A Conversation with Jimmy Jam of The Original 7ven – HuffPost 11.15.11

Mike Ragogna: We’re here with one of the original seven from the group The Time, artist, producer and songwriter Mr. Jimmy Jam. Jimmy how are you today?

Jimmy Jam: Doing great, Mike. How about yourself?

MR: Pretty good, thanks. Now, you have this new album out called The Original 7ven and it’s been over 20 years since you guys did your last album together as The Time, right?

JJ: That is correct. Pandamonium was the last album that we did and that was 21 years ago.

MR: Wow. What got you guys back into the studio?

JJ: (laughs) Well, you know my analogy is that it’s like when you see an old friend and you say to them that you should get together sometime, and then you never set a date so you never do it. That’s was sort of the thing with us. We’d always see each other and say that we should get together and do something but it never happened. The thing that finally changed that was being asked to do the Grammys a few years ago. All of a sudden, we had a date set in stone and we were either going to do it or we weren’t. When we did it, it was actually successful and people actually seemed to enjoy it, so that became a catalyst for keeping the group together and recording this album.

MR: Nice. Are you guys touring to support the album?

JJ: Yeah. We’re gonna plan on touring next year. We’re just doing a few dates this year, but next year, we plan on doing a proper tour.

MR: Will you be performing the same stage antics after all these years?

JJ: Absolutely we are. I mean, we are ourselves and I always like to make this clarification–although we are calling ourselves The Original 7ven and that is truly the description of who we are, people can call us The Time if they want to because it’s actually The Time’s 30th Anniversary this year, so we celebrate that. And as I tell people, you’re going to get a bunch of great new Original 7ven songs and you’re gonna hear the best Time cover band you’ve ever heard in your life.

MR: (laughs) So, that means you’ll be doing the older hits as well?

JJ: Oh, yeah. We’ll be doing everything. We did a show at Club Nokia in Los Angeles not too long ago and that was a funny experience–people were expecting us to do a bunch of the new songs and we did like two of the new songs. Every other song that we did was our old stuff though and people were very happy about that. We are by no means forsaking our history and our legacy, least of all those songs. So, we’re going to continue to do every one of those songs. I know a lot of times bands stop playing them because they get tired of them or decide to do different arrangements of their songs and I hate that as a fan. We’re looking at this as fans, and as a fan, I wanna hear the songs the way that they were done–I wanna see the bird and the penguin and the four corners. I wanna see all the stuff. If you’re not gonna bring it like that, then I don’t wanna see it. But we’re gonna bring it like that and we’re excited about it.

MR: So, you might say there will be a lot of “condensation” in the audience and onstage during those shows. (laughs)

JJ: Yes, there will be. (laughs) Absolutely. Because “cool doesn’t sweat, it condensates.”

MR: (laughs) Wow, gotta use that. I have to ask you–and I’m sure you knew this was coming–what were all those years like working as a producer with the likes of Janet Jackson and the other great talent? You created so many hits in the ’80s and ’90s and were so influential to the sound of those times, what do you see when you look back on all of that? Is this what you always wanted to do?

JJ: I actually always wanted to be a songwriter/producer. Even as a kid, that’s what I wanted to be. Back in the day, when they were more common, I was a liner note reader. If I heard a song that I liked, I would always go and read about who wrote it, who produced it, what studio it was recorded at, things like that. It was always the behind the scenes stuff that really got my attention. Quite honestly, I never thought of myself as somebody that anyone would want to actually go see in concert. I think there are people that are born stars. You mentioned Janet Jackson, and I think that’s a perfect example of my point. If I sang those songs, they wouldn’t have been a hit for me. But when she sang them, it made perfect sense, you know? That’s the idea. Janet was the star, I was just the person behind the scenes putting it together. I always thought that that was probably the best place for me. Luckily, that’s what I’ve always wanted to do anyway. And the fact that I get to do it with my partner Terry Lewis, who I’ve known for over 35 years, is also pretty cool.

The last thing I’ll say on this is that you talked about the hit singles off of the records we made, and the interesting thing that we did in working with Janet is that we always made those as albums. We never intended to make singles, we just wanted to make the best album that we could make and at the end of the day, one or two of the songs would present themselves as the singles. That, I think, is a much more organic way of going about making an album. So, it was good timing that we were able to make albums back then and they ended up being very successful for us.

MR: But I’m sure it must have come as a bit of a shock to you when you had seven Top 10 singles off of one album, let’ say, Control, right?

JJ: Right, of course. But someone asked me recently what the difference was between creating a single and creating an album and my reply was that it’s tough to create a single. I don’t really know how to do it. I can do it, and have done it, but the idea to me is to get together while the creative juices are flowing and make a bunch of songs and at the end of the day, if one or two or seven of them in our case turn out great, that’s wonderful. But they were never done with the intention of it being a single, they were just done with the intention of making great songs. It worked out really well though, so that was nice. The record company was really great and left us alone to create and at that time, records were being made in Minneapolis and they left us alone until we turned in the album that we made and gave our suggestions for the singles. Usually, they went along with what we said. It all worked out.

