 BY ROOK OR BY CROOK
It must feel good to have something out after such a long time since your last album. Right. To me, the reward for persevering is to be able to display your work to the world. Granted, my world is more on the scale of a globe...but so what. To have songs that were written in my little loft come to fruition and land in places like Russia, Japan and Britain...Sweden...well, that's better than money on so many levels. It's an interesting choice releasing the DVD Only Hope For Winter, especially as you are smack in the middle of Something Blue. You began that album, put it on the shelf and then took a year to work on your DVD. Why the shift in direction? Completing the album requires recording funds that I do not have at this juncture. As it turned out, the DVD filming, along with all of its accouterments were gratis. Greg (Field) felt that it would be a nice advertisement for his studio, Bill Maura (director) and John Bezzini (camera) embraced the creative challenge that was presented and The Fellows Of Mortimer whom are friends anyway, kindly offered their talents as musicians. There will come a time when Something Blue finalizes. The time is not the present. I live in the indie world, Eric. Nobody has any money for anything...really. Especially for a project as detailed as Something Blue is. I don't have a basement or a garage that I can go to in order to finish it. It was started in a proper studio and will be completed in one. I've just read where The Rooks have recently recorded some new songs not having anything to do with Something Blue. What's all that about? Journalist John Borack has written a forthcoming book covering the history of power pop. He asked for me to contribute an essay, which I have done, and he also requested a song from us for inclusion on an accompanying CD along with that book. We decided to cut some tracks at Greg's Outer Realm Studio in Hartford, where the DVD was done. One of the three new recordings will go to John. Which one and, as you've recorded three, what will become of the others? "Folk Hero" will be for the book release and "Wicked Refrain" and "I Want To Be Sure" will be for who knows what? Someone somewhere is always wanting a song from me. Now, perhaps I'll have something to hand over. Are the new recordings also new songs? Are these your most recent compositions? On the contrary Eric, all three are quite old. I've written so many songs along my way that have never had a home on our other projects. This may be a practical resolve to some of those 'lost' songs. We figured that while we were set up to cut "Folk Hero," it would also be pragmatic to record one or two others in the process. For the record, "Folk Hero" was the one that we set our sights on first...for John's book. Logically thinking, it was a song that the guys already knew, as we performed it as part of the DVD. Following up begs the question of why not simply finish Something Blue at Outer Realm? The main issue is different recording formats. I suppose that we could transfer everything if we mapped it out but...a major factor also is that none of the strings or horn sections have been tracked yet and all of my session players are in New York. I certainly can't afford to get them to another State to lay down their tracks. Too, I'm not about to play roulette with musicians from the Hartford area whom I've never worked with before. I have cultivated relationships with some of the finest string and horn players in the New York City area. I trust them and they always deliver for me. It also wouldn't be fair to David Domanich to pull the album out from under him. He's been with me from the start and I owe it to him..and the album itself, to have David on board to the end. We'll figure everything out. The universe has a way of putting all the alignments in place when the time is right. Could these latest Hartford ventures lead to more sessions in the near future, perhaps to record more of your forgotten songs as they've come to be? We are now facing that bridge with hopes to cross it soon. It's very possible that we may record a new album at Outer Realm in the interim until I can afford to put Something Blue to bed. That's very interesting and fantastic news for Rooks fans. I take it that recording in Hartford is much more affordable as opposed to where you've been recording Something Blue? To say the least...yes. Is this something that may happen soon? Possibly...hopefully so. Who are the players now? Huw Gower, Greg Field and Patrick Yourell, depending on his realistic availability. A guest bassist will be determined. Perhaps Dave Rave (Teenage Head) will play bass on some of the tracks providing his availability. He's our bassist on "Folk Hero." Huw may fill that slot on some of the songs also. It's that casual and that up in the air. The beautiful sidebar to recording at Outer Realm is the carefree environment it bestows. "Folk Hero" was cut from beginning to end in a day and a half. Record, have lunch, record again, talk about music, relax for a while, record a bit more, dinner, more work and then some beers. It’s pretty cool to be able to be in a house with a group of guys and do nothing but record and drink beer days on end. What a way to live! (Laughing) Dave Rave came up with the joke that we now record at Big Tan. Note: This joke refers to "Big