Episode 122 Shameless plugs Terry Draper Social studies

Terry Draper has released one new album per year for the longest time without missing a beat. It's his routine to winter in Florida & write songs to record over the summer back at his recording studio Swamp Manor North of Toronto. This year he threw a wrench in his machine when he discovered lost 80's tapes in various boxes etc.. This was a project that Terry had done with Toronto based singer Jacqueline Kroft & abandoned it at the time for other projects.
Terry put new technology to use & remixed & remastered these songs so that these hidden treasures could be released today as "Social Studies Atlantic Crossing the lost 80s tapes" , after all these years.  
The album is a fun nostalgic ride back to the disco era. We discussed all this, what's happening with his annual project and more in this shameless plugs episode.   

https://www.terrydraper.com/ 

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Episode Transcript

(00:25):
Welcome to Tommy Solo's Famous Friends.This is a Shameless Plugs edition. We're
here today with Terry Draper. Welcomeback to the show, Terry. And
when I say Shameless Plugs, that'sbecause you have yet another new project.
It's not exactly new. This isthe Lost Eighties Tapes Social Studies. This
is a duo that you did wayback when with Jacqueline Croft. So first

(00:49):
of all, what happened, Howdid these tapes get lost? And what
was the process of recording the wholething in the first place. Well,
they didn't actually get lost, Tommy, they got buried. Ah more to
the point, but the buried tapesand just didn't have the same ring as
the mystery of the Lost eighties tapes. These songs were done in eighty three

(01:11):
eighty four. I met Jackie.Actually we dated back in the sixties.
Fond memory of mine is her andI hitchhiking down to Sam the record man
at Young and Dundath and buying ledZeppelin Io the day it came out,
and then we went back to herplace and smoked Hasheesh and listened to it.

(01:33):
I don't know if I can saythat out loud. It's legal here
now. Oh oh that's right,yeah, not down here, though,
I gotta be careful. I've beenFlorida anyway. So I've known Jackie for
a very long time, and thenwe went our separate ways, and as
luck would have it, I bumpedinto her in the early eighties in Yorkville.

(01:55):
She was doing some piano bar andwhen I knew in the sixties,
I didn't even know she played music, but she studied conservatory piano and stuff
like that. So she played mesome of her songs. We got together,
and I really liked what she wasdoing. It was very hip at
the time, Madonna, Blondie typestuff, and I was right into Culture

(02:20):
Club at the time of all things. I actually went to see them at
Maple Leaf Gardens when Karma Camellon wasnumber one, So I had an affinity
for what she was doing to somedegree. And so the two of us
embarked on this little journey with myeight track task Ham half inch tape machine,
and one of the tracks we stripedso that we could drive my computer,

(02:45):
which was an Apple three at thetime, so that we could do
some sequencing and whatnot with multi trackingsynths without using up all our tracks and
then they were mastered. I usedthat word loose. They were mixed down
to cassette. That was my endline at the time. I didn't have

(03:06):
a two track machine or a DATplayer or a CD recorder at the time,
so the tapes are mixed to cassette. The fidelity is not great.
But here we are in a newworld with new technology. And I used
one of those programs online that separatesthe tracks, so now I could separate

(03:29):
everything and then eque the base tomake it a little tougher, and I
could fix the drums. I wasusing a drumulator drum machine, which I
didn't like very much, but whatwere my options with an eight track recorder
and everybody was using the lin drumat that time anyway, So in some
cases I kept the drums. Insome cases I replaced them because I have

(03:52):
that option now. And I gotrid of the cheesy string violin sounds and
put real sample strings and tweaked itup. And Jackie's performances in the vocal
department were really good. She hada bit of Kate Bush going on in
her voice and some Madonna. Thetracks, unfortunately, were a little pitchy,

(04:15):
and when you're trying to push yourselfand excel and reach higher than you
can. You know, this iswhat happens, but new technology comes along.
I can tweak all that. That'sa little pitchy. Let me go
in and fix that note, whichI did. And so I found these
eleven songs and played with them andhad a new album in thirty days versus

(04:41):
what normally takes me a year becauseeverything was already done. I just had
to manipulate it. And Jackie wasa model at the time as well as
playing music, and we did aphoto shoot together, hence the cover of
the album with this pretty funky pictureof me. This is the only time

(05:01):
you'll catch me wearing mess scarets.Tommy, Well, that's your story,
okay, all right, Yeah,we don't know what goes on behind closed
doors down in Florida. As theysay, what happens in Florida stays there,
right. So this is interesting becauseyou had you had a project that

(05:25):
was done and due to the technologyback then, it wasn't quite up to
snuff. And now all these yearslater, you developed all these awesome engineering
skills and you fixed it and itsounds great. I mean, it's described
somewhere. I saw it described aseuropop, and I think I said to
you the other day that if DebbieHarry and Blinda Carlisle and Human League had

