21 minute read
The Rolling Stones Part 1
No Stone Left Unturned
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Interview by Kim Crain PART ONE
A Quadranscentennial Silver Jubilee of excellence, Bernard Fowler has risen to the top of the music chain, back up singing, vocal arranging and performing percussion with a little band called the Rolling Stones: Fowler has worked alongside many Iconic bands such as: Herbie
Hancock, Robert Plant, AC/DC, Rod Stewart, Duran Duran, Farm Fur (with Steve Ferrone, Deleo Brothers, Alex Ligertwood),Tack Head, Michael Hutchence of INXS, Ozzy Osbourne,
The Peech Boys and the Red Hot Chili Peppers just to name a few. Recording fantastic solo albums with Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, and Charlie Watts.
Bernard Fowler has recorded with the Rolling Stones on a couple of albums you might have heard of: Steel Wheels, Flashpoint, Jump Back,
Voodoo Lounge, Bridges to Babylon, No Security, Forty Licks, A bigger Bang, Rarities, Shine a light, Stripped, Light
the Fuse, Grrr!, Hyde Park Live, From the Vault, and my favorite Sticky Fingers Live. Photo courtesy of Bernard Fowler
because she was doing it. I was still thinking about basketball, not a music career, until I saw what they were doing. That was a big influence.
Singer, songwriter, producer, Bernard Fowler is breaking barriers by gathering world renowned musicians in his own recordings. Fowler well known around the Globe for his inner beauty, electric stage presence, powerful vocals and wide vocal range.
Kim: Bernard, I wanted to thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to interview you today here in Los Angeles, California, for Highwire Daze Magazine. Kim: That is super cool! Do you play any musical instruments?
Bernard: I have some guitars here. I don’t play very well, but I play enough to hum & strum. I was in the studio a couple of days ago. And I started a new track. I actually found myself behind the keyboard. So again I don’t play very well, but I play good enough to get what I want out of it!
Kim: That’s what all its about!
Bernard: Thank you for having me Kim. Bernard: I get the idea. Then I call in the big guns.
Kim: So lets go back to the early days of your career... Who influenced you the most as a singer?
Bernard: That’s kind of a difficult question because I was influenced by so many! Probably all the records I ever heard as a kid were my influences. If I had to pick one living influence that was close to me, I would have to say it would be my cousin, Mic Murphy. He’s from a group called The System. I used to go see him perform with his bands. When I decided to do it, it was Mic and a keyboardist in his band, La Forrest ‘ La La’ Cope. She wrote (You Give Good Love), by Whitney Houston. She was probably the biggest influence Kim: Your album “The Bura” with Slash, Waddy Wachtel, Darryl Jones, and many others, is powerful! Your songs, “See you again” and “Shake It Baby Shake It”, really stand out! How did that song “Shake It Baby Shake It” come about?
Bernard: Thank you for mentioning that. I am very proud of that record. It’s a shame it didn’t get as circulated as it should have. I wrote, “Shake It Baby Shake It”, with the co-producer of the record, Robert Davis. He is a guitar player I met seven or eight years ago here in L.A. I got a call from my engineer friend Robi Banerjee who called me and said, “hey man, there’s this band here and their singer could use some
vocal help. Would you mind coming down?” I saw the band and I heard Robert playing and I thought this cat is really special, so we struck up a friendship. When I was ready to record “The Bura” I was looking for someone I could work with. I don’t like doing things all by myself. Some people can do it and it works for them, but I think that’s too far and few in between. It’s always good to have someone sitting there in the chair next to you, and Robert was that guy.
But anyway, “Shake It Baby Shake It”. I was looking for material I asked Robert if he had any ideas. He sent me a two track of that basic groove, I sat and listened to it and I thought, wow! I really like that!
There were just some elements missing for me. Once we actually started recording the track the rock tone to it was great, but it was missing a funkiness to it. We recorded the basic track, then I called my old band mate from Tack Head, Skip McDonald, and I told Skip what I was looking for. And I sent the track to Skip, and he sent it back, and when I listened to it, I was just smiling from ear to ear. I remember saying to Robert, “Shake It Baby Shake It” is the kind of Rock “n” Roll I have been looking to make, where funk and rock meet right in the middle.” I think I’ve succeeded in that with this track.
Kim: You released your last album title “Inside Out”. A brilliant re-interpretation of songs from The Rolling Stones catalog, Tell us how this came about. Photo credit: Kevin Mazur
the recording process somehow. Somebody nicked them! But I remember opening the book and going through, and looking at some of the lyrics, and when I read the lyrics they had a flow to it. I was looking for really strong content. I started picking songs. I picked maybe two or three songs that I needed to get the record started.