Pink" which was a gaudy pink house in Woodstock, New York, where The Band -- Bob Dylan's 1965-66 backup band on tour -- moved to be near the legendary icon after his motorcycle accident. While Dylan recuperated, The Band backed him on demos recorded at Big Pink. These recordings were later released as The Basement Tapes. It sounds pretty easy and pressure-free. It is! We're not under pressure to any degree. The only concern is for me to write with consistency and even then, I never apply pressure to my own writing schedule. I let that happen intrinsically. There is so much music already written that it's impossible for me to deliver hastily composed songs to this band. It's a very nice position to be in. That's a testament to all of the work you've done over a long period of time, I suppose. Well, I guess. I've never stopped writing. It's what I love to do more than almost anything. It will be a pleasant gift for me if we can knock some of them off at Outer Realm. It will be the first time in my life where I've had such a luxurious situation put before me. You sound like you're in a good place. For your fans, it must have appeared for a while that The Rooks were finished or at least in flux. Did you ever consider at any point to let the Rooks moniker go and start with another denomination? No...never. I've worked too hard and for too long to build up the reputation of The Rooks. Why should I let go of that, because others have gone off into the grey horizon? The Rooks name will end when I decide to end it. It's that facile. Who are The Rooks anyway? Is it the two different line-ups that were on the first album? Is it the group whom played on A Double Dose Of Pop? The cast of musicians on A Wishing Well? The personnel is a mixture across all of that music. You tell me, because it's all the same to me as long as there is music being created. I find it no different than to what Chrissie Hynde has done with her Pretenders. For listeners whom are not so well-versed on all of the people who've had a cup of coffee in this band, I would defy those fans to be able to discern whom plays on which tracks. It's all The Rooks to my ears. Even and especially "Folk Hero" is The Rooks. Why not? The lineage and quality remain. It makes perfect sense and I don't see why you wouldn't carry on with the name. Right. The Rooks have always been a melting pot of players. It certainly wasn't blue-printed as such but on the other side of the dime, perhaps it's kept the music from falling into a pedestrian place. It happens all the time in other arenas. Look, the complexion of sports teams change every two or three years or so. Mickey Mantle couldn't be a Yankee forever but the team goes on. So go The Rooks. Until you, the songwriter and voice of the band decide to pack it in, why not? How is it working with the other fellas. I know that you and Patrick Yourell have been playing together since The Broken Hearts. It's...what can I say? I'm having more fun now than ever. The hang-ups phase for me is gone. How do you mean? What used to trouble me when I was younger no longer takes a hold over me. If something falls through or someone can't make a session or such, so what? Try again another day. Patrick is six or seven hours away from the rest of us at this point. We'll schedule things revolving around everyone's accessibility. As long as we're getting something accomplished I'll be happy. I felt handcuffed in so many ways over the last number of years having to worry about various bandmates' schedules. It's not so critical anymore. I feel more free now than I've ever been. I can't explain why, other than perhaps I'm more settled within myself these days. Music is hard enough to create unto itself. Who needs the unnecessary burden of worry over the small matters? I've learned to pick my battles...and I'm even willing to lose one or two of those battles to win the war...the big picture if you will. In my research, I've learned that Huw and Greg have played on Rooks recordings before. Does this make playing with them easier, as you've already gone through your initiation stage with them? Well...yeah. It's nowhere near like playing with musicians I've never worked with before. Also, we just went through the DVD sessions together. We experienced that jointly. That's important to remember. We were all in the same foxhole together, as a manner of speaking. Whenever musicians work on a project together, I feel that it brings them so much closer as people...providing that you like each other going into it. There's a certain bond that occurs. I bet you'd get the same answer from actors whom have done a film together. The comradeship between those involved through the same experiences is cemented. Huw, Greg and myself already have an adventure under our collective belts. It makes the next project that much easier. That's true. The DVD was a good lead-in to their initiation into The Rooks... Their initiations started long before the DVD sessions because we worked together in the past. They weren't official band members but...sometimes official band members didn't feel like official band members at times...and I'm not talking about Kristin (Pinell) if you're wondering. Whatever. We're together and hopefully we can get some nice music recorded. The fact to remember is, that they've already contributed to Rooks