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A Howlin Rain Must Fall

March 30, 2012 in 10, 12, 2, 25, 27, 28, 29, 3, 30, 50, 9, a, AAA, after, Again, Against, age, aka, Alive, all, Also, am, American, an, and, another, Arc, Are, as, at, away, Ball, ban, band, bands, Bass, big, blood, blue, boot, brother, Bruce Springsteen, bud, Burn, but, by, ca, california, can, cat, cc, center, chaotic, chris, City, classic, close, color, comes, concert, concerts, console, Crazy, David, Day, Day., does, down, Drums, Edit, electric, en, end, Eve, FEAT, fee, festival, fi, finish, fire, First, FOR, four, Fred, Friend, From, front, Funny, gag, gain, game, get, Ghost, gin, give, Good, grace, great, ground, guide, Guitar, guitarist, Gus, hall, hampton, hi, high, home, Hood, Hope, How, ice, in, into, intro, introduction, is, IT, IX, jam, key, Keyboard, Keyboards, King, know, las, Last, late, Laugh, Led, lesson, let, life, Like, LITTLE, live, live music, log, long, lot, love, MA, Made, mash, mercury, metal, MI, Mitchell, mod, Much, Music, My, Myself, Nat, nc, New, News, NH, no, nothing, NV, ny, of, on, one, op, Open, out, PA, Part, Phish, play, player, Pop, Pot, pro, producer, producing, production, psychedelic, Pt, rain, raz, read, recording, return, rev, Road, Robin, rock, roll, room, row, rs, run, santa, Saw, Say, SC, sci, second, set, show, Shows, So, Something, song, Soul, sound, SPAC, spring, Springsteen, St, state, step, stone, story, string, studio, style, Summer, super, tab, talk, Talking, That, the, third, Thunder, times, to, tone, Too, tour, two, uic, us, USA, va, Valley, vocal, WA, WAITING, war, Way, ways, we, Weekend, with, words, years, You, Your | No comments

By: Dennis Cook

Howlin Rain returns to the road again next week. Dates and details here.

Howlin Rain by Josh Miller

Straight to it: Howlin Rain‘s third album, The Russian Wilds (released February 14 on American/Birdman) is an out-of-the-box classic. A vintage style double album, it fulfills and expands upon the promise of earlier work, offering up a fundamentally perfect rock n roll song cycle, a humming, utterly alive thing of blood, bone and muscle. Theres none cheeky obfuscation or clever sonic trickery common amongst modern bands to disguise compositional or musical shortcomings. Howlin Rain has no need to hide anything, and the confidence, ferocity and artfulness of The Russian Wilds harnesses and refines their already justifiably ballyhooed live presence into one of the most powerful, wide-ranging albums of the past few decades, a master work that howls and cries and laughs with gusto and enormous heart.

There was a point when we were really trying to blend Jimi Hendrixs Electric Ladyland, Steely Dans Gaucho and Bruce Springsteens Darkness On The Edge of Town, says bandleader-guitarist-singer-composer Ethan Miller, and the curious energies of this trio simmer in the subconscious of The Russian Wilds, though evident more in the eager creative reach, unshakable solidity and impassioned grace that runs in the veins of Howlin Rains latest. Boldness is another word that comes to mind, caught in the vintage Santana break on Phantom In The Valley, the hushed, peculiar sweetness and controlled power of Strange Thunder, the delicious pop sway of Beneath Wild Wings, and myriad other spots on the albums eleven often lengthy explorations. Yet, none of it feels obscure or distant, each piece dotted with small touches that elevate the good to the great, a cumulative realization that one is in the presence of real gutbucket artisans, descendents of greats like the Love, Patti Smith Group and the James Gang (whose Collage gets a superb makeover on Russian Wilds), and kin to fellow New Cosmic California movement members Chris Robinson Brotherhood, Assemble Head In Sunburst Sound, Wooden Shjips, and Vetiver.

New Album

Miller, Raj Ojha (drums, percussion), Cyrus Comiskey (bass), Joel Robinow (keyboards, guitar, vocals) and Isaiah Mitchell (guitar, vocals) generate an elemental force together. Its easy to pick up on in their electrifying live shows, but their latest album arms them with material thats simply impossible to ignore, rock of such ground level rightness that it seizes and has its way with us and we invite it back to do it again and again. What was already a good thing has reached the next level with The Russian Wilds, and the long hours spent in its preparation have already unleashed a string of buzz-generating concerts that mark Howlin Rain as a major surprise waiting to happen for live music fans, particularly during the summer festival season where theyll be sharing the new songs with fresh audiences for the first time.

We sat down with Ethan Miller for a discussion of whats lead him to todays Howlin Rain, the nearly four year process of creating the new album, and more.