My original idea for “Inside Out”, was that it would be only voice and percussion. That was the original idea!
Kim: Real Beat poetry
Bernard: “Inside Out”, came about when I was finishing up, “The Bura”. I was close to getting finished, and usually when I’m close to getting finished I’m trying to formulate an idea of what’s going to follow. What I am going to do next. I made a record about four years before “The Bura” called, “Friends With Privileges”.That record turned into something that I didn’t necessarily want to do. I was just looking to make a record of covers I could sell when I did live shows. But when I started recording “Friends With Privileges” some original songs came to me, and so it turned into that. But “The Bura”, that was a concentrated effort. That’s what I wanted to do. So when I was finishing up “The Bura”, I remember just sitting in the studio just throwing ideas around in my head. And I remember thinking I want to do something different. Something totally different. I thought about an Opera record. I thought about a classical record. I was just thinking. Well maybe a spoken word record.
I heard a Rolling Stones song, and I was hearing the lyric in my head. The lyric was incredibly strong. The song was, “Undercover Of The Night”. So when I actually finished “The Bura”, I held on to that idea of the spoken word. I had made my mind up I was going to do that. I had decided I would do a spoken word of Rolling Stones songs!
I had both Rolling Stones song-books here, but I lost them in Bernard : Yeah! Stripped down and raw. So I called in master percussionist Walfredo Reyes Jr. He was the first person that I called. He is a sweetheart of a cat. Someone who I can get on with really well. We sat in the studio one day and we talked rhythms from around the world. Walfredo was laying down the groove.
I started to recite some of the stuff, so I got it started. Then I called in percussionist Lenny Castro to come and play with Walfredo. I wanted that Polly rhythm kind of thing. Walfredo could have done it by himself. It’s just about seeing two people and have them play off of each other.
Kim: It’s all about the energy.
Bernard: So I got that started. The idea started to grow.
This is a funny story. I went on the road with The Stones, and I had this idea in my head. One day during a Rolling Stones soundcheck, I think, Chuck Leavell the keyboard player walks on stage. I am onstage practicing my conga for “Sympathy for the Devil”. I hadn’t played it for a while, so I’m practicing. He said, “Hey man, we are going to do this song for the soundcheck.” So I was playing my Congas, and I started reciting whatever song that was, as I was playing everyone’s walking onstage. They are looking and listening
to me, and they are all smiling. They were getting a kick out of this! It was a thing that I would do everyday. Go practice. He would sing a song and I would recite the song and play.
One day Mick was onstage and he says, “Bernard, I have heard the Rolling Stones songs done many different ways, but I have never heard anything done like this before.” Well I said said, I’m thinking of cutting it. And Mick said, “you should!” (Thumbs up, Mick Jagger!) I needed that!
So the next stage, I decided to make it bigger than just two percussionists. I contacted Vince Wilburn, Darryl Jones. I went to Vince’s house and Darryl’s like “B, what do you want to do man. What’s the thing?” And I basically gave them a kind of error, the kind of error I was looking for in the groove. They would play and they would play and I would just listen to them play until something came around that they were playing that I liked. Then I would say, “stop.” That’s the groove! That’s the groove that I want.
And then that turned into a whole other thing. Then I go back to the thing I was doing with Walfredo Reyes, as I get a call from Steve Jordan. He say’s, “Hey what’s happening?” And I’m like, “You know, I’m in the studio messing around, I’ll send you a taste of what I’m doing.” I think I sent him one song, and he calls back and he says, “Yo, Yo Man, I Need to play on this!” Photo Credit : Jane Rose
heard them from “Inside Out’!” Kim: And you were so natural on these songs. Can you tell us a little about the other musicians who played on “Inside Out?” There was a keyboard player who was with David Bowie for many years, and you had a lot of special people on there.
Bernard: Again, I am really proud of that record. And it was an honor and a pleasure to have all those guys come and play on it.
And I said. “Well, when you’re in town call me?” You know, and sure enough he came into town to produce something for John Mayor, or something, and I happened to be in the studio that day. And he said.. “Hey man, I’m in town.” And I said, “oh cool.” He said, “I’m coming by.” Had his drums set up. Waiting for him when he came in. He walked in with Clayton Cameron, who is a jazz master brush player. I expected him to just come and play the one song that I sent them. He did not leave until he played on everything that was there. It was also a validation to me that I was in the right place. Musically I was in the right place. Cause everyone was grooving to it. The List of players on that record: Steve Jordan, Clayton
Cameron, Vince Wilburn, Jr., (nephew & former drummer of jazz legend Miles Davis), Walfredo Reyes Jr., Lenny Castro, George Evans, Guitar. Darryl Jones, (bass). (Pop/r&b session heavyweight) Michael Bearden on piano.
