne.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
I was born in Melbourne, Australia, and I grew up
in Melbourne, Australia. And I studied Flamenco in Melbourne, Australia.
Back in those days, there weren't too many flamenco teaches
or anything to do with flamenco in Australia. So people say,
what are you studying, I'd say flamka. They got flamingo like,
(08:55):
no Flamenco, no feathers.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
It's I know, it's probably more diverse than we even
think about. Because we think about Australia, it's just this
one vanilla view of it from here in the States.
So that's it's just interesting to hear that. And a
lot of people don't know about the Aboriginals and the
other things that happen in Australia. It's on the other
side of the world. So and then Sydney and Melbourne
(09:22):
being basically rivals, which we don't really even understand here
in the States.
Speaker 3 (09:29):
Well, Sydney is supposed to the beautiful city with the
harbor and the sunshine and the fresh air, and people
around the world think that Sydney is the capital of Australia,
which it isn't. Canber is the capital of Australia. And
so Melbourne is.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
The art district.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
We clash with each other because we're the artistic city.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
Yeah, and they're really uptight and Sydney it's all business
and that beautiful all to us here in the States,
and we're just such a wonder for those who really
dream about going to the other side of the world.
So that's did you get a lot of influence from
the US over there? Did you say, gosh, what is
(10:20):
it like over there in America? When you were growing up.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
Oh absolutely, We got all of television shows and we
all started saying speaking with American inflictions, like hey you guys,
and stuff like that. We were following closely behind you.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
That's cute, it's really nice. That really is. So what
was it like? Was that feeling like when you first
came here to the States?
Speaker 2 (10:49):
I was like mind blown. I couldn't believe it. I
went to the supermarket and I thought, so is this
such a selection? What? This place is so big? Everything
is so huge, so much bigger than Australia.
Speaker 3 (11:01):
It was you know, my mother she didn't get to
come with me, but she surely wanted to.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
I'd send her pictures.
Speaker 3 (11:09):
She said, goodness, gracious, look at the size of these places.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
It's so true. I mean, it's the way we live here.
It's just it's big. It's large, everything is. And you
see the expansion of the West and it's just so unbelievable.
And that, god, the car is here. It's like they're
too big for the roads, as u v's campers, all
those kind of things. So, yeah, America is a whole
different animal. And then you've spent time in Europe as well,
(11:37):
so I'm sure that that's you've had just so much
an experience of diversity in your life, which you know
obviously translates to music. And this this new album, you
could really feel it in a lot of the different
tempos that you you take on here, was that really
planned to just change up these tempos as much as
(11:57):
you have?
Speaker 3 (12:00):
Yes, we like to do all different tempos. I like
fast songs. I like ballads. I especially love ballads, and
maybe if it was left to me a little bit,
I'd probably do more ballads because I'm really romantic. You know,
I'm romantic, romantic at heart. So I have to remind
myself that. You know, people like to hear fast, happy tunes,
(12:23):
and once you do them, they're a lot of fun.
Speaker 2 (12:25):
You can do some great fast tunes.
Speaker 3 (12:28):
Like take five and from the other album, and that's
a great song and there's a lot of happy People's
a nice fast tune. To be so young, it's, you know,
whish I was singing in a ball I'll be like, oh, so,
so what did you.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
What did you first learn that you knew you were
a really good singer, you're a good vocalist. Were you
just told from a very young age because you obviously
picked this up from your parents, especially your mother, who
enjoyed singing.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
My mother loved see, so I just loved singing along
with my mother. So, you know, I'm not.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
Sure I even ever think of myself as being a
really good bothalist. You know, I'm just thinking, oh, I'll sing,
you know, I hope I don't mess it up kind
of thing. And she'd be like, Okay, that's okay, this
is not okay, that's okay, that's not okay.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
So you know, you're just kind of singing along and
hope for the best.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
So she was basically your natural teacher. Did you go
to like a vocalist coach later on or it just
basically just stuck with what you already know.
Speaker 3 (13:35):
Well, I actually say what, my mother and I have
virtually the exact same voice.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
I think that kind of happens with people. You know,
you sound just like your mother.
Speaker 3 (13:44):
You know, she had a deep voice to turn it
it got so and it got so deep in the
end that she'd answered Phona, mister, hello, mister. You know
mine seems to be pretty deep nowadays too. I did
actually study a bit. I went to a coach to
and I learned some exercises when.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
I was quite young. I was like in my early twenties,
but I didn't I didn't want to go down musical comedy.
I didn't. That wasn't my thing, so I didn't pursue that.
I'm just kind of basically self taught. I think from there.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
And you could hear that influence from Ela Fitzgerald and
people like that, and.
Speaker 3 (14:31):
Oh, absolutely, Sarah von el fitz Joe, I can't get
enough of them. Pray Ray, Charles Luther, Vandross's beautiful.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
Absolutely, him was fantastic.
Speaker 3 (14:47):
Yeah, Aretha Franklin, I love, she's wonderful too, Marvin Gay,
so many different wonderful singers.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
Stevie One.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
Oh they all make it look so easy. God, they
really did. They could all sing the phone book if
they wanted. And that's the kind of dates me as well.
We don't use phone books anymore here in the States,
so that's so true. It's just like and it's like
comfort food hearing those voices. It's just it's calming, and
(15:20):
happy people is as a whole collection is very calming.
Put that on your color, folks, you'll just look like
you want to just mellow out and some great love
songs in here as well. You're just very romantic at heart.
The most interesting track is something that's nearly twelve minutes long.
(15:41):
What inspired that to go that long on a track
that that really hits twelve minutes?
Speaker 3 (15:48):
Well, in Flamenico, there's there's always a very long piece
of work, you know, some of the dad especially the
dads yourself to a fifteen minutes, twenty minutes, twenty five minutes.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
Even. I remember going to see one performance the flamenco
dancer was dancing and dancing. I think it's going to stop, it's.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
Going to stop, and he was, he was, he had
a ball, he was using an imaginary ball and he's
waving his cape and someone yells up, I'm dalaya, which
means he's dead yet, and went on and on and on.
But no, Yeah, so that's kind of the This song
(16:30):
starts off in one field and it has dancing in
the middle and another feel at the end, and they're
more dancing after that. So it's it's a mesa flamenco,
which is kind of like a Flamenco mess on the
serious side of.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
Things, m M.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
And that's what we're referring to the lovers Lost is
your expensive track on there another inspiment to be so young.
It's just like it's title suggests, it's you know you
must feel that way. Yeah, this is what keeps you
on your toes, It keeps you young doing this work.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
It does.
Speaker 3 (17:05):
I love it, I do, I really do. I mean
everything has itsselfs and dance.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
Because you know, you think people like get it, will
it come out the way you want to? But it.
Speaker 3 (17:17):
I have actually have a great fun, great fun doing it.
Speaker 1 (17:21):
Is this This is considered your lead off single. You
have a video out on YouTube which was shot in
Spain in this beautiful park. Gosh, the architecture is just amazing.
