David
Fufkin:
The Richard
X. Heyman
Interview:
August,
2002

The Richard X. Heyman Interview

Richard X. Heyman has had a career that has spanned over twenty years in music. He was one of the first do-it-yourself artists to receive recognition from the mainstream press, eventually landing him a major label deal. As a drummer, he has played with the great Brian Wilson. His knack for melody, harmony, compact melodic songwriting structure and tasteful arrangements make his entire catalog consistent in its quality from every perspective.

What makes this interview a real treat for me and hopefully for you is that it reveals an artist who understands the big picture of music as an art form and how he fits into it. His new recording, Basic Glee, is his best recording to date. I hope you enjoy this piece as much as I just did reading it through one last time.

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DF: You are a rarity in that you have had an actual career in music. Your first release was in 1980: (a) how has what you expected out of a career in music been different or the same than when you started back in 1980; (b) from your perspective, how has the music business changed since 1980?

RXH: Expectations were high in 1980. It was the beginning of a new decade that many of us felt would rekindle the spirit and quality of the 60’s. The 70’s was a reactionary decade. That period of time had an inferiority complex in regard to the previous ten years. I remember John Lennon saying “the 70’s were a drag” but the 80’s held some promise. Now, of course we know that the 60’s were unique and could not be replicated. I’m speaking mainly in terms of popular music and fashion, but idealism, too.

So yes, I thought I could land a major label deal, get a hit single, a top selling album, tour, groupies, the whole bit. That was the dream - rock stardom. That didn’t happen. You have to remember back then it was very expensive to make your own record. It wasn’t the norm. It was still the era of the major labels and they weren’t interested in me. My manager at the time, Richard Velinsky, hooked me up with a guy named Eric Thorngren who produced the sessions at the House of Music in New Jersey. Eric brought in Dino Dannelli from the Rascals to play drums. I was ecstatic. Dino was the greatest drummer in the country and a real nice person. We recorded about eight songs. Velinsky and I picked the song “Vacation” backed with “Takin’ My Chances”. We started our own label called Flying V Records and the single got a “Pick Hit” in Billboard. We forgot that you needed money to promote it and that was the end of Flying V.

The music business has always been a conundrum. Are the people who get into that line of work music lovers, businessmen (or women) or thieves? The selling of art is a tricky thing. What are the seller’s motives? The main thing that has changed the nature of making and selling and listening to music is the advent of the digital domain. The technological advances have made it - for better or for worse - a lot easier to record your own music and transfer that into a medium that is ready for the marketplace. The ability to burn CDs has in effect changed the entire landscape. The pros and cons are enormous. To be able to put your music onto a state-of-the-art format in your own home that at one time would have required thousands of dollars of studio time, mastering time, etc., is incredible. The down side is anyone can make an equally pristine clone of your work and give it away for free. That’s an unfortunate oversight on the part of the technology industry and the record labels. We all lose. The artists and the businessmen. The price of CDs is ridiculous. They should slice the cost in half, then maybe more consumers would buy a new CD off the shelf.

DF: Your recording Living Room was one of the first diy recordings reviewed by Rolling Stone. You've come full circle in that you did your latest, Basic Glee, in your apartment except for drums. Was their satisfaction doing it all at home with your wife? She seems wonderfully supportive. How important is she to your career?

RXH: The wonderful thing about recording at home is that you’re home. If I feel like singing in my underwear, so be it. (I’ve tried singing nude but it’s a little scary.) Also, it’s free! No clock watching except for stopping at 11:00 PM as a courtesy to our neighbors.

Nancy is the greatest. I couldn’t have done any of these albums without her. First, she’s a terrific editor of lyrics. I’ll write a lot of different lines for songs and she tells me which ones work the best. She has essentially produced all my vocal performances on everything I’ve released since 1986 with “Actual Size”. A solid as a rock bass player. And now an amazing engineer. She also acts as my manager, booking agent, publicist, personal chef and sex goddess. Yes, to answer your question, she is wonderfully supportive.

DF: When you write, do you start with a guitar, piano, melody or lyric first? Do you start with a riff? A line?

RXH: All of the above, there’s no set way or pattern for me to write a song. The only constant is I come up with the music first, then write the lyrics.