recordings in the past. The difference now is that their faces will go on the artwork somewhere. It's all a running thread. Whatever happened to the other members (Kristin Pinell, Mike Kelly and Ken Anderson) that were playing with you before the roster turned over? Kristin walked out of a band meeting and left her Rooks membership card at the door. Ken Anderson disappeared without giving me the courtesy of returning my calls or email messages. This went on for two months or more. Communication stopped dead. Out of the blue, I received...via a mass emailing, a casual, business as usual announcement notifying us lucky recipients that he was moving to New England or somewhere. It would have been nice for him to inform me of his plans. It's not like I would have tried to stop him from fulfilling his dream of shuffling down the road to a bigger and better promised land. Michael Kelly...I didn't have that much to offer him at that point...other than the opportunity to play on Something Blue. After Kristin took off, I met with Kelly at his apartment a number of times as we were working on bass parts for the album together. One of those meetings even included Huw. We were making plans to carry on with things. Then, he stopped calling as well. He covertly joined another band. He slipped into a paisley shirt, pulled on his little Beatle boots and took his bass elsewhere. (Jim) Morrison is right; "People are strange." The Rooks' trademark has been around for many years now and you've established yourself enough to where you're respected and somewhat known on a cultist level. What do you hope for in the future? Any milestones you hope to clinch, any hurdles you want to jump? I only want to deliver music that people will like enough to want to have with them in their homes, under their rooftops...in their cars, in their iPods and in their listening rotations. Any other future musical endeavors that come our way will be tackled as they present themselves. So you have no desire to become an act that gets signed to a major label and... The major labels have no desire to sign us, what are you talking about!? We’re actual musicians with real songs. Are you joking? They want good looking white trash and 'American Idol' robots. Don't taint their practices by suggesting that they'd be interested in signing a band that writes, sings, produces and records their own goods. They want Aviril Lavigne...the punk princess. Sadly, we can't deliver on that. What if a major label in fact approached you. Would you kill the notion straight away? No...no. I'd be surprised more than anything else. I'm not an idiot. I want more than anything for this music to be heard on the most widespread level possible. ONLY a major record contract could make that a reality. I wouldn't do it if it meant compromising the work and quality of the creative control. You'd think that a label would be interested in a band that's been self-sufficient all these years. Dependable and hardworking. Accountants and bean counters have no concept of that today. The proverbial (Ahmet) Erteguns of the world are part of the history books. Is it possible that a major would be weary simply because you've had so many members changes over the years? Perhaps the instability... But the quality of the music has never diminished. Believe me, if we were signed and things were happening, nobody would have gone anywhere. There wouldn’t have been so many line-up changes. It's a small miracle that we're still doing anything without the support of the industry. It's a feather in our caps that we continue to write, record and perform. It proves that we love what we are doing. The geniuses involved with signing talent are chasing after the wrong skirts for the wrong reasons. The wrong reasons begin with fast cash. It doesn't matter to them...if ours or any...of this music is around in the next twenty years. Music is disposable to them. The soundtracks to the future generations have been reduced to being chosen with a cursor and listened to through five-inch computer speakers. Times change and I understand that, without sentimental tears. The tragedy for me is that it's not about music anymore. It's about how much the 'product' can financially generate without caring where the source of that music comes from. The industry, any industry really, has always been bottom-lined by a foundation built on money... I understand that. Sure. I know that it's always been a part of the music business, otherwise there would be no industry to sell the goods. Where it differs now, and probably for the last fifteen years or so is that...the money aspect was only a part of the puzzle. There were always pieces that completed and defined the puzzle that held the creativity chips that drove the beast. Those few essential puzzle pieces were lost somewhere along the way. The music industry forges on, but in its big picture, those missing pieces have left an incomplete image. Those pieces being the artists whom at one time were allowed to use their imaginations and creativity to fuel the system. Those artists are being replaced by calculators and equations and formulas. I mean, should it really take four people to write a song for Ashlee Simpson? Rome has fallen. The empire blinked and the lawyers now own the furniture. You don't suppose that it was like that in the 60s and 70s? I