January 14, 2025 • 24 mins
Terry Draper of Klaatu fame has been releasing solo albums for years. His regular routine is to release a new record every year in time for Christmas.
His usual process was interupted last year by health issues which he is now recovering from.
So for this current project, he dug into the vault and resurrected several old demos from decades ago, along with a fresh crop of new material.
This time around, I was honoured to play guitar on three of his songs. I was among 17 players who helped Terry on this one.
We discussed the making of Infinity and more in this episode.
Get Terry's music and merch at www.terrydraper.com
Help me to keep producing my show at the following site :
https://buymeacoffee.com/tsolobandq
Subscribe to my Youtube channel
Tommy Solo
@tommysolo9154
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/tommy-solo-s-famous-friends--4318572/support.
His usual process was interupted last year by health issues which he is now recovering from.
So for this current project, he dug into the vault and resurrected several old demos from decades ago, along with a fresh crop of new material.
This time around, I was honoured to play guitar on three of his songs. I was among 17 players who helped Terry on this one.
We discussed the making of Infinity and more in this episode.
Get Terry's music and merch at www.terrydraper.com
Help me to keep producing my show at the following site :
https://buymeacoffee.com/tsolobandq
Subscribe to my Youtube channel
Tommy Solo
@tommysolo9154
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/tommy-solo-s-famous-friends--4318572/support.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
Welcome to Tommy Solo's Famous Friends. This is where I
get to chat with people who I've connected with over
the years in the world of arts and entertainment, and
today I'm very pleased to welcome back to the show.
Terry Draper. Welcome back, Terry.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Hey, Tommy, it's good to be back.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
Uh huh. So I would ask what you've been up to,
but I know what you've been up to, and we've
spoken now a few times, and it seems to be
the trend is that you while away the winter in
sunny Florida, where you are right now, and then you
spend a whole lot of time humming and singing and
fussing about the keyboards and the come up with ideas,
(01:01):
and then in the summertime you record an album which
you release in time for Christmas. So here we are again.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Yeah, it's habit forming. I think when I'm down here,
it's sort of like being on vacation, even though I've
been retired for quite some time, but I don't know.
I get lounging in the pool and napping on the beach.
It helps with the creativity, I think, and so I
tend to do the writing and the sketching in a
(01:29):
MIDI environment on my computer down here with the keyboard
and coming up with song ideas, and then I bring
everything home and stick it in the big break and
do the vocals and guitars. As you well know, you
came over to the house and did some home yourself,
So that's been sort of the way it goes.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
Seems like it's an infinite process.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Yeah, it would be, wouldn't it.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
So the new album, Infinity comes out today December seventeenth.
You can get it Harry Draper dot com, and I
highly recommend you do. You kind of alluded to the
fact that I was a guest on the album. That
was a real honor for me and a challenge as well,
because you're not just a straight ahead rock and roll guy.
There's no one four or five in your music. It's
(02:17):
very progressive pop. And I do recall that you had
sent me dance to dance and you said that the
end might be a bit of a challenge in Frank
Zappa question mark, and I responded, I have never met
a polka that I couldn't voist a jug too. So
it's interesting music, that's for sure, and it's not uncommon
(02:40):
for you. You have a very eccentric style, but on
this one you've gone back into the vaults and you've
redone some old material going back to the eighties. So
how did that happen?
Speaker 2 (02:51):
How did that happen? Well, I had some health issues
over the summer. I spent six weeks in Toronto Hospital,
Princess markt best care anywhere, I gotta tell you. So
when I got out, I didn't have a lot of
new songs, new material, and I dug back into the vault.
(03:12):
I found a couple songs from the seventies, three or
four from the eighties, three or four new ones, and
a couple like Dance the Dance. I think that's about
ten years ago. I wrote that song and I kind
of liked it, but I also thought it was kind
of frivolous, throwaway kind of thing. And when I reviewed
(03:32):
it this summer, I thought, you know what, this could
be a real kind of ten CC kind of song,
real tongue in cheek. And when TENCC does bloody tourists
and singing. I don't like Jamaica. I love her that
kind of thing, you know. So I've never been able
to dance. I'm the owner of two left feet, and
(03:54):
so I thought I'd write a song called Dance the
dance that invokes every dance ever invented, and pretend that
I've learned them all because of this particular woman who's
right over there.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
So it's an interesting song, that's for sure. And the
first one that you sent me is actually the title
track Infinity. Now. I found that very interesting in the
arrangement as well. In fact, I'm glad that you sent
me chord charts for that because it's not again straight
ahead one four five, but very interesting. Now, I wonder
did this song come from your questioning your own mortality
(04:30):
with your healthy issues that you've gotten over recently.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
No, I wrote it before I ran into some problems,
but I've always sort of you know, we talk about infinity,
it's really hard to grasp I mean, are you telling
me there's no edge to the universe. There's got to
be an edge to the universe, but apparently not. And
the same with time. We're always in the middle of time.