Just folks. If you you really want to see something great,
watch this video on YouTube. And Chico is supporting you
on this track and he looks fantastic and you all
(17:41):
look fantastic in this video.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
Well, thank you so much. Yes for Tiros is a
great park in Spain. It's it's just beautiful. It's it's
full of I don't know, I'm not sure. Do you
know when it was built?
Speaker 1 (17:58):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (17:58):
No, get video dropped today? Don't know how to love?
Oh okay, yeah, he just told me. The video drops
today I don't know how to love.
Speaker 1 (18:12):
Yeah, as we're talking is March seventh, So this album
is released as a whole today, March seventh, twenty twenty five.
I'm sorry, your your video, your video, and your entire
album Happy People is dropping today March seventh, twenty twenty five. Right, yeah,
that's exciting. What does it feel like when you you know, like,
(18:33):
oh gosh, are people going to listen to this? Do
you feel do you get the jitters are? Just like
you know, it just goes out there. I hope people
that are you know, stumble on it and enjoy it.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
Oh yes, we really want picture to listen.
Speaker 3 (18:49):
I really hope people listen to it and like it
and get a good feel for it. You never know
what people are gonna like, so you just do your
best to do what do you like doing, and hopefully
people will enjoy what you're doing and get a feel
for it, you know, and get feel something for it.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
I have your good caster characters on here as well,
great musicians. How you've been able to cobble them all together?
And I'm saying his name, John Coward is the producer.
He's very good on piano and probably every other keyboard.
I'm sure. How did you strike up that relationship?
Speaker 3 (19:30):
I met him through John Pattatucci when we did Rhythm
in New York. That was the first time I've met him,
and we've been working ever since.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
He's like my Coke.
Speaker 3 (19:41):
Records in house arranger and we write songs together as well.
Pierre and I will will come up with a lyric
and we'll we'll come up with a feel and then
we'll get it. We'll give it to John and John
will arrange it, or we will write it together.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
So we do a lot of writing. We have a
good time together.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
Good Impio is there as well. How long have you
been together now total years? How did you meet it?
Speaker 3 (20:09):
We met at a rehearsal for a performance of Camp.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
In the Opera.
Speaker 3 (20:17):
We did it in Sydney and Anne Melbourne in Australia, And.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
Yeah, we met through the Flamenco Arrange.
Speaker 3 (20:27):
A producer of this of this show was someone I'd
worked with in the past, and he'd worked within the
past as well in between his ballet because he's a
ballet dancer. And so we met there and kind of went.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
From there.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
And spend a lot of time in Las Vegas, that's
why Las Vegas was that, just like, Okay, yeah, this
is there's a great entertainment district here, there's a great
opportunity here. Is that where you chose. That's why you
chose the Las.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
Vegas absolutely that. And the traffic, Yes, I could not
possibly live in Los Angeles. I'm from Australia. You know.
There's like three cars on the road.
Speaker 1 (21:09):
I know, it's awful. LA. I'm in the Atlanta, Georgia
area and it's just terrible. It's very similar to LA
on another scale. At least LA has the beach, though
we don't have that. But yeah, oh my gosh, you
know that there's a lot. There's the workout there in
LA and the notoriety you can pick up there. But wow,
(21:31):
you pay such a price just trying to go from
point A to point B. I'm sure it's Las Vegas
is a little bit more, a little bit more practical.
I would think.
Speaker 3 (21:42):
They're crazy, but you get that quicker. Everyone goes through
red lights, just like here. I feel like I'm more
likely to survive.
Speaker 2 (21:51):
Well, you tried LA for seven years, Yeah, we did.
We lived in their life for a while. We lived
on the cliffs of Mulholland Drive.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
Yeah, scenic, beautiful and everything, but yeah, just everybody wants
to be there, and that's what you get. It's just
unbelievable amounts of traffic. If there's opportunity, people will come
out there for it. I had some family who moved
out there in the early nineteen sixties and they just,
you know, saw the whole rush of people coming in,
especially the entertainment industry, the way that it's constantly blown
(22:24):
up there. But you know, you got capital records, you
got really good interesting things there where you can really
expand on your career. So it's just really I'm sure
you've had a lot of experience dealing with the traversing it.
Speaker 2 (22:39):
Yeah. Absolutely. We drop back with some Fords, and we've
been a capital a few times. Capitals great WIT's it
opening up again a few us it's opening up.
Speaker 3 (22:47):
Again, and it closed down for a while so they
renovated everything.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
Oh good, good.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
It's a great studio.
Speaker 3 (22:53):
Just go into Studio A and Studio Bay and say
Frank Sinatra's room and it's just mind blowing the.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
Furniture and it's kind of like going back in the sixties.
It's true.
Speaker 1 (23:07):
Yeah, that's iconic totally is that's yeah, definitely gosh, well,
a lot of good tracks on here. And I love
the use of saxophones on this project. Was that really intentional?
Did you always have that? And do you have a
sax player who's with you when you're touring? Did you
(23:27):
you just tour solo or you're bringing a band with you?
Speaker 2 (23:32):
We do.
Speaker 3 (23:32):
We actually I have a few different musicians around the
world that we use, but in this album it was
Dave Binny on alto Sex and soprano Sex.
Speaker 2 (23:45):
And we actually have bass clarinet.
Speaker 3 (23:47):
From John Ellis, which I absolutely love bass clarinet and
a saxophone, and also Rick Magitzer who worked with Miles
Davis and he plays a beautiful tennis saxophone.
Speaker 2 (24:01):
So yeah, they were I don't know, I don't think
they've all been together before we put them together.
Speaker 3 (24:08):
I think we did in Rome at the Colisseum and
it was just fantastic. They're just fantastic plays. They're also different,
but they're they're really great. Rick mcgetz's interpretation of ballads
is just incredible.
Speaker 1 (24:25):
Yeah, it's a rich sound. Again, great musicians on here,
the Palmas, which is just like you don't hear that
much on records these days. That's just really really rounds
out the sound throughout the entire project. And having a
flamenco guitar, which I would think is not very easy
(24:45):
to handle.
Speaker 2 (24:48):
I worked with Canto in Madrid when I lived there.
Speaker 3 (24:53):
I've known him for years as a friend of mine,
and so he he he always followed me very well
when we dance, because the flamenco guitar follows the dancing
and well it's it's a bit of both, but they
followed the dancing. So I worked with that, and so
we just kept in touch and his Sepio is a
(25:17):
great palmetto.
Speaker 2 (25:18):
Who does really good.
Speaker 3 (25:19):
He plays very good percussion and he does the wonderful hileos,
which is the.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
Encouragement, you know, the shouting.
Speaker 3 (25:27):
And then Alberta was a dancer.
Speaker 2 (25:31):
He's a dancer as well. He's a very good dancer.
So we danced together as well, so it was good.
Speaker 3 (25:35):
We we filmed it at mob Studio, we recorded it
at malb Studios in Sevilla and it was and then
Canito came out and recorded it in Las Vegas as well.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
So yes, that's how we go all together on the album.
Speaker 3 (25:52):
And it does give it a different It's a different
kind of Flamenco is a unique guitar. It's unique sounding really,
and him with Chico Pineto because Chico is wonderful Brazilian
jazz player, and so the two of them together was different.
