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Matthew Wade Instagram Interview with Jim
Jan 2019 Raw video (captured from MSB Instagram) Transcript below Intro
Beginnings Influences Some artists Jim played with Musical Director Multi Instrumentalist Music Reality Shows Country Music Songwriting Jim sings Solo artist and singer Collaboration with MSB What's like to be a Professional Musician MSB: How are you doing during this time? MSB: Jim, and I have
been working together for several years now; we have written two albums
together and we're pretty deep
into our third right now; we've
been writing a lot of songs, using this time wisely.
I have a few questions to ask, I want
everyone to know you. Where some of the
inspiration
comes from in these songs because you wrote pretty
much half of my catalogue. MSB: Tell a little bit
about how you got started in music. Jim: Well, my family was musical, there was a lot of music
going on. My
grandparents were dancers, then dance
teachers and my father is a musician. There was pianos and guitars and
singing around
the house. Like in most Irish families –
there were a lot of sing-alongs. I started
playing piano when I was very young and
guitar
when I was twelve – thirteen. That's all I really wanted to do ever since I was probably 12 - 13 years old. I
didn’t really have a back-up plan; the
back-up plan was me
going to school. I went to Berklee. I
had
always cherished looking at liner notes. For those old enough to
remember what
liner notes are: these are little notes in the CDs and tapes. They used
to tell
people who wrote the songs and produced them and played different
instruments. As a kid,growing up in Philly New Jersey, I was
looking at these liner notes and I kept seeing Los Angeles come
up in the notes with all these great
studios, like Sound
Factory. So, when I was getting ready to
graduate from Berklee; Los Angeles was a place I definitely wanted to
check out. What led me out here was
knowing that a lot of
records were made here. So, I came out and worked in a mailroom
at one of the publishing
companies for a little while. I don't
think they're in existence anymore. They were
called Chrysalis and they've been
absorbed by other companies. It was an English company. I got that job through a connection at
Berklee. I was a runner. This
was when they had tapes and CDs. Their writers would write a song and
to put her on a tape and
then and then I would have to go to their house and pick it up and
drive it to
an artist's house or drive it to another label or wherever. It was cool
because
I got to learn the city pretty well. I had one of those Thomas guides.
This it
was like this big book and you had to flip pages trying
to find where you were. That lasted for not very long, I was
probably bad at that job, I was
pretty bad at being an assistant to a music manager. But then I got my
first
tour. Jim: First tour was a girl named Rebekah and
she was on
Elektra Records.
She had one hit song, but we opened up for Third Eye Blind
and Matchbox
Twenty,
so it was a big touring year. I really got thrown in the deep end and
it was
pretty cool. I learned a lot from the guys I was touring with. Jim: Yeah. I actually talked to the drummer a couple days ago and the bass player is a guy named John Button and I recently worked with him in the studio and he actually now plays for The Who. I talk to all of them, not frequently, but I'm still in touch with all the guys and that's one of the best things about touring. You’re going to create these relationships that can be very lasting. That was 23 years ago. We still think that we're young and rock stars. But I guess nowadays you can do it until till the end. There's a lot of guys out there in their 60s and 70s doing it. And that’s pretty awesome thing about music, you can do it for a while. MSB: Growing up, who were some
of
the artists that you listened to; that were your influences? Jim: As a piano player, I loved Billy Joel. I still think he's one of
the greatest singer songwriters of all time. As I was really getting
into piano,
Billy was a big influence and then also Bruce Hornsby as another piano
player.
Then English bands, I love Phil
Collins, Genesis as well. But in high
school, Bon Jovi
was my dude, South Jersey, 1986. I saw then in Philly multiple
times;
I was into heavier rock for a few years; had long hair but… we’re not
going to
talk about that… MSB: Here’s a question in regard to Billy Joel. Why doesn't
he write or
release new songs anymore? Jim: That's a really good question. I
think the last song on The River of Dreams
album is called Famous Last Words. I wish he’d write more
songs. I love his
music. I think as a solitary man to have
that much command of melody, chords,
lyrics, all of that -
yeah
very few people can do that. Jim: Yeah, so there's a movie called Hired Gun that was made about side men, mostly guys that do what I do and a bunch of my friends are in it and they had a night here in LA club called Lucky Strike. There were a couple of the guys who played with Billy Joel so it was really cool because I was able to be “the Billy” for a couple songs. I think we played three songs and it was really pretty awesome. The drummer Liberty DeVito was always someone that I had seen in the [liner] notes. Russell [Javors], the guitar player was there too… I always really respected those guys and so it was really fun to be able to play with them. MSB: So, over the years you've played with a lot of artists.
