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NIACIN'S BILLY SHEEHAN
AN EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW!
I recently had the chance to speak with both Billy Sheehan and [keyboardist] John Novello of the trio 'NIACIN' [along with Dennis Chambers]. The band recently released their 3rd album "Deep" [Magna Carta]. The band plays instrumental pieces covering sounds and styles from jazz, rock, progressive, and funk with focus on Novello's Hammond B3. Here Billy Sheehan discusses the new Niacin album, as well as updates on various other projects he's been involved with or currently working on.
For more on the works of this bass legend [see David Lee Roth, Talas, Mr Big, UFO...] check out
www.billysheehan.com
For more on Niacin check out Part 2 of the Niacin interviews - with John Novello!
Q: What's the basic story behind the band?
BS: a lot of it has to do with the B3; I've never really played in a band with one, and a lot of the bands I love are B3 bands. Some people aren't even aware of some of the bands that were heavy into the B3 like Zeppelin and Santana; especially Santana - that whole first [?] or 2nd record there was tons of B3 on it, and i was into them in the early years. I just wanted to play with a B3 player, but I also wanted to add another dimension as far the drummer goes, and we lucked out and got Dennis Chambers involved, and he's been just amazing in this project. And basically the idea was just to do the music we love for fun, enjoy it, don't worry about having hits or commercial success, and a result we're actually in the black with Niacin; we've actually made a lot of money off of it - oddly enough because we really didn't care if we did or not! I think if you get desperate and really need it that's when you don't get it; but we just did it as a labor of love and it turned into something very successful.
Q: Is there a market or an audience that you aiming towards?
BS: Not really. We just play the best way we know how and do song arrangements and songwriting that strikes some kind of chord from some past time or something that's near and dear to us. So, we really didn't get into a target audience kind of thing; we just kind of played what we dug. I think people that dig what Dennis' does enjoy the record, people that dig what I do enjoy it, and the same with John. And it's pretty cool, and again the music is somewhat uncategorizal and we like that.
Q: Well there's some funk, blues, jazz, and rock parts in there, so it's pretty wide open as far as an audience goes.
BS: Yeah, and usually live after the shows we've had some people that are pop fans, hard rock fans, blues fans, jazz fans, R&B fans, and everybody seems to come together when we play; it's kind of funny - we're the unifying force there sometimes. [ha ha]
Q: Do you guys actually sit and write songs or do they kind of come together from jams and stuff?
BS: Yeah, they kinda come together. John and I get together and I'll play him a little thing, and he'll add to it, and he'll play me a little thing and I'll add to it; sometimes we'll come up with things on our own. There's never ever formal way or procedure that we do to write a song; we just start throwing things together - an idea here and there; maybe one idea will be all you need for a whole song, sometimes you have to mush it all together, sometimes you slice and dice and come up with something that catches your own ear. We're pretty self critical of course, and we want things to really move us, and we want to play it live in an inspired way, so we make sure the material's stuff that we really enjoy before it ever gets recorded. Now with this record, we ended up recording everything we liked and we ended up having an extra 4 or 5 songs, so it was hard to get rid of them [ha ha], it's hard to pick the ones you like the least, but we eventually had to make a choice.
Q: As far as the ideas or inspirations -- is there anything that you guys listen to, or anything that comes to mind when you guys come together to put together the songs; And as far as how it differs from your other stuff like Mr Big!?
BS: Oh definitely more different than the Mr Big, with the influences and inspirations would be -- maybe some Genesis [Peter Gabriel era, King Crimson, Emerson Lake & Palmer stuff, The Young Rascals, occasionally a Motown tune - because the B3 sits real well with that and Dennis' drums are so funkified he can make anything groove. We definitely have some different things we can pull from; plus we get little concept pieces, and Latin flavors in there too that we normally wouldn't play - which is great, because I really love it a lot.
Q: Is there anything you can compare Niacin to?
BS: That's a tough..... I guess you could say it's like a 'black Emerson, Lake and Palmer', ha ha. Like if ELP would've swung and grooved and been funkified - that's what we're going for.
Q: Thoughts on Niacin in comparison to everything else you've done - Talas, Mr Big, David Lee Roth -- What do you get out of it, because you've done so much different stuff and that...