JamBase: Like many people, my introduction to you was Comets On Fire, and I was struck by what a different musician you are on The Russian Wilds than say the guy who made Blue Cathedral. Theres a lot of polish and intelligent design to the The Russian Wilds which is a sharp contrast to the chaos courting of Comets.

Noel von Harmonson

Ethan Miller: There is a grasp for perfection, for really highly majestic architecture [in Howlin Rain]. The Comets were after imperfection, especially the early stuff. When we decided we wanted [expert noise manipulator and sound warper] Noel [von Harmonson] in the group as a full-time member, that was a plan for chaos. His role was nothing short of that that was his job. And when you have a member whose listing on the album credits is chaos, well, thats pretty clear, though we did work at being perfectly chaotic [laughs]. Furthermore, the person that you hear as me on those early Comets records was a bit of a hard thing to tell who that person was because Noels chaos was intrinsically linked with my vocals, and the places I went and things I was saying were often very colorful but dense, even opaque.

JamBase: It has the hallucinatory quality of really deep, psychedelic metal.

As Comets got bigger the more people saw the shows and literally interacted with us and realized we were nice guys and not a dangerous band. Though I think people did sometimes deduce that [we were dangerous] initially from the music. This one druggy chick came up after a particularly intense show and had read things into what I was singing and said, I want you to know that its okay. Youre alright, and just consoled me because she thought I was cosmically askew and in a dangerous state towards myself. That made me happy, I guess, because its nice to hear youve put out something that powerful. Utrillo [Kushner, Comets drummer] got a note a while back from some guy who had seen us on hallucinogenics and felt Comets was putting something so powerful into the world in the performance he saw fucked up on mushrooms or something that it was affecting the world or universe in a powerfully negative way. It sounded one step away from, I need to kill these guys!

Thats seriously messed up. I personally had no idea what to make of Comets until I spent time with all of you for the Signal To Noise cover story I wrote years ago. I had NO assumptions because it was such a singular sound. And I quickly found you all to be pretty sweet, somewhat introverted guys.

Comets On Fire by J. Bennett

Well, were all extroverts to a certain extent but if you rubbed elbows with any of the Comets guys in the supermarket you wouldnt feel that magnetic rock star energy youd get rubbing up against Freddie Mercury in a supermarket. If you rubbed elbows with Freddie Mercury NOW in a supermarket it would be REALLY wild

Actually, I think Queen is a perfectly apt touchstone for what youre doing in Howlin Rain.

Wow, thats huge. Those guys are unreplicable.

You have the same undisguised ambition and boldness, and, especially on The Russian Wilds, focus on vocals.

For most people, vocals are the soul of the song. Thats where you get the narrative and emotion. The body, the muscle and power comes from the music itself, and the emotions are played out by the chord progressions, but its all meant to enhance that one voice. I know theres different takes on that, but its generally true. Once you get the storyteller on top thats where people say, Whoa, hes talking about MY memory, MY thing.

It goes deeper than the lyrics though. Its in the emotional quiver of the lead singers voice, and even the punctuation and nuance of backing vocals something especially on point and effective on The Russian Wilds.

HRs Joel Robinow & Ethan Miller by Susana Millman

It doesnt have to have words. When I say narrative it can be something like David Crosbys I’d Swear There Was Somebody Here, where he expressed everything he needed to in just this painful cry of the deepest kind of English. He didnt have to express heartbreak, death or loss in actual words, yet its all still there. Its a good lesson that sometimes creating a little thing spirits and ghosts with the voice can be the quickest way to let these lil hauntings happen in a song. You can just feel something coming from the corner.

It seems like the whole band pushed themselves to stir up such small but effective haunting on the new album.

These things that were talking about haunting an album with intricate, small details that often feel instead of see or hear initially that kind of detail only happens making a record over a longer span years instead of months. Thats the upside of this forever-journeying process and forever-questing album making style. There are a lot of downsides to it, but in retrospect I can see the upside. You cant purposefully endow an album with those kinds of things when youre doing a two weekend smash n grab – nail it, finish it and onto the next thing style. With a longer time frame you can work more cinematically.

Had you always worked in the quickie manner prior to The Russian Wilds?

Everything had been a little smash n grab, and everything will be smash n grab in the future compared to the time we spent on this [laughs]. I dont think its healthy to make records like this always. You turn into these maniac freaks like Talk Talk or Steely Dan, people who try so hard they drive themselves fucking insane!

Howlin Rain by Hilary Hulteen

You dont want to get sucked into your own Laughing Stock, where it consumes your life.