(04:54):
We're always in the middle of the universe. The very
definition of infinity. You can't be over on the side
of the universe because it's infinite. I don't know, it's
just always boggled my mind, and I decided to write
about it. What happens when I sit down and start
writing about something, I invariably start to think about it,
(05:16):
which is a really good idea. And then as you
write about it and your ideas come out on paper,
you sort of begin to understand how you feel about
it particular subject and share those feelings. So I finished
Infinity and I still have no idea. It's a mystery.
It's a mystery to me. I'm born in the middle
(05:38):
of time and I'm going to die at the very
same time. I mean, that's I don't know, it's a conundrum.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
It certainly is.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
Yeah, well, that's why I think that that song in
particular is not your straight ahead, average song. It breaks
down in the middle and goes into six eighth and
all sorts of swirly whirly chords and bizarre sound effects stuff,
and then we go back into the song and then
back out of it again. It's a bit of a ride,
but kind of like you said it best, and it's
(06:08):
a term I coined. I believe progressive pop.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
I don't disagree. You are a unique individual and artist,
that's for sure. Now, this album you've got. I counted
I think seventeen other artists on board with this, including myself,
Is that right? I believe there were seventeen.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
Yeah, let me count two for six, eight, nine, ten,
twelve for sixteen, sevent Your counting skills are remarkable.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
Tommy, just don't ask me to go past twenty.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
Yeah, yeah, seventeen people. Well like some of the songs
from the eighties. Actually they were demos of course back then,
done on four track, and there's a few of those.
I took them and put them through an AI separation
program that's fits back the song at you, with the
vocals by themselves, the drums by themselves, the bass by itself,
(07:06):
and everything else sort of other with a metronome that
allows the platform I'm using, which happens to be Logic
Audio because it sees that metronome and keeps everything in sync.
Because the versions of these songs that I found were
mixed to cassette, and cassettes are notorious for stretching, and
(07:29):
you know, it's not a comprehensive mixed down format. So
this AI program that separates the tracks gives you a
metronome that's going back and forth all over the place infinitesimally,
I might add, but still enough that you can't say, oh,
I recorded this song at one hundred and twenty beats
per min. It set it at one twenty. Drop it in.
(07:51):
It won't work. You have to follow as the song
stretches and moves. You can't hear it with your ear.
But anyway, So with that technology, I managed to separate
the parts. Replace the drums because it was some cheesy
drum machine that I used in most cases, and then
beef up the bass, eq it and make it nicer,
(08:12):
and tune the vocal if there was anything. Add some harmonies,
Add some guitars like yourself. You played on one called
It's Your Love that I wrote in eighty one, And
what you hear on that song outside of your great
guitars is my friend Neil Newmanan redid the bass and
he had to do it note for note, exact to
(08:33):
what was originally there. What was originally there was just
too muffled and muddy to use, but it was in
the mix. You couldn't get rid of it. So we
had to do the exact same bass on top of it,
and Neil nailed it. And it's a bit of a
rocker three minutes long, if it's as close as I
get to do on a one, four or five rock
and roll. And I tuned the vocal up. That's the
(08:56):
original vocal that I did in the four track forty
odd years ago. And I'm quite pleased with that one
because it's out of my wheelhouse a little bit and
it's cool. I like what we ended up with.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
Yeah, yeah, that was a lot of fun. Among the
guests on this album are Keith Hampshire and Virgil Scott.
Now did they participate this past summer or was that
one of the older recordings.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
No, that was the most recent recordings. A month ago.
They came over to the house and we did some
vocals on a song called Ubuntu. This is an interesting song.
I was watching some documentary and there was this guy
in Africa working with this tribe and he'd taken a
bowl of fruit or sweets or something and put it
(09:43):
down the field a little bit and told all the
children that the first one that gets there can have
the bowl of stuff. And when he said go, all
the kids walk down hand in hand and shared the
bowl of goodies, which you wouldn't see that in the
Western society.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
And we'll be right back after this.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
And he went on to explain that it's what the
tribe refers to as ubuntu. I am you and you
are me. You know the phrase it takes a village
to raise a child. It's all that kind of mentality.
