A Conversation with Sheldon Gomberg – HuffPost 8.2.13

Mike Ragogna: Sheldon, Sweet Relief Volume III is very different from the two previous volumes created for Victoria Williams and Vic Chesnutt. How did this particular volume come together?

Sheldon Gomberg: They had helped me when I was diagnosed with M.S. and after I don’t know how many years, I started having trouble walking and I was having trouble getting up the stairs. I actually got to the point where I needed a scooter, and I needed a lift to get up to the door. They helped me out with that. I forget why, but I had called Bill (Bennett) back and was talking about something. He had taken over a kind of sinking ship and he was saying that they were a little tight, so I thought maybe I can pay them back for what they did for me by doing what I do. What I do is produce records, record them and all that stuff. I thought about it afterwards and then I called back and said, “Hey, I could make a record for you guys. You haven’t done one in twenty years or eighteen years or whatever it is, how about I make one for you and help raise some money?”

MR: Do you know where the funds will be going for this project?

SG: Sweet Relief will designate it, I don’t know.

MR: Now, the project is subtitled Pennies From Heaven, is that a reference to one of Bing Crosby’s signature songs?

SG: It is a Bing Crosby song, but when I conceived this, I thought let’s make the concept people giving and people lending help. I put together a list of songs and “Pennies From Heaven” was one of the titles on there. I had gotten a bunch of artists together who said they would do this. I’m a big Ron Sexsmith fan, and I know his manager and Ron–not well, but I’ve known him over the years. So I called Ron’s manager and I told him my idea and he said, “Yeah, I think this is great, I’d love him to do it.” Then I think it was that day Ron e-mailed me and was like, “Yeah, I love this idea, I want to do it.” We went back and forth and we were talking, and he said, “I can be down there in two weeks.” I was like, “We weren’t ready to get started yet but if you’re ready to come down, I’m starting now.” He was so great and gracious about it. I don’t want to say he was “eager” because I don’t know how eager he was, although I know he was definitely a big Bing Crosby fan, and he was so great about it. I just said, “You know what, that’s the name of the record.” It was the perfect title for it and Ron was so great about it.

MR: And speaking of Victoria Williams, she sings one of the greatest songs ever on this collection, “A Change Is Gonna Come.” Did the artists pick their own material for the project or did you suggest songs to them?

SG: Well I had a song list that fit in the vibe that I sent to everybody. A bunch of people picked from that and a handful of people had their own suggestions. Most of them were great. Some of them didn’t really fit the vibe but most of them were great. I won’t pinpoint anything, but if you look at the album, there are one or two that stray a little bit from the theme. I look at that like math tests when you were in school; you take the lowest and the highest score and draw them out and then average the rest of them.

MR: Yes, “Surfer Girl” is one of them, although Rickie Lee Jones’ version is wonderful.

SG: Yeah, and plus I’m really good friends with Rickie and I’m a huge fan. We had tried a handful of tunes. One of them was “The Weight,” which ended up on her record. That gave her the idea to do a covers record. She wanted that for her record, and I was like, “All right, here you go, you take it.” I was kind of bummed to lose it but I was happy that she wanted that, and I wanted to help her out, so I was like, “Okay, let’s do something else.” So we were at the end of the record and I was like, “All right, I know we tried to get one and if you don’t get one, I understand and appreciate all your effort on trying this.” She comes back and she’s like, “What if I do ‘Surfer Girl?'” I was like, “Sounds great. Anything to get you on this record. I don’t care what we do.”

MR: Sheldon, as a producer, you’ve worked with many artists, a couple appearing on this release, such as Ben Harper and The Living Sisters’ Eleni. How do you feel about it as a whole now that it’s done?

SG: I felt it came together fantastically as a whole. I’m really, really happy with this record and I’m really proud of it. One thing that’s great for me on this record is that usually when you’re doing a record for somebody else, there’ll always be something that comes up that you’re not one hundred percent into but you go with it because they’re pushing on it or that’s what they want or you just lose the argument or whatever. But this one was one hundred percent what I wanted to do. It was my record from top to bottom, so if you hate it, it’s my fault. But I feel it’s full of integrity and I fought real hard to try and keep that.

MR: Everybody has a different takeaway of what’s happening in music these days because of things like American Idol and the indie world taking over their own marketing. What are your thoughts of the way that music is being made and distributed versus when you first got into this?

SG: I don’t really pay attention to what’s going on now, I’m in my own world and I don’t really know what’s going on as far as distribution. I know that record sales aren’t really what they used to be. I just do what I believe. I don’t want to sound like I don’t care what’s going on out there, I do, but I don’t answer to if it’s going to sell millions as opposed to if it sells thousands. As long as musically and artistically I believe in it, the chips are going to fall where they fall.

MR: Are you comfortable with the environment of recording these days as opposed to when you first began?

SG: Well I mean, I was a musician, I was a bass player for all these years and I got into producing about ten years ago. I’d done some stuff before that, but I really took it seriously about ten years ago. So the recording world has been shrinking or wilting or whatever it is in that time, but it’s not like I was engineering back in the seventies or eighties. I was a musician back then doing sessions and all that. Am I comfortable with it? As long as I get to make great music and work with great artists and I’m having fun, I don’t let it bother me too much I guess.

MR: Analog versus digital?

SG: If you’re talking about the format, like Pro Tools versus tape, I love tape and I love the way tape sounds, but I’m working on Pro Tools most of the time. It’s really easy, it sounds great to me–most of that sounds like tape to me on the record– If you’ve got a good front end and good room and good musicians, I think the format argument is a little bit dated. Yes, I love tape but it’s a bit of a hassle. It’s got its limitation and time.

MR: Sheldon, what is your advice for new artists?

SG: Do what you love. I see people trying to guess at what’s going to be a hit and what’s going to make them famous, but that’s not really why you should be trying to make music. If you’re trying to make money or be famous, there are other ways to do it. You should be playing music because you love it. That’s kind of what it caters to these days, especially with American Idol and all that kind of stuff. When I grew up, you’d starve and you’d go homeless and you’d sleep in the gutters to play music. That’s not something people do now.

MR: What’s the future, where do you go from here?

SG: Well, I’m making new records every day with different artists. I’m just doing a new one with Peter Himmelman this week and I’m doing some stuff with Peter Case after that. All kinds of stuff is lined up. I’m already working on more Sweet Relief records. I’m trying to get as much music as I can get done in my life while I can.

MR: Any other thoughts about Sweet Relief III?

SG: I would like to say that, hopefully, my part of Sweet Relief III was great in helping do this stuff, but I want to definitely put the big thanks out there to all the artists and musicians that contributed and say how important it was, everything that they gave. To me that’s a big, huge, huge, huge part of this record–everybody’s fantastic attitude in contributing. They have careers, they don’t need to do this. That means a lot to me.

MR: It also speaks to what a person you are that they would do that for you.

SG: I have information. I blackmailed them.

MR: [laughs] You have the pictures.

SG: [laughs] Yeah, I do.

MR: Well Sheldon this is really sweet and I appreciate all the time and all the best with this and keeping up the good fight.

SG: Thanks, and thanks for doing this article, bye Mike.

Transcribed by Galen Hawthorne