A Conversation with The Rippingtons’ Russ Freeman – HuffPost 10.19.12

Mike Ragogna: Russ Freeman, welcome to the madness that is solar-powered KRUU-FM.

Russ Freeman: Well, right on. Hey, Michael, how are you?

MR: I’m pretty good, you?

RF: Great, thanks.

MR: I really appreciate you taking some time today to talk about all things Russ Freeman and Rippingtons.

RF: It’s fun, you know? We just passed our twenty-fifth anniversary and it’s just been really remarkable to see the reaction on this record.

MR: How is that twenty-five year old youngster doing?

RF: [laughs] The Rippingtons have never been stronger. You never can imagine. When I started the band, I literally just thought, “Well, we’ll do one record and that’ll be it.” I kind of felt that way throughout our history. “Just make the last record you ever want to make.” Maybe that’s been the secret of the success of our continuity.

MR: Nice. Have you been surprised at how popular you’ve become over the years?

RF: Well, the band has changed radically over the years, so I guess I’m surprised at how loyal our fans have been. I think one of the very smart things I did when we formed the band was to anticipate that we’d have personal changes over time. I think that’s contributed greatly to the success of the band–knowing beforehand that it would evolve. It’s also kept us very creatively involved with it. So, you know, it’s been great.

MR: I want to know when another good buddy of solar-powered KRUU-FM is going to make it into The Rippingtons, even as a one-shot deal, which would be David Benoit.

RF: Oh, what a great guy. Every time we play a show, someone comes up and asks, “Are you going to do another Benoit-Freeman project.” They’re very popular and David and I have had a blast working together over the years.

MR: Me too, and I think I may have asked him that question, “So, when’s the next Benoit-Freeman happening?”

RF: It’s fun, I think, to do projects like that because it takes you away from your day job and you have a great time. We get together and write and we made sure that actually wrote together physically because it’s fun, man! You get together with a piano and a guitar and you just goof off and have a good time.

MR: But beyond that, you could also do–oooh, buttinski that I am, I’m from New York, you see. I would love to throw out there–and this might not work because you guys might be too creative for this–but what about taking an artist’s body of work, an Ellington or whoever and then just attacking it the way that David Benoit and Russ Freeman would?
RF: Yeah, actually, that’s not a bad idea. That’s a pretty inspired idea. You never know.
MR: [laughs] All right, Russ, let’s get into the new album, Built To Last, that title, obviously, about the group. And on the front cover, you’ve got the Mount Rushmore scene with Bill Mayer’s jazz cat.

RF: Oh yeah, he’s a remarkable artist and he’s been an integral part of the visual aspect of The Rippingtons. He’s drawn the jazz cat ever since we began.

MR: Yeah, but I notice the second song here is “American Panorama,” and at the end of the CD, you have a classical take of “Built to Last” as your reprise, and from there, you add orchestral versions of some of the earlier tracks. I’m not sure I can think of another jazz project that does that. Collectively, you could call what you’ve done “Jazz Americana.”

RF: Well, there’s a lot of things, Michael, that are unique about this record. I guess the reason that this record is so different is that I wanted to break all the rules that we had written over the years for the Rips. I just wanted to do things entirely different, as kind of a celebration that we had made it this far and that our fans had been so loyal to us. I thought, “Well, if they’ve followed us this far, I’m going to just take a hard left.” I wanted to delve into things as a composer that I felt like I hadn’t had the chance to do. What’s really remarkable is how people are responding to it. In defense of the orchestral things, sometimes, these ideas come to me in that form and then I try to adapt them to the band. I didn’t do that this time, I just thought, “I’m going to take every idea and execute it as it comes to me,” almost like a train of thought. So on the one hand, you’ve got this Americana type thing with my Nashville roots, which is also something that’s been subliminal over the years. I’ve never really dug out and played the kind of music that I learned to play when I was a kid, and I thought, “I’m just going to have fun and do that for once.” So you’ve got all these wildly different things going on in this record.

MR: Yeah, yet it all works together.

RF: What’s remarkable is this single we have now, called “Cougars and Gigolos,” actually. It’s intensely popular with the fans. They’re getting up and they’re dancing to this song. I have to hand the credit, actually, to the label because I told them, “Look, I’m going to do something entirely different,” and they were totally cool with it. They said, “Do whatever you want.” So the surprise was that when I turned the record in, they loved “Cougars and Gigolos,” and they said, “We think this could be a single,” which, of course, I couldn’t believe. I said, “That will never be a single!” Of course, now here we are, it’s a hit single.