But you kind of do! Steely Dan and Talk Talk and in film guys like Terrence Malick and Stanley Kubrick definitely got into that shit. Though by the end of Kubricks life he had 10 million tiny details he was worried about and you dont want that! His films were always great but its not like that hyper-detail made them get better and better.

It becomes a sinkhole for your attention but what comes out the other side doesnt necessarily make for great or even better art in many cases. And as long as it took to make The Russian Wilds, the care comes through but it doesnt feel fussed over or overworked. Its a song cycle worth repeat inspection. Like the best rock slabs, it will take years of listening to pull out everything this album has to give.

There was an air of danger to us doing it the way we did. It might have cost our careers, our relationships in the band (and without), and it wasnt clear if all the guys would make it through this process. There were moments when the band was getting really strung out making a record for so long and it felt fucking crazy. There was a fear our lives would be frozen in this moment forever, and the urge to get out was strong at times. Its not funny. In the four years it took, Presidents have changed, whole bands careers have come and gone, and were out there trying to fill up this fuckin glass palace or ride the high seas. It sounds glamorous but anyone can imagine the depths of despair we hit. But, one thing Im endowed with is the ability to persevere. Im just not one of those people that gives up.

Its such a big work in its finished state, a double album in the classic sense.

Howlin Rain

Thank, God! Not only did the members of Howlin Rain put in their time, lives and energy into this because of their faith in the project but musically they just pushed themselves. They were all already crack musicians, and most people who play that well dont always want to admit theres room to go up, room to still push yourself. But these guys all said, Okay, were all great players. Now, how can we grind ourselves and really take it to a whole other level? Its an incredible thing to see musicians go past ego and keep searching. Everybody really engaged with that kind of thinking and discipline and challenge.

Rick Rubin was the executive producer on The Russian Wilds but the guy who was there in the trenches with you through the whole thing was Tim Green (The Fucking Champs), who may be one of the most underrated and under-praised producers today.

Yes, Tim was definitely in the trenches recording, and Rick worked on the pre-production pretty closely with me for the first year or two and helped with the songwriting and song choices. Then, when we went into the studio to record Tim took over and was there producing and recording and getting the right stuff. When that was done, they got together and got some Rick input. Tim and I were eyeball to eyeball for 18 months, which shows real dedication in his own life to the project.

Oftentimes you get guys in that business that are artists themselves and maybe they arent the most reliable person to be taking care of all this really technical stuff, which is the preservation of what you just recorded in the best possible fidelity. Tims brain functions really well on that mechanical perfectionism. Hes just SO reliable. At the same time, hes also a songwriter, musician, band dude and old school punk rock guy back in the day, so hes also good at working with ideas on the fly and helping guide things artistically as well.

Its just a fantastic sounding record. It sounds great in headphones and loud pouring out of speakers. Its a great driving album. It holds up in many settings.

The part Tim plays with any band he works with is being in the booth with headphones on. The band cant really hear whats going on, and he makes judgments about takes, etc. He decides whats perfect, good enough and not good enough where it needs to be done again. And depending on time and budget, he has to keep the whole thing moving. With [The Russian Wilds], he could make any of these three decisions from the control room, and we had the time to pursue perfection.

Howlin Rain by Adam Neal Gochnauer

For as much as the album boogies, theres a fair amount of complexity to each piece. Is there pent-up energy to share the new material live after so long in the studio?

Oh yeah, were going big this year. Were back out in the game bringing this thing to life. One thing is this band is not the band that played on the first and second records. So, theyve breathed new life and energy into the back catalog in a way that makes it feel new. Its exciting to play all the songs now, not just the new album stuff.

Theres a great deal of delicacy to the new songs, and its a challenge to get that material across in front of a live audience. One just hopes some will hush down and really pay attention when you break out gems like Strange Thunder. In fact, theres a lot of things to pay attention to with this band.

And we ask a lot of audiences, too. There is music thats more simplistic and easier to swallow with a shot when you want to chat with a friend and be social at a show. We ask a lot while trying to still serve up something that feels good, something that boogies and has that intrinsic feel-good rock element. We also try to engage people on a level that is artistic, the unfurls and unfolds as you go into it, and hopefully lasts a long time as you explore it, with perspectives changing as the song opens up and shifts for you. We want this to be something that changes and grows with you not just a piece of candy you chew on and spit out. Or maybe a shot you swallow and stumble home and cringe about the next day. We just want to take it a little bit further, where theres meaning, shadows, and darker pops within in the electrical currents.