Speaker 2 (26:11):
It's great.
Speaker 1 (26:12):
Yeah, So all this release through the name of the
record company, which kind of has its own little history too,
that was created. How is it as you are? It's
called the Coke Records. Is that Yeah, that's got his
own little history too. How is it working as a
couple as you traverse these projects and tour together. Do
(26:32):
you both need your alone time? Are you together most
of the time?
Speaker 2 (26:38):
We're together a lot. We felt like pattened off.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
It wouldn't be normal. Otherwise we get We really.
Speaker 2 (26:49):
Get on well as well. We do both, you know,
we have our differences. We started the Cooke Records back
in twenty eighteen and we put out our records together.
Speaker 3 (27:00):
It's kind of like a family now. We know each
other pretty well. We've been working with.
Speaker 2 (27:04):
Josh Connelly is a wonderful engineer in Las Vegas, and
so we just go down to the studio and people
come to the studio. We go to different studios.
Speaker 3 (27:14):
Rick mcgitster was my first corn player and I met
him in Las Vegas back in twenty eighteen.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
So he's on the albums and yeah, so people come
and go and we go to different studios together.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
See, you've been basically a Flamenco dancer since wet age nine. Yeah,
my gosh, that's amazing, that really is. Did you take
formal lessons as well for that?
Speaker 2 (27:43):
Yes?
Speaker 3 (27:43):
I did, Yes, there was back in those days. There
was a teacher in Melbourne. There was a teacher in Adelaide,
and there was a teacher in Perth and that was
the only teachers there, and I took the teacher. Actually,
the teacher in Melbourne was the most well established teacher
and people would come from different parts of Australia to
(28:07):
learn from her.
Speaker 2 (28:08):
So I was lucky that I met her.
Speaker 3 (28:11):
My father actually said I'm going to find it for
maco dancing teacher for you because he.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
Loves How often do you do practice on your own time?
Does it come naturally to you as well to do
all this dancing and for all these years.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
I do practice. I still practice, but not like I
used to. My back, Yeah, just you know, the the
injury but yeah, you got to you've got to do
it a bit. But I used to practice for hours.
Speaker 1 (28:42):
Yeah. Yeah, it's so tough, you know, and I love
running and stuff like that. And you know, as much
as you try to stay in shape and build muscle
and all that, it's so hard to stop that whole
repetitive injury thing, which you know it happens with the
best of us. Yeah, you have to know when to
dial it back or do you plow through it. It's
(29:03):
really tough to really figure that out sometimes. So my
hat's off to dancers.
Speaker 3 (29:08):
It's not easy, that's right, Piero's go. It's actually signaling
to me. I forgot to say, I I hate you hate.
Speaker 1 (29:21):
Pext get those ready at the hotel there too. Yeah,
a tub full of ice and you know, I know,
I know, it's just like yeah, like they say, rise, rest, ice,
compression and all that stuff. So I mean, honestly, that
really is part of it. And it's tough to do
(29:42):
that because you want to keep moving. So that's it's
tough when you're dealing with those those they're not really setbacks,
they're just you know, minor injuries, and it's you know,
orthopedic as well, hopefully that's the worst that ever happens.
But yeah, it's true. You know, you've got to take
care of yourself as well. Well. Great album. I love
the piano throughout all of this. To Dream is one.
(30:04):
It just has this really wonderful, mesmerizing piano construction to it.
And the lyrics are wonderful too. How do you deal
with lyrics? How does that come to you?
Speaker 3 (30:16):
Pierre and I. I'll come up with lyrics, or he'll
come up with the lyrics, and I'll come up with
a melody, or he'll come up with a melody, and
then we just keep refining it and taking bits out
or putting bits in and changing words around. It's a process.
Speaker 1 (30:34):
Yeah, I'm sure. And then are you doing that all
in the studio? You're doing that before you get into
the studio? Is with all of you like, oh, time
is money. We got to be totally prepared in the
studio or you do you improvise in the studio as
you're constructing the songs?
Speaker 2 (30:48):
We do. We do quite a lot of writing at
home as well. You know, we'll be sitting around it. Well,
he has a.
Speaker 3 (30:55):
Piano in the house, a portable keyboard, so he'll come
up with a melody.
Speaker 2 (31:02):
So we do a lot of work in the house
and then if we like what we're doing, we'll take
it down to the studio and expand on that. Get
John Power and he lives in Nashville.
Speaker 1 (31:13):
Yeah, now you could do things. You could trade files
and put things together, right, that's right.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
There's always a lot of backwards and forwards.
Speaker 1 (31:24):
I bet, I bet. And then when you're in the studio,
do you enjoy kind of like that traditional old school
way of doing it too versus like you know, you're
doing it at home and you're sending out files. Would
you rather do it more traditionally?
Speaker 2 (31:39):
Well, yeah, definitely. We do that. We all work together
in the studio. We don't layer things on so much.
We'll do the whole thing together and then you know,
obviously if people don't like what they're doing, they can
we do it again. But a lot of times people
will put one track on at a time and just
layer it. We don't do it that way. We play
all together.
Speaker 3 (32:00):
It's it's you get the vibe from each other that way,
you know, the feel for the music. Someone will do
something really dramatic and everyone else got you know, it's
kind of more like a band feel.
Speaker 2 (32:14):
But I find that important and the rest of the
musicians do so as well, So that's that's good.
Speaker 1 (32:21):
And when you're going out on tour, do you do
a lot of rehearsal before the actual tour or do
you do rehearsal just before each show? How does that work?
Obviously do sound check as well.
Speaker 3 (32:33):
We do do rehearsals before at the beginning of the
tour before a show when we put if we put
new things in or we're using different people, because we
use different people, so we'll do that and then we
have sound checks.
Speaker 1 (32:47):
Yeah. Yeah, well yeah, quite a quite a quite a
thing to tour and it can take a lot out
of you at times too, so you know, flying, drying, plans, dreams,
and automobiles. I'm sure it's is a big part of
a lot of.
Speaker 2 (33:01):
That, definitely, Harry Humidifier.
Speaker 1 (33:09):
You have an on stage ritual? Uh, you know, something
you do before you go on stage.
Speaker 2 (33:18):
Uh. I actually do like to men meditate.
Speaker 3 (33:22):
I like to meditate, try and you know, breathe and
be calm.
Speaker 1 (33:29):
Yeah. That that's been a big thing lately, people getting
into meditation and the transcendental type stuff. I'm sure that's uh,
definitely is a healthier way, you know, rather than the
old school people would be doing cigarettes or something like that.
Just oh, this is awful. I'd never understood how somebody
(33:51):
could like be a smoker and a singer. I don't
know how that works, but it can't help.
Speaker 2 (33:58):
Yeah, that's easactly right. Frank Sinatra was a bit of
a smoker. We see Dean Martin. You see them sort
of there smoking and thinking, now, how can I get
another puffin in between this first? I can you know
the words?
Speaker 1 (34:13):
So, yeah, they do it on stage, not just like, oh,
you know, doing it quietly before going on stage, doing
a while the performance, and like, well that was the
culture back then. It was gosh, remember back in those days,
I was like, is anybody gonna stop smoking? It finally happened.
