Category Archives for "Entertainment Interviews"

June 20, 2014

A Conversation with The English Beat’s Dave Wakeling – HuffPost 6.20.14

Mike Ragogna: Dave, you’re doing a pledge campaign tied into your new album?

Dave Wakeling: We are, indeed. This pledge campaign is to attract Medicci-like benefactors who pledge to buy the album in advance for any of the exciting premiums we put in, like you can shred guitars with Dave for an afternoon or you can go for dinner with me or you can travel on the tour bus for a couple of days or travel in the van in California. We’ve always been quite close to the people who come to our concerts, we’re pretty easy to get hold of, but this takes it a step further, now. It’s quite been fun. People can come to the studio and sing on the chorus of a song, for example, and depending on how good their voice is that’s how loud it will be in the mix.

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June 20, 2014

A Conversation with ZZ Top’s Billy F. Gibbons – HuffPost 6.20.14

Mike Ragogna: Billy, in addition to ZZ Top’s tour, there’s a new double disc retrospective CD at Warners being released as well as your Live At Montreux concert at Eagle Rock. Considering your over forty years together are being presented yet contrasted with these two releases, what have you observed to be the biggest changes between the ZZ Top of 1969 and now?

Billy F. Gibbons: We have a much better way of getting to the gigs. Back then it was a van with all the gear stuffed inside and now we go by motor coach and our gear is transported in a semi. The crowds now are a bit bigger… We once played a gig attended by exactly one paying customer but we gave him the full show; bought him a Coke at the end to show our appreciation. Did we mention the food? We’ve come a long way from hash and Big Red Soda but always reserve the right to go back.

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June 20, 2014

A Conversation with Rich Robinson – HuffPost 6.20.14

Mike Ragogna: Rich, The Ceaseless Sight, what’s the vision of the album and what was the creative process?

Rich Robinson: I knew I wanted to make a record and it worked out perfectly, time-wise. I knew we weren’t going to be touring after 2013. Instead of going in with full songs, I had more skeletons. I had a chorus or a verse or whatever and then when we got into the studio, we used that energy of, “We’ve got to get this done.” We had a short time, we only had a month to make the record. A lot of times, that happens in Woodstock, or in the studio in general. You have a couple of ideas, but when you get in the context–especially with me, because I like to write with drums in the room–you get in that context and it kind of clears the path and allows for that energy to come through and create those songs. I didn’t necessarily have a context going into this record. For twenty-five years, I’ve always tried to approach making records as a collection of songs that create something slightly greater than one song as a whole piece. The sequence of a record, the songs of a record, how does the verse fit into a song, how does the chorus fit into a song, how do they songs fit into a record, how does the record fit into my body of work? How does that fit into twenty-five years of doing this? To answer the question of the uniqueness of this record, a lot of times, I would have songs done before I went into the studio. For twenty-five years, I would have ten or fifteen almost done going into the studio, but this time, like I said, I’m just using skeletons.

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June 18, 2014

A Conversation with Peter Frampton – HuffPost 6.18.14

Mike Ragogna: Peter, the last time we spoke, you mentioned you were about to score a ballet and now you’ve released Hummingbird In A Box, its companion album. What have the adventures been leading up to the ballet and this particular project?

Peter Frampton: It all started a few years ago when the Cincinnati Ballet asked if they could do choreography to four of my songs; three instrumentals from Fingerprints and then “Not Forgotten” from the Now album. I said yes, but then I got incredibly busy, was out-of-town, and never got a chance to see it. They sent me a DVD, so I finally did get to see it, and I was blown away with the choreography and dancing. Then Victoria Morgan and I got together at the headquarters to watch a rehearsal for a new performance they were going to be doing–I think it was Carmen at the time–and she asked if I would perform live on stage with my band, saying, “We’ve done this once before; we had a band onstage and we choreographed to their live music.” I said, “Yes, I’d love to do that.” There are three segments in the ballet, about 20-to-25-minutes each. I asked her, “So I let you know what music I do live and you choose the choreography?” She said yes, and I ended up writing the music for the middle 28 minutes, seven different pieces. They were floored that I would want to do that, but I did it. We performed with them in April of last year; three shows in Cincinnati at the Aronoff Center. We were on stage, Adam Hoagland was the choreographer, and the whole thing was just phenomenal. Then I went on tour with the Guitar Circus, and after finishing, they used the music for the Cincinnati Ballet at The Joyce Theater, a performance last week in New York. So when I got off the tour, I went into the studio and finished the tracks that we’d played live, and we heard the finished music playing live in Manhattan. Gordon Kennedy–who wrote the music with me–and I went up there and saw the first night, which was phenomenal. So that’s the genesis of the music, and of course the by-product of that is that the album’s going to be available on June 24th.

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June 18, 2014

A Conversation with Buzz Cason – HuffPost 6.18.14

Mike Ragogna: Let’s do a little catching up with Buzz Cason. You have a new album out, Troubadour Heart, and it’s already getting some action. The track “Pretend” was picked up by folk charts and “When I Get To California” went up in the Americana world. This album seems to be getting some attention.

Buzz Cason: Yes, Michael, it’s kind of a multi-genre type album. For instance, the song you mentioned, “Pretend” is sort of a folky kind of song, it’s acoustic, it’s just myself on mandolin, Bryan Grassmeyer on bass and Amanda Contreras does a duet with me on it. It’s a little song I’d had around for a while and I thought, “Hey, let’s just do a little change-up on the record.” The rest of the record’s a little more edgy, like “When I Get To California” was recorded with Anthony Crawford in Loxley, Alabama. Anthony plays with Neil Young, he’s played with Steve Winwood, he was part of the Blackhawk group, he’s an accomplished musician and he helped put that record together.

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