Ray Parker Jr. on guitar. Mike Garson from David Bowie. You asked about him, he is actually playing on “Sympathy for the Devil” and another percussion player Josh Eagan.
Kim: What an phenomenal group of players. For all of you who have not had a chance to buy this album “Inside Out” I would go and search for it online. (It will turn you inside out and light your fire)
Kim: Did you play those songs. “Tie you up”, “Dancing with Mr.D”, And it “Must Be Hell”?
Bernard: Oh Yeah! Oh yeah!
Check out: Bernardfowler.com
Watch for Part 2 of our interview with Bernard Fowler in the August issue of Highwire Daze.
Kim: “Must Be Hell” blew my mind, by the way! I thought it was an original song of yours. Because I could not believe it when I looked it up, that it was a Rolling Stones song! It blew my mind that these were two different songs.
Bernard: I think a lot of people, especially Rolling Stones fans, they were so taken by the groove that they didn’t hear what was going on! You know you mentioned that song, “Must Be Hell”? The comment that I’ve gotten from a lot of people is, “I didn’t really hear these songs Bernard, until I
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The Towering refrains of holding absence
Interview by Ken Morton - Photo by Bethan Miller
Holding Absence unveil the perfect amalgamation of post hardcore, shoegaze and emo - and with their second magnun opus entitled The Greatest Mistake Of My Life on SharpTone Records, the UK rockers have delivered one of the most powerful albums of the year. Filled with supremely emotional vocals and epic instrumentaions, songs such as Afterlife, Curse Me With Your Kiss, Mourning Song, and nomoreroses will devastate the senses and set the heart and imagination in flight. Highwire Daze recently interviewed charismatic lead vocalist Lucas Woodland to find out more about the towering refrains of Holding Absence. Read on... something my great uncle had recorded back in the 1950’s I think as a cover. So, it was this weird moment where I realized that I wasn’t the first musician or recorded artist in my family. I very much love my family and I always take lots of inspiration from everything they say and everything they introduce me to. So having my Nan introduce to me something like this song kind of blew me away a little bit. As we were gearing up to start work on Album 2, we knew we needed something timeless. That’s always been the goal for us – to release an album that’s as relevant today as it is in ten years’ time. And lo and behold, this 90-year-old song finds its way into my lap and I felt like it was too much of special unique thing to not kind of acknowledge in some way.
Let’s talk about The Greatest Mistake Of My Life. Is there any overall story or concept behind that title?
So, the title is named after a song that was released in 1937 and was originally released by an artist called Gracie Fields. And it’s kind of an odd concept to name an album after an old song – but basically my grandmother introduced me to it as
The song Afterlife has over a million plays on Spotify. First of all, what does that number even mean to you and the fact that so many people have listened to the song.
Yeah, dude, it’s honestly, it’s the same with anything – regardless of what you do in life, whether you start work at a job at McDonalds and you can’t ever go back to eating Mc-
Donalds again because you’ve seen a little bit behind the veil, I guess. For me as a musician, I’m kind of at the point where I’m like “Ah, yeah, 1 and a half million streams is great, but I want 2, I want 5 or I want 10!” And every now and then I really need to remind myself how magical a number that is. I’ll never meet a million people in my life, so the thought of having 1 million and a half streams on a song is just bonkers. It’s very humbling and it’s kind of surreal at the very least.
Let’s talk about the song Afterlife and the lyrics and what it means to you.
Afterlife is kind of one of those songs that wrote itself. So, I had the chorus with nothing else, and I kind of had to work backwards from there really. It felt like to me that it’s a song for somebody who’s not with you anymore – but not in a sad way. On this album, I do talk a lot about grief, and I talk a lot about sadness as well – but I feel that this song is looking at someone passing and being positive about it – and knowing and believing that they’re still with you in some way.
Let’s talk about the final single nomoreroses and the inspiration behind that song.
So nomoreroses is a very different song to most of the songs on the album to be honest. It’s quite an angry song. It’s a religious kind of commentary, and it kind of says “If there is a god, why is he putting me through the hardships that I go through and why isn’t he giving me reasons to believe in him” essentially. A lot of the things I write aren’t particularly first person – they’re not 100 percent my narrative – it’s more a kind of commentary than it is a personal expression I suppose. But yeah, it is one of those songs that kind of looks to religion through a different lens. I want to make sure that no one thinks I’m doing an “I hate God” song. It’s more an objective kind of song. It’s like “If there is a god, I want him to exist. But he’s no showing me that he does.”