It took a long time, but yeah, it's yeah. They
(34:35):
didn't do themselves any favors, but you know, probably visually
they thought, yeah that's pretty cool, especially in Vegas. So
Sammy Davis and all of those guys, it's just the
rat pack. Definitely exactly, well awesome, I'm really excited. This
is a really and I did listen to it in
the car and it's it's a great way to listen
(34:57):
to this album or if you're at home and want
to mellow out and relax. Happy People is out now
as we speak. And how long is your tour going on?
Speaker 3 (35:10):
We have a two week tour in May and we
have I'm not exactly sure what else we're doing.
Speaker 2 (35:18):
Where are we going.
Speaker 3 (35:19):
We're going to Miami and we're going to Mexico with
the dates have not been confirmed.
Speaker 2 (35:25):
Yet, Spain in July, Spain in July, American thing in September.
Speaker 3 (35:31):
Okay, I know about the zero.
Speaker 4 (35:38):
Well, you're going to Rome, Rome and all those Italian
thoughts in May, that's right, Yes, first of May to eleventh,
the first of May.
Speaker 2 (35:48):
To the eleventh of May.
Speaker 4 (35:49):
We're going to Rome, Baglia, yeah, Cosenna, Yeah, oh, I
haven't been to those places.
Speaker 1 (36:07):
Yet to oh for ends. I love Italy. It's gorgeous.
I'm sure they're gonna love seeing you there.
Speaker 3 (36:16):
The Italian's love jazz, and and we actually did. We
performed a couple of the Flamenco songs and they they're great.
Speaker 2 (36:24):
Sometimes I'll get up and dance with you.
Speaker 1 (36:26):
And yeah, oh that's sweet. That really is anybody get
up and dance in Beverly Hills or it's just that's
a different audience together. I can't imagine it in Beverly Hills. Well,
best wishes on the tour, travel save great new album,
(36:46):
Happy people. Where can we get this? Is this through
your website?
Speaker 3 (36:51):
It's throughout Andy James Jazz dot com and.
Speaker 2 (36:56):
It's through Spotify. We have vinyl and we have CDs
as well, so good.
Speaker 1 (37:05):
Great to see that on vinyl Amazon as well. Yeah, oh,
go through Amazon as a way, which is great too.
Yeah Vinyl, Wow, you can really, I'm sure the great
artwork comes with that, and uh maybe lyric sheet as well.
It's I love the packaging with Vinyl, right.
Speaker 2 (37:22):
Right, exactly, it's different. It seems to have come back in,
doesn't it. They arrived this week, another week to lay excellent.
Speaker 1 (37:33):
Yeah, what's old is new again? I'm sure that's fantastic. Yeah,
and get on YouTube there and planning any more music
videos or just performance videos to throw up on the
on the channel there.
Speaker 3 (37:45):
Yes, we're putting out music videos on YouTube as well.
We've got what's the next one that's coming today?
Speaker 2 (37:56):
I don't have to love I don't know. In a
month there'll be the Happy People, Happy People about a month. Yeah.
To be so young is already there?
Speaker 1 (38:09):
Yeah, good deal. Yeah, well look forward to it. I
look forward to the title track getting of video treatment
as well. That's fantastic, So go out there and get
it Happy People. Thank you so much for joining me today.
It's been fantastic. Thank you, Take care, good luckshas Thank you. Well.
That was a lot of fun. I really had a
(38:29):
good time. And it's funny because she's got her husband there.
They were trying to figure out the iPhone and trying
to getting it all together there. I hope you enjoyed that.
It was just so much fun, just like hearing about
somebody who has such a diverse background and she's just
really amazing, very very gifted performer. And I hope to
see you all more. On the other side of this podcast,
(38:53):
check out Tellus from the Corners dot com. I'm doing
some blogging there as well and have great interviews that
I have done over these last four plus years as
I am speaking. So talk with you all later. Take care,
have a good one.
Hello, Hello, Hello, and welcome to TFTC. This is my
little corner of the world over to you. Thank you
for joining me today. This is exciting. I speak with
somebody who is into flamenco and jazz. Her name is
Andy James, touring the United States as I'm speaking here
in early March of twenty twenty five. Thank you so much.
(00:23):
We have such a great talk about how jazz and
flamenco are refused together to create this new album she
came out with called Happy People Get It. Wherever you
get music Andy James, just look her up. She tells
you the URL when we are speaking. It is just
a lot of fun. She's on the road as well.
She was speaking from Beverly Hills, California, so doing her thing.
(00:47):
It's really fun. And she's staying in a hotel that
allows cats to stay there, so I was really excited
about that as well. So March twenty fourth, here we are.
It is World Tuberculos this day. I mean maybe it's
for awareness. I don't think it's something you want to
really go ahead and celebrate, but something more to celebrate
as a National Cheesecake Day, which I don't really eat
(01:09):
that much. Cheesecake, but there's a day dedicated to that.
So here we are late March of twenty twenty five,
heading into where we already just got into spring, heading
more deeply into spring. Not looking forward to more severe
weather that is foreshore, which we get here in the
southeastern United States quite a bit actually as we head
(01:30):
into spring. So hopefully no damage, hopefully no tornadoes. Prayers
and hoping that nothing like that occurs. So again, thanks
for coming along here on my journey. Andy is just
a wonderful artist, a wonderful vocalist, also a flamenco dancer.
She's been doing this since she was nine years old,
(01:51):
been singing probably since she was about four. Her parents
were very, very very gifted as far as being artists,
and that's rubbed off on her obviously. So she grew
up in Melbourne, Australia. She's been all over the world,
so she's got a great diverse set of a background
for sure. So I hope you enjoy my chat with
(02:15):
the wonderful artist Andy James. I'll talk with you all
on the other side of this.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Last night.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
Okay, So you're on the road, You're in Beverly Hills.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
Yeah, we're in a hotel we have cats.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
Oh gosh, a cat friendly hotel.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Yeah, and I let us have them.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
Oh ok, you of cats. Yeah, I would always have
one come to the back door all the time, which
just sack out with me as I'm working here all day. Yeah. So,
how was your gig last night in Beverly Hills. Where
did you play?
Speaker 2 (02:53):
It was quite fun, it really was. It was packed.
We had two reviewers there. I loved it.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
Oh, excellent, excellent, great, So yeah you travel.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
It was so rainy and cold last night to not before.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
That's hard to believe. Yeah, and they needed the rain
out there in California. That's it's been so dry. And
then good excellent, Well, good to see that you're on
the road, you're touring, you're invigorated. It still seemed to
have energy. That's good. And thanks for joining me in
(03:31):
the morning. As we're talking, it's it's kind of early there. Yeah. Yeah,
well we get oh good, good. Yeah, you're not out
too late, I would say, no, good, Well, great to
see you and how much you're active. And you have
(03:53):
a great new album, Happy People. So an apropos title
at this time of the year or in our culture,
really not enough people are being happy, So I mean,
is that where did you get that title from?
Speaker 3 (04:09):
Oh, we just wanted to spread some good feelings and
you know, make people feel better about things, and we
want to feel happy ourselves.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
It's kind of tough time.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
So yeah, what was like recording the project? How long
did it take out?
