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Letters To Cleo

Photo by Chris Sikich

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Letters To Cleo "Cleo-ize" The Holidays On The Limited-Edition 'OK Christmas' EP

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"'Ok Christmas' is this year’s annual holiday gift to our fans," Kay Hanley, lead singer of the Boston alt-rock troupe, tells the Recording Academy
Will Hodge
GRAMMYs
Nov 25, 2019 - 12:29 pm

"Every year we joke about doing a Christmas record," laughs Letters To Cleo lead singer Kay Hanley, "but this year we decided to get serious and finally do it." Since reuniting in 2016, the beloved Boston alt-rockers have been playing a year-end run of shows where they like to have a surprise or two up their sleeves. "For the last couple of years, it’s been a bit of a tradition for us to tour in November," says Hanley. "When you only go on tour once a year, you can’t go out empty-handed. So, Ok Christmas is this year’s annual holiday gift to our fans."

Comprised of three holiday covers and a newly penned original, the Ok Christmas EP finds the band mining the often-overlooked corners of the Christmas canon for some left-of-center chestnuts through which to celebrate their seasonal spirit. Where some bands stumble when it comes to covering other artists' material, Letters To Cleo have been showcasing their unique talent for reinterpretation since their original run in the 1990s. They memorably became soundtrack/compilation phenoms with covers of The Cars' "Dangerous Type” (from cult classic "The Craft"), Fleetwood Mac’s "Dreams" (from the Spirit Of '73: Rock For Choice album) and their double-dipped entry of Cheap Trick's "I Want You To Want Me" and Nick Lowe's "Cruel To Be Kind" from the soundtrack to the high school rom-com 10 Things I Hate About You (a film in which they also make multiple on-screen appearances).

For Ok Christmas, Letters To Cleo bypassed the well-worn holiday fare for a trio of Christmas covers from The Kinks, Elvis Presley and The Dogmatics, a fellow Boston rock band that was active in the early-to-mid 1980s. However, even when they start off with another band’s material, Hanley and her bandmates can always find the right avenue through which to properly "Cleo-ize" their bouncy, buzzy, cranked-to-11 interpolations. There are no kids' choirs, church organs, "Jingle Bells" motifs or any other seasonal saccharine to be found here—not even in the EP's title. "We went through all the schmaltzy titles like Cleo For The Holidays or Cleo Does Christmas, but none of that was working. I suggested Ok Christmas because it’s a play on Radiohead's OK Computer, which is a phrase I’ve been using a lot in the last few years when responding to bots on Twitter," laughs Hanley.

To get a behind-the-scenes look at the making of Ok Christmas, the Recording Academy chatted with Hanley about her own connection to holiday music, the band's song selection process and the inspiration behind each of the four tracks.

Kay Hanley: Once we finally decided to record a Christmas EP, everything came together pretty quickly. We did a little deep dive into potential songs and democratically chose which ones we were going to do. However, as with most holiday albums, we had to record it in the least Christmas-like atmosphere you could imagine: 90 degrees in July in Los Angeles in a little studio over in Koreatown. But we had a good time and just went for it. Even the artwork process turned out simple enough. Our graphic designer, Nicole Anguish of Daykamp Creative, came up with the cover on her very first pass. She only showed us one thing and we were immediately blown away!

During the recording sessions for Ok Christmas, the band didn't try to manufacture any fake holiday spirit by stringing lights all over the studio or by putting up a Christmas tree in the corner of the control room. Instead, Hanley felt that she and her bandmates were able to stir up the exact inspiration they needed from their own nostalgic memories and their personal connections to the holiday music of their childhood.

Kay Hanley: I grew up in a very devout Catholic family and my parents listened to a lot of Elvis and a lot of religious music around the holidays. So, I was a big fan of Christmas music, especially the big dramatic church songs like "O Holy Night." In fact, we almost did "O Holy Night," but it was really hard to figure out how to get the right Cleo vibe on it, so we didn't push it. Even though I'm a Catholic atheist, I love the holiday and everything about it. I haven't been to a Christmas mass since moving to Los Angeles. However, there's a church right across the street from us, so maybe I’ll take the kids this year because the place is really beautiful.

One of the potential tracks that all of the band members immediately agreed on was The Kinks' 1977 holiday single "Father Christmas." While the original has long been an anchor of power-pop holiday playlists thanks to its roaring guitars and propulsive drumming, Letters To Cleo managed to further the song's intensity through their amped-up romp that serves as the door-busting opener to Ok Christmas.

Kay Hanley: There was never going to be a Cleo Christmas album without The Kinks on it. "Father Christmas" was just automatically going to be on there. It was the first one we chose and we just all knew it was going to happen. We all love The Kinks and it was such a blast to record. I hope the fun we had really comes through in the recording.

