A Conversation with Steve Barton – HuffPost 6.11.12

Mike Ragogna: Steve Barton, lead singer of Translator, you have a new solo album called Projector, and let’s dig right into the track “Please.” Can you give us a little background on it?

Steve Barton: Yeah, it’s a song that changed quite a bit when we made the Projector album, which is a group of songs that I wrote after my dad passed away a couple years ago. I had written all these songs really quickly, in about a period of a month after he died. It was like every time I’d pick up my guitar, a song would come out, which is kind of unusual for me. I played them all for my friend Marvin Etzioni, who was in Lone Justice and is a producer in his own right and a recording artist with a wonderful new album out himself. He said, “You know, this seems like an album.” I hadn’t played these songs for anybody, and I had about eighteen of them, and it was his idea to have me play all the instruments on it instead of using my band The Oblivion Click. So “Please” originally had a different title and a different sort of vibe to it. It was called “Inside Joke,” and I think I’ve said this before, it was sort of like “I’m Only Sleeping” from Revolver, that sort of vibe. It was sung lower in a different key, and we listened back to it and thought, “What happens if we just raise the key up and kind of belt it out a little more?” So we did, and it just really felt good, so that’s the version that ended up being on the record. We changed the title to “Please” as well. Yeah, that song is probably the most changed of any of them on the record.

MR: These were created in a period after your dad passed away?

SB: Yeah.

MR: They’re not really all subjects about your dad passing away. What is the overall theme of Projector?

SB: All the songs were written kind of under that umbrella of him being sick and then him passing away. As you said, they’re not all sort of “about” that event, but they were all written during that time, so for me, they all kind of resonate with that period of time. There’s a song on there called “Here Come I,” which was a line in his diary that I found when we were going through the house from when he was fifteen. He was talking about the new year coming up, and he said “A new year. Here come I,” a couple of times through the diary, and I thought, “What a cool turn of phrase!” So that became this little finger picked love song, which is not about my dad, but the title wouldn’t have come without that. It all sort of dovetails together in a way.

MR: Yeah. And there’s “Bowie Girl.” What’s the story behind that one?

SB: There are a couple of songs that kind of deal with growing up in the house that I grew up in, which my parents lived in for fifty years at least. It sort of talks about growing up in that house and, for me, how David Bowie was such a life raft as a teenager. In the second verse, it says, “Teac 3340, threaded tape and plugged-in long ago.” That’s about me sitting in my bedroom making these recordings on my Teac Four Track when I was a teenager listening to David Bowie Records. So that’s a little tip of the hat to David Bowie, and that song is actually credited to me and Marvin because it was a little different when I brought it in. He actually suggested taking it back. We had recorded a different version of it. It had a different title too, but I forget what it was called, and he said, “You know, I think it needs a different chorus,” which to me was like, “Oh, I thought we were done…okay.” I went back, and one night, I wrote the chorus to the song. He helped me tweak it and we shaped the song, so we’re calling that a Barton-Etzioni composition. It’s one of my favorites on the record too. I really like it.

MR: Now Steve, what are some thoughts about the Translator years?

SB: Translator started as a trio in Los Angeles, and then we got Bob Darlington from another band. He was the guitar player, songwriter, and singer. That became the band. We moved as a band from L.A. to San Francisco. This was in 1980, and that’s where it all happened for us, when we got to San Francisco. In San Francisco, I remember sleeping on a friend’s floor for months. It was very sort of punk rock. We were very committed to the band. It was just a blast. It was fantastic, and frankly, we’re still together. We have a new record — actually our first record in twenty-six years — that’s called Big Green Lawn, and it’s available online at this point. We’re really proud of it, and hopefully, we’re going to do some live shows maybe in the Fall. We definitely want to do some touring behind it.

MR: After that, you have another body of work, solo projects…

SB: Right, yeah. And one called The Boy Who Rode His Bike Around the World is also produced by Marvin. It actually has the Translator rhythm section. It has Dave and Larry on bass and drums on most of it. And then there’s an album called Charm Offensive, which is the first one with my band The Oblivion Click, which is Robbie Rist and Derrick Anderson. Robbie, of course, was cousin Oliver on The Brady Bunch and the voice of Michaelangelo in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and a record producer and songwriter and all around talented guy.