Speaker 2 (04:26):
It took us four months.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
We recorded in Italy, we recorded in Seville, we recorded
in New York. A's fifteen Originals, So it took a while.
That's not counting the writing obviously.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
Right, been sort of something that we've been thinking about
for a long time because it's a mixture of flamenco and.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
Jazz.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
Been fusing flamenco and jazz, and there's a whole history
behind that, and it's an interesting combination. As you hear
in this new album, you could just really feel that fusion.
So you must have been inspired by those genres for
probably most of your life.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
That's exactly right.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
Since I was since I moved to Spain, and my
mother was a jazz singer too, so she'd loved to
seeing all sorts of different styles actually, and so I
was inspired by that. My father was a flamenco ficionado,
so we used to listen to a lot of flamenco
and a lot of jazz, and then we moved. I
met Piero, well, I met I moved to Spain, and
(05:33):
then I met Piero and then he moved to Spain
and we flamenco danced for quite a few years in
Spain with with some great artists, got with Theo and
from on Himnez and Antonio Canalez and a few others.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
So yeah, yeah, and you have a connection with chick Corea.
It's really just somebody who we just so admire here
in the stay. It's it's got to be so incredible
and inspiring.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
Yeah, he was wonderful. He was very encouraging.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
He would come to Spain and he'd come to the club.
We'd go to all night clubs called Candelas, and we'd
got out all night clubs and he thought he thought
it was a great idea, was very inspiring. So you
should do your flamenco jazz album and so that was great.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
It was very lucky.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
Yeah. Yeah, and this is sixteen tracks, happy People. It's
seventeen seventeen. Was there a bonus on there? I was?
I listened to it a few times.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
Yeah, I'm sorry, you're right. One didn't make it.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
It'll be the B side to a single. Maybe that's
the oh that happens. There's always a throwaway track in
there somewhere.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
There's two covers, yes, and flamenco version of Caravan, which
I don't think it's been done before.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
So that was great.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
Yeah, name of your very first album and you did
a reworking of that track for this is this is
your closing track Caravan?
Speaker 2 (07:01):
Yes, that's right, Yeah, we did it.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
We did in twenty eighteen, we released an album called
Caravan and we did a completely different.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
Version of it. But this flamenco version is something that
I wanted to do for it.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
It's always a lot of fun to do a cover
that's completely different to anything else that. I don't think
flamenco version of Caravan has been done before twelve eight
twelve eight.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
So what inspired you to do two covers for this?
Besim mucho in Caravan? Were those two tracks just really
special to you? Is that something that you always aspire
to do or you did live and then you finally said, okay,
now we're going to put this on an album.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
Best know, Muto is one of my favorite songs. It's
one of the most.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Romantic songs I've ever heard, so and I sing it
in Spanish, so.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
Because I speak Spanish and I wanted to do that,
And I also wanted to do Caravan because of the
fact that it was such a different version, such a
flamenco sounding version.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
So I like to do favorite covers that I love,
you know, slip them in there.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
Oh yeah, yeah, absolutely, absolutely so. And it just harkens
back to your roots and everything that inspired you. So
you have a real uh, your variety of where you
have been. And so you grew up in Melbourne, Australia.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
Yes, I grew up in Melbourne.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
I was born in Melbourne, Australia, and I grew up
in Melbourne, Australia. And I studied Flamenco in Melbourne, Australia.
Back in those days, there weren't too many flamenco teaches
or anything to do with flamenco in Australia. So people say,
what are you studying, I'd say flamka. They got flamingo like,
(08:55):
no Flamenco, no feathers.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
It's I know, it's probably more diverse than we even
think about. Because we think about Australia, it's just this
one vanilla view of it from here in the States.
So that's it's just interesting to hear that. And a
lot of people don't know about the Aboriginals and the
other things that happen in Australia. It's on the other
side of the world. So and then Sydney and Melbourne
(09:22):
being basically rivals, which we don't really even understand here
in the States.
Speaker 3 (09:29):
Well, Sydney is supposed to the beautiful city with the
harbor and the sunshine and the fresh air, and people
around the world think that Sydney is the capital of Australia,
which it isn't. Canber is the capital of Australia. And
so Melbourne is.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
The art district.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
We clash with each other because we're the artistic city.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
Yeah, and they're really uptight and Sydney it's all business
and that beautiful all to us here in the States,
and we're just such a wonder for those who really
dream about going to the other side of the world.
So that's did you get a lot of influence from
the US over there? Did you say, gosh, what is
(10:20):
it like over there in America? When you were growing up.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
Oh absolutely, We got all of television shows and we
all started saying speaking with American inflictions, like hey you guys,
and stuff like that. We were following closely behind you.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
That's cute, it's really nice. That really is. So what
was it like? Was that feeling like when you first
came here to the States?
Speaker 2 (10:49):
I was like mind blown. I couldn't believe it. I
went to the supermarket and I thought, so is this
such a selection? What? This place is so big? Everything
is so huge, so much bigger than Australia.
Speaker 3 (11:01):
It was you know, my mother she didn't get to
come with me, but she surely wanted to.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
I'd send her pictures.
Speaker 3 (11:09):
She said, goodness, gracious, look at the size of these places.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
It's so true. I mean, it's the way we live here.
It's just it's big. It's large, everything is. And you
see the expansion of the West and it's just so unbelievable.
And that, god, the car is here. It's like they're
too big for the roads, as u v's campers, all
those kind of things. So, yeah, America is a whole
different animal. And then you've spent time in Europe as well,
(11:37):
so I'm sure that that's you've had just so much
an experience of diversity in your life, which you know
obviously translates to music. And this this new album, you
could really feel it in a lot of the different
tempos that you you take on here, was that really
planned to just change up these tempos as much as
(11:57):
you have?
Speaker 3 (12:00):
Yes, we like to do all different tempos. I like
fast songs. I like ballads. I especially love ballads, and
maybe if it was left to me a little bit,
I'd probably do more ballads because I'm really romantic. You know,
I'm romantic, romantic at heart. So I have to remind
myself that. You know, people like to hear fast, happy tunes,
(12:23):
and once you do them, they're a lot of fun.
Speaker 2 (12:25):
You can do some great fast tunes.
Speaker 3 (12:28):
Like take five and from the other album, and that's
a great song and there's a lot of happy People's
a nice fast tune. To be so young, it's, you know,
whish I was singing in a ball I'll be like, oh, so,
so what did you.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
What did you first learn that you knew you were
a really good singer, you're a good vocalist. Were you
just told from a very young age because you obviously
picked this up from your parents, especially your mother, who
enjoyed singing.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
My mother loved see, so I just loved singing along
with my mother. So, you know, I'm not.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
Sure I even ever think of myself as being a
really good bothalist. You know, I'm just thinking, oh, I'll sing,
you know, I hope I don't mess it up kind
of thing. And she'd be like, Okay, that's okay, this
is not okay, that's okay, that's not okay.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
So you know, you're just kind of singing along and
hope for the best.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
So she was basically your natural teacher. Did you go
to like a vocalist coach later on or it just
basically just stuck with what you already know.
