A Conversation with John Velghe – HuffPost 9.8.14

Mike Ragogna: So there’s something called Motor Bike Tour–The New Hearts MC Road Show occurring. In order to ask you a question, I have to understand what the heck is going on here. John, what the heck is going on here?

John Velghe: The New Hearts Motorcycle Club (MC) is a charitable organization I started this year to benefit organ donation and transplant recipients. The goal of this inaugural tour, or Road Show, is to raise awareness of organ donation, and to try to raise funds for Transplant Patients and their families. The idea came from the album, to take the concept of motorcyclists being called “organ donors” and turn that on its head. To do something throughout he bike, through music, that benefits organ donation and organ transplantation.

MR: How far back do you and motorcycles go?

JV: I go back with motorbikes almost as far back as I go with music. When I was little, my uncle–a drummer who helped my parents pick out my first drum set–used to take my cousins and I for rides on his motorcycle through the hills of Western Wyandotte County Kansas. Then when I got a little older, I used to ride one of my neighbor’s dirt bikes around this school yard behind our houses during the summer. A few years ago, I bought a Monza Blue 1976 BMW R60/6. It had been in a garage for 15 years. The garage was located on the same street where my grandma grew up the East Bottoms of KC. Since then I’ve done a complete mechanical restoration of that bike, I call her Lola. I’ve had it completely apart and rebuilt it from the crankshaft out, front end to rear. It’s my daily rider. I have a newer touring bike I’m taking on this tour.

MR: Is anyone in the band an actual organ donor? Just curious.

JV: Not that I’m aware of.

MR: How did the gang creatively come up with the material for Organ Donor Blues? What was the recording process like and in what ways does this album differ from your last one?

JV: I’d been writing the bones of most of these songs since the last record came out. Lyrics, chords, melodies, etc. were in the works and I’d been bringing them into rehearsal steadily since then. So we’ve all lived with these songs for a couple years or more. In that way, we’ve all been able to really dig into our parts and refine what we wanted to do before we ever recorded them. Where it really differs from the last album is in how we recorded it. The last album was done in parts here and there over months. When it came time to cut the basic tracks for Organ Donor Blues, the four of us–Mike, Matt, Chris and I–all got in the studio with Duane and just played the songs over and over until we had parts we liked. We tracked 14 songs in a day and most of the basic tracks you hear are the ones we cut in the studio. We came back and did overdubs for things like horns, pedal steel and vocals, mostly due to space constraints. Even in the nice big room at Weights and Measures, we didn’t have enough space for all eight of us to do our thing without stepping all over each other. But I think the end result was what we wanted; a live-sounding record. The sound of a bar band hooting and hollering and twanging together.

MR: Considering the amount of work he contributed to the album, was it due to it being impossible to remove guest artist Alejandro Escovedo from the studio, was it a kidnapping on the band’s part, a debt now repaid or something nefarious that explains his appearance on every inch of Organ Donor Blues? When you finally got him out of the studio, did he return pretending to forget something and stay another few days?

JV: Ha! I was on the phone with Alejandro a few days before we cut the basic tracks and he asked what I was doing. I told him getting ready to go make a new record and he said, “So what am I doing on it?” I said, “Whatever you want. Guitar, vocals, whatever.” So come January, he travelled from a much warmer Austin to a bitter KC and took me up on my offer of “whatever you want.” He spent about three days up here and kept telling, “You got me here, use me.” I told him, “If you’re gonna quote Bill Withers at me, I’m gonna take you serious.” There are two other songs he played on that didn’t make it onto this album.

MR: Was there anything during the experience of creating the album that anyone could have potentially needed or become an organ donor?

JV: Two weeks before we were supposed to record my left hand was smashed in a revolving door. A big gust of wind blew the panels and one 300-pound panel collapsed onto the other with my hand in between. It smashed my ring and the fire department had to cut off the ring. After 45 minutes of waiting on them, I couldn’t grab the steering wheel on my way home. After I made sure I could hold a guitar neck, I went to the hospital and the doctor told me how lucky I was. He saw the ring and said if I’d not been wearing the ring I’d have lost at least one finger on my left hand. So, while not an organ, I might have donated a finger that day. And while I’m not a guitar virtuoso, that’s the equivalent of a kidney to me.

MR: Which song on the album do you think best represents the talents of the band?

JV: I’d say “Beaten by Pretenders” or “On the Interstate.” On those songs, you hear everyone brining their combination of talent, caring, and Midwestern work ethic to the cause. The vocal harmonies, Mike’s guitar work, Matt’s groove, Chris’s sense of counter melody, and then those brawny horn lines and pedal steel. Those are the songs that make me remember what a beautiful and thoughtful band I have.

MR: And then there’s that New Hearts MC Road Show. Despite this interview, that’s still happening, right?

JV: It is. I leave in a few days. It’s really going to be a great tour. Over 3000 miles with a guitar on a motorcycle. I’ll get to see the country from a bike and friends in New York, Nashville and Durham along the way. If I can’t tour with my full band, this is the next-best way to do it.

MR: What advice do you have for new artists?

JV: Take time every day to be centered and work on your craft. Write about everything. Feel everything. Find your own unique way to see the life you have. Do this for something outside yourself, expect the rewards to come from inside yourself, and make sure you reward everyone you work with as much as you can. People can feel unrequited, so make sure they know you love what they do for your songs. Always wear your ring when you go through a revolving door.

MR: Since Cher was part of a motorcycle movie–Mask–do you think she might like Organ Donor Blues?

JV: Sam Elliott was my favorite character in that movie, and I KNOW he’d like Organ Donor Blues. My friend was in a band called Cher UK and he likes Organ Donor Blues. So when you put those two together, it’s pretty easy to see that Cher couldn’t help but love Organ Donor Blues.