BS: Growing up I came through a lot of different styles of music; everything from my high school days I was into Jazz and Myles Davis, then I got into the first Zeppelin records, and then the glam era, the boogie era, the ZZ Top thing, then the heavy metal thing, and a lot of pop songs; I've been through a lot of different things, but at some point in my life I was into just about every form of music there is - from classical [different types of classical!], different styles of jazz, blues and rock, progressive, things like that! That's why I'm kinda glad that I've been through so much in my life musically because I can usually relate to anything i hear, so when it comes time to write and be inspired I feel like I'm lucky I have that kind of background. I've got a big bag of tricks from all the music I've been through. So if it's a progressive idea or a bluesy idea there's something that I've been through in my life, at one point, that'll take me there. Similar to the other bands that I've been in they all have their specialized influences; Mr Big is more of a 'Humble Pie - Bad Company' kind of band, a little bit of early Stones, a little bit of the first Zeppelin and first Van Halen records - things like that. There was times when I've been all that. And with Niacin it's a way for me to pull from the times I was into the B3 bands and never got a chance to play it.
Q: Is the album being received by radio at all?
BS: We know we're getting a lot of play on all kinds of stations that'll play music like this, and the reaction to it has been fantastic, so we're real excited about that. Of course we don't have any illusions that any main-stream radio will ever embrace it, but I think if they did that they'd see a reaction to it as well, because I think like when we play our live shows I see people that are into all different kinds of different music and some people that aren't even there to really see us [just kind of out and about] and they end up getting in to it. So i think it does have broad appeal - in my humble opinion anyway; but sometimes it takes a radio station to take a chance, and the days of radio stations taking a chance [especially big ones that are worth a lot of money!] are pretty much over! They play what they're paid to play, and they say what they're paid to say. It's a marketing company that tells them 'what, where, when, and how'; it's not up to the DJ anymore. But some smaller stations that actually have the freedom to express themselves musically, they've played the record and got very good response to it, so...! It's good to know, in my heart I believe, that if it did get exposed to a lot of people - a lot of people would dig it. In a way that's kind of somewhat exonerated right there. I think we've put together an album that does have appeal, and that wasn't necessarily our goal, we wanted it to appeal to us - we wanted it to appeal to the guys who played it because our tastes our so varied. So I made a record to please myself, and if it pleases me then I imagine that it pleases someone else too.
Q: Now you guys have 3 albums. What would be included in the live set and what stands out for you?
BS: We were opening up with "Swing Swang Swung", and then sometimes we'd open with "Montuno" [sp?] - a great song live, works incredibly well. Then we'd do "Best Laid Plans", "Stomping Ground", "No Man's Land", "I Miss You" and "One Less Worry" - from the first record, maybe "High Bias" and a couple more from the 2nd one. And then we do a couple of surprise tunes; we do the Vanilla Fudge tune "You Keep Me Hangin On", occasionally we do "Purple Rain" or "Livin In The City" [Stevie Wonder tunes], and we even threw in Jeff Beck's "Blue Wind" the other night! The B3 version!
Q: Is it in any way odd not having a guitar player on stage?
BS: No it's just totally cool! The B2 plays all the stuff, all the soloing and wailing and screaming. Dennis makes up for about 3 other people, [ha ha] - being that he's just so aussum. And I got plenty of room to move and groove on bass, and do some wailing and screaming and feedback. People come up to us and say 'hey you guys don't need a guitar player at all!' I've always liked the 3 piece bands -- guitar/bass/drums or keyboards/bass/drums. And the B3 basically does all the stuff the guitar does -- it has enough distortion and tone variation to replace what any Strat or Les Paul does.
Q: How does this compare to the other 2 albums [which I haven't heard actually] ?
BS: Well, it's definitely rockier and heavier; definitely more progressive sounding. The first record was kinda landed somewhere in the middle. It was a little jazz, but had some real cool feels to it - I loved the first record! The second record got a little jazzy, but it was a little bit traumatic because we had recorded it analog, and it was tough to record a lot of that stuff, it was a pain in the neck. What we got was good, but getting it on tape was a real pain in the neck, because it was an analog recording, and I'll never make another analog record again if I can help it! So, this new one it was all digital, so it was fast and to the point, and we were inspired, and we could get it right on and record it instantly, and there was no impediment at all from the machinery or the technology. It was all there; it only enhanced what we did, so it was really a pleasure making this record.
Q: Any stories from the sessions, or personal stories that any of the songs derived from?
BS: Most are just a collection of observations of emotion and life in general. I mean, when I write [and I think John's the same way] I basically just pull from things that have happened; things we see, things we go through, something someone says or does that affects us. One song to do in the studio that was very interesting was the vocal track. That was great playing with Glenn Hughes. He came in, had never heard the song before, and in 45 minutes he was singing it like he'd been singing it for 10 years. Steve Lukather came in and did the one solo right off the bat. We recorded a few more just to see what they'd sound like, but we ended up using solo # 1 because it had fire. He just came in the studio, off the road, sat down.... and that was pretty cool to record.
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Q: Great song. It really suits Glenn's voice. It reminds me of some of the older blusier Deep Purple.