wasn't doing this during those decades, but I do have ears. My feeling is that there were many more artists then whom were doing great work on a consistent basis, and that consistency has dropped off the radar screen. The 60s was a decade unique to itself (pause)...where are all the Elton Johns, Joni Mitchells and Stevie Wonders now...songwriters? We don't even have a band around today that sounds as fresh as The Cars did when they hit. Everything sounds the same. The sixteen year olds sing like they haven't reached puberty...the manufactured star making machinery is flawed. If I come across as if I'm showing my age well...I'm really not. I dig enough current music out there to where I can talk about it intelligently. I keep up with what's happening but...Clay Aiken? Come on! So you don't feel that you'll ever have a chance to be signed to a big label with extensive distribution? I would love to be proven wrong. I would happily stand corrected. The majors are too short-sighted to sign an act like The Rooks. We're not age appropriate. We wouldn't fit into their marketing schematics and demographics. The quality of the music doesn't enter into their equations. They're not creative enough to figure out that the music could sell itself. Kids aren't ignorant. If you feed them something good, they will want another helping. It's that fundamental. Why do you think that fifteen year old kids latch onto The Velvet Underground or The Ramones? Because it's good music! Those aren't contemporary artists. Kids don't care that the music is 30 and 40 years old. They just know what they like. The industry has no concept to any of that. Let's change the subject. How far from completion is Something Blue? A good portion of the album is finished. Every song is in place in various stages of completion. All of the lead vocals have been tracked. I will need to hire my session players for embellishments to add some colors, Huw and Greg will come in and contribute their bits...bass needs to happen. A lot has been recorded but there is still a decent amount of studio time that will be required. Not to mention that it will need to be mixed, which should be fairly easy this time going because many of the tracks won't have a lot on them. The only aspect that may throw a curve into the project is if I decide to add another song. I've written five or six new ones recently and I'm considering whether one of them belongs on Something Blue. I have to be careful because it already happened with a song entitled "Eleanor In The Pouring Rain." I wrote it and now it's a part of the album. I just want to be certain that all of the songs involved capture the mood I'm seeking. What will sway your decision? I feel that at least one of the new ones may be a nice addition to the album. I'll have to think it over. The mood of any one of the new ones will perhaps move me to include it. Does this mean that you'll take away an existing song and replace it? Prob...ably. I've already eliminated one song that I originally recorded and replaced it with "Eleanor." I'll have to think about it. For the DVD, were there any songs that were left on the cutting room floor? No, we used everything that was filmed. There were circumstances where I would try a song one day and decide later that I wasn't happy with the arrangement and I'd go back to it at another session. They filmed me playing "Better Start Right Now" solo on the guitar but I scrapped it. I also took a stab at performing "Steeplechase" at the piano with Greg playing keyboard. I didn't care for that arrangement either. In time, I rearranged both of those songs and settled on what made the final cut. Was it challenging to do everything live? The challenging part was attacking many of the songs without rehearsals or playing songs at the piano that I'd never done so prior to filming. Performing live isn't hard for us. It's a part of what we do. I know, but we always hear stories about how almost any live recording is either sweetened in post production or that some vocals and instruments are entirely redone. You didn't do any of that? No...we couldn't do any of that. Our sound mix wasn't recorded on any multi-tracking machine. The live mix went through the board but once levels were set, the balance feed went direct to the camera and that was that. Levels and balances were set and off we played. There were many occasions where we would perform a very nice take of something and then we'd pile into the other room for a playback on the monitor. We'd come to find that the balances were off, the vocal wasn't cutting or a guitar may have been too loud...whatever. We couldn't rectify the matter by simply moving faders around. Another take would be required. So you had to get the sound balance right even before any filming took place. Correct. As best as we could. That's why we did that jokey little disclaimer at the top. To let the viewer know that all of the performances were absolutely live. Nothing was sweetened in post production. The disclaimer was added upon the advice of two or three people that I trust. They felt that in places during the video, it appeared that some of the singing was dubbed due to the nice sound balance that Greg achieved. There are times where it seems as if I'm barely singing against the sound level that is heard. It's well recorded considering