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We’re joined today at Vents by none other than music maestro Richard X. Heyman! Before we jump into the proverbial rabbit hole Richard, how has 2021 been treating you?
The thing that has been most apparent is how fast time seems to be moving. I know as we age, time becomes relatively shorter, but this year is speeding by at a ridiculous pace. I have to keep reminding myself that time is really traveling at the same rate for everyone. But all in all, I’m just happy to be experiencing 2021.
Congratulations on the upcoming June 18, 2021 release of your fourteenth album entitled Copious Notes! For the uninitiated out there, can you talk about what the genesis of the Copious Notes album was?
After the release of my last album, “Pop Circles,” I felt what I guess you’d call complete burn-out. I had no desire to write or record any music. A few months into that malaise, the pandemic hit. Several months later, in quarantine, I started noodling around on the piano. Every now and then, Nancy would encourage me to demo something she thought was worth saving. I slowly got the urge to turn these snippets of chords and melodies into songs with vocals. That was around the summer of 2020, so that was the start of this new album.
I’m a huge fan of the title Copious Notes; it truly stands out! What process led you to choose this as the right title for the new album?
Well, the term “copious notes” is something we’ve all heard, referring to taking written notes, usually in a scholastic setting. Being a musician, I just thought it could also apply to the notes in a scale. Then I looked up “copious” in the Merriam Webster dictionary and in addition to meaning “abundant,” it also means “full of thought, information or matter.” So it seemed like a nice multi-meaning title.
How would you describe the new album – Is it a themed record with something to say, or is it meant to be a fun listen? Or is it perhaps both?
Well, the first line on the album is “The dark is getting to you, in this you’re not alone.” These songs were all written in 2020, except for “Choices We Make” and “Sink Or Swim.” The latter was recorded by the group I play drums in, The Doughboys. So the mood is both wary and hopeful. I wasn’t consciously trying to write about the state of the world, but some of it snuck in there anyhow. The themes range from love, lost and found, to reminiscing about the town I grew up in, Plainfield, New Jersey, along with a few other musings. To answer your question, I always attempt to have a little something to say mixed with some fun.
How do you feel you’ve changed as an artist from your first album to your latest?
Well, this so-called artist’s body has gotten more weathered. The old mind is still intact, though my wife insists I keep my keys on a chain hooked to my trousers! I’ve worked on my lead guitar playing so I’ve been incorporating more solos. I try to concentrate on one song at a time, so I don’t really notice the changes or progression, but I hope after all these years a few things have improved. On my first recordings, I was so influenced by the early 60’s sound that I would double track all my lead vocals and I had an aversion to distortion on guitar. But I got over that.
Your wife Nancy engineered and played the bass on a lot of the tracks on
Copious Notes. What is the collaboration process like between the two of you?
The phrase “for better or for worse” comes to mind! We actually have a pretty good system. She makes me play or sing my parts until she’s happy. She’s a stickler. Without Nancy, my albums would sound like the Shags (not that there’s anything wrong with that). I would say our modus operandi is we both have to be satisfied with each take.
Had the worldwide pandemic not occurred, would Copious Notes have been a slightly different album? How has COVID informed this new work?
Nothing is created in a vacuum, and since this album was written and recorded during the pandemic, I’m sure it is reflected in the music. I would say it’s subtle, though. I did write a song called “Six Feet Apart Blues” about social distancing that didn’t make the record. You don’t notice these connections until you’re done and listening back. When I hear the album now, I sense an underlying melancholia, but it’s not all doom and gloom. There’s some giddiness as well.
With the release date right around the corner for the new album, what’s the plan for touring? In this day and age, what might a tour or a series of live performances look like in your opinion?
We probably will do some videos, maybe an online performance, but we have no plans to play live shows. We’ll have to wait and see.
Twelve new songs make up Copious Notes; were there more that didn’t make the cut, and might we see these on another album?
Sure, there’s more. I just didn’t start recording them. I usually would have fourteen songs, sometimes more, per album. I intentionally wanted to make a twelve-track record. Once we selected that dozen songs, we began and completed the whole project. There are many songs waiting to be recorded, and hopefully I’ll write a few more. The main thing I wanted to accomplish was releasing my fourteenth album. I didn’t want to have my thirteenth be the last one. So just in case this is the last one, I’ll have ended on a nice even number. (I also won’t walk under any ladders or cross a black cat’s path.)
You completed Copious Notes at your home studio, The Kit Factory. Do you feel you achieved a different sound on the new album than you would have had you cut it at another recording studio?
Every recording studio has its own sound and vibe, so yeah, it would be different. I record the drums at Eastside Sound here in NYC. They have a nice sized ambient room and state-of-the-art equipment. Our studio is set up in our bedroom, but we manage to get the sounds we’re looking for. All the horn and string parts are real players who did their parts on their home recording devices and then sent them to us. There are no samples or drum loops, it’s all humans doing the best they can. Our secret weapon is our mixing engineer, Tony Lewis, who puts all these elements together at his studio (Hivoltage) in New Jersey.