Howlin Rain Tour Dates :: Howlin Rain News

JamBase | Wildin
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A Chat with Mitch Ryder

March 2, 2012 in 06, 10, 12, 1997, 2, 27, 3, 30, 31, 50, 9, 99, a, after, Again, Against, age, all, Also, am, American, an, and, Are, around, as, at, ATLANTIC, away, ban, band, bands, Beer, benefit, big, bite, black, blood, blue, blues, book, brown, Burn, but, by, ca, can, cat, cc, center, City, color, Colors, COMPLETE, concert, Crazy, dance, Day, Day., Deaf, detroit, dirt, Dust, Edit, en, end, engineer, Enjoy, Eve, fame, FEAT, fee, fi, fight, fire, First, FOR, Free, From, gain, game, Germany, get, gin, give, Good, great, ground, Guitar, hampton, hi, hollywood, How, ice, in, International, interview, into, intro, is, IT, IX, jam, jazz, John, Joy, kids, King, know, las, Last, Laugh, Led, let, life, light, Like, LITTLE, live, live music, log, long, lot, love, MA, Made, Main, MD, MI, monster, Mr, Much, Music, My, Myself, Nat, nate, nc, New, new york, News, NH, NJ, no, NV, ny, of, on, one, op, out, PA, Part, Phish, play, player, Pot, pro, Pt, r&b, rad, rain, raz, read, recording, rev, Road, rock, roll, rolling, row, rs, Sand, Say, SC, set, show, Shows, So, Something, song, Soul, sound, SPAC, St, Stab, stage, start, Starting, state, stone, street, studio, Suicide, tab, talk, That, the, theater, theatre, times, to, tone, Too, tour, Train, Trip, tub, Tube, Tv, two, uic, us, va, view, WA, Walk, war, Way, ways, we, Ween, with, years, york, You, Your, youtube | No comments

By: Dennis Cook

Mitch Ryder

Americans tend to have short musical memories. Our culture is so obsessed with newness and fashion that its easy for pioneers to be dusted away with the sands of time. Its a pity because understanding who broke the ground one walks on is informative and often revelatory in a really joyful way. Case in point, Mitch Ryder, whose forward thinking, electrifying merger of muscular, tightly wound rock and propulsive, sweaty R&B in the 1960s lies at the root of endlessly lauded critics darlings like The Stooges and the MC5, fellow Detroiters who picked up their early cues from Ryder and his phenomenal band The Detroit Wheels, whose influence can be felt in a crazy number of artists over the decades. Ryder and his partners in crime became a near instant international sensation with singles like Devil With A Blue Dress On, Little Latin Lupe Lu, and I Like It Like That. Its the kind of start that signifies a lifetime of recognition, but all too quickly found Ryder outside the big spotlight in the 1970s and 80s. However, Ryder never stopped making music, finding an enthusiastic audience for new music and not just his hits overseas, particularly in Germany where the man remains a major star who tours annually and regularly releases new albums.

Which brings us to today and the recent release of The Promise (released February 14), Ryders first new album Stateside in 30 years. Personal, groovy and heartfelt, The Promise was produced by Don Was and features a lean, together band of players with music in their blood, as Ryder notes in the liner notes. Strong of voice and writing his own material, Ryder escapes the oldies circuit that consumes so many artists that had hits back in the day. His dedication to new material and the kind of work he and only he wants to be doing is evident in this life-filled song cycle.

JamBase scored a few minutes with the rock legend to discuss his new album, his storied career, and his many irons in the fire.

1967 Album

JamBase: Youve come up in a lot of conversations when I talk to any musician from Detroit, especially Ted Nugent, who gives you complete credit for being the root source of the Detroit rock n roll sound.

Mitch Ryder: Hes been very consistent with that in any interview hes ever done. Ted and I go way back to when we were doing Battle of the Bands and his mom was his road manager and also the head of his fan club. She gave Ted his business acumen, which he still enjoys. He was energetic and crazy even back then, but unfortunately, he came up against someone with those same qualities back then [laughs]. So, when wed have our appearances I had a little bit more going on the theatrical side, which made it pretty interesting. Our show was a little more entertaining at that point, but hes overcome that now [laughs].

JamBase: How did you come up with your sound in the early days? Even in an era where a lot of bands stood out, you made a real impression.

Mitch Ryder: We didnt try to get a formula. The energy is solely the product of being teenagers we all had an abundance of it. So, whatever song we played it was going to be ten times faster than the original. A good example is Devil With The Blue Dress On. If you ever heard the original [version] by Shorty Long and you played our [version] youd hear the difference right away. Shortys was real slinky and crawling along. We threw that out the window and just went nuts on it.

