Niles interview with Daryl Hayott
There is a rather hip cat called Daryl Hayott who has a rather hip website called www.darylmagazine.com
This guy keeps calling me in London from the old country to interview me for his web magazine. The best thing I can say about his magazine is, the ink doesn't rub off on your fingers, but I'm not sure about Daryl! Anyway, I double-dog-dare you to read the interview below. Let me know what you think!
Hayott’s questions:
Q: To what do you attribute your attitude to your work?
NILES: My father, Tony Romano, was a composer, singer and guitarist with a highly original personality in his work. He was also highly opinionated. He worked with Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Johnny Mercer and the jazz violinist Joe Venuti. So I grew up with what you might call ‘attitude’. I have always looked for another way to do things – more emotion – the hip polymeter - the chord that makes you say ‘Whoa!’ I always knew my work would be, in the literal sense of the word, remarkable. I like it when people ‘get’ my musical jokes.
Q: How have you been influenced by some of the great artists you’ve worked with?
NILES: I‘ve been fortunate enough to work with a lot of artists who were literally phenomenal. Ray Charles, Paul McCartney, Michael McDonald, Pat Metheny, Lyle Mays, Martin Taylor, Jane Monheit, Bob James – come on, Daryl!!! You can’t help being influenced to try to emulate their attitude, talent, creativity and work-ethic.
Q: You’ve been fairly dismissive of the pop world since 1990. Why?
NILES: In the 90s, independent labels such as Atlantic, Motown were absorbed by multinational conglomerates. The indies had been run by music loving entrepreneurs such as Ahmet Ertegun or Berry Gordy. Their love and understanding of talent and music enabled them to discover, sign and promote new, exciting original talent. A&R staff were musicians such as Arif Mardin, George Martin, Quincy Jones…
The majors who took over were business oriented. They generally hired people from marketing to do the job of A&R. This was a mistake. They gave us the ‘racing form’ mentality. ‘X is successful, go sign 6 more artists who sound like X.’ The public doesn’t want clones, they want inspiration. They got bored and stopped buying records.
But there’s another more serious problem. I teach degree students between the ages of 18 to 30. They have never heard any music before 1995. They don’t know Sinatra, Ray Charles, The Beatles, Stevie Wonder, Joni Mitchell, Marvin Gaye, Bob Dylan – much less Bach, Beethoven or Mozart! When I was a kid growing up in the 60s, I was introduced to music. The creativity of artists in the 60s was a result of the collective consciousness at the time. Ordinary people had been brought up with basic classical music, Stephen Foster, Broadway musicals, Louis Armstrong, Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Ella Fitzgerald… They learned music in schools. That allowed the innovation of the 60s not only to develop, but be appreciated by the public – who were hip!
Today’s youth are uneducated and therefore ignorant. An ignorant public buys ignorant music – which is, for the most part, what we have. Our education system in the UK and US is reprehensible, with standards being constantly lowered to cover up the truth of this crisis. Education is paramount. That’s why I teach and why it is the duty of every musician to turn young people on to the great artists of the past. This is the real revolution. Without knowledge and analysis of the past we cannot create an informed future.
The only hope for creative music is for musicians to bypass the majors and use the internet. Technology has put power into the hands of the artist. We can afford our own studios, form our own labels and market our music online. Long live CD Baby and all who sail in her. Long live the revolution!
Q: Is there anyone you admire in today’s music world?
NILES: I’ve recently worked with a great British band called The Feeling. Check them out! Great songs, great musicianship, great melodies – perfect pop that is everything pop should be.
Another artist who deserves international success is the young British bassist and composer Janek Gwizdala. This guy is so talented and hip and has an inspired and inspiring attitude. Check him out at www.janekbass.com
Also, I just finished producing and co-writing an album for a new artist, YOUNEE. She’s a young Korean singer, songwriter and virtuoso pianist. When forced to describe the music we’ve created, I say, “Imagine Elton John songs played by Herbie Hancock and sung by the Bangles.” Catchy tunes, hip lyrics, emotional ballads, serious grooves. Sounds like a formula for international success to me! The album, “True to You” is available through CD Baby and her website www.youneeversal.com. We’re looking for a major label, publisher or management. Meanwhile, we’re doing OK on our own!
Q: Why do you think you’ve been working steadily since 1976?
NILES: People want to work with me because I am very creatively motivated and very professional. If I do a project, I GUARANTEE it will be artistically remarkable AND on time and within budget.
