Mondo Magneto will be available in stores October 10th through Burnside Distribution
DOWNLOAD IT on iTunes.com
BUY IT online from Amazon.com
WATCH Brian Ray's new video "I Liked You Better" from Mondo Magneto on YouTube!
Songwirter and guitarist, Brian Ray sat down for this unique one-on-one interview
with Jorie B. Gracen while on tour with Paul McCartney back in 2005 and again this October.
He especially wanted to thank his fans for their support.
Thank you so much, all of you people out there for your support on my own thing. I recognize that we're in your periphery because of Paul McCartney so we're super grateful to him and to all of his fans for their support on our own things as well.Thanks,
Love your support,-- Brian
Brian Ray is no newcomer to
the music scene. He's rocked his way to the top playing guitar
with such music greats as Smokey Robinson, Etta James, The Bangles,
Shakira, Adam Cohen and most recently pop legend Sir Paul McCartney.
However, Ray does one thing few ever dared to do on-stage with
McCartney-he plays the bass. Macca's golden boy meticulously and
faithfully reproduces the signature McCartney bass style with
remarkable precision, pleasing even the most picky Beatles fans
and most importantly his boss. Ray is so versatile he can churn
out blistering guitar riffs going head to head with fellow band
mate and McCartney lead guitarist Rusty Anderson.
Touring with McCartney is like a dream come true for Ray who notches
his fourth world tour with the rock star. "He's the most
kicked back guy I know," says Ray who has nothing but praise
and reverence for his boss.
What's it like to work with McCartney? He says, "It's the
kind of thing if you stop to start thinking about... [laughs]
you just might stumble over yourself and fall over because, here's
the guy who changed the role of bass playing in popular music.
And now I'm playing those parts. It's a mixture of feeling honored,
humbled, and fortunate."
But it doesn't stop there. Ray's remarkable talent as a topnotch
musician led to an interest in song writing. He co-wrote Smokey
Robinson's mega hit "One Heartbeat" which has had over
3 million airplays.
In 2005 Ray decided to follow another dream-releasing his first
album. Mondo Magneto was an ambitious undertaking for a
musician who spent most of his life working on other people's
albums.
"I felt electric...like I was vibrating on a higher frequency
than usual," says Ray about writing songs for his new album.
Ray called on friends to contribute to his album and when he asked
Etta James to sing a duet, her response was "I'll do anything
for Brian." Ray was James' guitarist and musical director
for 14 years. Etta shares vocals on "Soft Machine" which
inspired the title for the album. He recalls, "I was listening
to a playback of one of the songs, "Soft Machine," a
day after a good session... At the end there is this strange sound
we recorded as it fades out... as I listened, I smiled, and just
said out loud to myself, 'Wow... mondo electro magneto!' And thought...'Drop
the electro and I have a title."
Other contributors include; Scott Shriner (Weezer), Davey Faragher
(Elvis Costello band), Abe Laboriel, Jr., Paul 'Wix' Wickens and
Rusty Anderson (McCartney band). Ray also collaborated with Oliver
Lieber, Adam Cohen and Tonio K.
For Ray, Mondo was a labor of love shared by those who
worked on the sessions. "What was really fun for me about
making this album, was that every person involved came into the
studio and brought their own personality to the sessions. And
that shows on the CD."
Mondo Magento's contemporary sound is upbeat and exhilaratingly
fresh. It rocks with catchy melodies and playful lyricism drawing
from Ray's life experiences. It's a wonder that Ray waited this
long to put out his own record. When asked, he grins and says,
"I guess I was just busy."
JORIE B. GRACEN: I want to ask you about your album. Why did it take you so long?
BRIAN RAY: [laughs] You know, that's a good question, the truth is, that I've done a lot of writing through the years and a lot of recording of my material but I really... I've just been busy, I've just been busy. When I look back at what I've done through the years I look at all these dates and I go, "Ohmigod! I've done a lot." [laughs] You know I've really been a busy guy and I think that it just took enough interest from fans of Paul's asking about my material and enough time off between Paul's tours to put some time and energy into the writing and recording of my own record.
You know, also to do a record on an independent level as I've just done really requires a little bit of money and it's a luxury to have a project like this done the way I wanted to do it. To do it with my friends in a real studio with real instruments playing at the same time and catching it you know like we used to do, the great records that we all love and record to analog tape. You can record like crazy and do a good quality recording at home with a computer and play everything yourself and do it in that way and use samples for everything but that's not something I was interested in. I've done plenty of that as a songwriter. I really wanted to a great 'old school' record with my friends, laugh our asses off have a great time, make some great music and watch the music grow as a result of the fun, as a result of the input of friends.
Jorie: Everyone you invited to work on your album, brought their own personality into the record. You gave them enough freedom to come up with something that was more original and creative.