However, hidden away in Ray Davies' satirical lyrics about a department store Santa getting roughed up by an unruly gang of kids was one specific line—"But if you've got one, I'll take a machine gun/So I can scare all the kids on the street"—that didn’t sit quite well with the band in light of America's ongoing gun violence epidemic.

Kay Hanley: We had just finished tracking all of the music for our version of "Father Christmas" when the mass shooting in El Paso happened. Our guitarist, Greg McKenna, texted the band on our group chat and asked if we should change the machine gun lyric. My first instinct was to leave it intact, just because I’m a songwriting purist. To be honest with you, the machine gun line had always just floated over my head because the whole song is just so tongue-in-cheek in the way it’s commenting on class and the haves vs. the have-nots. But it only took a few minutes for me to be like, "Oh no, we can't use that lyric." It just seemed really tone-deaf in the face of the gun violence crisis that our country is going through. I went to Twitter and slid up into The Kinks' mentions, told them that we were recording the song, and explained why we wanted to change the machine gun lyric. We didn't hear back from them, but our fans saw it and offered up some ideas on how to switch it up. One of our fans, Eric Reiberg, made a suggestion that I ended up modifying a little into a new couplet —"Can you meltdown all the machine guns/So the kids are safe on the street." It feels so much better now. Hopefully, Ray Davies won't be mad at us.    

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For their next cover in the Ok Christmas tracklist, Letters To Cleo pulled out another '70s seasonal singalong. "If I Get Home On Christmas Day" was originally recorded by Elvis Presley for his 1971 album Elvis Sings The Wonderful World of Christmas. While the maudlin mid-tempo ballad may have shared a release decade with the spunky "Father Christmas," it certainly didn't share the same level of enthusiasm from the band during the Ok Christmas song selection discussions. At least, not until McKenna reworked the overly sentimental arrangement into the charming, twangy shuffle that eventually won Hanley over.

Kay Hanley: Greg brought this one to the band because he was the only one daring enough to look for the unknown songs that no one really covers. Initially, I wasn't into that approach at all and wanted stuff that people would immediately recognize. So when Greg first showed us this Elvis song, I was like "Hell no, absolutely not!" However, he worked up a different arrangement on guitar and sent me over a demo and I was like "Yes, this is fantastic now!" Our sound lends itself nicely to that sort of soft rockabilly vibe. So, even though it’s kind of twangy, I still feel like it’s very Cleo. It was surprisingly hard to sing though! 

For the final cover of the four-song EP, the band tipped their hat (a Red Sox cap, naturally) to their Boston roots by tackling the surly "X'mas Time (It Sure Doesn't Feel Like It)" by the Boston garage-rock band The Dogmatics. Originally appearing on the hard-to-find 1984 holiday compilation A Midnight Christmas Mess alongside Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, Droogs and The Cheepskates, "X’mas Time" paints a dour picture of the snowswept city during the holidays, while shouting out a few of the "less touristy" local landmarks.

Kay Hanley: This song was actually our manager’s idea. I think he’s been trying to pawn this one off on us for years. I have to admit, even as a huge Boston music fan, I wasn't familiar with the song at all. At first, we ignored him, because that's what you do with managers, but we eventually came around to it. Musically, it's kind of long and doesn't go anywhere, but the vibe of it is absolutely perfect. It’s very defeated, very Boston—it doesn’t get more true-to-type than this song. I like that the lyrics are so visual for me. Filene’s Basement was my grandmother’s favorite department store. It was downtown, right at the edge of the Combat Zone, with a lot of seedy characters around there. Pine Street Inn is a homeless shelter in the South End. At the time this song was written in the early 1980s, it was in a very desolate, very bleak area. Now, the South End is one of the most gentrified areas in Boston. Pine Street Inn is currently in the middle of total opulence. The difference from then to now is absolutely nuts.

As nostalgically warm as the thick Boston threads that run through "X'mas Time" may be, the most personal musical moment on Ok Christmas lies within the band’s newly penned original, "Miss You This Christmas." Throughout the holiday heartbreaker, melancholy lyrics like "I'm not used to stringing lights alone" and "There's no cheer if you're not here" contrast smartly against the upbeat Spector-esque production touches of ringing guitars, clanging chimes and a bubbly bassline.

Kay Hanley: We really wanted to write an original for this record, so Michael Eisenstein and I made an appointment to sit down with a guitar and give it a shot. Writing a Christmas song can be really daunting because it feels like no one can bring anything new to the subject; like everything that could be said about Christmas has already been said. So I started trying to think about my boyfriend who tours a lot and is going to be gone through the holidays. I've also got two young family members who are serving overseas and I was thinking about how soldiers' partners must feel during deployment. So it all came together around hoping that your loved one will come home safe and sound for the holidays.