All my training had been through an urban experience working with black musicians and singers. That was my environment, experience and presentation all wrapped up into one. And then I met a group of skilled rock n roll players, and once we melded those two different categories into a hybrid the product that came out was this R&B rock sound that nobody else had at the time. Then, we added the theatre [elements], which was very prominent in my schooling, so I suggested we inserted it into the show. Nobody else was doing that at the time. They were just getting up and playing and pretty much standing still and singing. There was no theater, but Id been to enough James Brown shows to understand that you have to have theatre when youre performing. It really brings a lot to the stage in addition to the music.

Do you still find that theatrical element important to performing live?

Vintage Ryder

As much as I can! I have two titanium hips now and they dont respond to mental commands the way muscle and tissue do. I certainly dont have the physical energy I once did but my voice is killer, and thats all the result of starting to use in-ear monitors. Those saved my voice and improved it. Up until five or six years ago, I was constantly battling guitars, and it was not only making me deaf but it was making me afraid to take risks and reach for notes because I couldnt hear if I was making them or not. Once I put the in-ear monitors in my head I could tell whether I was hitting the notes I was trying for, and I created a whole other half-octave to my range. Its really blowing my mind what it did for my voice.

Your voice on the new record is out of hand. I dont know if Ive ever heard this range from you on any other album.

Theres some notes I went for that I havent gone after since the old Bob Crewe days. Its unexplainable to me, and the live shows are the same theyre very, very good in that way. Im thrilled because it gives me the opportunity to really play around with melodies and get a lil more soulful than I had been, to really use my voice and move it around like an instrument instead of just a little tape recorder. Why not if you can?

How did you hook up with Don Was to make this record?

New Album

We go back a ways. I made an appearance on a Was (Not Was) recording, Born To Laugh At Tornados (1997), and Don did a 12-inch dance single of me doing Dylans Like A Rolling Stone. We did a couple other singles together that he engineered, and Ive done a few of his segments at the Concert of Colors, which is a tradition in Detroit. Hes familiar with my voice and knows what Im capable of, and hes even been quoted as saying Im probably the best white rhythm & blues singer in America. When they asked him why, he said that Im the strongest.

So, I called him on the phone and said, Don, Im really dying here in America. Europe is fine but Im dying here and not getting as much work as I used to. Ive gotta do something to get back into the eye of the public. What would it take for us to do an album? The conversation lasted maybe five minutes and then I was out in Hollywood recording.

Is it a frustration to you that many people have this limited soundbite impression of you as simply the Devil With A Blue Dress guy? You have decades of music that follow that, but America isnt good at keeping up with artists after their soundbite is established.

Early Album

No, theyre not. No, theyre not. Thats why kids get edgy every eight minutes because thats when commercials come on with TV [laughs]. It all has to do with our culture. Europe looks at historical culture a WHOLE lot differently than we do in America. Were very much a disposable society, and thats true of almost everything we produce including our art. Just look at the development of cell phones in the last two years, where theyve gone through 30 or 40 different changes and adaptations. In our culture we dont think in long terms. We think in short terms and instantly gratifying moments. So, since Devil With The Blue Dress On was such a monster hit it was in the Top 20 for three-and-a-half months, and in that time it made three trips in and out of the Top 10. Think about that: youre in the Top 10, you go out, you come back, you go out, you come back crazy. That was the result of two forces pushing it. It was a Motown song so it benefited from all the promotion people that Barry Gordy had, and then you had the promotion staff Bob Crewe had at Bell Records. That kept it up there for a long, long time.

So, thats why people think of it as the defining Mitch Ryder song. Well, that and the near total absence of Mitch Ryder from the [American] public landscape. I didnt wait around for someone to rediscover me. I started a career for myself over in Europe, and thats working out really well because it allows me to do contemporary material and I dont have to be assigned to the role of an oldies act.

When I talk to others who came to fame in the same era as you, they tell similar stories. But if you go outside the United States you have other options.

Mitch Ryder

It is frustrating but you cant be bitter about it. Its just the way we communicate. Its no fault of my fans and no fault of mine. Its the people who dish it out that have the game plan wrong. Germany is to rock n roll what France was to jazz. Ex-patriots will find more than their share in a place like Berlin, for example, which is where my label and office is. Thats a very dynamic city filled with talent, and not just German talent New Yorkers, people from L.A., and studios and authors and playwrights and artists of all stripes and mediums. They find these cheap lofts in the East, which are becoming more expensive now because the real estate developers figured it out. Probably everyone who escaped over the Wall came back to the East [laughs]. My wife and I looked at a place that still had bullet holes in the walls from street fighting between the Russians and the Germans. It was incredible, and this only a couple years ago when you could still pick them up for dirt cheap.

How is it different to make music with a primarily European audience in mind?

