EricWFUV3

P: The Joan Osbourne question: she has not matched that success, and you parted ways for a while, but I understand that that�s about to change.
E: It has changed. We�ve been working together again. In fact she was supposed to be here yesterday, but she�s not feeling well. But she�s been coming down every week, and she and Rob and I have been writing songs together, and it�s just been amazing. The first song we finished felt like�it felt like the next song after the last record. It�s just 6 years late.
P: Isn�t it nice when that happens?
E: It�s just amazing, and it�s really a great thing for Rob and I as well because it�s given us a focus. You know, again, it�s really sort-of brought us together.
P: You could decide at any point to make a career out of those 5 talents that I mentionned earlier, but you do seem to be drawn back to the performance aspect, and in those years you did release a couple of solo albums. We heard a song from one of them earlier, �Ella Fitzgerald�, but the one that preceded that was the one called The Optimist. So, my first question is are you an optimist?
E: I like being an optimist, when I�m able to. Guardedly, at times, yeah.
P: These times make it difficult.
E: These times make it difficult, but then Norah Jones wins 8 Grammys.
P: Hope. There always has to be.
E: There�s always hope. Yeah.
P: The lead track on The Optimist was �Driving in England�?
E: Yes it was.
P: What can you tell me about that one?
E: I can tell you that it was an idea�the title came from my co-writer on that song, Randy Cantor. That song went through some evolution. Actually it went through some crazy twists and turns. It started as a pretty basic rock and roll song, you know, with the chord changes, and I ended up going into Alfred Hitchcock world, with made up chords and stuff. And lyrically, it�s about�I don�t know. I just wrote it.
P: Would you do it for us?
E: I would.
Eric plays �Driving in England�.
P: Eric Bazilian and a live version of the song �Driving in England�, which can be found on his solo album The Optimist, which you can find out more about by checking out Eric�s website, which is www.ericbazilian.com. How about that?
E: Imagine that.
P: This has been your home. It continues to be your home. You could probably live anywhere in the world.
E: Yeah, but I�ve been here so long I like it.
P: Laughs. Is there a point of no return? Is that what you�re saying?
E: Yeah, I think there is. I think there was.
P: So, in addition to a Hooters reunion and some producing projects, certainly one involving Joan Osbourne, there�s also this conceptual thing that you�ve been working on for a while. Can you tell us a little bit about that?
E: Yeah, this is from my first summer album in Sweden. This actually goes back to the summer of �97. And I had written a song, a very slow, bluesy, accoustic song called �Hamburg�, which was sort-of a very loving jab at a certain member of a certain legendary band that made us all play music. It was a loving jab in that one of his recent records had just come out, and I was just devastated at how mediocre it was. And so a friend of mine said to me, �Somebody ought to take him back to Hamburg and remind him�. So I wrote the song, and it goes �I�ll take you back to Hamburg to get back what you lost�. And then that summer, something happened. I ended up rewriting that song as a total rock and roll song. But it was in the style of the Beatles, when they were a rock and roll band. Not that that�s necessarily the band I�m talking about {laughs} but I wrote a whole album based on the concept what would have happened if they had stayed in Hamburg. If they hadn�t gotten signed when they did. If they�d just continued to evolve as a rock and roll band. So when they got to the point in their craft where they were when they got to Sgt. Pepper, instead of having sitars and orchestras, they still just had two guitars, a base and drums. I did a whole album of it, and I�ve been sitting on it since then just �cause I�m waiting for the climate to get better, and maybe if I ever put it out someone would care.
P: What we�re going to hear now is the finished track?
E: Yeah. Well, these are demos. It�s got a wanky drum machine on it, but it sounds real good.
�Hamburg� plays
P: That was Eric Bazilian and the title track for a possible concept album�
E: It�ll come out the same time as the Beach Boys� Smile. {laughs}
P: Speaking of legends. Again, any information that you would like to know about Eric or any of these projects can be found on your website.
E: You can look for it there. I can�t guarantee you�ll find it. {laughs}
P: Were you�did you embrace the computer age? Has it been helpful to you? Has it been helpful to your career?
E: Well, it�s certainly been helpful at making me sleep-deprived. I waited to get a computer. I grew up a technological guy. I got a ham radio license when I was 9, and I can build my own gear. But I waited until �94 to get my first computer. I waited because I knew that as soon as I did, it was going to be all over. And I waited to start doing music with a computer until I got my first ProTools in �98. And there�s no going back for me. I am totally interfaced with my computers. I think the reason computers have captivated us so much is because in a way they are a mirror of our own mind. You know, the RAM is equivalent to our conscious, our conscious thoughts, and we�ve got our ROM, our little operating system, and our hard drives, which occasionally get wiped and chaotic.
P: Laughs. Listen, our time is running away from us. I�m going to ask you for one more story. I�ve noticed that the instrument you�re using today seems to have a lot of miles on it. That one looks like it�s been around.
E: Well, actually, yeah. This one belonged to a friend of mine, named Josh Bernstein, from high school. He lived down the street from me. And when he bought it, it had a lot of miles on it. I think somebody said it was from 1956, or thereabouts. And we graduated, moved away, and went our seperate ways. And 20 years later, I ran into his brother. I was having dinner at his brother�s house, and Josh came over, and we started talking, catching up, and I said, �Whatever happened to that old Martin?� And he said, �Oh, it�s in my parents� closet. Ya want it?� There is a God. {laughs} Actually, it took a lot of work because it was all beat up, and it�s still all beat up, but structurally it needed a lot of reconstruction.
P: It sounds great.
E: You know what? I love this guitar. I�m not really a big acoustic guitar guy. It�s sort of a necessary evil for me at times. But you can�t shred on an accoustic guitar. But if I had to play one, this is the guy.
P: Well, I�m certainly glad you brought it along today. One of the things we ask a lot of our guests is whether they�ve got something either brand new, or right out of the hopper, or work in progress. Do you have one of those that we can close out with?
E: I have a lot of stuff heading for the hopper. {laughs} You can edit that out.
P: Delete. Delete.
E: I thought about this because I knew you were going to ask that. There�s a song, it�s not brand new, I wrote it a couple of summers ago with my friend from Nordman, with Mats. I actually cut it with a female artist last summer, but with her singing, it sounded too nice, and even though the song is called �These Three Chords�, and even though it�s got a very sort-of nice thing in the verse, it�s really a pretty sharply pointed lyric. And when I sing it, especially when I try to sing it, it comes out even more pointed.
Eric plays �These Three Chords�
The End