From the charming album artwork to the merry-making covers and the heart-warming original, Letters To Cleo have managed to craft an authentic, grade-A seasonal souvenir with Ok Christmas. They even pressed up the vinyl version of the EP on "holiday candy"-colored vinyl. Free of commercialized schmaltz and full of signature Cleo, Ok Christmas manages to find its own sonic space in the Christmas canon without just adding to all the Noel-hyped noise. However, according to Hanley, putting out a Christmas release isn’t exactly going to become a yearly tradition for the band.  

Kay Hanley: As fun as this was, we are one-and-done on the holiday EPs. A part of our annual gift is that we’re always going to try and do something different each year. However, we are hoping to have another regular, non-holiday, full-length album out sometime next year. We’ve already got like five or six songs ready to go, so that’s our plan.

The limited-edition "holiday candy" vinyl version of Letter’s to Cleo's Ok Christmas EP can be ordered directly from the band here.

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Sweetwater Music Hall

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Sweetwater Music Hall Continues Its Legacy As A Live Entertainment Venue & Community Meeting Place

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Welcoming acts like Mavis Staples, Snoop Dogg and Chris Robinson, this California venue, which officially reopened in 2012, continues to honor the original location's history
Lily O'Brien
GRAMMYs
Dec 5, 2019 - 12:52 pm

It's not easy for small music venues to succeed. It's hard to compete with well-funded corporate promoters like Goldenvoice, which books popular, successful musicians into large concert halls and mega-stadiums. There are, however, still many people who prefer to see live music in smaller, more intimate settings that have more of a community, rather than a corporate feel, and Sweetwater Music Hall in Mill Valley, Calif. is one of those places. Although it has only been open for six years in its current location, its origin and roots go back more than 45 years.

The original Sweetwater opened in 1972 in a storefront in downtown Mill Valley at 150 Throckmorton Avenue. The former site of a local bar called the Office, it was just a single narrow room with low ceilings that could accommodate around 80 people. Jeanie Patterson and her husband Jay, a realtor, bought the place, and Jeanie ran it. She traveled to music festivals to find interesting and unusual acts to introduce to the small town, and luminaries like Bonnie Raitt, Jerry Garcia, Carlos Santana, Marty Balin, Ry Cooder, John Lee Hooker, Elvis Costello, Sammy Hagar, Van Morrison and Richie Havens were booked to perform, or just dropped by to sit in. That was the cool part—you never knew who might stop in to jam. Over the years, Sweetwater blossomed into a popular place for both the community and musicians to convene.

In 1999, Patterson decided to leave town and sold the club to another couple, and in 2007, it closed. But it left a gap in the community, and after a few years, a group of local investors got together and decided to resurrect the iconic venue in a larger location nearby, the old Masonic Lodge at 19 Corte Madera Avenue. One of the investors was former Grateful Dead guitarist Bob Weir. The club reopened in 2012 after extensive remodeling as the Sweetwater Music Hall, with the intention of reigniting the spirit of the original hall.

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The new digs feature a large outdoor patio and a smaller indoor cafe and bar where food is created and served by Chef Gordon Drysdale, and a cozy and intimate, 300-seat concert hall, with its own bar. The room is trimmed in dark wood, with red velvet banquette seating along one side with small cocktail tables. Rows of chairs, along with high tables and barstools, are set up on the main floor, which is sometimes left more open for dancing. It has a cozy, comfortable, unpretentious retro vibe—you really do feel like you are in a friendly, small-town music hall.

"It was such a community hub for Mill Valley," said General Manager Madison Flach as we sat and chatted on Sweetwater's outdoor patio. "That is why the almost 30 owners came together to fundraise for it. Most of them live here and have raised their kids here."

Flach has been at the new Sweetwater since it opened. She worked her way up into the management role and officially took the title a few months ago. "I just can't shake this place," she said with a smile. "It's really special and has a lot of meaning for the community." She went on to explain that most of the staff has worked there from the beginning—there is very little turnover because the place has such a pleasant family feeling.

To attract and maintain the community, they try to have a live event every night—music, trivia, an open mic or a comedy show. "That was one of the ideas of the ownership group," said Flach. They really wanted us to be a lively part of the community—a place for people in town to come to on Friday and Saturday nights and enjoy some live music." The new Sweetwater has featured acts such as Mavis Staples, Snoop Dogg, Chris Robinson, Jim James, Bonnie Raitt and Elvis Costello. It's also a place where Weir, who lives nearby, can stop by and sit in, much to the delight of the local Deadhead community. He will be performing at the club in 2020 with his group, the Wolf Bros.

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Snoop Dogg performs at Sweetwater Music Hall
Photo by Christopher Markisz

In addition to live entertainment, Sweetwater also does a lot of community events—fundraisers, weddings, and many local music school concerts. They also try to help create audiences for local and lesser-known bands, some of whom began as opening acts and are now headliners. They have often partnered with the Mill Valley Film Festival, hosting live music events.