MR: Russ, give us a history lesson on how The Rippingtons formed?

RF: Well, I had started a band under my name, and I’d done a record back in 1985 calledNocturnal Playground, and that was just at the advent of the radio format that began to play this music. Back then, it was a much more inclusive kind of format. It was “Quiet Storm.” They’d play everything, it was interesting. So at the advent of that, I had the opportunity to record another album. We were playing every night at the Baked Potato, all the people in town would come and jam. Marcus Miller came and sat in, David Benoit–I think that’s where I met David, actually, was at the Baked Potato–Brandon Fields was in the band. Kenny G came down and sat in, that’s where I met him, and he joined the band for a time at that point. So anyway, that’s where the opportunity to record Moonlighting came. That was the kickoff point.

MR: Moonlighting, of course being the first album, but “Moonlighting” also being a popular song.

RF: Also kind of a play on the idea that we were all moonlighting with advancing careers at the time.

MR: You gave a little hint before about your creative process, but how do you do that thing you do?

RF: Well, it’s changed over the years. Originally, I would write everything down on staff paper like a real musician is supposed to. [laughs] And then it devolved into me just kind of thinking about things very hard and then, of course, I played piano and guitar so I would just write on whatever instrument seemed conducive at the time and now I’ve gotten to a point where it’s completely all mental. I just imagine the whole thing. So I don’t really do anything besides that. I just think about it.

MR: Russ, one of the things that keeps coming up over and over is the concept of writing down music on staff paper and being able to read. It seems that reading has sort of fallen by the wayside over the years because when you’re in a band, its arrangements use memory and maybe some chord charts. Actual reading and notation seems to have been downplayed in the musical culture over the years.

RF: You’re probably right, Michael, and I hope it’s not entirely true. But I have to give credit to the guys in my band particularly like Jeff Kashiwa, who just did all the parts for Nelson Rangell, who is a stellar, fantastic musician who came in and just read everything down in Denver. So there’s something really to be said for having the craft of music down. I think it’s very important. It’s being able to express yourself verbally and on paper. It’s a critical skill you need.

MR: Right. And other responsibilities have now crept up on the artist, like having to be their own marketer. Have you felt any kind of pressures to either “Come up with the hit single” or “Come up with this” or “Come up with that” while you were dealing with labels over the years?

RF: Well, that’s a really good question, and, Michael, I think the honest answer is most of these pressures are internally felt by artists. I don’t think there’s external pressures so much from labels that the artists feel. Everyone wants a hit, but it’s one of these funny things where you’ve got to be true to your artistry and you can’t think about hits. I really believe that. You can’t write for what you think the crowd wants because they know it. They can sense it. You have to have an art. If you really want to have longevity you’ve really got to have something to say artistically. I think it’s important that you face that.

MR: Nicely said. Okay, “Cougars and Gigolos,” combining the concepts of creativity and having a hit that we talked, let’s go to that song. Like how were you inspired to write it.

RF: [laughs] You want to take that particular song?

MR: Well, it’s the hit. [laughs]

RF: Okay, I guess it’s funny. It’s kind of a self-explanatory thing where it would never be a hit; it was never constructed to be a hit. It was almost a tongue-in-cheek thing and yet I felt strongly that where that song came from musically was in a valid place. When I was twelve years old, I would follow these studio musicians around in Nashville all over the place and I would watch them record records for stars and they’d let me sit behind the glass with them, sometimes in the booths, and you know a twelve year-old kid can ask a thousand questions and I did, and they were so gracious to me. It came from the real place of this, it’s real music, this is what I grew up doing, and finally, when I was a teenager, I was in on some of these sessions. I was playing with some of these guys on records. It was just luck that had me do that, so I wanted to go back to that kind of space about how we felt about recording back then. It was all in a live situation. It was really fun, the way that the instruments locked together. I know I’m kind of rambling, but the other thing that’s really cool about this track is there’s a resonator that I picked up, and it’s a slide dobro, and it was just fun to play. So there’s a lot of stuff going on that just kind of makes this track unique and fun.