Speaker 3 (13:35):
Well, I actually say what, my mother and I have
virtually the exact same voice.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
I think that kind of happens with people. You know,
you sound just like your mother.
Speaker 3 (13:44):
You know, she had a deep voice to turn it
it got so and it got so deep in the
end that she'd answered Phona, mister, hello, mister. You know
mine seems to be pretty deep nowadays too. I did
actually study a bit. I went to a coach to
and I learned some exercises when.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
I was quite young. I was like in my early twenties,
but I didn't I didn't want to go down musical comedy.
I didn't. That wasn't my thing, so I didn't pursue that.
I'm just kind of basically self taught. I think from there.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
And you could hear that influence from Ela Fitzgerald and
people like that, and.
Speaker 3 (14:31):
Oh, absolutely, Sarah von el fitz Joe, I can't get
enough of them. Pray Ray, Charles Luther, Vandross's beautiful.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
Absolutely, him was fantastic.
Speaker 3 (14:47):
Yeah, Aretha Franklin, I love, she's wonderful too, Marvin Gay,
so many different wonderful singers.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
Stevie One.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
Oh they all make it look so easy. God, they
really did. They could all sing the phone book if
they wanted. And that's the kind of dates me as well.
We don't use phone books anymore here in the States,
so that's so true. It's just like and it's like
comfort food hearing those voices. It's just it's calming, and
(15:20):
happy people is as a whole collection is very calming.
Put that on your color, folks, you'll just look like
you want to just mellow out and some great love
songs in here as well. You're just very romantic at heart.
The most interesting track is something that's nearly twelve minutes long.
(15:41):
What inspired that to go that long on a track
that that really hits twelve minutes?
Speaker 3 (15:48):
Well, in Flamenico, there's there's always a very long piece
of work, you know, some of the dad especially the
dads yourself to a fifteen minutes, twenty minutes, twenty five minutes.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
Even. I remember going to see one performance the flamenco
dancer was dancing and dancing. I think it's going to stop, it's.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
Going to stop, and he was, he was, he had
a ball, he was using an imaginary ball and he's
waving his cape and someone yells up, I'm dalaya, which
means he's dead yet, and went on and on and on.
But no, Yeah, so that's kind of the This song
(16:30):
starts off in one field and it has dancing in
the middle and another feel at the end, and they're
more dancing after that. So it's it's a mesa flamenco,
which is kind of like a Flamenco mess on the
serious side of.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
Things, m M.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
And that's what we're referring to the lovers Lost is
your expensive track on there another inspiment to be so young.
It's just like it's title suggests, it's you know you
must feel that way. Yeah, this is what keeps you
on your toes, It keeps you young doing this work.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
It does.
Speaker 3 (17:05):
I love it, I do, I really do. I mean
everything has itsselfs and dance.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
Because you know, you think people like get it, will
it come out the way you want to? But it.
Speaker 3 (17:17):
I have actually have a great fun, great fun doing it.
Speaker 1 (17:21):
Is this This is considered your lead off single. You
have a video out on YouTube which was shot in
Spain in this beautiful park. Gosh, the architecture is just amazing.
Just folks. If you you really want to see something great,
watch this video on YouTube. And Chico is supporting you
on this track and he looks fantastic and you all
(17:41):
look fantastic in this video.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
Well, thank you so much. Yes for Tiros is a
great park in Spain. It's it's just beautiful. It's it's
full of I don't know, I'm not sure. Do you
know when it was built?
Speaker 1 (17:58):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (17:58):
No, get video dropped today? Don't know how to love?
Oh okay, yeah, he just told me. The video drops
today I don't know how to love.
Speaker 1 (18:12):
Yeah, as we're talking is March seventh, So this album
is released as a whole today, March seventh, twenty twenty five.
I'm sorry, your your video, your video, and your entire
album Happy People is dropping today March seventh, twenty twenty five. Right, yeah,
that's exciting. What does it feel like when you you know, like,
(18:33):
oh gosh, are people going to listen to this? Do
you feel do you get the jitters are? Just like
you know, it just goes out there. I hope people
that are you know, stumble on it and enjoy it.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
Oh yes, we really want picture to listen.
Speaker 3 (18:49):
I really hope people listen to it and like it
and get a good feel for it. You never know
what people are gonna like, so you just do your
best to do what do you like doing, and hopefully
people will enjoy what you're doing and get a feel
for it, you know, and get feel something for it.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
I have your good caster characters on here as well,
great musicians. How you've been able to cobble them all together?
And I'm saying his name, John Coward is the producer.
He's very good on piano and probably every other keyboard.
I'm sure. How did you strike up that relationship?
Speaker 3 (19:30):
I met him through John Pattatucci when we did Rhythm
in New York. That was the first time I've met him,
and we've been working ever since.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
He's like my Coke.
Speaker 3 (19:41):
Records in house arranger and we write songs together as well.
Pierre and I will will come up with a lyric
and we'll we'll come up with a feel and then
we'll get it. We'll give it to John and John
will arrange it, or we will write it together.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
So we do a lot of writing. We have a
good time together.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
Good Impio is there as well. How long have you
been together now total years? How did you meet it?
Speaker 3 (20:09):
We met at a rehearsal for a performance of Camp.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
In the Opera.
Speaker 3 (20:17):
We did it in Sydney and Anne Melbourne in Australia, And.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
Yeah, we met through the Flamenco Arrange.
Speaker 3 (20:27):
A producer of this of this show was someone I'd
worked with in the past, and he'd worked within the
past as well in between his ballet because he's a
ballet dancer. And so we met there and kind of went.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
From there.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
And spend a lot of time in Las Vegas, that's
why Las Vegas was that, just like, Okay, yeah, this
is there's a great entertainment district here, there's a great
opportunity here. Is that where you chose. That's why you
chose the Las.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
Vegas absolutely that. And the traffic, Yes, I could not
possibly live in Los Angeles. I'm from Australia. You know.
There's like three cars on the road.
Speaker 1 (21:09):
I know, it's awful. LA. I'm in the Atlanta, Georgia
area and it's just terrible. It's very similar to LA
on another scale. At least LA has the beach, though
we don't have that. But yeah, oh my gosh, you
know that there's a lot. There's the workout there in
LA and the notoriety you can pick up there. But wow,
(21:31):
you pay such a price just trying to go from
point A to point B. I'm sure it's Las Vegas
is a little bit more, a little bit more practical.
I would think.
Speaker 3 (21:42):
They're crazy, but you get that quicker. Everyone goes through
red lights, just like here. I feel like I'm more
likely to survive.
Speaker 2 (21:51):
Well, you tried LA for seven years, Yeah, we did.
We lived in their life for a while. We lived
on the cliffs of Mulholland Drive.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
Yeah, scenic, beautiful and everything, but yeah, just everybody wants
to be there, and that's what you get. It's just
unbelievable amounts of traffic. If there's opportunity, people will come
out there for it. I had some family who moved
out there in the early nineteen sixties and they just,
you know, saw the whole rush of people coming in,
especially the entertainment industry, the way that it's constantly blown
(22:24):
up there. But you know, you got capital records, you
got really good interesting things there where you can really
expand on your career. So it's just really I'm sure
you've had a lot of experience dealing with the traversing it.
