A Conversation with The Rippingtons’ Russ Freeman – HuffPost 7.11.14

Mike Ragogna: Russ, you recorded your new album Fountain Of Youth with vintage equipment. Why? Russ Freeman: I’m always looking for textures to feature and try to get a sonic reality, a sonic palette. In constructing the sonic palette I came across the idea: I have such a great guitar collection and I just kind of pick […]

A Conversation with Rick Braun – HuffPost 7.11.14

Mike Ragogna: Rick, your new album Can You Feel It? certainly has a lot of energy. Rick Braun: Exactly that. It’s been quite a few years since I’ve recorded a record like this. In fact, the last time I did a record like this one was Beat Street, and that was probably the first CD that put me […]

A Conversation with The Berman Brothers – HuffPost 7.9.14

Mike Ragogna: Chris and Frank, where did the idea to transplant this group of artists into a Brazilian genre come from and what motivated you to put this project together?

Chris Berman: We were always huge fans of Brazilian music since a very long time, since the eighties. Frank and I were living in London and we were going to these really amazing rave parties at night and there were always Brazilian musicians playing along. Also on the other side, the really beautiful melodic structure of songs, that love of Brazilian music was there all the time. We also have this huge, huge love for those classic, iconic American songs from the sixties and seventies like those of Billie Holiday and Aretha Franklin or Sly & The Family Stone. One day, Frank and I were sitting in Berlin and Billie Holiday was running in the background somewhere from an apartment far away. We could only hear the voice for some reason. It was a beautiful summery day and the idea was born–how would it sound to put some easy-going bossa nova beats or some smash salsa beats behind it? Brazilian music is so tasteful, so elegant. It needs an elegant counterpart in the melody. That was when we thought, “What happens if we blend these two worlds together,” the beauty of the classic American vocal performances of Billie Holiday or Aretha Franklin or Sly Stone with that sultry, really fantastic intelligent Brazilian backbone.

A Conversation with Ivan Neville – HuffPost 7.9.14

Mike Ragogna: So, sir, what the heck have you been up to?

Ivan Neville: I’ve bleen doing a little bit of this, a little bit of that, you know. I’m playing with my band Dumpstaphunk and doing other stuff, a few recording sessions here and there. I guess you know I did this video recently with The Young Presidents.

A Conversation with Judas Priest’s Rob Halford – HuffPost 7.7.14

Mike Ragogna: Hi Rob. How did Judas Priest’s approach to the new album Redeemer Of Souls differ from the last? Rob Halford: I think the challenge, if you want to call it that, is just to really dig to come up with something that’s fresh, that’s new, that’s different from a previous experience. That is just the […]

A Conversation with Edgar Winter – HuffPost 7.7.14

A Conversation with Edgar Winter Mike Ragogna: Edgar, there’s a new album, Superstars Of Classic Rock Honor The Music & Legacy Of The Doors, and you played on “The Crystal Ship” with Chris Spedding. How did you get invited and what do you think of this project? Edgar Winter: I think The Doors are one of […]

A Conversation with Neal Schon – HuffPost 7.7.14

Mike Ragogna: Neal, what is it creatively that satisfies you, playing solo or with Journey?

Neal Schon: Well, Journey is more about well-crafted songs and well recorded and produced songs, and I think that what I enjoy about my solo songs is that I’m sort of more of a painter with a blank canvas and a bunch of paints and materials to work with and I kind of throw everything on there and see how it lands. It’s more experimental, definitely. In Journey, we do experiment from time to time, usually when we’re all playing in a room, which doesn’t happen a lot. We were fortunate to get together at Fantasy this time. We were there for about three weeks rehearsing and recording and listening back to everything that we were doing. It helped us sort of hone in on our older songs. A lot of times, when you’ve played something for this many years, they drift. Everybody starts playing different things, you get bored, so we pulled everything back and now I think we’re having really great shows because of fine-tuning stuff like that again.

A Conversation with Jersey Boys’ Bob Gaudio – HuffPost 7.3.14

Mike Ragogna: Okay, pretend someone is hearing the story for the very first time. Where does the story start with Bob Gaudio and Franki Valli & The Four Seasons?

Bob Gaudio: Wow. You’re testing my memory, that’s for sure. I might have to go see the Broadway show again to refresh it. [laughs] Actually, in truth, there are many things in that show that have brought my memory back. As you might expect there were lots of stories told and from four different viewpoints. Everybody had a different angle on what I was about and I have a different view of what Frankie’s about, et cetera. That’s an interesting place in itself. When I was fifteen, I started in a group called The Royal Teens. Fast forwarding, I found myself in the middle of nowhere as a one-hit wonder. I got a job in a printing factory, thought, “Oh, this is not good, I could lose my fingers so I should do something else.” I dabbled back in, ran into some people, actually Joe Pesci–some liberties taken in the Broadway show–but essentially, I hooked up with Joe and Mike Petrillo and Louis Eppolito and we started a little jazz quartet. We played around starving and Joey said, “You should meet this guy, he’s got an amazing voice, you’re a songwriter, and this could make some sense.” Long story short, we met up and Frankie said, “We’re looking for a keyboard player. I’ve been trying to get a keyboard player in the band since we’ve basically been guitars.” That audition thing and meeting Tommy [DeVito] and Nicky [Massi] and cutting to the quick, off we went.