Music Smarts

Welcome to my distinguished Berkleemusic blog.  For starters, I’d like to introduce you to my new book MUSIC SMARTS.  Scroll down and you’ll get a taste of the quotes in the book, plus some bonus material from my 2000 interview with David. St. Hubbins and Derek Smalls.

Spinal Tip
“Be patient. Remember, they’re not going to like you automatically just because you do.”
—David St. Hubbins

BONZAI: What are your main recording tools?
DAVID: MIDI, ASCII, finger sandwiches and Napoleon brandy.
DEREK: ProTools — at least a couple of the Pro Tools, a good long cord, and you need a mic, and a nice long power cord as well.  I don’t mean a “power chord,” like what we play, but a splitter, AC.  That’s all I need.

BONZAI: If you could go back in time before the birth of recording, what would you like to hear?
DAVID: Al Jolson begging for work.
DEREK: I’d like to hear what it sounded like in Beethoven’s head after he went deaf.

Don’t Forget
“Ignore all advice.”

—Derek Smalls

Music Smarts features hundreds of quotations from a vast array of artists and industry gurus, reflecting on influences, heroes, integrity, performances, and many more critical aspects of being a music person. These gems of hard-won wisdom cover not only the highs of success, money, and fame, but also reveal the lows of missteps and rejection.

Drawn from 25 years of feature interviews by notorious studio insider, Mr. Bonzai, and edited by Mix magazine creator, David Schwartz, Music Smarts features razor-sharp insights from the music industry’s savviest artists, producers, technicians, and business execs, and showcases the brainpower that has made popular music the most influential force in modern culture. This handbook also includes a visual “who’s who” of the music biz with original portraits by Mr. Bonzai of the featured artists.

Look Inside the Book and order a dozen at Amazon.com

Find out more about Mr. Bonzai

Welcome to my distinguished Berkleemusic blog.  For starters, I’d like to introduce you to my new book MUSIC SMARTS.  Scroll down and you’ll get a taste of the quotes in the book, plus the introduction to my 1988 interview with Leonard Cohen.

LEONARD COHEN

Machine Intelligence
“Inanimate objects, especially when they have working parts and depend on things like sound and light, are susceptible to the influence of the people who are working with them.”
—Leonard Cohen

Leonard Cohen: Haute Dog  (1988)

Let’s set the record straight, once and for all, about this Leonard Cohen.  Seems to me that most folks think of him as a dark, brooding, melancholic, depressing fella.  Actually, he’s a very funny guy.  True, it ain’t the light humor of Don Rickles, but if you’re willing to follow him deeply down Dante’s staircase you’ll find the chuckles that echo through the nuthouses and whorehouses of antiquity.

How many characters like Leonard Cohen exist?  He’s a songwriter, a poet, a novelist, a painter, and a sharp dresser, too.  Onstage, backed by superb musicians both modern and ethnic, with sultry sirens accompanying him like loving ex-lovers, Leonard hangs loose in film noir duds and sings his hard-boiled narratives, sketching underworld scenes with shady undertones and witty asides.

He was signed to Columbia in 1967 by John Hammond. He appeared as the head of Interpol on the TV series Miami Vice.  There is an annual Leonard Cohen Festival in Krakow, Poland.

On our way to his home, Mrs. Bonzai and I stopped to pick up some greasy weiners (Pink’s famous chili dogs) and a jug of chianti.  Leonard greeted us at the door barefoot in a 3-piece suit, sporting a five o’clock shadow, and led us to his sunny kitchen nook where he set out fine china and silver for our haute dog cuisine.

After steeping ourselves in his music for many days and nights, can I tell you what a pleasure it was to lunch with this maestro of murky mirth?

Momma Mia!
“I remember when I went down to New York with the intention of establishing myself in the music business. I was in my early ’30s, and my mother said to me, ‘Leonard, be careful—those people aren’t like us.’ You know, she was right. They aren’t like us.
—Leonard Cohen

BTW, Leonard is presently touring, first time in 15 years.  We’ve got tickets for the show in LA on April 11.  He’s on the road until June 2, at the swinging age of 73.  You might not want to wait another 15 years…

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Music Smarts features hundreds of quotations from a vast array of artists and industry gurus, reflecting on influences, heroes, integrity, performances, and many more critical aspects of being a music person. These gems of hard-won wisdom cover not only the highs of success, money, and fame, but also reveal the lows of missteps and rejection.

Drawn from 25 years of feature interviews by notorious studio insider, Mr. Bonzai, and edited by Mix magazine creator, David Schwartz, Music Smarts features razor-sharp insights from the music industry’s savviest artists, producers, technicians, and business execs, and showcases the brainpower that has made popular music the most influential force in modern culture. This handbook also includes a visual “who’s who” of the music biz with original portraits by Mr. Bonzai of the featured artists.