BRIAN: Oh, yeah, thanks for saying.
Jorie: Your lyrics seem to be pulled from your background and life experiences.
BRIAN: Yeah, they are pulled from my background. A lot of them are point of view lyrics where I will just sort of get an idea of a life of a person out there somewhere and what they might be thinking, what they might be going through and write from that point of view, as so many of my favorite writers did, like Ray Davies of the Kinks, John Lennon, Paul [McCartney], Randy Newman you know would write these great "point of view" lyrics you know and that was what was so interesting to me you know. So there's topical, somewhat humorous point of view lyrics and then there's revealing songs on my record as well that are very personal that are only about me and my experiences.
Jorie: When you write personal songs, is it cathartic for you?
BRIAN: Yeah, it's very cathartic. You know you don't even know where you're going to end up when you start writing a song like that and sometimes the lyrics become more meaningful over time, well after they've been written and recorded. That's always been very interesting to me, how you can write a song that becomes sort of prescient and telling about events that are yet to happen. And later you look and you say "Ohmigod what I wrote about came true." It's almost like I pulled it down from the sky.
Jorie: I truly believe there are other forces at work here.
BRIAN: There have to be. There HAVE to be other forces at work because, listen, these songs that came to me and my collaborators on this record, songs that many of our favorite artists, aren't, really just from them. These writers, or at least I'll just speak from my own experience. I'll be at home, let's say, It will be a Saturday night and I've decided I'll got a little start on a song and I'm gonna not make plans. I'm not gonna go on a date. I'm not gonna go out. I'm not gonna go carousing. Light some candles, crank up the guitar on a little distorted amp or an acoustic guitar, get out a pen and paper and an old school cassette recorder and just start going. And you sorta get into a sorta elevated head space, where you're just.. it's like your head has an open channel and you're open to ideas that would come into your heart and your mind, you know. And you're just sorta, you're scanning the ceiling and the skies looking for ideas. It sounds very strange, but that's the process. It's meditative. You have to get into an altered state to bring in the lyrics and ideas. It's a trip.
Jorie: When you write a song do you hear the music in your head or voices when you write?
BRIAN: Well I don't know. I think it's more like for me, I try to just be a vehicle and shut out any voices talking to me. I don't want to filter it or make choices right off the bat. I want ideas to flood in and there's sort of an immediate process where you make the choices to get the lyric you want or the passage you want, but it's not one of those things where a voice is telling you which to choose. You're always rewriting and looking at it again and perfecting it.
There's one song on the record that's called "All I Know" And I started playing and singing. I just had this intro lick on the guitar and I just started playing a verse and singing a melody. Live in the room and I started writing down lyrics and it was all coming to me. The song took about 40 minutes to write. It all came out you know, lyrics, song, you know... bridge and everything.
I sat back and thought about it and recorded it onto cassette and went "God this is very different than a song I would usually write." and I decided that it was sorta inspired by Paul and it would have not occurred maybe, had I not spent the last three and half years working with this guy. The melody that I chose, that chose me for the song, was more like a Paul melody than my melody. So It's interesting . It's just a great process you know. One of those songs that really sorta fell into my lap.
Jorie: How difficult was it to get the people together to work with you on this album?
BRIAN: I was really blessed. I would pick up the phone and call somebody and they happened to be in town, available ready and willing. And I had to force money on a couple of them you know, because they didn't want to be paid for it. They just wanted together and hang and play. I said, No really understand, I want to pay you for your work because it's what we do and I'm in the position now where I can do that. You know it was just a great blast to just call up Davey Faragher. One of my favorite bass players on the planet who works for Elvis Costello and Elvis' band the Imposters. Or to call Scott Shriner from Weezer. He's a dear friend of mine, the bass player for Weezer. Or to call Abe or Rusty or Wix. Or to call Paul Bushnell one of the most sort after bass players on the planet right now. And have them all say "Yeah! When? Where? Yeah, just pay my cartage and I'll be there you know. It was just a treat. It all fell together so easily.
Jorie: They must have been wondering what kind of music you had for the album and wanted to help you out.
BRIAN: They were all curious to see what I had. I remember saying goodbye to Davey Faragher on the fourth day of recording... no at the end of the second day of recording. So now I've got four songs with Davey Faragher on them. He says, "What are you going to do with this? This is a great body of work and these are really great songs." And I just got really excited to get that kind of feedback from him. You know it just sort of unfolded as we went along. Great, great bunch of people but to do a record the way I was doing it, I wasn't like booking studios for full day rate you know. I had to sort of depend on the kindness of strangers and pals to get deals and to wait for down time at studios. Very much one man you know management. Me making the phone calls and gorilla record making, independent "guerilla" record making you know where you're waiting for the last minute to go into a studio. And depending on the kindness of people like Oliver Lieber who let me do a lot of the guitar overdubs at his house. And I did give him, I forced some money on him and I gave him one of my valuable vintage amps in trade, things like that because he's a collector.