our limitations. We're proud that it's all live and I congratulate everyone involved. They deserve it. There are pitch problems in places and stray instrument notes here and there but we're human beings, not machines. Unrehearsed human beings at that, for the most part. It's a pretty good capsule documenting the essence of musicians playing live in a studio. The song "Only Hope For Winter," is that on Something Blue? No. It's quite a powerful piece of writing and the arrangement is striking. Will you record it properly for an album at any point? I don't know what to do with that song. It was written during the DVD filming and I never really thought about what to do with it past the DVD project. It's probably one of the few songs on the DVD that did have a bit of arrangement design to it prior to filming. I was going to ask you about that. It would be pretty amazing if for eight minutes you and the guys improvised the entire piece. Everything seems to be in its place. I wrote the song and played it for Huw the following night when he was over. It was so new that I'd only recorded a draft demo...meaning that a rough outline of the song was put to tape. All the lyrics were written but none of the piano breaks from the middle or coda had been found yet. It needed to be expanded upon. I then sat at the piano and played it for him while he played along, working out bits for himself. I believe this was on a Thursday. We had a filming session coming up two days later in Hartford. Huw thought that we should take a try at filming it as you never know...right? Catch lightning in a bottle mentality. So you got lucky with it? No. Don't forget that I really only had some of the song completed, to my mind. It wasn't fully realized. We did it like my draft demo because that's all there was. John Bezzini, who was filming, was especially excited by "Only Hope For Winter." We filmed it but to me, too much of the song wasn't written yet, although it did give us a head start on how to tackle the song next time around. Upon returning to New York City, I sat down and arranged it to where I was happy with it. I demoed the song again with the new additions and that's the blueprint which was used in the final analysis. We actually filmed the song two more times before we got what we wanted but the second session's arrangement for it was exactly as the third, meaning Huw pretty much stuck to his guitar ideas and so on. Why did you do it three times? The second attempt took place during a shortened session. We were against the clock and simply ran out of time on that night. Huw and I had to get back to New York City so...we knew we would be cutting it again. It's eight minutes long and a lot occurs throughout those eight minutes. We had to be sure that the sound balances were good or else we'd have to do the whole thing again, no matter how well performed it was. There was also a certain amount of pressure on John (Bezzini) and Brad Ragaglia whom were handling the cameras. If they missed a shot during a nice performance it could blow the take. We'd have to play the song one more time if a camera miscue was critical to the feel of the piece. We're all pleased with the way it turned out. It's maybe your most ambitious work to date. Probably. I mean, we did premeditate the arrangement with certain splashes of colors. Where? At the end, where we are trying to emulate the seasonal elements. I'm tinkling the piano keys to portray icicles melting. Huw is muting the strings on his guitar to sound like ice cracking and...Greg is impersonating the wind from his keyboard. Those were planned out ideas. I never got that aspect of it. Brilliant! I look forward to going back to it now. What a surprise. Thank you. We tried to paint a winter picture. Well done. I recently read somewhere that someone described the performances on the DVD as more leaning toward rock than power pop. Do you think that's a result of the musicians you worked with, the new arrangements or what? I don't know. I never claimed to be power pop. That was stamped on us early on. Owing to the sound of our first album, I can sort of understand why but contrarily, I never really bought into that tag...is "Steeplechase" power pop? "Down?" That's based strictly on blues changes. Subsequently, how do songs like "War," "India," "Music Sound Sensation," "Vows," "House Of Fortune" or "Wish You Well" fit into the category of power pop? I've always thought of The Rooks as a rock band that did occasional slower stuff. We could play hard on any stage. I can't be bothered with which genre The Rooks are placed under by the press. People hear what they hear. I can't fight with that. I don’t even know what ‘power pop’ means half the time. I can concede that if you place deep-pile harmonies on songs, they will be perceived as power pop more than rock in this day and age but...were The Rolling Stones power pop? There are harmonies on their recordings. They have "Get Off Of My Cloud," "The Last Time" and "I'm Free"..."Stupid Girl"...arguably all of which can fall under the power pop umbrella. But, they also have "Honky Tonk Women," "As Tears Go By" and "You Can't Always Get What You Want." That's a valid point. Do you understand what I'm trying to say? Where does power pop end and rock begin in our case? It's music. Too many journalists are in love with putting