1995 European Album

If recognition is what you want, its a very good opportunity, and you can use that as a base and not feel inhibited about creating. What I do and how I view Berlin is the freedom [it gives me]. Germany, in particular, has been good to me. Because of my experiences with Bob Crewe and working under those constraints, when we booked the first studio session in Germany, I said, What do you guys want me to do? And they looked at me with these blank stares and said, Dont you mean what do YOU want US to do? This is your session. Then it hit me: Youre an artist now, pal, do your thing. So, I started and I havent stopped since. Im free to do whatever I want, free to create. Thats something I had when I first got interested in making music, and it was something taken away by making music with Bob Crewe. He had his own little Tin Pan Alley set up in the same building as Atlantic Records. Every day he would go to his writers for songs to give to different artists he was managing and recording, and I was one of those. We were literally dissuaded from creating our own material, and in my own case, he was bent on making me into a singular star and dumping my group, which he succeeded at during a time everybody else was going completely the other way.

What are your plans for the United States now that you have this new calling card in The Promise?

Ryders Autobiography

My American fans just havent had the full Mitch Ryder experience [for a long time], and this record is the introductory card to try and get some interest in order to bring the whole [European] catalog over here so people can get caught up, even sell it at a discount so people can become familiar with it. Then, once theyre schooled in it, come out with a new studio album made in America. And in the meantime, Ive put out my book [Devils & Blue Dresses: My Wild Ride As A Rock & Roll Legend - available here]. Im also deeply involved in creating a musical, and I want it to be good theatre the crowning jewel of my achievements. The working title is Hide Your Love Away, which I borrowed from The Beatles. I have a great affection for John Lennon, who talked me out of committing suicide [as detailed in Ryders new autobiography].

At a time when a lot of artists are getting ready to put their feet up, youre busier than ever.

What are they going to kick their feet up for and how are they going to kick their feet up? And what are they going to kick their feet up on? An empty beer can? From what I understand, most of my peers from my age group need to keep working, or they have other jobs and have had them for years now. A lot of my peers, if theyre still touring, have a really good show but its about nostalgia. And being honest, a lot of them have day jobs. Ive been blessed because we dont live a lavish life but we live and Im free to do what I want. So, I thank Bob Crewe for that. I dont like him for what he did to my group and our music, but I thank him for the fame because its allowed me to do what I love for my entire life.

Mitch Ryder Tour Dates :: Mitch Ryder News

JamBase | Detroit Worldwide
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A Chat with Mitch Ryder

March 2, 2012 in 06, 10, 12, 1997, 2, 27, 3, 30, 31, 50, 9, 99, a, after, Again, Against, age, all, Also, am, American, an, and, Are, around, as, at, ATLANTIC, away, ban, band, bands, Beer, benefit, big, bite, black, blood, blue, blues, book, brown, Burn, but, by, ca, can, cat, cc, center, City, color, Colors, COMPLETE, concert, Crazy, dance, Day, Day., Deaf, detroit, dirt, Dust, Edit, en, end, engineer, Enjoy, Eve, fame, FEAT, fee, fi, fight, fire, First, FOR, Free, From, gain, game, Germany, get, gin, give, Good, great, ground, Guitar, hampton, hi, hollywood, How, ice, in, International, interview, into, intro, is, IT, IX, jam, jazz, John, Joy, kids, King, know, las, Last, Laugh, Led, let, life, light, Like, LITTLE, live, live music, log, long, lot, love, MA, Made, Main, MD, MI, monster, Mr, Much, Music, My, Myself, Nat, nate, nc, New, new york, News, NH, NJ, no, NV, ny, of, on, one, op, out, PA, Part, Phish, play, player, Pot, pro, Pt, r&b, rad, rain, raz, read, recording, rev, Road, rock, roll, rolling, row, rs, Sand, Say, SC, set, show, Shows, So, Something, song, Soul, sound, SPAC, St, Stab, stage, start, Starting, state, stone, street, studio, Suicide, tab, talk, That, the, theater, theatre, times, to, tone, Too, tour, Train, Trip, tub, Tube, Tv, two, uic, us, va, view, WA, Walk, war, Way, ways, we, Ween, with, years, york, You, Your, youtube | No comments

By: Dennis Cook

Mitch Ryder

Americans tend to have short musical memories. Our culture is so obsessed with newness and fashion that its easy for pioneers to be dusted away with the sands of time. Its a pity because understanding who broke the ground one walks on is informative and often revelatory in a really joyful way. Case in point, Mitch Ryder, whose forward thinking, electrifying merger of muscular, tightly wound rock and propulsive, sweaty R&B in the 1960s lies at the root of endlessly lauded critics darlings like The Stooges and the MC5, fellow Detroiters who picked up their early cues from Ryder and his phenomenal band The Detroit Wheels, whose influence can be felt in a crazy number of artists over the decades. Ryder and his partners in crime became a near instant international sensation with singles like Devil With A Blue Dress On, Little Latin Lupe Lu, and I Like It Like That. Its the kind of start that signifies a lifetime of recognition, but all too quickly found Ryder outside the big spotlight in the 1970s and 80s. However, Ryder never stopped making music, finding an enthusiastic audience for new music and not just his hits overseas, particularly in Germany where the man remains a major star who tours annually and regularly releases new albums.