Look Inside the Book and order a dozen at Amazon.com

Find out more about Mr. Bonzai

Yo, dudes & dudettes of the musically-oriented, welcome to my distinguished new Berkleemusic blog.  For starters, I’d like to introduce you to my new book MUSIC SMARTS.  Scroll down the information highway below and you’ll get a taste of the quotes in the book, plus background on Jack Johnson.

JACK JOHNSON

Surf Music
“Surfing has helped me in learning how to improvise. It’s like riding a wave. You never really know what the wave is going to be like. You gotta change and make split-second decisions. “

Jack Johnson, born and raised on the north shore of Oahu, was a champion surfer before he entered college to study filmmaking.  While studying at the University of California at Santa Barbara he produced a surf documenatry called Thicker Than Water, with two pals Chris and Emmett Malloy.  It not only featured his talents as a cinematographer, but also included his abilities as a singer/songwriter.
A four-song demo caught the attention of producer J.P. Plunier, who had worked with one of Johnson’s heroes, Ben Harper.  Plunier produced Johnson’s 2001 debut album, Brushfire Fairytales, and also played lap steel guitar on the record. Johnson’s second album, On and On, came out in 2003, folowed by In Between Dreams in 2003.  In 2005, he released the soundtrack to the animated film Curious George, which went to #1 on Billboard’s Top 200 and Rock Album charts.
Early in 2007, Johnson began remodeling an old mansion in Los Angeles, which also houses a recording studio and offices for his record label, Brushfire Records.  The entire building is very “green” and eco-friendly.  It’s here, in June of that year, that he began tracking 2008’s Sleep Through the Static, produced by J.P. Plunier, with recording and mixing by Robert Carranza, and featuring Johnson’s band: Merlo Podlewski on bass, Adam Topol on drums, and Zach Gill on keyboards.

A Higher Love
“When you play a song, whether for a couple people sitting around in a room or thousands of people at a concert, you get on the same wavelength where it feels like you agree with someone—where you have a common ground. Music can unite people.”

If you’d like to see some photos and grander interviews, one of which is from Surfer’s Path, click here for JJ in the world of Mr. Bonzai .  Go to Music Photos and Stories.

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Music Smarts features hundreds of quotations from a vast array of artists and industry gurus, reflecting on influences, heroes, integrity, performances, and many more critical aspects of being a music person. These gems of hard-won wisdom cover not only the highs of success, money, and fame, but also reveal the lows of missteps and rejection.

Drawn from 25 years of feature interviews by notorious studio insider, Mr. Bonzai, and edited by Mix magazine creator, David Schwartz, Music Smarts features razor-sharp insights from the music industry’s savviest artists, producers, technicians, and business execs, and showcases the brainpower that has made popular music the most influential force in modern culture. This handbook also includes a visual “who’s who” of the music biz with original portraits by Mr. Bonzai of the featured artists.

Look Inside the Book and order a dozen at Amazon.com 

Greetings and welcome to my new Berkleemusic blog.  For starters, I’d like to introduce you to my new book MUSIC SMARTS.

Music Smarts features hundreds of quotations from a vast array of artists and industry gurus, reflecting on influences, heroes, integrity, performances, and many more critical aspects of being a music person. These gems of hard-won wisdom cover not only the highs of success, money, and fame, but also frankly reveal the lows of missteps and rejection.

Drawn from 25 years of feature interviews by notorious studio insider, Mr. Bonzai, and edited by Mix magazine creator, David Schwartz, Music Smarts features razor-sharp insights from the music industry’s savviest artists, producers, technicians, and business execs, and showcases the brainpower that has made popular music the most influential force in modern culture. This handbook also includes a visual “who’s who” of the music biz with original portraits by Mr. Bonzai of the featured artists.

Order it now on Amazon.com
As esteemed Berkleemusic colleagues, please share a moment with me from the making of this book:

Who:
Since her debut Angel With A Lariat in 1986, k.d. lang has intrigued and surprised fans and critics alike. The provocative torch singer behind such Grammy winners as “Constant Craving” and “Crying,” lang’s got “gumption”: an archaic colloquialism for initiative, energy and good judgement.

Where:
I was invited to join k.d. back in 1995 at L.A.’s Chateau Marmont for a listen to her latest album, All You Can Eat, her most forthright and personal statement up ‘til then, which was co-produced with Ben Mink, engineered by Marc Romaer, and recorded at dual home studios in Vancouver.  Soaring over compelling grooves, surrounded by colorful instrumentation and sensual rhythms, she came across confident and carefree, bold yet vulnerable.

What she said, from MUSIC SMARTS:

The Girl Can’t Help It
“I don’t think true musicians, actors, and artists have any choice.”
—k.d. lang

photo by Mr. Bonzai