For me, I find that a bit boring for me to listen to. That's what a lot of people do and I don't find anything wrong with that but it just doesn't work for me. I didn't just want to create formats to jam over. And that it would be an instrumental album of songs.
That there would be blues playing over non-traditional progressions and chord changes. But the whole idea was that this would be a blues album but not in the traditional sense. Although "222 W 23rd" was also influenced by the title. Let's go with that." And I think "The Brooklyn Shuffle" was influenced by the title more than any of them. I said, "Well that's an even better title. But when Karen put it up on Kickstarter, she called it the Manhattan Blues Project and I liked that. Because when he did the Kickstarter thing, I was going to call the album Manhattan Blues. I think some of the songs probably were influenced by the title. I'm going to stick that in there." I like that sort of thing and that's actually how the whole album developed.ĪntiMusic: Did the title of the disc happen to influence any songs in a direction that you may not have intended otherwise? I like to let it go where it's going to go and sounds come out and you go, "Oh I like that. And I think for some bizarre reason, I think that's one of those creative things that's not always in your hands. It started coming together and having continuity. And sonically, things came out as I was working on each track. So I thought I'll just do a tribute to one of the most incredible cities in the world. Because I love New York City so much and I've never ever been able to live there for whatever reason. Sometimes it went the wrong way so you have to go back and rethink it and sometimes completely rewrite it but there was something in "Sunset in Central Park" that worked for me and it was inspired by a picture on Facebook that a friend had taken of Central Park right around sunset and it was just a beautiful picture and the song kind of came from that photo.Īnd also, I'll say that the concept for the album came off of Central Park. So as I'm coming up with sounds or parts or as I'm writing, I kind of like to let the song go where it wants to go. Steve: "Sunset in Central Park" was actually the first song I wrote and I like to just let the songs go where they want to go. And I got ideas and things like that.ĪntiMusic: At what point, did the sonic direction of the CD become clear to you? Now I didn't write any of the songs in my mind per se but I did come up with the concepts and the types of songs and what I was going to try to accomplish with the album while I was out on the road. So I started working on the album during that time on the road when there's nothing to do and it keeps my mind occupied. So I have to keep my mind occupied and it's great for that because I can work out guitar solos in my head and things like that. So in a way, it's sort of a gift because I can't read or do visual things that much. So when I'm laying in the bunk on the bus and trying to go to sleep, normally I would have read something but instead what I did was I started planning out how I'd like to do this record. It's kind of a weird problem because my sight problems make it difficult for me to read or anything like that. There's a lot of traveling time and a lot of waiting time and stuff like that. Steve: Well, as you've probably heard, there's a lot of boring time on the road. Is that correct and if so, what was it about this environment that put you in such a creative headspace that you had to tackle this project? It was an absolute pleasure to speak with him for a bit recently to find out what went into making it.ĪntiMusic: I've read that while you had some songs written before that, it was when you were on the tour with Alice Cooper that you really started to put this record together in your head. Steve put out his latest solo album, The Manhattan Blues Project earlier this year and it's simply excellent. In demand as a band member and session player alike, Hunter has played and toured with the likes of Alice Cooper, Lou Reed, Mitch Ryder David Lee Roth, Peter Gabriel and many more for more than 40 years. Talk to any major guitarist of a certain age and they will point to Hunter as an influence for both his fiery live playing as well as his tasty studio renderings. To illustrate that, I was interviewing Lita Ford recently and she told me that one of the first things that made a huge impression on her musically was seeing Alice Cooper back in the '70s and the dueling between legendary players Steve Hunter and Dick Wagner. Steve Hunter's guitar playing has influenced a generation.
0 kommentar(er)