You completed Copious Notes at your home studio, The Kit Factory. Do you feel you achieved a different sound on the new album than you would have had you cut it at another recording studio?
Every recording studio has its own sound and vibe, so yeah, it would be different. I record the drums at Eastside Sound here in NYC. They have a nice sized ambient room and state-of-the-art equipment. Our studio is set up in our bedroom, but we manage to get the sounds we’re looking for. All the horn and string parts are real players who did their parts on their home recording devices and then sent them to us. There are no samples or drum loops, it’s all humans doing the best they can. Our secret weapon is our mixing engineer, Tony Lewis, who puts all these elements together at his studio (Hivoltage) in New Jersey.
You’re a rare unicorn in the world of music as it exists today in that you are a singer-songwriter. As an artist, is it important to you to stick to your own words and music?
I enjoy writing and then recording my own songs, but I would be open to doing covers of other material. I always include tunes by artists I admire in our live shows, so I wouldn’t mind recording some of those, though it would be hard to top the originals. For example, we covered “Song of a Baker” by the Small Faces, several Kinks Kovers including “She’s Got Everything,” lesser known Stones songs like “It’s Not Easy” and “Connection,” Procol Harum’s “Shine On Brightly,” “Shotgun” by Junior Walker and the All Stars, and dozens more.
Which comes first for you – the lyrics or the music?
Generally the music comes to me first. I have to then buckle down and work diligently on the lyrics. There have been a few occasions where phrases or possibly a title precedes a musical idea. And then there are times when the music and lyrics happen simultaneously. I use the word “happen” because as many songwriters have expressed, who knows where the hell all this stuff emanates from!
I hear little smidges of Buddy Holly, Ivan (A.K.A. Jerry Allison), Eddie Cochran and Bo Diddley in your style of music. Were an of these legendary rockers an influence on you?
Definitely! I love the three artists you mentioned along with so many others – the Everly Brothers, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, too many to mention, and that’s just the early rockers. The 60’s were so influential, I could go on and on with all the people who rocked my world like the usual suspects – Phil Spector, Beach Boys, Four Seasons, Lovin’ Spoonful, the Rascals, the Mamas and Papas, Wilson Pickett, Otis Redding, Sam Cooke, Gary U.S. Bonds, Freddy “Boom Boom” Cannon, Del Shannon, Burt Bacharach and Hal David, James Brown, into the British invasion era with the Beatles, Stones, Kinks, Who, Hollies, Yardbirds, Animals, Manfred Mann, Zombies…see I told you I could go on and on! And that’s not even touching upon all the great female artists like Etta James, Carla Thomas, Lesley Gore, Wanda Jackson, Sandie Shaw, Dusty Springfield, the Shangri-Las, Dionne Warwick. And then there’s the Motown acts – The Marvelettes, Supremes, Martha & the Vandellas, Mary Wells, Smoky Robinson, Temptations, Four Tops, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder. While I’m at it, you mentioned Jerry Allison, and speaking of drummers, some of my drumming influences are D.J. Fontana, Earl Palmer, Hal Blaine, Buddy Salzman, Gary Chester, Bobby Graham, Clem Cattini, and of course their rockstar counterparts, Ringo, Charlie Watts, Bobby Elliot, Dino Dannelli, Johnny Barbata, Mitch Mitchell, Keith Moon, B.J. Wilson, but I actually started playing jazz and can’t forget about Gene Krupa, Elvin Jones, Buddy Rich, Louie Bellson…somebody stop me!
Speaking of legendary rockers, you had the opportunity to work with early rocker/R&B artist Ben E. King. What was that like for you?
My main memory of Ben E. King is the session for “Fourth of July/Sandy.” I was playing harpsichord and between takes, he sat down next to me and asked my advice on the phrasing of some of the lyrics. He was singing right in my ear, and it was such a thrill to hear that amazing voice so close. I mean, this was a voice I heard growing up on the radio, one of the greatest in all rock’n’roll! A very humble and nice man as well.
Final – SILLY! – Question: Best rock and roll movie – Almost Famous, This Is Spinal Tap or La Bamba?
All fine movies and for pure hilarity, nothing can top “This Is Spinal Tap”. But my fave rock’n’roll movie is “Still Crazy,” about a British 70s band, Strange Fruit, that reunites for one more shot at glory. I describe it as “Spinal Tap” with heart. Of course, I’m pretty partial to “A Hard Day’s Night” and let’s not forget “The T.A.M.I. Show.” James Brown and the Famous Flames are worth the price of admission alone, but all the acts are spectacular. Then there’s the “TNT Show” with the incredible Ike & Tina Turner revue. But of course you haven’t lived until you’ve seen “Gonks Go Beat” from 1965!