tags on everything. Maybe the performances on the DVD mirror rock because there are no harmonies, I can't answer for the guy who wrote whatever it was that you read...they're still the same songs. But many with a new treatment... Right. What can I say? Yet, I wonder if we'd originally released "Reasons" as the way it's rearranged on the DVD and sat it along all of the other songs on our first album...would it still have been deemed as power pop? Of course it would have. You see? It's all such a grey area. Will The Rooks be hitting the road anytime soon? The short answer Eric is no, not as we speak today. You know how life is, anything can happen. At this moment, at 9:45 in the morning, I know there are no plans for live shows yet. We will be addressing this matter along with anything else that may come up when the time is right. Where would we play? I'm not doing this for free any more. It's not that important. Well, where have you always played? The club scene. They don't pay you. The pop festivals don't pay you. Live radio doesn't pay you. They don't? No. I'll bet I've not personally made $500.00 for live shows in my Rooks career. I'm over it. I'm tired of giving myself away for free. It's hard enough that I don't earn a living from my recorded music. I'm no longer enthusiastic to hustle amps and guitars from place to place without compensation. I've put in my time. I've chosen a career that doesn't pay me to survive. The Rooks have had nice articles written about them...people claim that they like our music...I just don't see it in CD sales. Good press won't buy me a cup of tea. Am I supposed to continue to entertain people for free? Anyone who gets up and goes off to work will at one point get paid for their services...I don't. (Long pause) I have never done this for money obviously, but there must come a time when a person has to look at the track record and realize that enough is enough. I've been playing live since 1983 and really have nothing to show for it. If we can figure out a way to perform live and earn enough to get by while we're out there, then maybe something will happen. I'm sorry if it sounds like I'm complaining. It's just not worth it to play for nothing. When you're twenty it's different. I simply cannot justify going up on that stage and walking away with $20.00 or a couple of free beers, which are payments that you might receive...if you're lucky. That's surprising to me. I was always under the impression that acts were compensated for their services. The powers that be try to justify it by telling the performers that they're providing "free promotion." I may have believed that ten years ago but, what will performing for free in The Village...or in Los Angeles do for me now? They don't respect you enough to pay you until you're a 'name' act and it has nothing to do with your drawing power. The Rooks have filled rooms and at the end of the night, we would get an envelope with an insulting forty dollars in it. That's ten dollars a Rook. Clubs will always have an excuse not to pay you. The alibis always fall at the feet of the ones whom provide the entertainment. That's one of the reasons why I refuse to participate in the pop festivals. I'm not stupid. Somebody's making the money...not the artists. Listen, The Rooks aren't blameless here. We haven't exactly gone out on the road to promote ourselves in the past. I've never had band members who were willing to do that on a semi, long-term basis. People have jobs, rents to pay. It's a Catch-22. You tour and run the risk of playing in front of ten people every night whom have no idea who you are. On the other hand, that's how an act can slowly build a following so the next time you come back to that town, perhaps twenty or thirty will show up via word of month. You still won't make any money. You have to WANT to go out there with all your heart. You have to have spirit. It sounds so bleak. Another alternative would be the recent trend of playing house concerts. Yes, we have them here in Britain. I've heard nightmare stories though about kids crying during performances, people getting up and coming and going as they please...glorified parties are what some of them are, with live music becoming a backdrop to everything else. You can't play rock & roll in someone's living room. I would only consider pursuing something like that if it were presented and carried out as a bonafide performance space. No children around or simultaneous activities happening. We could deliver a show along the lines of the DVD set, but it would have to be planned out within my aforementioned parameters. At least under those circumstances, an act has a chance to come away with something for their efforts. What do I know? You earn hardly any money from live performances while CD and DVD sales income trickles in. I have to say, you must really love what you're doing. I do Eric...I do. I love writing songs and recording them. If it means that I have to do so without realistic compensation for the rest of my life, so be it. I'll leave a few songs behind for those in the future interested enough to find them. Great talking with you, Michael. Something tells me that you'll be all right. You're too clever to not figure something out. Clever enough to keep it fun, I hope. Thanks Eric.
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