Jorie: You don't have a studio in your home?
BRIAN: I did have a studio in my home and it was a system that was now already obsolete and saw myself working for Paul for a few years so I thought I have a friend who needs a studio, he's willing to buy mine. Mine's obsolete. I'll get a new one in awhile. So I sold that. Did my record as I said all in studios and in other people's home studio environments. And I'll get a new studio when my house is finished.
Jorie: How come you didn't ask Paul to be a guest on your album? Paul played on Rusty's album "Undressing Underwater."
BRIAN: When we did our first tour (2002), Rusty was just starting to put songs together for his first album and we happened to all be in LA at the same time and had days off. Rusty asked Paul if he'd come in and play bass on a song, but unfortunately, when I was doing my record we were all off from touring for nine months and were in different continents. So there was a different opportunity when Rusty did his album than when I did mine.
You know I wanted to have Paul on the record. The truth was that there was no opportunity. He was in England when I was doing the record in California. He was never out my way or I'm sure he would have been happy to do it. There was just no opportunity. We had this thing called the Atlantic Ocean between us and we couldn't get together. Now if he was a guy who was online with his home computer studio like Wix was, then maybe it would have been easier but yeah, that's it, the only reason.... too far apart at the time I was doing it.
Jorie: Did Paul ever ask you why you didn't ask him to be on it?
BRIAN: No actually, I didn't ask Paul directly to be on it, but I asked his main guys 'cause I wanted to give Paul you know, every... a lot of freedom in his answer. So I asked the appropriate people to ask him and they said, "He'd love to, but he's in England and you're in California."
Jorie: He was probably busy.
BRIAN: He's a little busy, yeah. [laughs]
Jorie: How are you distributing your album?
BRIAN: I'm starting in a very much, just a, you know independent, homespun... selling records from my home. [laughs] My sister is my record company and my webmistress, Fiona Dixon in Ireland is working from Ireland selling to Europe and to the UK. So she's got a bunch of CD's and my sister Caroline got a bunch of CD's. And I'm selling right now, just went on sale and I just sold all the signed copies in a matter of hours. We sold the first 50 records signed and now, you know they're just are filling orders everyday, from my website brian-ray.com, cdbaby.com and amazon.com. And I have an exclusive single release on iTunes (www.itunes.com) of a bonus track called "Tears of A Clown" the great Smokey Robinson song. And with my own band in LA, we went in with Oliver Lieber co-producing, the son of Jerry Lieber who is the architect of rock 'n' roll, wrote "Jail House Rock." His son, Oliver, is a dear friend of mine and he co-produced "Tears of A Clown" mostly at his studio. Right now you won't find it in the stores. You have to go online to buy my record.
Jorie: Did you think of timing the release of your album to coincide with the "US" tour?
BRIAN: My record was done in June. I didn't want to put it out at the same time as Paul's because of course his is going to be getting all of the recognition and it deserves that recognition and my priority is to be of service to Paul. So I decided I would put off the release of my record to be of service to Paul. That's what I chose to do.
Jorie: Have you given Paul your record? What did he think?
BRIAN: I gave Paul my record in October (2005). I just put it in his hand. I came into his dressing room and said, "Hey Paul, I just wanted to share my new record with you." He said, "Oh, what's this?" I said, "Yeah, I just finished it in the summer and I'd love to share this with you. It's something that means a lot to me and you gave me the where-with-all to be able to do it and the inspiration to do it and I just wanted to lay it on ya and thank you very much for your help." He asked me a bunch of questions about it and about the cover and stuff like that. It's fun. How nice to be able to do this you know because of his generosity and my work with him.
Jorie: Paul is an amazing onstage. He has the energy of someone half his age.
BRIAN: Yeah, he's a remarkable performer. We're all very lucky. He runs circles around his own band.
Jorie: It's quite a show with all the special effects and the fans really enjoy the interaction of the band.
BRIAN: Yeah it's fun. It's a visual physical band and it's physical visual show and it's fun for all the folks. I'm glad they are enjoying it.
Jorie: You did something onstage that no one else in the band has done. When Paul introduced you, instead of your usual talk, you told the audience to applaud the man who made this all happen -- Paul.
BRIAN: Oh, that's funny, yeah. You, know, I just realized we were 200 shows in and it had never really been done. I mean everyone knows it's Paul McCartney, but here he is giving us, the guys in the band, each a minute or two to say hello and do whatever we want up there with no restriction at all. We just say whatever comes to our mind or in some cases they do the exact same thing every night or whatever we do to give Paul his props... you know, just wait a second, let me do this and I didn't know what would happen you know.
Jorie: He didn't know you were going to do that?