I rarely write on electric guitar because I don’t keep one out in the open, whereas the acoustic is always sitting on a stand in the living room. I’ve been composing less on the keyboard because it’s always covered with clothes and our cat Jefferson.

DF: As an example of the songwriting process, describe how you wrote the resounding opening track off of Basic Glee.

RXH: Someone taught me how to play an E chord in a position I didn’t know before. When I mastered the chord, I moved my pinkie down a fret which sounded like the beginning of a melody and it just took off from there. Once I had the chords and melody, I thought it sounded kind of melancholy, and so I wrote about lost love. When it came time to record, I tuned the guitar down a whole step, which made the whole thing sound more sad.

DF: What was your most rewarding moment as a musician? Describe it.

RXH: I had the honor of playing drums with Brian Wilson, and after we had rehearsed “God Only Knows”, he turned around and said “great drummin’, man.” I mean I was floating on Cloud Nine.

DF: What is the one song you are most proud of and why.

RXH: “Everywhere She Goes” from “Basic Glee”. I think it expresses my attitude, about how I look at rock’n’roll music. It’s got the happy/sad quality I’m always trying to achieve. I never played a Fender Stratocaster before I recorded that track. My friend Michael Mazzarella lent me his Strat and it has a sound unlike any other guitar. It’s double-tracked, hard left and right.

DF: Give us a few of your favorite recordings of all time and why? How did they influence you as a musician and songwriter?

RXH: You know that I could give you hundreds of examples of fave songs, but off the top of my head: “Louie Louie” by the Kingsmen never lets me down. The drumming on that record is unique to all of rock’n’roll. Next time you hear it, just focus in on the drums, they’re insane. Choices of fills, placement of fills, the sound of the cymbals! You couldn’t get cymbals to sound that cool today if you tried. The singer on that disc sounds completely possessed. The guitar solo: there aren’t that many perfect things in this world, but that solo is one of them. And then! Then there’s the miscue of the vocal into the third verse after the solo which gives the drummer an excuse to execute this ridiculously bizarre fill and I’m in heaven. One of those transcendent moments. Let’s go!

I heard “When Will I Be Loved” by the Everlys the other day and it’s always even more magical than I remembered it last. There’s the mystery of that third chord in the verse. Is it the 5 or the 7? Most people, when they cover that song, go to the 5, but it sounds like the 7 to me. Whatever it is, the track is gorgeous, goose bump city. Growing up with the onslaught of the British Invasion, Bob Dylan, American folk rock, the Beach Boys, Phil Spector, et al. - it all influenced me. Along with a healthy dose of Bernstein, Rodgers & Hammerstein, Copeland. And then there’s Motown, Sam Cooke, the blues cats like Magic Sam, Freddie King, Albert and B.B. Hendrix! Though I will say this as far as influences go - whenever I’m singing a high harmony, in the back of my mind I’m thinking McCartney on “No Reply” or Crosby on “Here Without You”.

“Twist and Shout” by the Isley Brothers still gets to me. I love the authoritative tone of the answering vocals, the cataclysmic buildup of the “ahhhs” into the last verse and then the fade. Listen to the drummer at the tail end, he starts laying into those cymbals like his life depends on it, and rock’n’roll just doesn’t get any better.

DF: Give us a few of your favorite producers of all time and why? How did they influence you as an arranger, engineer and producer?

RXH: Basically all the producers of the people I just mentioned. Certainly George Martin. I love all those Stones tracks produced by Andrew Loog Oldham. I don’t know what he actually did, but the end result is all you could ask for, with some variance from track to track. I love Brian Wilson and Phil Spector, though I don’t produce my own stuff with that technique, i.e., very little or no cymbals, nice fat chamber reverb and of course live tracking, which is impossible for a one-man-band production.

I don’t know for sure what influenced my production style. I just love the dense sound of multiple guitar parts and thick layered vocals.

DF: The microphone near the amplifier in a photo on Basic Glee uses a book on the Civil War as a mic stand. Two part question: (1) are you really a Civil War buff...? (ed. great song...Hey Man! (Sire)...check it out) (2) don't you agree that diverse interests like history give you perspective for songwriting? Of course, it is a separate hobby, but don't you think it gives you a larger canvas from which to paint lyrically and sonically?