Another key member of the team is Aaron "AJ" Johnson, who recently came on board as the talent buyer. An acclaimed musician and arranger in his own right, he has worked for many years as a manager and booking agent, including at the Rosebud Agency in San Francisco, and as an associate artistic manager at SFJAZZ. He is currently an artist manager at Knitting Factory Entertainment.

Johnson, a current voting Recording Academy member, explained that it's all about building relationships with the artists, the agents and the audience. "The most important thing is giving the audience and the community what they want to see, and try to get them out and engage them," said Johnson by telephone. "Most of the audience is coming from Mill Valley or nearby in Marin County, so we want to be conscious of that and make sure the programming reflects things that people in the community want to see, and at the same time try to expand that, and show them things they haven't seen before."

Read More: Historic Berkeley Folk Venue Freight & Salvage Welcomes A New Generation Of Music Fans

Johnson explained that although there are challenges in booking a small venue of only 300 seats, the advantage is that you can sometimes offer the community the chance to see top tier artists in a small, intimate setting, which is very special. He plans to expand the programming at Sweetwater to include other genres, including more Americana, jazz and world music. He will also continue what Sweetwater had already begun—partnering with other venues in the Bay Area to form a network when booking performers. For example, they might book a night with a certain band, and partner with another club like Freight & Salvage in Berkeley to book the band another night. "It helps us and it helps the artists," said Johnson. "It works for everybody."

Along with expanded programming, Flach said that they are planning to renovate and cover the front patio area with an awning, which is currently open air, so they can use it year-round. They are also planning to put on another Sweetwater in the Sun festival at Stafford Lake Park in Novato. The first one in 2018 featured Steve Kimock & Friends, with Bob Weir sitting in, and drew 2,000 people.

Ultimately, Sweetwater Music Hall is about community. "When Jeanie Patterson ran the old Sweetwater, it was like her living room. You walked into it and felt like you were part of her world," said Flach. "We really try to be that place where you feel like you are part of it — where friends can come out to dance and have a party while listening to live music. We think about what the old Sweetwater was to Mill Valley, and we try to keep that going."

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Daniel Johnston

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Hi, How Are You Project Founders Remember Daniel Johnston: "It Was His Honesty That Stood Out To Me And So Many Others"

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Ahead of the upcoming 'Hi, How Are You?' celebrations, we spoke with the Austin project's creators about the lasting impact of Johnston's music, their current work on college campuses and the importance of deep listening
Jeffrey Silverstein
GRAMMYs
Dec 4, 2019 - 11:23 am

Despite lifelong struggles with mental illness, Daniel Johnston remained fearless. His songs shine a bright light on the darkest corners of our minds. Simultaneously adorned for his visual art, the late cult songwriter's output is a reminder of the raw power of honest, direct and imaginative storytelling. After his passing in September, fans left candles, cassette tapes and personal notes at his iconic 'Hi, How Are You?' mural in Austin. His last public performance was on Jan. 22, 2018 (his 57th birthday), a date that is now officially recognized as 'Hi, How Are You Day' in the state of Texas. 

Organized by Johnson's manager of 26 years Tom Gimbel and his partner Courtney Blanton, the event now boasts performances from indie favorites like Yo La Tengo, Built To Spill and The Black Angels, all of whom hold Johnson in the highest regard. Inspired by Johnson's emotional sincerity, they have since formed the Hi, How Are You Project, a non-profit seeking to ignite new and different conversations around mental health issues by funding and creating thoughtful media content, projects and events. 

Created with the support of Johnston's family, the foundation provides a platform for the exchange of ideas and education surrounding mental well-being. All donations go towards funding mental health research, awareness and programming. Ahead of the 2020 'Hi, How Are You?' celebrations, we spoke with Gimbel and Blanton about the lasting impact of Johnston's music, their current work on college campuses and the importance of deep listening. 

When and where were you when you first heard Daniel's music?

Tom Gimbel: Wow, I may have first been introduced to Daniel through MTV's I.R.S. show "The Cutting Edge" with Peter Zaremba. Daniel had just come to Austin and somehow worked his way onto the show. I was a high school student, trying to decide where I was headed for college. I saw that episode about the music scene in Austin and saw Daniel Johnston and decided that’s where I wanted to study. 

Courtney Blanton: I'm a huge fan of M. Ward. I had no idea until I met Tom, how many songs I've loved by artists like Beck and M. Ward and many others that were all written by Daniel. That was incredible to me, songs I really connected with. That's what Daniel does, he connects people. 

Were you aware of Daniel's struggles with depression and schizophrenia early on? 