So, Holding Absence is not going to go black metal or anything like that?
No, no, no – and we’re not going to go Christian anytime soon either. (Laughter)
The previous album had Holding Absence living in a sort of black and white monochrome kind of world. There’s a bit of color in your world now. What happened that brought the color into the world of Holding Absence?
Honestly, it was several years of stoic restriction, I guess. We felt it was a brilliant way of introducing people into the world of Holding Absence. Everything is black and white – we don’t need to wow you with any fancy colors palette or any cool camera tricks. We’re off to the same kind of start that Joy Division were off to and The Cure were off to – and those were the bands that we really looked up to. And back to the timelessness thing as well – that was something that we really wanted to try and achieve. But it got to the point where it was like we love our fans and we like being open to them and transparent and expressing ourselves to them. And this kind of black and white “too cool for you” kind of vibe was just like something that was actually restricting us in the end. But I’m very proud of everything we did in that era of our band – but like everything in life, we have to move on and evolve.
James Joseph left the band right after the making of the album. Do you still keep in touch with him and what do you think of his new band James And The Cold Gun?
We still keep in touch. Myself and James, we’ve known each over for over a decade. We introduced each other to the music industry basically. We met at a small little rock show when we were 16 and we’ve been friends ever since. And basically, it was a weird one with James’ departure, because if it wasn’t for Covid denying him his favorite aspect of Holding Absence – which was live music – I feel like things might have gone down differently – but ultimately, he wanted to pursue himself – it became more about him needing to do what was right for him. And I really, really respect that. And I gotta be honest – as a friend of his, I’m very proud of him for doing something so brave. His band is wicked as well and I’m excited to see what they come up with next. So yeah, all good vibes on our end from that situation.
When I interviewed James last year, I asked him about the Kate Bush connection to his band name James And The Cold Gun. He said you both were big fans of Kate Bush.
Dude yeah, I love Kate Bush! Nobody has done it since like Kate Bush. I don’t know, maybe you’ll disagree with me, but I really love Billie Eilish at the moment – I think she’s probably one of the most exciting artists on Earth. And I think nobody has done it like Billie Eilish since Kate Bush in my opinion -just like such an eccentric, larger than life artistic genius basically. So yeah, I really love Kate Bush.
So, you had a tour of the United States that actually never happened. Do you plan to try and make it back here to tour the States or for some shows?
Dude, we’re dying to! Honestly man, when I think of America, my mind just blows up at the concept of a land so open and varied, but also so similar. You look at Europe and you think about how much culture and how many languages and how many stereotypes exist within Europe – and how many different countries there are as a whole. And then you compare to size of Europe to the size of America – it’s crazy to think that there’s a country on Earth that has such a big land mass and doesn’t need border changes as you go past a certain whatever. And that may be weird to Americans, but to me, you call it like the land of opportunity. Yeah, it is, because it’s just such a big place with such a varied depth I suppose. On a personal level, I’ve spent my whole lot life wanting to come to America – and as a musician I’ve spent my whole career wanting to go to new places and introduce my music to new people as well. The concept of doing an American tour is something that is very much exciting to us and something that’s very much high on the list in terms of aspirations over the next few years.
Let’s hope it happens. It was kind of disappointing when your tour did suddenly cancel.
I know. Yeah, it was a real shame, and it was something that we’ve learned to live with. But at the time, it was very, very hard to come to grips with. It was just like the biggest holiday ever – canceled!
What do you hope the rest of 2021 brings for you, for Holding Absence, and for the music world in general?
I speak for everyone when I say we want live music – I think that’s the most important part of what we do. Music is an art form – music is a performance as an expression – but ultimately to me, music is a connection. I have played some of the best shows of my life to 10 people, because I knew that those 10 people connected so much to it. But at the same time, without people, music is just noise really. So that’s definitely what I want to see myself and my peers – our fans and my friends and everyone on Earth deserves live music, so hopefully by the end of the year I hope that happens. And I’d like to think that before the end of the year, that we’ve announced some cool things looking forward into the future and hopefully leaving these two years of frustration behind us.
Do you have any messages for your fans here in the United States who have been waiting to see Holding Absence live?
Ah man just thank you so much for supporting us. People don’t see this side of the band, but like on our Spotify artist, we could see where the key cities are – and by far America is nearly double than Britain in terms of listenership. We’re very aware that you guys exist, and we’re dying to show you the true side of this band, which is the live experience. Thank you for your patience, and just keep spreading the word until then.