And I found that really interesting and I thought i'd
write about it. So I tried to make it a
bit of an African groove, and the best way for
(10:42):
me to do that was to use a little sound
effects sort of sounds like the jungle sounds from a
Johnny Weisemeller Tarzan movie.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
Editors note Johnny wise Miller was an American Olympic swimmer
who won several gold medals and broke swimming records, and
then went on to star in twelve Tarzan of the
Jungle movies. Now back to this show.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
But that's okay, that's what I think of Africa most
of the time when I, you know, envision it in
my mind, and I'm in this mode trying to do
this village thing anyway, So I needed as many voices
on that as possible. So there's I'm singing the song,
and Brenda Webb is with me, Jamie Hoover, Lena Rogers,
(11:26):
Keith and Virgil anybody else. No, I think that's it,
and it's just like a gang vocal. Not a lot
of harmonies going on in the verses, but generally it's
everybody's just singing this song in unison like a village would.
And so that was kind of fun. And that's that one.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
That's interesting, you know, And a lot of people don't
really have that much of a scope in their minds
as far as how to do vocals. The typical thing
would be to almost want to do barbershop harmonies every time,
and that just doesn't always work. There are times where
just the different tonality when you've got four singers all
singing the same note, really works. So that's an interesting
(12:06):
way to do it, you know. I think what we
should do at this point, Terry, is just to take
a minute here and give people a preview of one
of the videos from the album. Let's let them see
some of Dance the Dance good idea. Tommy Editor's note,
Obviously we can't watch a video while we're listening to
this podcast, but you can watch the video on my
(12:26):
YouTube channel, and don't you worry, I will put that
channel in the show notes.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
Sound Tangled on.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
Really needed Durum. Wow, that is something else. And you know,
not only is the song awesome, but the video as usual.
(13:29):
Jamie Grant, what a guy man. I don't know how
he comes up with this stuff, but he's done a
wonderful job once again with the videos on this album.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
Yeah, this is a This is a very odd relationship
I have with Jamie Grant. We've never met. He put
a CD out quite a few years ago now called
McPherson Grant that he did with a fellow who lives
out west, I think in Washington or Oregon, and they
asked me to play drums on one of their songs
that was a very sort of off the wall beat
(13:59):
Ley kind of thing, and I added timpany drums and
symbol rolls and all sorts of bizarre stuff and melotron
and choir as well as a drum kit. And anyway,
he made videos for all their songs, and I was
doing a new album. I was actually putting out a
piece of vinyl, which I hadn't done since the class
(14:20):
two days, and I wanted it to be a retrospective
with a couple of new songs. So it's called in
My garden because I chose some of my favorite flowers
to put on this album, and one of them was
a song called Fish. And I called Jamie up on
email and I said, hey, how much would you charge
me to do a video? I've got this song Fish
(14:41):
that could lend itself to something cool. Maybe we could
use some of the video for Mister Limpet.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
Don Knotts Okay, here's another editor's note for our younger listeners.
The Incredible Mister Limpet was a semi animated Warner Brothers
movie from nineteen sixty four starring Don Knutts, who is
perhaps best known for his role as Deputy Sheriff Barney
Fife on Maybury RFD. Now back to the show.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
Anyway, it goes the way back. So he said, oh, yeah,
no charge, I gladly do a video for you for
future considerations. I said, all right, okay, good. So we
did that one and then I did the next album
I was working on, and I sent him a couple
of the songs to listen to and he did videos
for them. Well, now this is I think it's six
(15:27):
albums later, and he's done videos for every song on
every album, which is like, I don't know, seventy five
eighty videos or something, and we've never met. We've never
spoken on the phone. It's always been email. We don't
even talk on Facebook Messenger, so it's rather bizarre. But
he does really good work, and I let him do
(15:49):
whatever he wants as a rule, is what he thinks.
My songs look like. I hope everybody has their own
video going on in their head, but that's what he does,
and let him be creative and do whatever he wants.
He's also done the artwork for the last couple of
albums since my good friend Ted Jones passed away, and
(16:11):
he's tried to keep the artwork in the same vein
as Ted Jones. In fact, somebody just said to me
the other day, how much this album cover looks like
Ted Jones did. It just does nice work. I'm quite
pleased to have someone help me out.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
And we'll be right back after this.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
I mentioned Jamie Hoover and Elna Rogers. They live in
North Carolina. Jamie has been working with me doing vocals
and guitars here and there over the last ten years,
and it's just great fun. He sends me this stuff
and he always sends me more than I need and
not only do I not use it all, but I'll
(17:07):
take some of it that I like, and over the
course of working on the song, I'll grab it and
move it over here and play with it. And Justice,
I did that with some of your guitar work too.