Gimbel: I was certainly aware. I first met Daniel when I was working at Amazing Records in Austin. It was a Jazz and Blues independent label. Daniel was not living in Austin at the time but visiting. This is 1992. He found out that there was a record label and came in to drop off a cassette. I had been a fan now for several years and was aware of his music and story. 

Our receptionist dismissed him and took the tape. I got up from my desk, hearing that unmistakable voice, and ran downstairs and caught up with him about a block down the street. I introduced myself and gave him a business card. I said I’m a big fan and shook his hand. Two weeks later he called me and said I'd like you to be my manager. That was the start of what ended up being a 26-year managerial relationship. Not the most auspicious start. 

It was several weeks of me trying to figure out the situation. He was with his previous manager Jeff Tartakov but didn’t want to be any longer. I was trying to reconcile the two of them as well as navigate what was going on with Elektra and other labels who were at that time interested in Daniel. After several weeks it was clear that he was very adamant that he wanted to work with me and didn't want to be in his current situation. I told him a five-minute meeting on a street corner is probably not the best way to determine a manager, but I was going to do the best job I could for him to be honest and hardworking and diligent in promoting his career. 

I was certainly aware of his mental situation. There were a lot of people in Austin who were counseling me not to get involved with someone who dealt with mental health issues. There were legends of Daniel Johnston at the time...him hitting a previous manager, Randy Kemper, over the head with a lead pipe. These stories had taken on mythological proportions at the time. People were saying, you shouldn't do this, but I was such a fan of the music and the art. I was committed to it. Never in 26 years was there an episode that was uncomfortable or frightening. It was a wonderful experience with Daniel from day one to the present.  

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What initially struck you about his music? 

Gimbel: It's really his honesty and the fact that there are no walls that Daniel puts up when he is telling a story through a song. I think that's why he’s been such a musician's musician and a songwriter's songwriter. Other players envy his ability to be so honest, to take a phrase or lyric and communicate what he's feeling in such a heartfelt way. 

Some people have described Daniel's lyrics as childlike, but children are also very honest and open. They don't have all of the walls that we put up. The HHAYP is about being open with the conversations surrounding mental health issues. To take those walls down. When we have dialogue around those issues, there's healing both for ourselves and we inspire others to open up and there's healing in them. Daniel's music had amazing melodies, and he was gifted in song structure and composition, but it was really his honesty that stood out to me and so many others. 

In addition to his music, your non-profit also stemmed from the success of your 'Hi, How Are You? Day' in January of 2018. Describe that event and how that impacted the decision to launch this project. 

Blanton: When I first met Tom, I was very open about talking about my own mental health issues. I'm 43 now. In my 20s, I dealt with severe mental issues in college. I had put myself in a corner of not telling anyone, not family, not friends, because of the stigma of what I was dealing with. I didn't want people to think something's wrong with me, the same way I [thought something was wrong with me]. 

Coming into my 30s I had a very significant conversation with someone that said, if you had heart disease would you take medication if a doctor told you to? I said yes. What about insulin for diabetes, he asked. He told me your body is just doing something chemically and whatever it is, if you take medication to help it then you are just doing something good for your body. For the first time, I felt I had broken out of this prison I had put myself in. I started crawling, then walking and eventually running with telling my story.

People would really break apart, typically in tears. People would tell me, I've dealt with that or my mother dealt with that or my father committed suicide. It opened an amazing conversation. I got power from having these conversations and by the time I got to Tom, he was committed to what I was committed to, which is changing to the stigma of talking openly about mental health issues. If we started looking at it from a holistic standpoint, we can make some change. 

We decided that Hi, How Are You? is the perfect start to a conversation. Tom being general manager of Austin City Limits, it felt natural to go with music and art. It was remarkable. So many people showed up. The day of the event people were in love with each other. People were asking each other "Hi, how are you?" and meaning it. It was romantic. It brought us all to tears. Then we got letters from all over the world. We decided this is something that has to keep happening. The city committed to naming it Hi, How Are You? Day in Texas. 

Gimbel: Just to add on—after we saw the response, not just in Austin and Texas but globally, to what we thought might be a one day celebration on Daniel’s birthday (Jan. 22) with some local musicians together, just a small event in town...when we saw the global response and noticed how this simple phrase and this cause has resonated with people, we knew ourselves how important it was and we doubled down on committing ourselves to the Hi, How Are You Project. 

We've grown from a show at the Mohawk in 2018 with local artists to a show at ACL Live in 2019 with artists like The Flaming Lips, Built to Spill, The Black Angels and Yo La Tengo, live streaming it globally on multiple networks. Now we’re working towards our lineup and announcement for next week, where we'll be back at ACL Live on Jan. 22, 2020 with an even bigger show. It's been remarkable to see the community and global response. 

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Your project has two missions—​the first being to encourage people to talk openly about mental health, the second is peer-to-peer training. What’s your approach/strategy to both?