MR: So, you think of the songs as pieces of a bigger album? They’re all contextual?

JJ: We were able to work in that fashion with Janet. That’s the thing, when we made the album Control, no one even paid any attention to what we were doing. They sent her to Minneapolis, we made an album, turned it in, and there was a guy at the record company by the name of John McClain, whose name people might recognize from him being one of the executors of Michael Jackson’s estate. He took the record to A&M and said that he thought that the record would go at least double platinum. He was sort of our cheerleader and it helps to have someone like that because if the record company doesn’t like what you’re doing, then no one is going to get to hear what you’re doing. At the end of the day, the important thing is always to make good music, of course, and then, if you happen to have an artist the caliber of Janet Jackson and an angel like John fighting for you in the record company, it helps. The record company was also owned at the time by Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss, who were the best record men ever, who also got excited about that album and pushed the proverbial button on the record and decided that they were gonna make it huge. And they did it, and radio cooperated, and fans liked it.

MR: Jimmy, you also did a project with Herb, didn’t you?

JJ: We did. Keep Your Eye On Me was the album that we did with him, and I think it was his first gold album in 20 years or something like that. That was a great project for us because, for us, it was a thank you to Herb for everything he had done for us at A&M up to that point. We also did The Human League and the song “Human” around that time and that was something else that John McClain was a part of. That was a huge record as well. Those were some great times. That spanned from about ’86 through ’89. Then after that, as the label started consolidating, Herb and Jerry left and everything kind of changed. But those five years were a great time to make music and A&M was a great place to do it.

MR: A&M was a prince among labels, yeah. Now as I understand it, you guys were sort of early protégé’s of Prince as well, is that right?

JJ: Well, Prince is incredible and I had the chance to go to school with him. I’ll tell you a story. Back when I was in Junior High, we put together a small band to play for a play or something that the school was doing. I was the drummer and Prince was the guitar player, and I didn’t even know he could play the guitar, but he killed it. Anyway, we took a bathroom break one day during practice and I heard someone playing the drums during the break and it was Prince. Even as a kid, he had the ability to pick up any instrument that someone else played and play it 10 times better than them. (laughs) So, the fact that I got a chance to know him like that back then and then work with him years later was pretty cool. The thing I always say is that working with him taught us a lot, but the thing he taught us most about is a work ethic. He is the hardest working guy that I’ve ever dealt with. He would literally come to our practices for 5 or 6 hours, then he’d go to his own band practice and work with them for 5 or 6 hours, then he’d go to the studio and work all night. The next day he would walk into our rehearsals with a cassette and pop in a song like “1999” and we would say, “When did you have time to do this?” It’s incredible. (laughs)

He was a wonderful mentor for us and the reason that we’re here today is because of him giving us the break of putting us on the map with him. He’s right up there to me with the greats of all time. He’s also the type of musician that would be great no matter what era he grew up in. He would have been great in the jazz era with Miles Davis, and in the sixties with Sly and Jimi Hendrix and so on, you know? And not only has he done a lot musically throughout his career, he also challenged the way that records are released. He was one of the first artists to embrace putting his music out on the internet; he stood up to Warner Bros. because he wanted to release more records than Warner Bros. wanted at that time. The fact that he even wanted to try something different and dared to do it was great. When he had a hit with “I Wanna Be Your Lover” and then the next album he comes out in a bikini and leg warmers and a trench coat doing New Wave and rock ‘n’ roll was crazy, but he was one of the ones that set that tone at the time.

MR: That’s right. I think he and Madonna were two of the biggest artists of that era breaking down barriers.

JJ: Well, nothing against Madonna but here’s the thing about Prince. He wrote every song and played every instrument and engineered his own recordings. He took it a step further than pretty much anybody you can think of. It was pretty amazing being able to work with him and hopefully, some of that rubbed off on us. I know it did; certainly it did in the way of our work ethic. Terry and I feel that if we can’t out-talent someone, we can certainly out-work ’em. (laughs) And that’s what we try to do sometimes.

MR: These days, you don’t often hear people talking about the Minneapolis sound often, but you really put that sound on the map. What do you think about the current state of the Minneapolis sound?

JJ: You know, I don’t know because I haven’t lived in Minneapolis for the last 6 or 7 years. It’s funny because we did a big Homecoming Concert there on November 5th, which was great. I can say, though, that it was great for us growing up because we kind of did our own thing. We didn’t have a lot of the influences that other places in the country had. If you lived in LA or New York, those sounds were what you heard and emulated. As a black kid growing up in Minneapolis, we basically just heard pop music because there was a sunup to sundown black station, but you could maybe get it an hour or two a day. So, we never really heard those records. Our influences were more Chicago, Seals & Crofts, and America. It wasn’t until later on when I met Terry Lewis that I was introduced to Stevie Wonder and Kool & The Gang and those groups. So, for us, putting rock guitar over a soul beat or using synth sounds as pads for a song was just stuff that we came up with. It also doesn’t hurt to have Prince as the ambassador of this Minneapolis sound. All of a sudden when people found out where he was from, they were suddenly interested in the other music coming from Minneapolis and we just happened to be a part of it. The funniest part is that towards the end of our heyday, people would move from other parts of the country and live in Minneapolis so that they could say that they were from here. (laughs) It really was like you saw in the movie Purple Rain, but after a while it became touristy and wasn’t the same anymore. To me, that was sort of the death of the local music scene. I still very much think that it’s a very vibrant cultural arts city–there’s great theater, great museums, a lot of live music, and I know that that continues. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a second generation of great new sound from there at all.