Speaker 2 (22:39):
Yeah. Absolutely. We drop back with some Fords, and we've
been a capital a few times. Capitals great WIT's it
opening up again a few us it's opening up.
Speaker 3 (22:47):
Again, and it closed down for a while so they
renovated everything.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
Oh good, good.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
It's a great studio.
Speaker 3 (22:53):
Just go into Studio A and Studio Bay and say
Frank Sinatra's room and it's just mind blowing the.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
Furniture and it's kind of like going back in the sixties.
It's true.
Speaker 1 (23:07):
Yeah, that's iconic totally is that's yeah, definitely gosh, well,
a lot of good tracks on here. And I love
the use of saxophones on this project. Was that really intentional?
Did you always have that? And do you have a
sax player who's with you when you're touring? Did you
(23:27):
you just tour solo or you're bringing a band with you?
Speaker 2 (23:32):
We do.
Speaker 3 (23:32):
We actually I have a few different musicians around the
world that we use, but in this album it was
Dave Binny on alto Sex and soprano Sex.
Speaker 2 (23:45):
And we actually have bass clarinet.
Speaker 3 (23:47):
From John Ellis, which I absolutely love bass clarinet and
a saxophone, and also Rick Magitzer who worked with Miles
Davis and he plays a beautiful tennis saxophone.
Speaker 2 (24:01):
So yeah, they were I don't know, I don't think
they've all been together before we put them together.
Speaker 3 (24:08):
I think we did in Rome at the Colisseum and
it was just fantastic. They're just fantastic plays. They're also different,
but they're they're really great. Rick mcgetz's interpretation of ballads
is just incredible.
Speaker 1 (24:25):
Yeah, it's a rich sound. Again, great musicians on here,
the Palmas, which is just like you don't hear that
much on records these days. That's just really really rounds
out the sound throughout the entire project. And having a
flamenco guitar, which I would think is not very easy
(24:45):
to handle.
Speaker 2 (24:48):
I worked with Canto in Madrid when I lived there.
Speaker 3 (24:53):
I've known him for years as a friend of mine,
and so he he he always followed me very well
when we dance, because the flamenco guitar follows the dancing
and well it's it's a bit of both, but they
followed the dancing. So I worked with that, and so
we just kept in touch and his Sepio is a
(25:17):
great palmetto.
Speaker 2 (25:18):
Who does really good.
Speaker 3 (25:19):
He plays very good percussion and he does the wonderful hileos,
which is the.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
Encouragement, you know, the shouting.
Speaker 3 (25:27):
And then Alberta was a dancer.
Speaker 2 (25:31):
He's a dancer as well. He's a very good dancer.
So we danced together as well, so it was good.
Speaker 3 (25:35):
We we filmed it at mob Studio, we recorded it
at malb Studios in Sevilla and it was and then
Canito came out and recorded it in Las Vegas as well.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
So yes, that's how we go all together on the album.
Speaker 3 (25:52):
And it does give it a different It's a different
kind of Flamenco is a unique guitar. It's unique sounding really,
and him with Chico Pineto because Chico is wonderful Brazilian
jazz player, and so the two of them together was different.
Speaker 2 (26:11):
It's great.
Speaker 1 (26:12):
Yeah, So all this release through the name of the
record company, which kind of has its own little history too,
that was created. How is it as you are? It's
called the Coke Records. Is that Yeah, that's got his
own little history too. How is it working as a
couple as you traverse these projects and tour together. Do
(26:32):
you both need your alone time? Are you together most
of the time?
Speaker 2 (26:38):
We're together a lot. We felt like pattened off.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
It wouldn't be normal. Otherwise we get We really.
Speaker 2 (26:49):
Get on well as well. We do both, you know,
we have our differences. We started the Cooke Records back
in twenty eighteen and we put out our records together.
Speaker 3 (27:00):
It's kind of like a family now. We know each
other pretty well. We've been working with.
Speaker 2 (27:04):
Josh Connelly is a wonderful engineer in Las Vegas, and
so we just go down to the studio and people
come to the studio. We go to different studios.
Speaker 3 (27:14):
Rick mcgitster was my first corn player and I met
him in Las Vegas back in twenty eighteen.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
So he's on the albums and yeah, so people come
and go and we go to different studios together.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
See, you've been basically a Flamenco dancer since wet age nine. Yeah,
my gosh, that's amazing, that really is. Did you take
formal lessons as well for that?
Speaker 2 (27:43):
Yes?
Speaker 3 (27:43):
I did, Yes, there was back in those days. There
was a teacher in Melbourne. There was a teacher in Adelaide,
and there was a teacher in Perth and that was
the only teachers there, and I took the teacher. Actually,
the teacher in Melbourne was the most well established teacher
and people would come from different parts of Australia to
(28:07):
learn from her.
Speaker 2 (28:08):
So I was lucky that I met her.
Speaker 3 (28:11):
My father actually said I'm going to find it for
maco dancing teacher for you because he.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
Loves How often do you do practice on your own time?
Does it come naturally to you as well to do
all this dancing and for all these years.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
I do practice. I still practice, but not like I
used to. My back, Yeah, just you know, the the
injury but yeah, you got to you've got to do
it a bit. But I used to practice for hours.
Speaker 1 (28:42):
Yeah. Yeah, it's so tough, you know, and I love
running and stuff like that. And you know, as much
as you try to stay in shape and build muscle
and all that, it's so hard to stop that whole
repetitive injury thing, which you know it happens with the
best of us. Yeah, you have to know when to
dial it back or do you plow through it. It's
(29:03):
really tough to really figure that out sometimes. So my
hat's off to dancers.
Speaker 3 (29:08):
It's not easy, that's right, Piero's go. It's actually signaling
to me. I forgot to say, I I hate you hate.
Speaker 1 (29:21):
Pext get those ready at the hotel there too. Yeah,
a tub full of ice and you know, I know,
I know, it's just like yeah, like they say, rise, rest, ice,
compression and all that stuff. So I mean, honestly, that
really is part of it. And it's tough to do
(29:42):
that because you want to keep moving. So that's it's
tough when you're dealing with those those they're not really setbacks,
they're just you know, minor injuries, and it's you know,
orthopedic as well, hopefully that's the worst that ever happens.
But yeah, it's true. You know, you've got to take
care of yourself as well. Well. Great album. I love
the piano throughout all of this. To Dream is one.
(30:04):
It just has this really wonderful, mesmerizing piano construction to it.
And the lyrics are wonderful too. How do you deal
with lyrics? How does that come to you?
Speaker 3 (30:16):
Pierre and I. I'll come up with lyrics, or he'll
come up with the lyrics, and I'll come up with
a melody, or he'll come up with a melody, and
then we just keep refining it and taking bits out
or putting bits in and changing words around. It's a process.
Speaker 1 (30:34):
Yeah, I'm sure. And then are you doing that all
in the studio? You're doing that before you get into
the studio? Is with all of you like, oh, time
is money. We got to be totally prepared in the
studio or you do you improvise in the studio as
you're constructing the songs?