The end of Infinity, the guitar you played was interesting,
and when I made it play backwards, it was even
(17:27):
more interesting. It also added to the infinity, and it
sort of when you hear it, it sort of puts
that you know that what on your face, which is
the way I feel about Infinity.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
Anyway, It's almost psychedelic.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
Oh, I'm hoping it's totally psychedelic.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
Yeah. You caught me off guard because after I sent
you the tracks and we were communicating back and forth,
you said, you know that ragapart at the end was great,
and I thought, while I was tapping, I suppose that
could be considered rag. And when I heard it, Oh,
now I get it it really Yeah. Yeah, but that's
(18:05):
certainly an interesting facet of your style overall. You know
that it's it is progressive and it's very nonconformist. So
I really appreciate that. In new music. The other guitarists
also did a really good job. Our mutual friend Fernando
Perdomo plays on it.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
And yeah, he played on the song Leaving. This is
the third album in a row that he has played
on with me. We've never met either or spoken, but
he's a big Plato fan, and you know, we've communicated
on Facebook or whatever frequently. And a few years ago
I was working on Bread and Circus and the title
(18:45):
song I wanted to sound. I needed some Robert Fripp guitar,
you know, some real frippery, And so I reached out
to him and I said, hey, Fernando, would you consider
playing on one of my songs. I'm looking for, you know,
a little Robert Frip. And he says, oh, that'd be cool,
send me the song. Well, I sent him the song
(19:05):
and the next day he sent me back all his
guitar parts. That was like what Normally it takes a
few weeks a month, you know. People like to get
comfortable and listen to the song, you know, and I
try to give them some idea of what I'm looking for.
Sometimes I don't. I say here's a song that I
think you can help me with. It's up your rally.
(19:29):
What do you got? So he delivered the goods. Very
tasteful player.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
He's very versatile too. I mean he plays with so
many different people. Take too long to list them all off,
but yeah, he's quite talented. Yeah. Now, I was just
thinking about when I sent you the guitar work that
I had done here in London for Infinity, and the
first thing you said was sixteen tracks. No, it wasn't.
(19:54):
Actually I double everything. I get that you were a
little bit overwhelmed by that file for sure.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
Well that happens, you know, like sometimes less is more.
I don't particularly subscribe to that thinking. In that vein
of thought, I've always said that if it's worth doing,
it's worth overdoing, right, Yeah, the opposite of less is more.
But like, for instance, on Dance the Dance, you played
(20:22):
the rhythm guitar throughout the verses and it was great
and it sat in the track really nicely, but it
was just it was when we came back to the chorus,
it wasn't as exciting with those rad that guitar line
the setup, and so I took your guitars right out.
(20:43):
It's just the vocal, the piano and some drums and percussion,
and then you did the answers to every vocal, and
now there was room for you to answer and put
nuance in your playing and make it totally legible and
the song benefit from that.
Speaker 1 (21:01):
That was all you as a producer, because I recall
I hadn't come up with any of those answer licks
before I got to your house. That is what a
producer does. So the fact that you can write your
own material, perform it, and produce it and do it
in an objective way is something that's for sure. But
(21:22):
I've found that oftentimes that happens to me. I'll go
into the studio with my producer and I don't plan
on playing a league solo, for example, and he'll say, well,
why don't we just add this section? And then you
go nuts on it. And sometimes as a guitarist, I
find I work better under pressure. Like you said, now
let's do the answers, and oh, okay, let's see what
(21:43):
happens here.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
Well, we recorded those, and normally each one I'll record
two or three times, and after you've left the building,
I go back in and see which one I like best,
and maybe it's half of Take one and half to
Take three, you know, and then maybe I like the
one you did before, and so I'll grab it and
drag it over here, cut and paste, you know, and
(22:07):
play with it. Sometimes it's in the wrong key or
the chords have change. That's okay. I can fix that too.
I'll put it in the tuner and start moving the
notes around. This technology today allows you so much latitude,
and it's actually a great deal of fun. You know,
take something and like turning a pig's ear into a purse.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
Another song that you had Fernando Perdomo.
Speaker 2 (22:32):
Play on, good memory, tom.
Speaker 1 (22:34):
Yeah, yeah, not bad for an old guy. Yeah. So
we all look forward to getting a copy and Terrydreaper
dot com is where you do that. I love this album.
I don't know what to tell you. It's brilliant as usual,
and I'm going to look forward to seeing what you
come up with over next summer. Maybe we can do
something together again. I don't know, but Terry, I want
(22:57):
to thank you once again for taking the time out
of your day to do this with me. And until
next time, cheers.
Speaker 2 (23:04):
Thanks Tommy. We will do this again, all right, Tommy.