Tell us
about some of the artists that you played with maybe a story or two. Jim: Well, for a long time, for
almost
seven years, I played with Avril Lavigne. That was a big part of my
life in
terms of lengths. A lot of guys that to do what I do go from one to
another; you do
a little chunk there, a year or two here and a year or two there. But
to play
with someone for seven years (off and on) is pretty significant. I played in this band called the New
Radicals when I was very young and then I played with a
girl named Michelle
Branch
right as she was getting going and that was really great fun. MSB: Remind everybody who the New Radicals are. Jim: The big song was called You Get What You Give,
one of the biggest songs that year ('98 or '99) and
again what's great about that is I still
talk to most of those guys. One of my best friends is Brad Fernquist who
was in
that band who also plays in the Goo Goo Dolls with me as well
now. Funny thing: New Radicals opened for the Goo Goo Dolls in 1999 and then Brad ended up joining that band 14-15 years ago and now but now he and I are playing together again for the last few years. So it's been great because when you're out on the road it’s nice to have buddies and friends and we go back a long way so there's a lot of history there. Actually, Brad and I played together with Michelle Branch as well so there’s a small world of guys that do this and really. If you stick around long enough you're going to run into each other. Years with Avril were really great. MSB: You were the MD. Right? Jim: For some of the time, yes. The first year I was not and
then I became
the musical director. MSB: Can you tell people a little bit about that, what
doesan MD do? Jim: The easiest way that that I describe it to people is -
everybody
knows what a director of a film or a TV
show does. They
are the main guy that is responsible for
the project. When you go in the studio, a producer is the main guy, the music producer is responsible for the album. The musical director is responsible for
the music of the live show. I
didn't really know much about it to be
honest, about what a musical director was until I became
one by default right early on in my
career but then as I've worked and
gotten in more situations, I see the benefit of having someone who's
maybe
outside of the band or maybe not the
artist that can take on certain tasks and be
delegated authority and obviously coming up with some
musical things
too. MSB: Right, so
like if there's an orchestra you're the
conductor so to speak, of the band? Jim: Yeah, you could say that. MSB: So that our friends
listening in home get a scope of it. It’s pretty cool in some ways
you're arranging a lot of the music too, correct? Jim: Yeah, so one of the things
that musical director can do is take something that you have a live
recording of
but then you have to translate that into a band. I
know a lot of artists and bands use tracks now,
but it was a little bit different but when I started. So you have this
big production
with all these tracks and all these things going on and then you have
five guys
so you have to figure out how to make all that music with a hundred
tracks of
stuff on the recording be played by five guys. Here's one interesting example. When playing
with Avril Lavigne who
is really popular in Japan, we were doing a series of shows there. They
have
these Taiko drummers, these big drum players there that's very popular
there. It's
an instrument that we don't really work with here very much in the
States. We had someone say, “Hey why don't
these
famous Taiko drummers play with you guys?” So
I had to figure out some parts for them to
play on (What
the Hell) and also to figure
out how do
you add this musical element which doesn't necessarily belong in the
song but
you got to make it fit into the song. Gotta do it! So that’s like a curveball that
they can throw at you. Or if a
singer is tight and they want to lower a
key for a song, then you have to figure
that out and relay that to the band. That's a fairly common issue. MSB: Having gone to Berklee, you have a really good sense of
music
theory in a lot of different ways. Maybe it's not just to amount it to
Berklee but I've worked with a lot of
people over the
years and you have a pretty vast knowledge and you play a lot of
different
instruments as well. Tell us a little bit about it, did that come from
Berklee or
it just came from over the years, like
you said, just playing with different guys. How'd you pick up all that?