RXH: Thank you, I’m glad you like “Civil War Buff”. When I was a kid, the centennial of the Civil War was happening, so between that and the natural allure of soldiers for a young boy, I started reading and studying the Civil War. I had a tremendous diorama of the Battle of Chattanooga on a table down in our basement. The song is a reflection of that time. I wouldn’t say I am currently a Civil War buff, but I’m still interested in American history. But then, what are the boundaries of buffdom?

An interest or knowledge in any subject can lead to inspiration for songwriting. I’ve been mainly writing personal songs lately. But I’ve written about a lot of other topics in the past. An agnostic gospel song - “In The Scheme of Things”. The Kennedy assassination, the Reagan presidency and urban crime - “The Bad Man Got Away”. Rescuing a stray cat in “Monica”.

DF: Your cat is named Buddy after the drummer Buddy Rich. I hear a lot of influences in your drumming from moon to Rich to Gene Krupa. You are flashy but rock solid time wise. How important was it to you in your development as a drummer and musician to learn and appreciate the balance great drummers like Krupa, Moon and Rich had between flash, style and keeping time. Did that influence you as a musician and a songwriter? How?

RXH: Why does a drummer play a fill? You’re in the middle of a bunch of musicians, the song is soaring all around you. Something in the music is causing you to express the emotion you’re feeling. It might be an exclamation point or a question mark. But you have to contribute to the sound you are hearing - the sadness, the beauty, the anguish. Maybe the music is telling you to lay down a groove and the repetition itself is the emotion - over and over, a relentless backbeat. The one thing drummers like Moon, Krupa, Rich, Mitch Mitchell, Bobby Elliot, Dino Dannelli, Ringo and Charlie have in common is a sense of humor in their playing. A fill can be an amusing punctuation, a little joke within the song.

The way I record is to put the drum track down on tape first. So I don’t have the music surrounding me. It’s all in my head, which is a lonely way to start a song. But as the writer of the music, I can still hear it all and so I put fills in where the music moves me to do so, and keep time when it seems appropriate. I appreciate both styles of drumming. Guys like Ringo and Charlie, who most people think of as solid, no-frills drummers, have plenty of tracks with wild fills. It could have been the drugs. Actually, I don’t think either of them were anything but perfectly straight at their sessions. But then again, listen to “Rain” or “We Love You”. My appreciation for all of those cats certainly influences the arrangement of my songs and sometimes the song itself where I might extend a buildup because I’m thinking about how Keith Moon would do it.

DF: Describe your major label experience. Did Hey Man! on Sire fulfill your expectations of what you wanted at a major? How was Seymour Stein to work with?

RXH: That sounds like a loaded question. Oh God, here we go. Look, I could sit here and belly ache about how I didn’t get any attention, zero promotion, lied to, a pittance of money that I had to beg for so I could go out on the road to try and promote the record myself, how they wouldn’t even tell me I was being dropped without doing a second record as promised, but I don’t want to cry in my beer over it. Bottom line - all those stories you hear are true. Like I said earlier, you gotta ask yourself, what kind of person enters the music biz?

As far as the “Hey Man!” album is concerned, it needs a serious remix. The performances are all in there. Andy Paley, as well as Nancy, got good tracks out of me and the other musicians who played on it. That album could be improved immeasurably with the right mix.

DF: You describe yourself as a '60s person. I get that it is not just a musical perspective. Would you agree or disagree that the '60s had a more open frame of mind in that there were less categories of music? Do you agree that not many people actually get the fact that the '60s were not just the Beatles or British Invasion but was an era of a rich tapestry of culture and musical art like Memphis soul, Coltrane, Mingus, Miles Davis and some of Sinatra's best work. Is it frustrating if a writer places that '60s tag on you when the '60s perspective really embodies all styles and perspectives? I see you as understanding all of this as a "'60s person", making your work very contemporary...not retro.

RXH: I can’t really say what other people get or don’t get, but here’s how I see it. Recorded music is a relatively new phenomenon and its technological development went hand in hand with the changing styles throughout the 20th century. Musical styles were taking form, from ragtime, Dixieland, Big Band, country & western, rhythm & blues, pop, Broadway, rockn’roll. I don’t think in terms of chronology. I’m not hung up on a period of time. I just appreciate the beautiful music that for the most part was recorded then. I have a theory that the world - at least the world of pop culture - unfolded in an unselfconscious way. There was a natural flow of artistic contributions from an array of talented people. Along with that, you always have the less talented people, but the greats like Louie Armstrong, Benny Goodman, Sinatra, Ella, Richard Rodgers, Chuck Berry, the Everlys, Dylan, Beatles and the rest were all just doing what they did best. But then…somewhere toward the end of the 60’s into the 70’s, there was a switch. A lot of so-called art became self conscious. Certainly in rock music. A lot of music was overly aware of attempting to emulate what had worked in the past or was desperately trying to be different for the sake of being different without regard to quality.