MR: Now, your track “Route 66,” which is an original as opposed to it being a cover song for those of us who might have made the mistake, let’s go into that one.

RF: Okay, well this happened pretty late in the CD. At this point, I had written several songs that were completely off the charts for the Rips. Something that we had never tried before, some of these alternate orchestrations. And I said, “Now I’ve got to break every rule I can.” It was like throwing baseballs at windows. “What can we do that the Rips have never done?” One of the kind of unwritten rules I’d had in the band is that we’d never done any kind of swing-type tunes. I didn’t realize how fun it was and what a blast we had to record this.

MR: Even though this is your 25th anniversary record, what you’re saying with this album is sort of like where Russ Freeman is now, where the band is now.

RF: I think you’re absolutely right, and I have to give credit to the guys in the band, too, because they eat it up. They love the record, they love playing it, and the crowds are feeling that energy. It’s incredible, the response that we’re getting. We’re selling records and I think people are generally excited to see us playing this music. It’s a thrill for us after twenty-five years to have that kind of reaction from the crowds. So I always go back to the fans. They’re the ones that drive the whole thing for me.

MR: What advice do you have for new artists?

RF: Wow! That’s a tough question. We talk about this a lot. We talk about the fact that it’s much more difficult now, revenue streams are smaller and it’s just challenging. I think you’ve got to have the passion to do it, obviously, and the drive and other than that to just hone your craft and wait for some good luck. We all need the good luck.

MR: Yeah, it’s really hard on a new artist because you not only have to be a new artist but you also have to do your own social networking, like I mentioned earlier.

RF: Well it’s a double-edged sword, I think, Michael, because social networking has obviously really changed the landscape of how people perceive artists and your ability to get your music out. We didn’t have that when we started. That’s a positive thing. You know what else? I think it’s really positive that we have such an amalgam of styles being blended together. If we can keep things from being in boxes and try to get players together and different styles together… Look at Zakk Wylde. He came over from a total rock ‘n’ roll place to play on our record and it was an incredible success. I have to hand it to Zakk, and there’s another guy who has his craft together, who is creative enough to really want to try something different.

MR: Yeah. Well, coming from Ozzy roots, that was an amazing piece.

RF: Yeah, so when you go back to looking at success and why is Zakk so successful, well he’s got craft and he’s willing to try new things and that’s an important thing.

MR: Yeah. Why did you thank your mastering engineer Bernie Grundman the way you did in the credits? You give him a lot of credit there.

RF: Well, for a lot of reasons. One thing I love about this particular album is that it’s got a much greater dynamic range than we’re used to having in pop music because when you add this classical element you can go all the way to silence. Silence in pop music means catastrophe. It means something’s gone wrong and there’s major malfunction. But in this kind of style where we’re blending these two media, silence is golden. It’s welcome. So there was incredible dynamic range for Bernie to have to work with and I think he really enjoyed the challenge, but it was a challenge.

MR: I also want to bring up the track “In The Shadow of Giants,” which is a sort of tribute to your heritage, right?

RF: It’s funny, it’s my wife’s favorite tune on the record. She loves it, so it’s got that going for it. Yeah, I love blending classical guitar and rock guitar. You don’t hear that much. Again, I just love colors, I love these textures. Combining these things to me is a thrill.

MR: All right, we have to know what guitars you’re playing these days.

RF: Well I have about fourteen of them out when I record, you know. But I have my favorites. You know what was the Swiss army knife of guitars on this record? My baritone guitar. Used everywhere. It’s cranked in the mix. I don’t know if you can hear it, but there’s a baritone guitar on a lot of tracks.

MR: Words of wisdom?

RF: Words of wisdom? Thanks to people like you who are putting out the word about the Rips, and thanks to our fans who have stayed with us all these years. Now we’re on our second generation of fans. Kids come up and say, “I’ve grown up to your music all my life,” so thanks to everybody.

MR: Yeah, and it being your twenty-fifth anniversary, it’s got to give you a really nice glow that you contributed the amount of music you have to the culture.

RF: Well, it’s just incredible. If you can make a difference in one person, it’s meaningful. So I love the fact that people are digging it.

MR: Congratulations and I wish you the best. I really appreciate your time, come back and give us a progress report!

RF: Oh, I’d love to. Thank you.

Transcribed by Galen Hawthorne