Jim: I had a drum set early on
which
is cool. Rhythm is obviously a massive
part of being a musician and everybody feels and hears the rhythm in a different way which is strange. Once you
start getting into the nuance of music : everybody can clap on two and
four but
it's how close to it you are? Are you behind, are you ahead, what your
tendencies are? So, having a drum set early on was pretty helpful to me
and
just in terms of getting a little bit of a basis of rhythm. I also
think having
multiple instruments, guitar and piano from an early age really helps
because
they're pretty different in your approach to playing them. I play guitar like a piano player so I approach it in a bit of a different way. Piano
is my home, that's where I feel the most
comfortable. But what was ironic is: I started playing in this
television show RockStar
INXS and RockStar Supernova and I pretty much play
guitar
95% of the
time on that and so that really helped my guitar playing making up for
those where
I was primarily more playing piano. I always felt that the diversity was going to
be important. Anything that you can do to set you apart from another
musician…
You know, if there's two guys or five guys up for the job and then four
of them
only play one instrument and you play two or if you play two and sing… MSB: Which you also do, you also sing, quite well for that
matter. MSB: Tell us a little but more about Rockstar INXS
and Rockstar
Supernova show, I remember when that came out. Now we have these
other shows The
Voice and things like that. Tell us about that? Jim: It was great. For me, it
was a rock-and-roll boot camp because it was very challenging. We would
have to
play 20-30 songs a week and do different versions of these classic rock
songs. So
you’re taking Brown Sugar from The Stones or The Who
but
you're cutting the version down from four minutes or three and a half
minutes
to one and a half minute. So not only do you have to learn 30 different
songs; you have to learn them in a new
arrangement. But it was an
amazing experience, multiple nights a week on CBS,
I got some great recognition
from that and again, lifelong
friends. Most of the band that was in
the Rockstar Houseband is actually The Voice band now. I've
worked on
that show for a brief time as well; but
those guys have been doing The Voice for 10 years now. MSB: What do you think about shows like The Voice or
American
Idol in terms of breaking artists or
just how they're perceived by the
general public? Being in it and seeing
up from close, what’s your take on it? Jim: It’s tough. I have conflicting feelings. On one side of
course I
love the idea that people are getting discovered that don't normally
get the
chance to be discovered. On the other side, I
feel like a lot of people don't think about
the contestants that maybe get to the top 20 or 10 and for a week or
two; riding
really high on life and they're getting people telling them that all
these
great things are going to happen for the and
then a month or two later they're forgotten.
That’s hard for me. The other part
is, being an artist is very different than being a great singer. People
have
asked me that question before. Springsteen wouldn't
have gotten past the first
round, Bob Dylan… They MSB: I did a couple of try outs for and I found the same
thing which
you're describing. You get up there, you got 30 seconds and they're judging you in 30 seconds on your
whole history of music. I would agree
with your assessment and think that it's a certain lane for certain
people. Jim: The other part is, you're thrown in and if you win or
if you're at
the top couple; when the show ends you pretty much have to put a record
out instantly
and most things in life take time. Good
things and great art usually aren’t done
in in a weekend, right? But the problem
with
certain shows especially The Voice is that the
next season happens so
quickly that by the time the artist or contestants get
some music out, there's another season and
the audience is looking at these other people. They're
like not thinking about the
last season. It bums me out: they get
built up and then it's hard for them to sustain
it. MSB: Speaking of The Voice, one of your recent gigs
was actually
with Gwen Stefani… Jim: Actually, there's two artists. I
worked with Cassadee
Pope who's won The
Voice in 2012. So that was quite a while ago. I worked with her for
a bit
and in the country world and then and then Gwen from
2015
for a couple of
years. MSB: What was like for you doing a country gig? Jim: It was interesting and one of the reasons why I wanted to do that was because I had never
done that before. I like to experience
things I never experienced before. Not
necessarily
check off boxes, but it was a world that I didn't know a lot about, but
I had a
lot of friends who live in Nashville working that way. It's just very
different than from the way they
run the music business here in Los Angeles. There was some adjusting
but the music was great. Cassadee
is a great singer and I got to see a lot of really good
singers that we ended up opening for, like
Rascal Flatts.