Q: What is the function of the contemporary artist and how does it differ from the past?
NILES: All human beings have a primary function: survival. Life is good and makes us happy. Death is bad and makes us miserable. At least that's the attitude of Western thought. Buddhists and Hindus and other Eastern religions look at death as a natural and necessary part of life. They also believe in stuff like reincarnation. That's all very lovely but let me know what they're really thinking with a firing squad taking aim, or some doctor telling them they have terminal halitosis!
So artists, who are human, have the function of promoting life, health and happiness. So the function of the artist hasn't changed. At different periods of history, the artist has had to do this in different ways, depending on how stressful the zeitgeist happened to be.
After WW1 artists helped the public express their relief by providing entertainment. During WW2 the Allies were fighting a war everybody believed in and artists celebrated the values they were fighting for.
Things went slightly 'pear-shaped' in the 50's & 60's. Everyone who lived through this period was forced in some way to re-evaluate their lives, beliefs, moral values and sense of reality. Bob Dylan's lyrics summed it up when he sang "the times they are a-changin'". And where previous singers had to have beautiful tone, time and intonation, no one cared about that stuff with Dylan - they needed to hear what he was saying.
Young people couldn't help thinking that the older generation wasn't so hip. They invented this thing called the atomic bomb and created a world where anyone who wasn't living in fear of immanent annihilation was an idiot. So all previous beliefs were open to question and great artists like Dylan, Allan Ginsberg, Joni Mitchell and James Brown helped people re-evaluate themselves and their culture.
Today we find ourselves in an increasingly corporate planet where the rich get richer and the general public seems happy to distract themselves from the real issues with superficial stupidity such as reality TV and fashion and sex and drugs and… I could go on but I guess you get it?
Q: So what should artists do?
NILES: I'm glad you asked that. It depends on the type of artist you are. One type is happy just to entertain. That requires some talent, but remember, some people are entertained by someone falling flat on their face. Some are even entertained by Simon Cowell's brand of TV.
For me, the 'true' artist wants to both entertain and educate/illuminate – to change the audience's point of view – to make them more aware. This type of artist must reject the corporate fascism of major record labels and the inane lies of the media. They must wage artistic guerrilla warfare using the freedom given us by the internet. The real hero of our time is Derek Sivers of CD Baby for putting power in the hands of the creative musician – power to market their own music their way – and make money doing it.
Q: Why don't you include Bill Gates for his expansion of the internet?
NILES: Because he charges people a lot of money for his product while Derek Sivers charged them a flat fee of $35. Bill Gates is one of the richest guys on the planet. What does he do with his money? Does he use it to provide free high quality education for the entire world – especially the poorer countries, like some of the African nations and The Philippines? They need it because they have asinine governments who purposely keep their people stupid and poor!
And speaking of wanting to keep people stupid and poor, would someone explain to me why, in a civilized democracy, the US government, with all their billions of tax dollars, can't or won't guarantee a college education to everyone in the USA? As any idiot can see, this isn't a civilized democracy. Without a well-educated population, governments can get the masses to vote for corrupt demagogues who spout asinine populist clichés and call everybody "folks". Uneducated, how can the public understand anyone who is intelligent?
Q: You certainly are ranting a lot!
A: Well, you asked!
Q: So what you're saying is that artists have a moral imperative to make the world a better place?
A: Exactly! Now you've really got it Daryl!
Q: Isn't the word "better" subjective?
A: Absolutely not! Morality has become very unfashionable and politically incorrect. In the '60s, people rejected previous concepts of morality, but they had a new morality based on peace, love and brown rice. Today morality itself is regarded as a rather naive concept when compared to such things as greed & selfishness. 'Let's fiddle while Rome burns!'
But if I want to have an objective judgment on right and wrong, as I said, I look to biology. Biology is what we share with all living creatures (and avocados). Survival is the universal biological objective. Therefore anything that is life promoting and life enhancing is 'good', and anything that is life diminishing and life depressing is 'bad'. That's why hitting someone over the head with a mallet is bad while giving someone a hug is 'good'. That's why drinking apple juice is good and drinking vodka is bad, no matter how much you may personally enjoy it! That's why watching a DVD of Joni Mitchell or Keith Jarrett is good and watching TV commercials or any program with Simon Cowell is bad.
So any serious artist has to be aware of this.
Q: You're some kinda guy, Dr. Niles.
A: Thanks, but that isn't a question!