BRIAN: Hell no, of course not.
Jorie: Did he get embarrassed?
BRIAN: No, I think he was surprised. He was really chuffed and really pleased with it. He gave me this really sweet smile afterwards and pointed at me like, "YOU GOT ME!" Like you would if you made somebody get choked up. That's the kind of recognition it was. It surprised him in a nice way. It's something I felt like doing that night. It's a special thing... It choked both of us up. I was looking at him right after it happened. We looked each other in the eyes and we were both like gulping for air a little bit.
Jorie: Is there anything that stands out for you from this tour. Something that caught your eye? Something touching?
BRIAN: I just think there's a feeling that happens between an audience and a performer in our case the band, you know. Something that's just hard to put into words. That feeling that you get. It's nice that the audience can know how important they are to our show. So I'm touched when I see a husband and wife or a boyfriend and girlfriend having an authentic, genuine memory together and you can just feel that these people are putting this away in their little mental, you know, scrapbook for all time and you feel that you're a part of that and it's pretty special. Whether it's a dad and a daughter, or a husband and wife, or boyfriend or girlfriend or a son and mom...
Jorie: You don't see people running to the bathroom?
BRIAN: Hey, everyone has to go sometime, you know what I'm saying? The bathroom I mean. [laughs]
Jorie: Any backstage fun stuff?
BRIAN: Oh, there's always fun stuff you know... Backstage we get up to all sorts of antics and we always get together with Paul in our dressing room. He comes to our dressing room and we do a little vocal warm-up before we go out. We're always horsing around. We're always running down the halls and doing something silly. You know there's always something fun going on.
Jorie: What is the behind the "finger wiggle" Paul does with band onstage?
BRIAN: Oh, that's just an old sort of musician's handshake that dates back to cool jazz and blues players from the '30s, '40s and '50s. They used to shake hands like this [demonstrates] where they just fiddle with their fingers and that was the cool handshake. And we do that.
Jorie: I've noticed that everyone wears the white bracelets. What are those for?
BRIAN: Oh, the white bands are from the LIVE 8 show and on it, it says, "Make poverty history 2005." And they were given to us because we participated in the Live 8 show. We're living in a time right now where in this country many of us are very fortunate and many in this country have been hit with unforeseen circumstances in the wake of Katrina. There's a lot of people having a lot of trouble right now and you know and as far as LIVE 8 goes I mean it's just important for an artist like Paul to generously give his time to a cause like that to wake people up to the issues of debt relief you know and what's going on in countries...
Jorie: What was it like the first time you held your album in your hands?
BRIAN: It just feels like you know, Gosh... It's a, it's a real tangible product that you can hold in your hand. Evidence of my love for music and my relationships with musician friends and my relationships through my life. It's just right there in my hand and it will last on long after we're all gone. We have all these wonderful documents and I got to do that which is really great. I'll probably do some more at some point.
Jorie: How did you come up with the title for your album, "Mondo Magneto?"
BRIAN: I was listening to the playback of "Soft Machine" and the phrase just occurred to me "Mondo Electro Magneto." It's this high-pitched sound that just goes on and it's just a phrase that appeared in my mind and I thought, "Oh, there's a title." It's as simple as that.
Jorie: Doesn't it mean something in Spanish?
BRIAN: Well, this is just nonsense Brian speak and it means "giant magnet." But it also has other meanings because, "mondo" is world and magneto in French parlance means "old tape machine."
Jorie: Good title.
BRIAN: Yeah, and I didn't even know that, but my French friend told me in French slang, that's what they say, "magneto" [mag-net-to]. And also "magneto" [mag-neat-o] is an electric magnet. So there's many, many ways to look at it. It just occurred to me and I said, "I'll go with that. We'll find out what it means later. " Later I found out Paul's got a song called "Magneto and Titanium Man." And I didn't realize that then. I didn't know that song when I came out with the title.
Jorie: Do you have a favorite song?
BRIAN: I'm digging it all to be honest with you. I'm having a real nice time. It's funny, I'm just happy with the whole thing I must say. It's been a real blast to do it. It's really a great project that I'm very, very proud of.
End of PART
ONE
COMING IN PART TWO!!!
What did Paul
think of Brian's album?
Brian talks about the "US" tour's most memorable moments
and his LIVE 8 experience with Paul and the band.
He also explains what the "World's Sexiest Bathroom"
photo is about and the sexy photo shoot for the his album cover.
Brian reveals who "If Your Leaving Me" is about and
more...
© 2006
copyright Jorie B. Gracen
Duplication or publication of content on this page is prohibited
without written permission.
For
more information about Brian Ray go to his official Web site at:
http://www.brian-ray.com and on MySpace http://www.myspace.com/whooray
Read Brian's 2004 Interview
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Jorie Gracen