That was cool to be in
that
world for a little. But I'm definitely more comfortable in pop/rock
world. MSB: We've always gotten on so well is that we have similar
tastes and
music and which kind of leads me my next question. In addition
to being multi-instrumentalist having done
all these gigs you're also a songwriter
yourself. Jim: I do write songs. Yes,
only
for myself in a while but yeah I write a lot and working
with you a lot which has been great especially
during this time. It's
been a really positive experience and just like you were saying
earlier, keep
the muscles moving. Anytime you're being creative is to me probably the
closest to being a child
that you can get as an
adult because you're trying to tap into that mindset where you know
anything's
possible and I love that. Jim: Yeah! I mean, the blank
page can be scary but the more you do it,
the less intimidating it is, right? MSB: I really enjoyed that process. It's interesting because
when you get
in a room - I'm sure since you've written with a lot of different
people ; there's always a different chemistry.
Tell me a little bit what's it like for you when you're
writing with someone like me as
opposed to when you're writing just on your own and tell the
people a little bit what's
your songwriting process like? Jim: Every everyone is different. I think we've written
enough together
to know that some days it's a lyric first or
you'll
say, “Hey I was going through this thing” and you'll start talking
about it and
then maybe you'll say something and I'll say, “Hey that what you just
said there,
that's something!”. So, we're going to start with a line, a lyrical
topic idea.
It's pretty collaborative in terms of melody, chord and lyric; circling
around the
same time. I very rarely will do I a whole song with just chords and
melody without a lyric or I
won't write a long list of
lyrics without having some a Jim: Did we write with Rob Valier?
I have written fifty, hundred songs
with Rob. We know each other really well so that all usually goes
pretty quickly and it's always
fun because of the because energy. But
certain people have that great energy to0 and that can bring something
out and come
up with a line or a melody that I would never think of! I haven't
really
written solitary very much at all just because I don't enjoy that
process
as much as I do when I write
with someone else. As a writer, any writer, whether you're writing
books
or poems or music, self-doubt is always
your
biggest enemy. So here you have other people that you respect their
opinion;
if those agree that something's decent,
it's much easier moving on to the next part, right? If you have
multiple people saying, “Yeah, yeah that's good!” we move
to the next part. MSB: We both know right away if
something's right or it's not. I
think
that's also a cool feeling and one of the
reasons that I enjoy the writing process
a lot more now than I used to and why got more into the co-writing.
I've
written with all different kinds of people over the years, but I think
when
you're playing music with people too,
there's
chemistry that also comes into play MSB: That's a cool feeling because it’s almost like you have
to tap
into this even more creative part of your brain. Jim: You never really know what
it
is but a lot of times I know what it isn't and then it's just a matter
of discarding
all the
wrong lines to get the right one or melodies or whatever it may be.
Sometimes it takes time after the
first sitting to say if it
works or not. MSB: You were mentioning that can go to another instrument or what we've learned in our writing process
is,
if we find ourselves stuck on one thing we go to something else and
then we
come back and it usually opens the door. Jim: And sometimes just going to the bathroom and then
coming back. I
don’t know how many lines I have come up while there [Marica: TMI, Jim!]
Sometimes is
just a change
of scenery, going to another room or go outside. MSB: Sometimes, when you’re thinking too hard about it and
nothing
comes to you and you let it go – then it pops right back in your brain. Jim: Like most things in life. MSB: Jim, how do you feel
about playing us a tune? Jim: Yeah I could play a little bit. I
was trying to think what songs were
appropriate for what's going on in the world right now. My daughter and
I were playing
the other day at the piano. MSB: How old is your daughter? Jim: She is 7
going on 15. She's gotten very interested in guitar
lessons
but she's playing piano. She
won't let me teach her of course but she she's subliminally picking
things up.
We were messing with We Didn't Start
The Fire by Billy Joel. I
can't get
into that one because there's like nine million words and there’s no
way I'll
get it right. But there's a newer song by Coldplay called Everyday
Life that I think is nice and I was playing around with it
the
other day, so
I'll give
you a little bit of that.