Speaker 1 (23:08):
Solo's Famous Friends is a one man production, meaning that
I've done all the work, including recording, editing, guest acquisition,
et cetera. And hey, here's some news. We've just recently
joined forces with five to one nine magazine, so you
can check out my interviews there as well. The theme
song for Tommy Solo's Famous Friends is a clip from
(23:30):
my original composition, The Burn. All rights reserved. If you
enjoy the show and you'd like to help us keep
it going, why don't you click on the buy me
a coffee link in the show notes, hit the like button,
subscribe all that stuff. We really appreciate it. You can
find me on Facebook and Instagram, and until next time, cheers,
Welcome to Tommy Solo's Famous Friends. This is where I
get to chat with people who I've connected with over
the years in the world of arts and entertainment, and
today I'm very pleased to welcome back to the show.
Terry Draper. Welcome back, Terry.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Hey, Tommy, it's good to be back.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
Uh huh. So I would ask what you've been up to,
but I know what you've been up to, and we've
spoken now a few times, and it seems to be
the trend is that you while away the winter in
sunny Florida, where you are right now, and then you
spend a whole lot of time humming and singing and
fussing about the keyboards and the come up with ideas,
(01:01):
and then in the summertime you record an album which
you release in time for Christmas. So here we are again.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Yeah, it's habit forming. I think when I'm down here,
it's sort of like being on vacation, even though I've
been retired for quite some time, but I don't know.
I get lounging in the pool and napping on the beach.
It helps with the creativity, I think, and so I
tend to do the writing and the sketching in a
(01:29):
MIDI environment on my computer down here with the keyboard
and coming up with song ideas, and then I bring
everything home and stick it in the big break and
do the vocals and guitars. As you well know, you
came over to the house and did some home yourself,
So that's been sort of the way it goes.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
Seems like it's an infinite process.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Yeah, it would be, wouldn't it.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
So the new album, Infinity comes out today December seventeenth.
You can get it Harry Draper dot com, and I
highly recommend you do. You kind of alluded to the
fact that I was a guest on the album. That
was a real honor for me and a challenge as well,
because you're not just a straight ahead rock and roll guy.
There's no one four or five in your music. It's
(02:17):
very progressive pop. And I do recall that you had
sent me dance to dance and you said that the
end might be a bit of a challenge in Frank
Zappa question mark, and I responded, I have never met
a polka that I couldn't voist a jug too. So
it's interesting music, that's for sure, and it's not uncommon
(02:40):
for you. You have a very eccentric style, but on
this one you've gone back into the vaults and you've
redone some old material going back to the eighties. So
how did that happen?
Speaker 2 (02:51):
How did that happen? Well, I had some health issues
over the summer. I spent six weeks in Toronto Hospital,
Princess markt best care anywhere, I gotta tell you. So
when I got out, I didn't have a lot of
new songs, new material, and I dug back into the vault.
(03:12):
I found a couple songs from the seventies, three or
four from the eighties, three or four new ones, and
a couple like Dance the Dance. I think that's about
ten years ago. I wrote that song and I kind
of liked it, but I also thought it was kind
of frivolous, throwaway kind of thing. And when I reviewed
(03:32):
it this summer, I thought, you know what, this could
be a real kind of ten CC kind of song,
real tongue in cheek. And when TENCC does bloody tourists
and singing. I don't like Jamaica. I love her that
kind of thing, you know. So I've never been able
to dance. I'm the owner of two left feet, and
(03:54):
so I thought I'd write a song called Dance the
dance that invokes every dance ever invented, and pretend that
I've learned them all because of this particular woman who's
right over there.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
So it's an interesting song, that's for sure. And the
first one that you sent me is actually the title
track Infinity. Now. I found that very interesting in the
arrangement as well. In fact, I'm glad that you sent
me chord charts for that because it's not again straight
ahead one four five, but very interesting. Now, I wonder
did this song come from your questioning your own mortality
(04:30):
with your healthy issues that you've gotten over recently.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
No, I wrote it before I ran into some problems,
but I've always sort of you know, we talk about infinity,
it's really hard to grasp I mean, are you telling
me there's no edge to the universe. There's got to
be an edge to the universe, but apparently not. And
the same with time. We're always in the middle of time.
(04:54):
We're always in the middle of the universe. The very
definition of infinity. You can't be over on the side
of the universe because it's infinite. I don't know, it's
just always boggled my mind, and I decided to write
about it. What happens when I sit down and start
writing about something, I invariably start to think about it,
(05:16):
which is a really good idea. And then as you
write about it and your ideas come out on paper,
you sort of begin to understand how you feel about
it particular subject and share those feelings. So I finished
Infinity and I still have no idea. It's a mystery.