(05:46):
a baby, it would be thisalbum. So congrats. You were going
for that eighties thing, revitalizing itwhatever, And it's definitely there. And
the videos that I've seen, they'reright there. It's like the early days
of MTV much music for Canadian fans. That's Jamie Grant, Tommy. He's
been doing my videos for quite awhile and he offered to do three for

(06:09):
this album, and I was thrilled. And Jackie loves them too. He
does great work and he manages tocapture the vibe, you know, and
all his videos look different, butthese three have a similar look about them,
and so does the booklet that Imade, the digital booklet. He
sent me the pictures. I said, find me some pictures and here's the

(06:31):
eleven song titles. And he sentme these pictures that are all in the
same vein, and it turned outreally cool. It was an interesting project,
you know what it's like doing abit of house cleaning. You know,
these tapes have been laying around forforty years in a pile of cassettes.
You know, two songs here,one song over there. So yeah,

(06:55):
buried is the right word. Ihad to go digging and I managed
to as erect this little project.It was fun. Actually, this was
like two years after Platt who brokeup, so I've still been writing and
recording, but you know, stillin that sort of prog rock headspace pop
thing. So this was a wholeThis was a left turn for me,

(07:17):
and I had a great deal offun. I was inspired by her.
Her enthusiasm was infectious, and Ithink you can hear that in nerve voice.
I was going to say that thisis definitely a departure from your usual
prog pop. Why don't we takea minute now and give the fans a
look at a promo video? Goodidea that quality. Everybody has a loose

(08:41):
I tell you, well, LikeI said, that's some quality stuff,
man, So kudos to digging thisstuff up and solving the mystery of what
happened to those lost tapes. Thisis some pretty good stuff, and for
boomers like me, it's kind ofa fun ride, man, because you

(09:03):
just don't hear stuff like that onthe radio anymore so in the nostalgia exactly.
It's nostalgic, and of course itgave you a good excuse to put
your engineering skills to use and patchthis thing up and make it into a
really nice, polished apple, ifyou will. So I know you're still
in Florida, and this is whereyou go for your inspiration, among other
things. What's coming up for you? What's coming up for me? Actually

(09:28):
a couple of things. I havebegun work on a new album, and
that's always the case, that justdoesn't stop, whether I want it to
or not. This got in theway a bit, this social studies project,
you know. I had to takea couple of months and dig these
taps out and play with them andall that. So the new album might

(09:48):
be delayed till next year. We'llsee. But I have three or four
songs already recorded and I'm working onthem. I'm quite pleased with them.
I need some more, obviously,But in the meantime, Jamie Grant,
fellow that does the videos and hehas played on a lot of my albums,

(10:09):
is a singer songwriter in his ownright, and he wants to put
an album out of songs written byme and him, him and I I
should say and put a CD out, you know, some works that we've
done together, not necessarily co writing, but you know, I'll work on
his song, he works on mine, and we'll put this package together that

(10:31):
sort of sounds similar. And he'sa little more off the wall than I
am, so that'll be fun.You know, a lot more latitude.
I'm kind of stickler for stuff beingnon discordant and musical and melodic. Jamie
doesn't care so much. So abit of latitude coming my way, and

(10:54):
so that could be a fun projecttoo. I think he wants to call
it Draper Grant at the moment.But see, you know that's on the
back burner and a new album isalways is simmering away over there in the
corner, and Putson with it.But that's it. Getting ready to head
back to Canada. I think theweather's starting to turn and it might be

(11:16):
safe for me to come home.Yeah, things are starting to look pretty
good weatherwise up here. Yeah,so this is interesting. You're growing in
your senior years here, expanding andstretching and growing. Wow. Well,
kudos, and we're very much lookingforward to everything new. In the meanwhile,
we have social studies available at TerryDraper dot com and you I spoke

(11:41):
to you what two months ago aboutin the beginning, So yeah, that
came out just before Christmas, earlyDecember, I think, right, yeah,
so more than two months ago,but it's not that long ago.
So I'm glad to hear, andI'm sure the fans are glad to hear
that you're staying busy and we're definitelygoing to look forward to everything new that
comes from Terry Draper and Friends.So once again, I know you've got

(12:03):
things to do. I won't tieyou up all day. Thanks again for
taking the time to do this withme, Terry, and until next time,
cheers. Thanks Tommy, It's goodto be on the Tommy Solo show.
My pleasure Chao. Tommy Solo's FamousFriends is a one man production,
meaning that I've done all the workincluding recording, editing, guest acquisition,

(12:26):
etc. And hey, here's somenews. We've just recently joined forces with
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well. The theme song for TommySolo's Famous Friends is a clip from my
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(12:48):
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