BS: Yeah, Glenn kicked ass on that. Great guy, amazing singer! He just walked up to the mic and nailed it too - never even heard the song before. I'd sing over back over the talk-back mic how the melody and lyrics went and we'd hit record and he'd just wail, and boy -- what an incredible talent!
Q: Why did you decide to just do the one [vocal track]? and how did you get Glenn and Steve in?
BS: Well, the song that we used ["Things Ain't What They Used To Be"] originally was a song I wrote and it had guitar and vocals in it, and originally we were going to adapt it to just the B3 thing, but we really liked it with the vocal and guitar, so we thought 'there's no reason why we can't!', so then we thought 'who's a good singer?', and we thought Glenn Hughes, and I knew him and John knew him so we gave him a call. So he came down. Then we thought it'd be great if Steve Lukather was in town, and as we said that he just happened to be getting home, so we called and he did. He's a good friend also. A great guy, amazing talent, one of my favorite guys in the biz by far. We just got lucky - Glenn was available, and into it and came and kicked ass, and Steve was available and he came and just blazed on it! The rhythm parts I played on it.
Q: Do you foresee doing any others? [vocal tracks]
BS: You never know! Who knows - maybe I'll even do one. ha ha. The song it reminded me of when i listen to it is "When A Blind Man
". Just the feel of it or something. That's cool. to me it's got kind of a "Since I've Been Loving You" meets ...remember the Blood Sweat & Tears song "I Love You More Than You'll Ever Know", the one Al Kooper's on?
I'll have to pull out my Blood Sweat & Tears albums!] The very first record, way long ago, maybe before you were born Kevin! Ha ha...
Q: You did the Van Halen cover on there, why?
BS: When I first saw Eddie play the intro to "Mean Streets" - it wasn't part of Mean Streets yet, he was doing it as a solo, an unaccompanied solo on the tour that TALAS opened up for them. And then when they record that song he used it as the intro. I always loved that piece. It was actually a slap bass technique that he played on the guitar. The song always struck me as a very funkified song, even though it was played in rock, so we put a loop underneath it. I really liked the way it came out, and I think a lot of Van Halen songs would work more if done right; I mean I could hear "Jamie's Crying" being sung by Sinatra or something you know. So I love a lot of their music, and I think it'd work in a lot of different genders. so this is kind of our little tribute to the boys from back on their "Fair Warning" days.
Q: Any other plans as far as Niacin goes?
BS: We might get to Europe and London this year as well. We've got a lot of e-mail from London. There's a big B3 revival there, and Niacin's one the bands that people mention, so we thought about doing a couple of shows in London coming up the end of the summer or fall. It'd be great because I really haven't had a chance to get this band out of the country other than Asia, and I'd love to go through Europe, because there's such a tradition in Europe of people being into the bands that created what we have today paying tribute, and that's certainly what Niacin does, so I think we'd have a good run of it over there.
Q: It's a different scene over there!
BS: Yeah. Japan and Europe have kept a lot of American musicians alive where they couldn't even play, a lot of blues and jazz guys there was no place to play in most cities here at all and they do tours in Europe and Asia.
Q: Well a lot of 70s and 80s rock bands even, like Mr Big are bigger in Japan than you are here, right!?
BS: Yeah we do great in South America, Australia, Japan, Asia, Korea, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Taiwan, and then we do well all over Europe - France, Spain, England, Italy, Scandinavia, so it's pretty cool. And I'll tell ya - it's a lot of fun playing outside the country, I mean we love America [we're super-patriots] but they used to say 'join the Army and see the world', in a way it's 'join a rock band and see the world, and have someone carry your luggage for you!'. ha. So we do have a great time going around to all these exotic locals.
Q: As a fan of some bands it's pretty depressing over here because you never get to see them.
BS: Yeah unfortunately due to the state of radio and MTV. I mean if radio in an area starts playing a band's song and they get a lot of air-play then that means the band will go there, where if radio doesn't play it - there's no reason for the band to go because they're not going to have people know what they're doing. So one kinda follows the other, it's like 'which came first - the chicken or the egg?' But I think if radio would just loosen up and start playing stuff, and forget about the marketing people; it's [radio] become SO corporate, it's sad! It's corporate or it's 'oldies'. So newer bands or local bands don't have a chance.
Q: Talas, I saw the Buffalo gig. When you play your play your bass you play it like a guitar almost!?
BS: I just do what i do. Growing up in Buffalo I never really thought of it as a guitar, I just played bass, but because people are so used to seeing a guitar that when they see a bass that looks kind of like a guitar they think it's similar to a guitar. I've heard musicians listen to a sax player play an amazing solo and go 'woah - lead sax!'; No it's not a 'lead sax'! The guitar came later and then they called it 'lead' so they could separate it from rhythm guitar. But in actual fact the tradition of soloing and playing linearly and lines and a lot of notes came way before guitar players did. So i just do what I do; I lock in with the drummer, and it's worked so far - so good.