Gimbel: The first is encouraging people to talk openly about it. That's about using the media and our relationships with music and art to change the conversation within the collective consciousness. That's where Hi, How Are You Day comes in and social media and the events that we'll do throughout the year. We just did a wonderful activation with C3 Presents at the ACL Festival where we recreated the mural and had people take selfies and write a message of support or a tribute to Daniel. Those types of events are to encourage people to remove the stigma and talk openly and to do it in an entertaining way. 

Then there is the bigger work of teaching people how to have those conversations. We have a couple of advisors who are mental health professionals. People who have been doing this for years and who are experts in the peer to peer training space. They’ve helped us draft a curriculum that identifies a number of different steps in having a mental health conversation or what we might call, a Hi, How Are You conversation. It starts with identifying someone in need, initiating the conversation, how to break down barriers and find commonalities, what to do if someone is in crisis, and then ultimately self-care. 

We are working with some great partners, including American Campus Communities who are the largest provider of independent housing for students on college campuses nationwide. They have over 140,000 students who live in their residences. We are training their community advisors on how to have these conversations. How to recognize a student in need and to reach out. The ratio of counselors to students on college campuses is something like 3,000 to 1. We've also learned that young people prefer to talk to peers before talking to a counselor or a teacher or a parent. We feel like we are on the front lines of helping young people have the conversation and hopefully living healthier, happier lives. 

What are common roadblocks when having dialogue around mental health concerns?

Gimbel: The biggest one we've heard is that people feel that they need to be an expert. Feeling like, well I'm not an expert, I don't know what to say. But by simply just listening and being present with someone, that's half of it, if not more. It's listening and being with somebody and letting someone know it’s okay to have these feelings and that you are there as a friend or a co-worker or family member or loved one. People have this reservation that they don't know enough or don’t know what to say. Sometimes you don't have to say anything, you just have to listen. That's a big obstacle. 

What other programs and/or partnerships do you have planned for 2020?

Blanton: One thing we really want to focus on this year is getting and keeping young people involved. They are on the front lines of having the conversations. Our idea is to get some big names to create PSAs and instructional videos to teach middle and high school students what to say when someone comes to talk to them about information they don't know what to do with. That's our next big project. 

As insurers continually make it challenging for patients to have access to mental health services, organizations such as your own become increasingly important. What are some other organizations you draw inspiration from?

Gimbel: There are a number of organizations that promote the dialogue around mental health. NAMI is the largest here in the U.S. We are big fans of what the Royal Family is doing in the U.K. to also encourage people to speak openly. I know Lady Gaga has gotten on board. I’m a big fan of what the NBA is doing in having a mental health professional required for each team. When you see someone like Kevin Love or an NFL player, or a musician or an actor...when these people come out and speak openly about what they are dealing with or have dealt with in the past, it gives a lot of courage and inspiration to others. We are big fans of what we are seeing in the sports and entertainment world. For a young person, an NBA start might have a lot more impact than a counselor or someone who approaches it from a clinical level. These are their heroes. If they're dealing with the same thing they are, then maybe it's okay to talk about it. That’s a big part of what we're trying to do with our relationships with the entertainment community. 

Tickets for Hi How Are You Day 2020 are available here, while premium tickets and VIP packages are available here.

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Tim Farriss, Kirk Pengilly, Jon Farriss and Andrew Farriss of INXS

Photo by Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images

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INXS Guitarist Tim Farriss Talks Wembley Show, Partying With Queen & The Band's Legacy

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On the heels of their concert film "Live Baby Live" returning to theaters for one night only, the INXS guitarist looks back on the Aussie rock favorites' famed 1991 show
Bryan Reesman
GRAMMYs
Dec 3, 2019 - 11:38 am

INXS fans are getting a royal treat on Monday, Dec. 9. The band's famed Wembley Stadium show from July 1991 in front of 72,000 fans—released back then as the CD and concert film "Live Baby Live"—has been upgraded to high definition, with audio remixed by Giles Martin and Sam Okell at Abbey Road Studios, and it will be screened in theaters across the country for one night only. For longtime fans and new converts, it will be a vivid trip back in time when the Australian sextet was at the peak of their musical powers, with late singer Michael Hutchence leading the charge.

It's been a pleasure for guitarist/co-founding member Tim Farriss as well. "What blew me away is I'd never seen my band like that before," he tells the Recording Academy of the HD reissue. "I'd seen it on television and computer screens, but I'd never seen it on a big screen. It was extraordinary. The band started back in '77, but I'd never had that experience before."