It's a mystery to me. I'm born in the middle
(05:38):
of time and I'm going to die at the very
same time. I mean, that's I don't know, it's a conundrum.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
It certainly is.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
Yeah, well, that's why I think that that song in
particular is not your straight ahead, average song. It breaks
down in the middle and goes into six eighth and
all sorts of swirly whirly chords and bizarre sound effects stuff,
and then we go back into the song and then
back out of it again. It's a bit of a ride,
but kind of like you said it best, and it's
(06:08):
a term I coined. I believe progressive pop.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
I don't disagree. You are a unique individual and artist,
that's for sure. Now, this album you've got. I counted
I think seventeen other artists on board with this, including myself,
Is that right? I believe there were seventeen.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
Yeah, let me count two for six, eight, nine, ten,
twelve for sixteen, sevent Your counting skills are remarkable.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
Tommy, just don't ask me to go past twenty.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
Yeah, yeah, seventeen people. Well like some of the songs
from the eighties. Actually they were demos of course back then,
done on four track, and there's a few of those.
I took them and put them through an AI separation
program that's fits back the song at you, with the
vocals by themselves, the drums by themselves, the bass by itself,
(07:06):
and everything else sort of other with a metronome that
allows the platform I'm using, which happens to be Logic
Audio because it sees that metronome and keeps everything in sync.
Because the versions of these songs that I found were
mixed to cassette, and cassettes are notorious for stretching, and
(07:29):
you know, it's not a comprehensive mixed down format. So
this AI program that separates the tracks gives you a
metronome that's going back and forth all over the place infinitesimally,
I might add, but still enough that you can't say, oh,
I recorded this song at one hundred and twenty beats
per min. It set it at one twenty. Drop it in.
(07:51):
It won't work. You have to follow as the song
stretches and moves. You can't hear it with your ear.
But anyway, So with that technology, I managed to separate
the parts. Replace the drums because it was some cheesy
drum machine that I used in most cases, and then
beef up the bass, eq it and make it nicer,
(08:12):
and tune the vocal if there was anything. Add some harmonies,
Add some guitars like yourself. You played on one called
It's Your Love that I wrote in eighty one, And
what you hear on that song outside of your great
guitars is my friend Neil Newmanan redid the bass and
he had to do it note for note, exact to
(08:33):
what was originally there. What was originally there was just
too muffled and muddy to use, but it was in
the mix. You couldn't get rid of it. So we
had to do the exact same bass on top of it,
and Neil nailed it. And it's a bit of a
rocker three minutes long, if it's as close as I
get to do on a one, four or five rock
and roll. And I tuned the vocal up. That's the
(08:56):
original vocal that I did in the four track forty
odd years ago. And I'm quite pleased with that one
because it's out of my wheelhouse a little bit and
it's cool. I like what we ended up with.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
Yeah, yeah, that was a lot of fun. Among the
guests on this album are Keith Hampshire and Virgil Scott.
Now did they participate this past summer or was that
one of the older recordings.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
No, that was the most recent recordings. A month ago.
They came over to the house and we did some
vocals on a song called Ubuntu. This is an interesting song.
I was watching some documentary and there was this guy
in Africa working with this tribe and he'd taken a
bowl of fruit or sweets or something and put it
(09:43):
down the field a little bit and told all the
children that the first one that gets there can have
the bowl of stuff. And when he said go, all
the kids walk down hand in hand and shared the
bowl of goodies, which you wouldn't see that in the
Western society.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
And we'll be right back after this.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
And he went on to explain that it's what the
tribe refers to as ubuntu. I am you and you
are me. You know the phrase it takes a village
to raise a child. It's all that kind of mentality.
And I found that really interesting and I thought i'd
write about it. So I tried to make it a
bit of an African groove, and the best way for
(10:42):
me to do that was to use a little sound
effects sort of sounds like the jungle sounds from a
Johnny Weisemeller Tarzan movie.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
Editors note Johnny wise Miller was an American Olympic swimmer
who won several gold medals and broke swimming records, and
then went on to star in twelve Tarzan of the
Jungle movies. Now back to this show.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
But that's okay, that's what I think of Africa most
of the time when I, you know, envision it in
my mind, and I'm in this mode trying to do
this village thing anyway, So I needed as many voices
on that as possible. So there's I'm singing the song,
and Brenda Webb is with me, Jamie Hoover, Lena Rogers,
(11:26):
Keith and Virgil anybody else. No, I think that's it,
and it's just like a gang vocal. Not a lot
of harmonies going on in the verses, but generally it's
everybody's just singing this song in unison like a village would.