Which brings us to today and the recent release of The Promise (released February 14), Ryders first new album Stateside in 30 years. Personal, groovy and heartfelt, The Promise was produced by Don Was and features a lean, together band of players with music in their blood, as Ryder notes in the liner notes. Strong of voice and writing his own material, Ryder escapes the oldies circuit that consumes so many artists that had hits back in the day. His dedication to new material and the kind of work he and only he wants to be doing is evident in this life-filled song cycle.

JamBase scored a few minutes with the rock legend to discuss his new album, his storied career, and his many irons in the fire.

1967 Album

JamBase: Youve come up in a lot of conversations when I talk to any musician from Detroit, especially Ted Nugent, who gives you complete credit for being the root source of the Detroit rock n roll sound.

Mitch Ryder: Hes been very consistent with that in any interview hes ever done. Ted and I go way back to when we were doing Battle of the Bands and his mom was his road manager and also the head of his fan club. She gave Ted his business acumen, which he still enjoys. He was energetic and crazy even back then, but unfortunately, he came up against someone with those same qualities back then [laughs]. So, when wed have our appearances I had a little bit more going on the theatrical side, which made it pretty interesting. Our show was a little more entertaining at that point, but hes overcome that now [laughs].

JamBase: How did you come up with your sound in the early days? Even in an era where a lot of bands stood out, you made a real impression.

Mitch Ryder: We didnt try to get a formula. The energy is solely the product of being teenagers we all had an abundance of it. So, whatever song we played it was going to be ten times faster than the original. A good example is Devil With The Blue Dress On. If you ever heard the original [version] by Shorty Long and you played our [version] youd hear the difference right away. Shortys was real slinky and crawling along. We threw that out the window and just went nuts on it.

All my training had been through an urban experience working with black musicians and singers. That was my environment, experience and presentation all wrapped up into one. And then I met a group of skilled rock n roll players, and once we melded those two different categories into a hybrid the product that came out was this R&B rock sound that nobody else had at the time. Then, we added the theatre [elements], which was very prominent in my schooling, so I suggested we inserted it into the show. Nobody else was doing that at the time. They were just getting up and playing and pretty much standing still and singing. There was no theater, but Id been to enough James Brown shows to understand that you have to have theatre when youre performing. It really brings a lot to the stage in addition to the music.

Do you still find that theatrical element important to performing live?

Vintage Ryder

As much as I can! I have two titanium hips now and they dont respond to mental commands the way muscle and tissue do. I certainly dont have the physical energy I once did but my voice is killer, and thats all the result of starting to use in-ear monitors. Those saved my voice and improved it. Up until five or six years ago, I was constantly battling guitars, and it was not only making me deaf but it was making me afraid to take risks and reach for notes because I couldnt hear if I was making them or not. Once I put the in-ear monitors in my head I could tell whether I was hitting the notes I was trying for, and I created a whole other half-octave to my range. Its really blowing my mind what it did for my voice.

Your voice on the new record is out of hand. I dont know if Ive ever heard this range from you on any other album.

Theres some notes I went for that I havent gone after since the old Bob Crewe days. Its unexplainable to me, and the live shows are the same theyre very, very good in that way. Im thrilled because it gives me the opportunity to really play around with melodies and get a lil more soulful than I had been, to really use my voice and move it around like an instrument instead of just a little tape recorder. Why not if you can?

How did you hook up with Don Was to make this record?

New Album

We go back a ways. I made an appearance on a Was (Not Was) recording, Born To Laugh At Tornados (1997), and Don did a 12-inch dance single of me doing Dylans Like A Rolling Stone. We did a couple other singles together that he engineered, and Ive done a few of his segments at the Concert of Colors, which is a tradition in Detroit. Hes familiar with my voice and knows what Im capable of, and hes even been quoted as saying Im probably the best white rhythm & blues singer in America. When they asked him why, he said that Im the strongest.

So, I called him on the phone and said, Don, Im really dying here in America. Europe is fine but Im dying here and not getting as much work as I used to. Ive gotta do something to get back into the eye of the public. What would it take for us to do an album? The conversation lasted maybe five minutes and then I was out in Hollywood recording.