MR: You forgot Dr. Zee from Galactica 1980.

SB: How could I forget that? Absolutely. And Derrick plays bass in The Bangles. So when we come together, it’s just a wonderful band for my post-Translator stuff, and it’s a trio so it’s different than Translator, which I like. So we did Charm Offensive and then an album called Flicker of Time and then an album called Gallery, which is sort of a compilation of the first three albums plus some new material. And I’ve already written what I think will be half of the new songs for the next record. Once I’ve done a tour for Projector, I want to go and make a rock ‘n’ roll record with the band.

MR: Right. I also want to throw out there that one of my favorite songs on this project is the opener, “Elegy in D Barton.” Can you go into what that is, since it’s so different and an instrumental?

SB: Yeah. On this record, like I said earlier, I played all the instruments except for that one. The “Elegy in D Barton” is an instrumental that I wrote to be played under a video presentation at my dad’s memorial. Not to bring down the room, but that’s why I wrote it. It was me on piano, and I had recorded a version with kind of a tremolo guitar in the background. It’s kind of a cool version. And a friend of mine, who’s an arranger named Johnny Usry, had done arrangements for some cool Philly Soul records and worked with The O’Jays and stuff like that. He heard it and he said, “Do you mind if I do an arrangement of that?” I said, “No, that’d be great!” So he sent me what ended up on the record, and I was just blown away by it. So that’s how that came about.

MR: When you look at what’s happening in music right now, what are some thoughts?

SB: You know, so many things are different than when Translator was making records originally. First of all, the record companies don’t play the same sort of role. I’m not sure that they don’t play any role, but they don’t play the same sort of role. There was no internet, so it’s a different landscape. That said, I always felt that my job, in a way, is to write songs and make records. I’m not a technology guy, so it’s going to come out however it comes out. If I had been born in the 1920s, it would be on a 78. It’s all the same thing to me. It still comes down to writing the songs and making the records and having the goods live. That part hasn’t changed. The distribution stuff has, and I think it’s great that music gets out there immediately. I think that’s really cool. I remember when John Lennon put out “Instant Karma” and it made big news because he recorded it on a weekend and it was released on a Monday. Now, that’s just normal. (laughs)

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

SB: If I had any advice for a new artist — this is going to sound clichéd — it would be that you’ve got to be true to the vision that you have for your music because there are going to be plenty of people telling you, “No, it should be like this.” I remember when Translator was on our first tour, this would have been in ’81 or ’82, and we were in New York doing an interview with some New York kind of fanzine paper or magazine and for those of you listening, a magazine is a piece of paper that had words on it that you’d pick up and thumb through… not just the internet. There was a song on our first Translator album called “Dark Reach,” which is a very dissonant song. The guy who was interviewing us said, “You know, if Lou Reed had done that song, he would have done this and this. How come you didn’t do this? You did it like this, and Lou Reed would have done this.” And we finally said, “You know what? Lou Reed didn’t do this song. We did.” For a young artist, I would say you’ve got to just be true to what you want to do because there can be enough people telling you how someone else would have done it or, “Gee, why didn’t you do this?” or “I think you should have done this!” You just have to really be true to what your vision of it is. Sometimes it’s easier said than done, but that’s the goal, I think.

MR: Yeah, easier said than done because you also have to sort of compensate for a little of this and a little of that all the time.

SB: And there’s temptation to go, “Oh the snare drum has to sound like this.” I remember, I think on one of Elvis Costello’s Spectacle shows, he was talking and he said, “I came to a time when the snare drum had to sound a certain way that I hated, but that’s how Duran Duran wanted it. Nothing wrong with their records, but that’s not how I wanted to sound.” It’s true. Sometimes that trap can be there like, “No, no. That has to sound like this.” You just have to make the records you want to make. That’s the ultimate, I think.

MR: All right. So? Any more on Projector?

SB: I think everybody should go buy it!

MR: (laughs) I bet you do!

SB: No, I’m really proud of the record. For more info on it–although we’ve gone pretty in depth–you can go to http://stevebartonmusic.com

MR: Okay, nice plug. (laughs) I really wish you a lot of luck with it. Definitely, let’s do this again.

SB: Absolutely, I’d love to!

Transcribed by Kyle Pongan