MR: That would be great. What was it like getting back together with all of these guys to work on this most recent project?

JJ: It was fantastic. I’m not an athlete, but I hear them talking all the time about how they miss the camaraderie of being with their team and that was the thing that I probably missed the most about this group. We sit around and tell stories and reminisce about the old days. We’re telling the same stories over and over, but it’s like we’re hearing them for the first time. That’s the thing that makes it really cool and a lot of fun. Plus, my musical mentality is still that of having a band. A lot of music now is just someone coming up with a song and mixing it on their laptop, then the next thing you know, it’s on the radio and they’re pushing you out on stage to perform in front of thousands of people. Of course, you don’t know how to do that because you’ve never done it. My upbringing was playing in my dad’s band when I was young, then later, I played in Terry Lewis’ bands and all over the place. The rivalries that were fictionalized in Purple Rain were very real. We all had our own bands and we would steal members from each other’s bands and such. It was crazy, but what it did was give us a “seasoning” as Terry called it for performing in front of people under any conditions. That mentality was something that we all had in common, so when we get back together, we all share that band camaraderie because it’s what we know. It’s just great getting back together with the guys. As far as working, it’s great because you’re dealing with some of the best musicians you could ever deal with. As a producer I am, by all means, focused on getting the job done. But I already know that Terry knows how to play the bass, I know Jesse is a world class guitarist, and I know Jellybean knows his way around a drum set, and that Monte’s an extremely talented keyboard player as well as being a songwriter and producer, and Morris knows his way around a song and a dance floor like no other. Everybody in the band is world class at what they do. Socially, it’s fantastic to be around everybody, and then when we get down to work it’s like riding a bike; you don’t ever forget how to do it.

MR: Jimmy, do you have any advice that you would give to new artists?

JJ: First off, I think it’s always a good thing to be able to play an instrument. It’s not a necessity, but I think it’s good to know your way around a keyboard or a guitar or something. I think if you’re going to make music, it’s cool to be able to do that. Nowadays, it’s really easy to make a record on your laptop without having to know how to play anything, and there’s a song on our album called, “If I Was Your Man” that came out of my laptop on a family skiing vacation because I don’t ski. So, I’m not against technology or anything like that, I’m just saying that for me, the technology aspect always has to be rooted in the fact that I’m a musician and I think that’s important. The other thing that I would tell people is to be prepared. It sounds cliché, but when Prince told us that if we put a band together he could get us a record deal, we could have said we weren’t ready because we hadn’t been practicing or whatever, but that would have been the end of it for us. Instead, we said, “Okay, let’s go!” So, when people tell me that they’re waiting for their big break or waiting to be noticed, I tell them to take the word “waiting” out of their vocabulary and substitute it with the word “preparing.” Say “I’m preparing for my break,” because that implies when your break comes, you’ll be ready to take it to the next level. I am the Chairman Emeritus of the Grammys and I go and talk to kids a lot in schools. They know I’m coming to speak to them and when I ask them who has a demo or a card with a link to their music or Facebook and only three or four hands go up out of hundreds of kids, that’s not being prepared. Even if you don’t like the music that I make or know who I am, ask your parents about me and get something together for me to listen to. It doesn’t mean I’m gonna actually get to listen to it, but it’s about you being prepared. So, even though it may not seem like a big deal, whatever it is you want to do, make sure you’re prepared to do it at all times. If you got a call from me saying that I wanted you to come and audition for my good friend Eli Reed in an hour, if your response is that you can’t be ready in an hour but you could be ready in three, you’re done before you even start. You have to be prepared.

MR: Great advice. Now, you guys will also be performing at this year’s Soul Train Awards, isn’t that right?

JJ: Right. We’re actually opening the ceremony which is pretty cool, we’re looking forward to it. We think we’re gonna come up with some crazy antics and some good stuff and a lot of music. I think they’re giving us about five and a half minutes, so it’ll be like a little mini concert. (laughs) I can’t wait. That airs on November 27th.

MR: Great. Are you gonna play some of the older songs with the new ones?

JJ: Oh, yeah, absolutely! It’s going to be a smorgasbord of songs–people are gonna love it.

MR: That’s great. Before we go, do you have any last words about the album you’d like to throw in?

JJ: Well, I hope people enjoy it. I think people that haven’t heard us before will enjoy it, but we really made this one for the fans that have stuck with us for quite a while–hopefully it pleases them. The people that we’ve talked to all seem really excited that we’re back together and so are we, so we look forward to taking it out on the road next year and seeing everybody.

MR: That’s great, Jimmy, and thank you so much for spending so much time with us today.

JJ: You’re so welcome, Mike. It was my pleasure.

Transcribed by Evan Martin