And so that was kind of fun. And that's that one.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
That's interesting, you know, And a lot of people don't
really have that much of a scope in their minds
as far as how to do vocals. The typical thing
would be to almost want to do barbershop harmonies every time,
and that just doesn't always work. There are times where
just the different tonality when you've got four singers all
singing the same note, really works. So that's an interesting
(12:06):
way to do it, you know. I think what we
should do at this point, Terry, is just to take
a minute here and give people a preview of one
of the videos from the album. Let's let them see
some of Dance the Dance good idea. Tommy Editor's note,
Obviously we can't watch a video while we're listening to
this podcast, but you can watch the video on my
(12:26):
YouTube channel, and don't you worry, I will put that
channel in the show notes.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
Sound Tangled on.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
Really needed Durum. Wow, that is something else. And you know,
not only is the song awesome, but the video as usual.
(13:29):
Jamie Grant, what a guy man. I don't know how
he comes up with this stuff, but he's done a
wonderful job once again with the videos on this album.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
Yeah, this is a This is a very odd relationship
I have with Jamie Grant. We've never met. He put
a CD out quite a few years ago now called
McPherson Grant that he did with a fellow who lives
out west, I think in Washington or Oregon, and they
asked me to play drums on one of their songs
that was a very sort of off the wall beat
(13:59):
Ley kind of thing, and I added timpany drums and
symbol rolls and all sorts of bizarre stuff and melotron
and choir as well as a drum kit. And anyway,
he made videos for all their songs, and I was
doing a new album. I was actually putting out a
piece of vinyl, which I hadn't done since the class
(14:20):
two days, and I wanted it to be a retrospective
with a couple of new songs. So it's called in
My garden because I chose some of my favorite flowers
to put on this album, and one of them was
a song called Fish. And I called Jamie up on
email and I said, hey, how much would you charge
me to do a video? I've got this song Fish
(14:41):
that could lend itself to something cool. Maybe we could
use some of the video for Mister Limpet.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
Don Knotts Okay, here's another editor's note for our younger listeners.
The Incredible Mister Limpet was a semi animated Warner Brothers
movie from nineteen sixty four starring Don Knutts, who is
perhaps best known for his role as Deputy Sheriff Barney
Fife on Maybury RFD. Now back to the show.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
Anyway, it goes the way back. So he said, oh, yeah,
no charge, I gladly do a video for you for
future considerations. I said, all right, okay, good. So we
did that one and then I did the next album
I was working on, and I sent him a couple
of the songs to listen to and he did videos
for them. Well, now this is I think it's six
(15:27):
albums later, and he's done videos for every song on
every album, which is like, I don't know, seventy five
eighty videos or something, and we've never met. We've never
spoken on the phone. It's always been email. We don't
even talk on Facebook Messenger, so it's rather bizarre. But
he does really good work, and I let him do
(15:49):
whatever he wants as a rule, is what he thinks.
My songs look like. I hope everybody has their own
video going on in their head, but that's what he does,
and let him be creative and do whatever he wants.
He's also done the artwork for the last couple of
albums since my good friend Ted Jones passed away, and
(16:11):
he's tried to keep the artwork in the same vein
as Ted Jones. In fact, somebody just said to me
the other day, how much this album cover looks like
Ted Jones did. It just does nice work. I'm quite
pleased to have someone help me out.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
And we'll be right back after this.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
I mentioned Jamie Hoover and Elna Rogers. They live in
North Carolina. Jamie has been working with me doing vocals
and guitars here and there over the last ten years,
and it's just great fun. He sends me this stuff
and he always sends me more than I need and
not only do I not use it all, but I'll
(17:07):
take some of it that I like, and over the
course of working on the song, I'll grab it and
move it over here and play with it. And Justice,
I did that with some of your guitar work too.