I mean, would some of the successful artists from the ‘70’s to the present even get record deals in 1965? I don’t think so. Now don’t get me wrong, there are a lot of talented people out there, but there ain’t no Bob Dylan, Lennon, McCartney, Ray Davies or Brian Wilson. But in the context of the new self conscious world, it didn’t matter. OK, I’m starting to sound like Ted Kacszinski. I don’t know if I answered your question or not, but I’m glad to get it off my chest.

DF: Talk about your book. If you don't mind, share an interesting anecdote. Where can we purchase it?

RXH: I was riding in a van with Nancy and our drummer Kurt Reil, and members of his band the Grip Weeds (his wife Kristin and his brother Rick). They wanted to hear a story about the time Pete Townshend was visiting the Blues Magoos at the Albert Hotel in ’68 and I sat on the floor outside the door, listening to him play acoustic guitar and sing songs from “The Who Sell Out” LP. Everybody said I should write down all these stories about growing up in the 60’s and 70’s playing in rock’n’roll bands, trying to get laid and other assorted trials and tribulations.

The book can be purchased by going to my website, http://www.richardxheyman.com and clicking where it shows you to there, which will take you to the iUniverse.com site, where your order will be taken.

DF: Share with us how you became a cat person. Are there any meows that are mixed down on the CD?

RXH: One day, out of the blue, Nancy said she wanted to get a cat. I was not thrilled. I never had a cat, didn’t particularly see the attraction of having a cat, and once had a grey tabby run across my head while trying to seduce a girl when I was a teenager, which shattered any attraction I might have had toward our feline friends. Anyway, the next night I walked in the door of our apartment and saw a litter pan on the kitchen floor. As I rounded the turn into our living room, I saw two pairs of eyes staring up at me. One pair was my wife’s; the other belonged to a calico kitten. It was love at first sight. (I was already in love with my wife.) I said the immortal words, “if we’re going to have a cat, we should get a second one so she won’t be alone when we’re not home.” One thing led to another. I started feeding strays, then began rescuing them, and somehow my phone number got out and everybody in New York who wanted to catch a stray called me to trap it.

Our cats are a pretty blasé bunch. They mostly slept throughout the sessions, but there is a meow or two if you listen real close!

DF: You are a New Yorker. This recording was recorded and released after 9/11. How has 9/11 affected you as a resident of the Greatest City in the World? Although life will never be the same, have things started to return to a semblance of normalcy?

RXH: We were in the mixing stage of Basic Glee on 9/11. In fact, the second track, “Pauline”, was mixed that night at Skyhigh Studio in midtown. Nancy and I had to walk all the way from the East Village to West 38th Street, because traffic was so jammed. When we arrived at the studio, I looked out the window and right in front of me was the Empire State Building, which looked very vulnerable. I kept checking every ten minutes to make sure it was still there. You could hear jet fighters flying above. On our walk home around midnight, the streets were deserted. There were no buses and very little traffic. At one point, some policemen stopped us at a corner while a huge convoy of Army trucks pulled into the city through the Midtown Tunnel. It was an eerie sight.

Our engineer, Tony Lewis, who’s from England, was surprised that we wanted to proceed with the mix session. My feeling was, life is about the little details, the minutiae. I told him we should be hunched over the console, debating on the eq of a floor tom. That’s what makes life worth living.

DF: You describe Basic Glee as a guitar record. I agree, but it really is more. I am really impressed with your pre-production on the guitars. Without it, some big guitar recordings turn to mush. Do you agree?

RXH: We recorded everything - guitars, bass, vocals - through a Summit pre-amp/compressor, directly to ADAT. Nothing went through our board. That was because our mixing board (Soundcraft Spirit) is a small eight track set-up that would adversely color the sound. The electric guitars went through a Fender Champ amp which is a tiny little thing but could sound big in our bathroom.