A bonus on the new "Live Baby Live" is the inclusion of "Lately" from the album X. It was recovered through former band manager/Petrol Records founder Chris Murphy's decade-long search for the original 35mm film cans which were found in Australia. From Farriss' recollections, an audio glitch, likely from tapes being switched in the middle of the song, kept "Lately" from being used back then. Through the wonders of modern digital technology, that problem was fixed. Farriss and his bandmates—brothers Jon and Andrew, Kirk Pengilly and Garry Gary Beers—could not tell when watching the new version. He adds that the three standout performances for him are "Lately," "Hear That Sound" and "The Stairs," and that "Who Pays The Price," "Lately" and "Hear That Sound" only received a very short run in their touring career.

Interestingly enough, the opening song "Guns In The Sky" blasts off from an extended jam resulting from drummer Jon Farriss running out on stage, while the band was finishing their champagne, to get the groove going. It was neither planned nor rehearsed and shows how comfortable INXS were as a unit. Their exuberance and love for playing together clearly shows.

"The attitude we had was, 'Let's have a good time, guys,'" remarks the guitarist. "We didn't start with a hit. We started with the first song off the last album, then went into playing songs that a large percentage of the audience wouldn't have known because we were promoting a new album. We were doing what we normally did in a club—try out the new songs."

While "Live Baby Live" features plenty of hits like "Suicide Blonde," "Need You Tonight" and "Never Tear Us Apart," the set is unusual in that it comprises mostly two albums, Kick and X, which were their most recent studio offerings at the time. Nothing is featured from their first three records including Shabooh Shoobah (not even "Don't Change"), and The Swing and Listen Like Thieves are represented by only one track apiece. Farris says that this was not a conscious decision towards commercialism. The band just wanted to play the songs they connected with most emotionally and musically.

"The version of 'Send A Message' is so different from The Swing version, and 'What You Need' was always fun to play live," recalls Farriss. "Then Michael went into the audience singing a part that went for much longer than it normally would. We just had a really fun time playing that show. We didn't want it to finish. The who's who of our friends all wanted in on the Wembley Stadium show. It was just a great party."

The new triple vinyl, double CD, and digital reissues of "Live Baby Live" represent the Wembley show, as opposed to the original CD release which collected tracks from different concerts on the tour and was criticized for being inconsistent and not sounding very energized. The new package comes with fresh liner notes by the band and by broadcaster Jamie East who attended the show.

Farriss says one of his fondest memories from playing at Wembley was recalling their previous engagement there opening for Queen during their 1986 European tour together. He remembers how approachable and friendly they were.

"They would go out for dinner together," he says. "In fact, they invited us to go to dinner with them in places like Belgium. We suddenly realized that there was this amazing similarity with how they were amongst themselves and how we were." While Farriss felt that some bands they had toured with were lacking in great personal chemistry, Queen "seemed like genuine friends."

On one special night in Montreux, Switzerland, Freddie Mercury had the presidential suite at the Grand Hôtel Suisse-Majestic. He invited Hutchence, Farriss, his brother Jon and their tour manager Gary Grant to party there.

"Freddie had his personal assistant there, and he had a big stereo system and a microphone in his room," says Farriss. "We were partying up there, just the five of us, and Freddie's playing us this stuff. He's got Michael singing into this microphone with Freddie holding the microphone. They had their noses about an inch apart, and they're both belting it out to some new music for Queen. I was sitting on the sofa with Jon going, 'Hey, this sounds pretty good.' At the time it was just fun. Now I look back and I think, ‘Holy sh*t, if only I'd had an iPhone then.'" (That said, he is glad INXS came up at a time when people actually watched concerts live without holding up their phones.)

Farriss hopes that the "Live Baby Live" re-release will attract a younger generation of fans to the group. While there are two video screens flanking the stage (but barely visible on film), the Wembley show features just music and pure adrenaline emanating from the band.

"There were no dancers or backing vocals, there was no grand piano wheeled out for the ballad," says Farriss. "There were no pyrotechnics." It is an organic experience that feels anathema to the multimedia overload of today. "I see young kids today loving vinyl, and I think that they'd love a band of guys that do it tough together and grow up in front of everyone and stick it out. It gives everyone hope, you know? That's the one thing that we hung onto and that worked out for us. I think every young person deserves to have that."

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INXS at their Wembley Stadium show in July 1991
Photo courtesy of Eagle Rock Films

These days, many classic rock icons have been getting their due with accolades. One can hope that INXS will get long overdue recognition from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The 2014 Australian television mini-series about the band, "Never Tear Us Apart" (which has not aired in the U.S.), was the highest rated of all time Down Under, although, despite having consulted on it, Farriss did not feel it accurately captured the group. A proposed Broadway musical is reportedly in the works, although Farriss is more excited about the possibility of a full-length documentary. The Michael Hutchence documentary "Mystify" is being shown in U.S. theaters for one night on Jan. 7. While Farriss and his bandmates participated in the film, he does not want the INXS story to end there.