The end of Infinity, the guitar you played was interesting,
and when I made it play backwards, it was even
(17:27):
more interesting. It also added to the infinity, and it
sort of when you hear it, it sort of puts
that you know that what on your face, which is
the way I feel about Infinity.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
Anyway, It's almost psychedelic.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
Oh, I'm hoping it's totally psychedelic.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
Yeah. You caught me off guard because after I sent
you the tracks and we were communicating back and forth,
you said, you know that ragapart at the end was great,
and I thought, while I was tapping, I suppose that
could be considered rag. And when I heard it, Oh,
now I get it it really Yeah. Yeah, but that's
(18:05):
certainly an interesting facet of your style overall. You know
that it's it is progressive and it's very nonconformist. So
I really appreciate that. In new music. The other guitarists
also did a really good job. Our mutual friend Fernando
Perdomo plays on it.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
And yeah, he played on the song Leaving. This is
the third album in a row that he has played
on with me. We've never met either or spoken, but
he's a big Plato fan, and you know, we've communicated
on Facebook or whatever frequently. And a few years ago
I was working on Bread and Circus and the title
(18:45):
song I wanted to sound. I needed some Robert Fripp guitar,
you know, some real frippery, And so I reached out
to him and I said, hey, Fernando, would you consider
playing on one of my songs. I'm looking for, you know,
a little Robert Frip. And he says, oh, that'd be cool,
send me the song. Well, I sent him the song
(19:05):
and the next day he sent me back all his
guitar parts. That was like what Normally it takes a
few weeks a month, you know. People like to get
comfortable and listen to the song, you know, and I
try to give them some idea of what I'm looking for.
Sometimes I don't. I say here's a song that I
think you can help me with. It's up your rally.
(19:29):
What do you got? So he delivered the goods. Very
tasteful player.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
He's very versatile too. I mean he plays with so
many different people. Take too long to list them all off,
but yeah, he's quite talented. Yeah. Now, I was just
thinking about when I sent you the guitar work that
I had done here in London for Infinity, and the
first thing you said was sixteen tracks. No, it wasn't.
(19:54):
Actually I double everything. I get that you were a
little bit overwhelmed by that file for sure.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
Well that happens, you know, like sometimes less is more.
I don't particularly subscribe to that thinking. In that vein
of thought, I've always said that if it's worth doing,
it's worth overdoing, right, Yeah, the opposite of less is more.
But like, for instance, on Dance the Dance, you played
(20:22):
the rhythm guitar throughout the verses and it was great
and it sat in the track really nicely, but it
was just it was when we came back to the chorus,
it wasn't as exciting with those rad that guitar line
the setup, and so I took your guitars right out.
(20:43):
It's just the vocal, the piano and some drums and percussion,
and then you did the answers to every vocal, and
now there was room for you to answer and put
nuance in your playing and make it totally legible and
the song benefit from that.
Speaker 1 (21:01):
That was all you as a producer, because I recall
I hadn't come up with any of those answer licks
before I got to your house. That is what a
producer does. So the fact that you can write your
own material, perform it, and produce it and do it
in an objective way is something that's for sure. But
(21:22):
I've found that oftentimes that happens to me. I'll go
into the studio with my producer and I don't plan
on playing a league solo, for example, and he'll say, well,
why don't we just add this section? And then you
go nuts on it. And sometimes as a guitarist, I
find I work better under pressure. Like you said, now
let's do the answers, and oh, okay, let's see what
(21:43):
happens here.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
Well, we recorded those, and normally each one I'll record
two or three times, and after you've left the building,
I go back in and see which one I like best,
and maybe it's half of Take one and half to
Take three, you know, and then maybe I like the
one you did before, and so I'll grab it and
drag it over here, cut and paste, you know, and
(22:07):
play with it. Sometimes it's in the wrong key or
the chords have change. That's okay. I can fix that too.
I'll put it in the tuner and start moving the
notes around. This technology today allows you so much latitude,
and it's actually a great deal of fun. You know,
take something and like turning a pig's ear into a purse.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
Another song that you had Fernando Perdomo.
Speaker 2 (22:32):
Play on, good memory, tom.
Speaker 1 (22:34):
Yeah, yeah, not bad for an old guy. Yeah. So
we all look forward to getting a copy and Terrydreaper
dot com is where you do that. I love this album.
I don't know what to tell you. It's brilliant as usual,
and I'm going to look forward to seeing what you
come up with over next summer. Maybe we can do
something together again. I don't know, but Terry, I want
(22:57):
to thank you once again for taking the time out
of your day to do this with me. And until
next time, cheers.
Speaker 2 (23:04):
Thanks Tommy. We will do this again, all right, Tommy.
Speaker 1 (23:08):
Solo's Famous Friends is a one man production, meaning that
I've done all the work, including recording, editing, guest acquisition,
et cetera. And hey, here's some news. We've just recently
joined forces with five to one nine magazine, so you
can check out my interviews there as well. The theme
song for Tommy Solo's Famous Friends is a clip from
(23:30):
my original composition, The Burn. All rights reserved. If you
enjoy the show and you'd like to help us keep
it going, why don't you click on the buy me
a coffee link in the show notes, hit the like button,
subscribe all that stuff. We really appreciate it. You can
find me on Facebook and Instagram, and until next time, cheers,
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