Is it a frustration to you that many people have this limited soundbite impression of you as simply the Devil With A Blue Dress guy? You have decades of music that follow that, but America isnt good at keeping up with artists after their soundbite is established.

Early Album

No, theyre not. No, theyre not. Thats why kids get edgy every eight minutes because thats when commercials come on with TV [laughs]. It all has to do with our culture. Europe looks at historical culture a WHOLE lot differently than we do in America. Were very much a disposable society, and thats true of almost everything we produce including our art. Just look at the development of cell phones in the last two years, where theyve gone through 30 or 40 different changes and adaptations. In our culture we dont think in long terms. We think in short terms and instantly gratifying moments. So, since Devil With The Blue Dress On was such a monster hit it was in the Top 20 for three-and-a-half months, and in that time it made three trips in and out of the Top 10. Think about that: youre in the Top 10, you go out, you come back, you go out, you come back crazy. That was the result of two forces pushing it. It was a Motown song so it benefited from all the promotion people that Barry Gordy had, and then you had the promotion staff Bob Crewe had at Bell Records. That kept it up there for a long, long time.

So, thats why people think of it as the defining Mitch Ryder song. Well, that and the near total absence of Mitch Ryder from the [American] public landscape. I didnt wait around for someone to rediscover me. I started a career for myself over in Europe, and thats working out really well because it allows me to do contemporary material and I dont have to be assigned to the role of an oldies act.

When I talk to others who came to fame in the same era as you, they tell similar stories. But if you go outside the United States you have other options.

Mitch Ryder

It is frustrating but you cant be bitter about it. Its just the way we communicate. Its no fault of my fans and no fault of mine. Its the people who dish it out that have the game plan wrong. Germany is to rock n roll what France was to jazz. Ex-patriots will find more than their share in a place like Berlin, for example, which is where my label and office is. Thats a very dynamic city filled with talent, and not just German talent New Yorkers, people from L.A., and studios and authors and playwrights and artists of all stripes and mediums. They find these cheap lofts in the East, which are becoming more expensive now because the real estate developers figured it out. Probably everyone who escaped over the Wall came back to the East [laughs]. My wife and I looked at a place that still had bullet holes in the walls from street fighting between the Russians and the Germans. It was incredible, and this only a couple years ago when you could still pick them up for dirt cheap.

How is it different to make music with a primarily European audience in mind?

1995 European Album

If recognition is what you want, its a very good opportunity, and you can use that as a base and not feel inhibited about creating. What I do and how I view Berlin is the freedom [it gives me]. Germany, in particular, has been good to me. Because of my experiences with Bob Crewe and working under those constraints, when we booked the first studio session in Germany, I said, What do you guys want me to do? And they looked at me with these blank stares and said, Dont you mean what do YOU want US to do? This is your session. Then it hit me: Youre an artist now, pal, do your thing. So, I started and I havent stopped since. Im free to do whatever I want, free to create. Thats something I had when I first got interested in making music, and it was something taken away by making music with Bob Crewe. He had his own little Tin Pan Alley set up in the same building as Atlantic Records. Every day he would go to his writers for songs to give to different artists he was managing and recording, and I was one of those. We were literally dissuaded from creating our own material, and in my own case, he was bent on making me into a singular star and dumping my group, which he succeeded at during a time everybody else was going completely the other way.

What are your plans for the United States now that you have this new calling card in The Promise?

Ryders Autobiography

My American fans just havent had the full Mitch Ryder experience [for a long time], and this record is the introductory card to try and get some interest in order to bring the whole [European] catalog over here so people can get caught up, even sell it at a discount so people can become familiar with it. Then, once theyre schooled in it, come out with a new studio album made in America. And in the meantime, Ive put out my book [Devils & Blue Dresses: My Wild Ride As A Rock & Roll Legend - available here]. Im also deeply involved in creating a musical, and I want it to be good theatre the crowning jewel of my achievements. The working title is Hide Your Love Away, which I borrowed from The Beatles. I have a great affection for John Lennon, who talked me out of committing suicide [as detailed in Ryders new autobiography].

At a time when a lot of artists are getting ready to put their feet up, youre busier than ever.

What are they going to kick their feet up for and how are they going to kick their feet up? And what are they going to kick their feet up on? An empty beer can? From what I understand, most of my peers from my age group need to keep working, or they have other jobs and have had them for years now. A lot of my peers, if theyre still touring, have a really good show but its about nostalgia. And being honest, a lot of them have day jobs. Ive been blessed because we dont live a lavish life but we live and Im free to do what I want. So, I thank Bob Crewe for that. I dont like him for what he did to my group and our music, but I thank him for the fame because its allowed me to do what I love for my entire life.

Mitch Ryder Tour Dates :: Mitch Ryder News

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