As far as the parts are concerned, I work backward from the standard procedure. I finish all the vocals first. There’d be a mono track of drums and one acoustic guitar to sing to. Then I would start coming up with guitar arrangements. Some songs have one electric guitar, like “Pauline” or “Wishful Thinking”. Others have as many as six or eight guitars doing a variety of things.

I’m ashamed to say I don’t listen to very much new music, so I’m out of the loop when it comes to this mush you speak of. But I can believe it.

DF: Basic Glee really unfolds for me. I imagine you spent lots of time planning guitar parts so that they worked together in a pleasing sonic pattern. Did you?

RXH: On my past records, I worked out, down to the smallest detail, what I was going to lay down at the studio because I knew it would be costing us money not to be prepared. Having a home studio allows me to try guitar parts out as we’re working. I come up with these ideas in my head. I don’t sit around playing the guitar. I hear a solo melody or a riff while I’m listening to the playback of what we’ve got on tape so far, and then I pick up the guitar, learn the part and then record it. It’s all based on an emotional reaction to what I’m hearing. Though some of the best ideas occur while I’m walking around the neighborhood. One trick I do is create a 12-string guitar by doubling my Telecaster in octaves, which sometimes is more effective than using the Rickenbacker, like on “That Will Be The Moment” (left speaker).

DF: Describe the moment when you listened to the mastered version of Basic Glee? Isn't that the moment of truth?

RXH: It’s more a moment of horror, the horror of letting go. It’s never even close to what I was hoping for. If I didn’t have Nancy to tell me that’s it, we’re done, there’s no more money to remix or remaster, I’d never have anything out. Actually, Joe Lambert at Classic Sound did an incredible job of mastering.

DF: What advice would you give artists out there who want to record at home. My biggest complaint are the simple things like rushing through the process: guitar tracks that sound out of tune, drums that sound like they have untuned 2 year old heads, bass and bass drum tracks out of sync and a general failure to plan out the tracks. It's a tragedy to see so many good ideas wasted because of what I perceive to be lack of patience. It reminds me of when I was a kid getting a model car and I had to put it together all in one day. The finished product was never right. Any specific advice from a professional for people out there.

RXH: When we were working on the songs that were to become my first EP, “Actual Size”, I had an epiphany. It was still the days when there was this big divide between a record and a demo. I said to myself, what makes something a record? And for me the answer was “everything is in tune and in time.” Once I realized that, I was determined to make my own record. Screw the major labels, screw the big expensive studios. Just get a good clean recording of your tracks and don’t play or sing out of tune or time. Nancy and I are extremely meticulous, we work slowly and don’t settle for anything we don’t like. The two of us battle it out when we’re tracking. A lot of heated discussions take place about each performance. Both of us have to be happy to accept anything we record. You don’t want to be in the same room with us when we’re working, it gets pretty heavy!

DF: Talk about your living room shows and what people can expect at those shows. People may not know that you may be available to play in their living room! How can they contact you to set one up?

RXH: The house concert is a great way to promote the new album. The way it works is someone offers to hold a show at their home, we agree on a price for our fee, and they are responsible for gathering an audience. We’ve done acoustic shows as a duo, a trio with Kurt on percussion, and full blown power trio electric shows. A fan from Long Island set up his basement rec room like a rock club, with waiters and catered food, but you can just have everyone sit on the couch and floor of your living room and make it like a casual get-together. It all depends on the space and what everyone thinks would be the most suitable presentation. If you’re interested in holding a house concert, contact Nancy at nxheyman@hotmail.com.

DF: Where can we get Basic Glee, the new CD?

RXH: Go to http://www.richardxheyman.com and follow the directions to order.

Click on the CD cover above or click here to purchase the recording.

DF: What question have you most wanted an interviewer to ask you other than: "Richard, when I leave your building, where is the best spot for me to grab a cab to get to the Upper East Side"? Please answer that question.

RXH: How about 'Should I make that out to cash?' OR 'I've always wanted to be asked to list my top-ten
favorite rock albums.'

DF: Is there anything else that you would like to say to your fans?

RXH: If you buy the new album, thank you, I appreciate your support and so does my wife and our cats. Tell your friends about it and if at all possible, resist burning copies to give away. Just remember all those hungry little cats waiting for those checks in the mailbox.

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