Q: I don't imagine there'll be any more Talas shows, but as far releasing any more of the Talas stuff on CD!?
BS: Well we did the Live Reunion show on CD. I know we have more tracks we haven't mixed yet; we might be able to get those out sometime. But I'm sure we'll do a couple of shows here and there as the years go by. Somebody was talking about maybe doing something this summer; it's easy for me to fly in, sit down with the guys, rehearse for a day or so and go out and do a show. It's a lot of fun; we get to see all of our old friends again, and it just means a lot to me - my whole experience there in Buffalo, and all around the whole area in Western New York, Cleveland, Rochester, Toronto, Albany, New York City was a great time. And any time I get the chance to I'd love to.
Q: Do you keep in touch with Dave and Paul?
BS: Sure, actually there was a private party here in LA last summer and somebody asked me 'Hey who could we get to play some cool songs?' and I said 'hey fly my friends Dave and Paul in and we'll give you tons of songs!', and we did. We ended up playing for a private party, for about 2 hours; tons of oldies, everyone was up and dancing - we had a great time!
Q: I got Phil Naro's new album [24K] that you're on. How did that come about, and what did you think of it?
BS: yeah I played on 1 track on that. Phil got in touch with me, and I know he's trying to make his mark, and I said 'hey if you need me o play on a track - I'd be happy to!' So I did, for free, as a favor - because Phil's a great guy and a great singer! Again, Phil's one of my favorite people I've ever worked with. He's a really good guy, and I think he's really talented; I like the stuff he's done on his own. He's always been motivated, and it was a pleasure to work with him when I did, so anytime I can lend him a hand I'd be very happy to.
Q: You're working on a couple of solo albums as well, what's the status on those?
BS: They're being pieced together as we speak. I'm going to do a solo / bass record and I'm going to do a solo / singing / song record. And most bass players when they do a solo record they end up singing on it, and then you got to keep skipping over those tracks because you don't want to hear him sing, so i thought I'd do everyone a favor and put all my singing on a whole other CD so they can avoid that one easier.
Q: So one's going to be instrumental and ones going to be songs with vocals!?
BS: Yeah!
Q: When do you plan on having those out?
BS: As soon as possible. Maybe the end of the summer or fall. Things are heating up with MR BIG here, with the new record out, and touring behind that. So as things heat up some things end up getting pushed back in time a little bit further, but I'm working on getting all this stuff out as quick as I can.
Q: Is there anyone else playing on them?
BS: I'm going to try and do everything myself.
Q: How about drums?
BS: That too. The whole deal.
Q: Anything else you're working on at the moment? Any tribute stuff?
BS: Actually I just did a thing on a Van Halen Tribute record. It was me, the amazing Vinnie Calliuta [sp?] on drums, Yngwie on guitar, and Doug Pinnick singing "Light Up The Sky".
Q: Other than that ... anything you're currently working on or listening to...!?
BS: Well I'll be working on my tan tomorrow when the sun comes out! [Ha ha]. It's funny I got a studio in my house, and I'm kinda always in there tinkering around, and experimenting and writing some stuff. It's kind of non-stop; it's kind of been like that my whole life. I don't have too many interests outside of music, really. I just play and write, and work on my bass... I got a new 10th Anniversary Yamaha bass coming out - the 10th Anniversary of the 'Attitude' series. I also have a pre-Amp that I designed for Ampeg that's out now, and a couple of other things I'm working on for a couple of companies, designing some products and what-have you.
Q: What are you listening to these days?
BS: Propeller Heads, a lot of whacky stuff. And I always refer back to a couple of classic records -- Humble Pie's "Smokin" has been on my CD changer for a long time; I love that record! Great band!
Q: Do you keep in touch with Ken Hensley?
BS: All the time, yeah!
Q: Have you thought of doing anything with him?
BS: Absolutely. Ken's an incredible friend of mine; he's a great guy. Me and Michael Anthony actually played with him at a NAMM show; we both got up and sang "Easy Livin", and we both played bass and sang - it was cool.
Q: As far as his work, like he's doing another solo album......
BS: I haven't talked with him, but I'd love to play on it! Next time I speak with him, I'll always offer. Ken's a very dear friend of mine, a super-great guy, and an amazing player! I always loved his B3 stuff, incredible! He's one of the masters.
Thanks & Good-byes [note to self - Billy to buy beer at gig]
Interview by Kevin J. Julie, Copyright 2000
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