Speaker 2 (30:48):
We do. We do quite a lot of writing at
home as well. You know, we'll be sitting around it. Well,
he has a.
Speaker 3 (30:55):
Piano in the house, a portable keyboard, so he'll come
up with a melody.
Speaker 2 (31:02):
So we do a lot of work in the house
and then if we like what we're doing, we'll take
it down to the studio and expand on that. Get
John Power and he lives in Nashville.
Speaker 1 (31:13):
Yeah, now you could do things. You could trade files
and put things together, right, that's right.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
There's always a lot of backwards and forwards.
Speaker 1 (31:24):
I bet, I bet. And then when you're in the studio,
do you enjoy kind of like that traditional old school
way of doing it too versus like you know, you're
doing it at home and you're sending out files. Would
you rather do it more traditionally?
Speaker 2 (31:39):
Well, yeah, definitely. We do that. We all work together
in the studio. We don't layer things on so much.
We'll do the whole thing together and then you know,
obviously if people don't like what they're doing, they can
we do it again. But a lot of times people
will put one track on at a time and just
layer it. We don't do it that way. We play
all together.
Speaker 3 (32:00):
It's it's you get the vibe from each other that way,
you know, the feel for the music. Someone will do
something really dramatic and everyone else got you know, it's
kind of more like a band feel.
Speaker 2 (32:14):
But I find that important and the rest of the
musicians do so as well, So that's that's good.
Speaker 1 (32:21):
And when you're going out on tour, do you do
a lot of rehearsal before the actual tour or do
you do rehearsal just before each show? How does that work?
Obviously do sound check as well.
Speaker 3 (32:33):
We do do rehearsals before at the beginning of the
tour before a show when we put if we put
new things in or we're using different people, because we
use different people, so we'll do that and then we
have sound checks.
Speaker 1 (32:47):
Yeah. Yeah, well yeah, quite a quite a quite a
thing to tour and it can take a lot out
of you at times too, so you know, flying, drying, plans, dreams,
and automobiles. I'm sure it's is a big part of
a lot of.
Speaker 2 (33:01):
That, definitely, Harry Humidifier.
Speaker 1 (33:09):
You have an on stage ritual? Uh, you know, something
you do before you go on stage.
Speaker 2 (33:18):
Uh. I actually do like to men meditate.
Speaker 3 (33:22):
I like to meditate, try and you know, breathe and
be calm.
Speaker 1 (33:29):
Yeah. That that's been a big thing lately, people getting
into meditation and the transcendental type stuff. I'm sure that's uh,
definitely is a healthier way, you know, rather than the
old school people would be doing cigarettes or something like that.
Just oh, this is awful. I'd never understood how somebody
(33:51):
could like be a smoker and a singer. I don't
know how that works, but it can't help.
Speaker 2 (33:58):
Yeah, that's easactly right. Frank Sinatra was a bit of
a smoker. We see Dean Martin. You see them sort
of there smoking and thinking, now, how can I get
another puffin in between this first? I can you know
the words?
Speaker 1 (34:13):
So, yeah, they do it on stage, not just like, oh,
you know, doing it quietly before going on stage, doing
a while the performance, and like, well that was the
culture back then. It was gosh, remember back in those days,
I was like, is anybody gonna stop smoking? It finally happened.
It took a long time, but yeah, it's yeah. They
(34:35):
didn't do themselves any favors, but you know, probably visually
they thought, yeah that's pretty cool, especially in Vegas. So
Sammy Davis and all of those guys, it's just the
rat pack. Definitely exactly, well awesome, I'm really excited. This
is a really and I did listen to it in
the car and it's it's a great way to listen
(34:57):
to this album or if you're at home and want
to mellow out and relax. Happy People is out now
as we speak. And how long is your tour going on?
Speaker 3 (35:10):
We have a two week tour in May and we
have I'm not exactly sure what else we're doing.
Speaker 2 (35:18):
Where are we going.
Speaker 3 (35:19):
We're going to Miami and we're going to Mexico with
the dates have not been confirmed.
Speaker 2 (35:25):
Yet, Spain in July, Spain in July, American thing in September.
Speaker 3 (35:31):
Okay, I know about the zero.
Speaker 4 (35:38):
Well, you're going to Rome, Rome and all those Italian
thoughts in May, that's right, Yes, first of May to eleventh,
the first of May.
Speaker 2 (35:48):
To the eleventh of May.
Speaker 4 (35:49):
We're going to Rome, Baglia, yeah, Cosenna, Yeah, oh, I
haven't been to those places.
Speaker 1 (36:07):
Yet to oh for ends. I love Italy. It's gorgeous.
I'm sure they're gonna love seeing you there.
Speaker 3 (36:16):
The Italian's love jazz, and and we actually did. We
performed a couple of the Flamenco songs and they they're great.
Speaker 2 (36:24):
Sometimes I'll get up and dance with you.
Speaker 1 (36:26):
And yeah, oh that's sweet. That really is anybody get
up and dance in Beverly Hills or it's just that's
a different audience together. I can't imagine it in Beverly Hills. Well,
best wishes on the tour, travel save great new album,
(36:46):
Happy people. Where can we get this? Is this through
your website?
Speaker 3 (36:51):
It's throughout Andy James Jazz dot com and.
Speaker 2 (36:56):
It's through Spotify. We have vinyl and we have CDs
as well, so good.
Speaker 1 (37:05):
Great to see that on vinyl Amazon as well. Yeah, oh,
go through Amazon as a way, which is great too.
Yeah Vinyl, Wow, you can really, I'm sure the great
artwork comes with that, and uh maybe lyric sheet as well.
It's I love the packaging with Vinyl, right.
Speaker 2 (37:22):
Right, exactly, it's different. It seems to have come back in,
doesn't it. They arrived this week, another week to lay excellent.
Speaker 1 (37:33):
Yeah, what's old is new again? I'm sure that's fantastic. Yeah,
and get on YouTube there and planning any more music
videos or just performance videos to throw up on the
on the channel there.
Speaker 3 (37:45):
Yes, we're putting out music videos on YouTube as well.
We've got what's the next one that's coming today?
Speaker 2 (37:56):
I don't have to love I don't know. In a
month there'll be the Happy People, Happy People about a month. Yeah.
To be so young is already there?
Speaker 1 (38:09):
Yeah, good deal. Yeah, well look forward to it. I
look forward to the title track getting of video treatment
as well. That's fantastic, So go out there and get
it Happy People. Thank you so much for joining me today.
It's been fantastic. Thank you, Take care, good luckshas Thank you. Well.
That was a lot of fun. I really had a
(38:29):
good time. And it's funny because she's got her husband there.
They were trying to figure out the iPhone and trying
to getting it all together there. I hope you enjoyed that.
It was just so much fun, just like hearing about
somebody who has such a diverse background and she's just
really amazing, very very gifted performer. And I hope to
see you all more. On the other side of this podcast,
(38:53):
check out Tellus from the Corners dot com. I'm doing
some blogging there as well and have great interviews that
I have done over these last four plus years as
I am speaking. So talk with you all later. Take care,
have a good one.
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