MSB: Sounds great man! MSB: I want everyone to get
a chance to hear you sing
because you're a great
singer too. A lot of them might not know
that you also do the backup vocals for a lot of the projects that
you're doing. But you have a great lead singer's
voice. If you wanted to go
out and do your own thing you could be the
lead singer. I've always
been
curious, maybe even pushed you a little bit and said, “How come you
never really
went out and tried to do your own thing?” Jim: Oh, I tried! Long time ago, though. When I first moved
to Los
Angeles, that's what I wanted to pursue. I wrote songs, I had bands, I
came
really close to some record deals, I had an indie deal, I had a couple
production publishing deals. I realized
later in life, it takes a certain kind of
person to be an artist, to be a really big, successful artist and there
are certain
character traits that either I didn't have at the time or didn't want
to utilise
at the time. I still do songs; I still write and record, but I've been
very apprehensive
about releasing things which is pretty silly in this day and age.
MSB: I love your stuff man; I think that the world can
certainly
benefit from it. That's one of the reasons to that I always enjoy
writing with you too, you also
bring the best out of people around you that you work with; so, I think
the world
needs more Jimmy McGorman music. Jim: I appreciate that. Music is a wonderful thing and at different times in my life I've wanted to push myself more as an artist. I've been enjoying the writing and recording for my own projects and then just kind of hanging on to them for a minute. But I will eventually put more music out to the world as a singer. But, yeah thanks man! It's not like I didn't try to do that. I tried to do that for many years, but life takes you in different directions. Somebody mentioned
something about a song
called There’s
No Over
You, which is a song that I wrote about 8 years ago. That’s one
song that I
released a video for. That’s a nice song. MSB: Yeah I like that one. There was a song that you played
for me
recently or maybe was not even that recent now, maybe a year or two
ago that you started. I was prodding you to just keep writing and you said, “Hey man,
check out
this song!” I don’t
remember what it was called… Jim: Oh, maybe Hundred And One Goodbyes, that might be it. That's another thing, if I can, I’ll try to get Sydney, my daughter, to sing on some stuff like on that one. That will get out eventually. MSB: A lot of my listeners are familiar with the work we've
done together;
we put out two records ; we got the first one, The
Willing to Try
record
and we got Holding Out For Hope; then we got a whole
another
record that nobody's heard yet. What songs
come
to
mind that you’re proud of or that you enjoy listening to? Jim: I think Dancing Around Destiny it is always going to be a standout for me, loved that song! Then Hearts Breakdown was always one of my favorites, I really liked that one. But then, going back to the first one, The Girl You Think You Know, there was something special about that song. I really liked that song; that's a nice song and I love the lyrics. I love a lot of them, and I am proud of all of them. I think Everyday Is A Weekend as a really fun song. That was a tough one to write. Kind of up and fun Train-esque kind of song. Those are some of my favorites. What's like to be a Professional Musician MSB: We're taking questions too if anyone wants to ask. I think
you want to ask the audience a question – you were telling me a little
bit
about a project you got coming up. Do you want to ask the audience a question? Jim: One of the questions that I had is: What would you like
to know
about professional musicians that you don't know the answer to. Because
I think
there's a lot of misnomers out there and I think there's a lot of
misinformation and assumptions that people have about professional
musicians. I have been working quietly on a book
idea to shed some light on that subject are there any questions anyone
has about the life of a
professional musician? MSB: It's funny, because that was actually one of my
questions that I
didn't ask you. What would you consider life like as a professional
musician or
what's life like on the road? We have a question: Do
they live the lives of the songs they sing? It's all the same, only the names will
change It's the same thing every night after
night, after night and there's a lot of
monotony… Jim: It can be at times. We got to separate the successful
artists from
the side man musician but sometimes it can be good! If
you work with a big artist, get to go on
private planes with them to
certain luxury destinations, but not all the time… MSB: How do you balance family life? Jim: It’s hard to balance
family
life, very hard. You just do the best
you can just like with everything else. Try
to work
hard but then also take time to
spend with the ones you love. Being away from home is probably the
hardest thing about being a professional musician, at least for me. Raw video (captured from MSB Intragram) Home |