The guitarist says that while "Mystify" director and longtime INXS music video collaborator Richard Lowenstein "was a great mate, it's a story about Michael. It's not just about INXS, it's about Michael from the time he was a child and delves into a lot of what really happened to him after the accident. There’s stuff in it that we just didn't know about at the time of the mini-series, and to be perfectly honest, I don't think that would have made as good television either."

Farriss adds that there has not been a comprehensive documentary about INXS. The iconic Australian band won six Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) awards, have sold an estimated 60 million albums globally, won five MTV Music Video Awards and were nominated for three GRAMMY Awards.

"A television series is one thing, but there hasn't actually been a blood, sweat and tears documentary," stresses Farriss. "And it shouldn't finish with Michael either. It needs to go on to post-Michael because some of the stuff we did after Michael passed [in 1997] makes him all the more relevant, and as well shows the depth." He feels that the album they made with singer JD Fortune, 2005’s Switch, was fantastic, and that making that record with producer Guy Chambers, plus doing the "Rock Star: INXS" reality show where they procured Fortune, was an intense experience. "It was so different for us as opposed to just album-tour/album-tour/album-tour."

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Michael Hutchence of INXS
Photo courtesy of Eagle Rock Films

Farriss is also open to doing a book as he feels his perspective is different from anybody else. "Looking back, the whole idea of the six of us getting together was really my doing," he declares. "And being the person who did 85% of the publicity with Michael, I had a pretty good gauge on where he was at, sitting in limousines going from radio station to radio station or television station to television station, just having a whole day of media. It was exhausting. All that stuff could be used in a documentary. I quite enjoy that doco side of things, so that's something I'd really like to get my teeth into."

Until recently, the world has not heard much from INXS. Their last album, 2010's Original Sin, offered re-recorded and reworked greatest hits with different singers. They released the new songs "Tiny Summer" (studio track) and "We Are United" (live) with singer Ciaran Gribbin through the internet in 2011. The last time they played live was 2012 when they announced their retirement from touring.

Many years ago, Farriss opened a recording studio and recently slowed down with that, but he wants to get back to making music, particularly as he wrote songs for Switch that he inexplicably did not offer up. "I've got this catalog of material," he reveals. "I feel like now's the time to go there again and maybe get into writing some more."

When asked how his left hand is doing—his ring finger was severed in a boating accident in 2015, then reattached, but he cannot play with it—Farriss says solemnly, "It's pretty f**ked. It's painful emotionally. It's painful psychologically. It's painful just as in nerve pain." But that's not stopping him from writing new music.

Indeed, if there is anything that has defined INXS beyond music throughout their career, it is persistence and passion. When asked about advice he would give to younger musicians, Farriss replies, "Keep it fresh. Keep it real, keep it fun, and always be positive. Even if you're feeling like you want to be melancholic, do it in a positive way."

That ethos served INXS very well and will cascade from the Wembley stage into theaters this week.

(GRAMMY.com contributor Bryan Reesman is the host of the podcast "Side Jams" and author of "Bon Jovi: The Story.")

Jeff Goldblum On His Lifelong Passion For Jazz And His New Album

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Eddie Vedder in 1992

Photo by Kevin Mazur/WireImage

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How Pearl Jam's "Unplugged" Performance Captured The Grunge Gods' Pop Cultural Rise

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To commemorate the forthcoming release of RSD exclusive 'MTV Unplugged (3/16/1992),' the Recording Academy spoke with director Joel Gallen about how the then-new band approached their MTV acoustic set
Will Hodge
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Nov 26, 2019 - 11:55 am

For the last decade or so, Record Store Day and Record Store Day Black Friday have been the venues through which bands have chosen to offer their fans feverishly anticipated album reissues and first-runs on vinyl. One of the most celebrated stars of this year’s Black Friday event—taking place Nov. 29 at participating record stores across the U.S.—is Pearl Jam's MTV Unplugged (3/16/1992), the long-awaited official release of the band's unforgettable acoustic performance from the pioneering MTV show. Recorded on March 16, 1992 and aired less than two months later on May 13, 1992, Pearl Jam's "Unplugged" episode is notable for capturing the band as it successfully navigated an unfamiliar setting in the very early stages of its still-thriving career.  

While bootleg audio files of the performance have been floating around fan circles for years, the Record Store Day Black Friday vinyl release of MTV Unplugged (3/16/1992) marks the first time fans can purchase an official, band-sanctioned version of the album. (It should be noted that previously a DVD of the performance was included in some versions of the 2009 reissue of their debut album Ten, but no standalone audio version was made available at that time.) This vinyl release of MTV Unplugged (3/16/1992) contains all six tracks from the original Unplugged television broadcast, as well as the inclusion of "Oceans," which did not make it to air.

To help commemorate the release of MTV Unplugged (3/16/1992), the Recording Academy spoke with "MTV Unplugged" director Joel Gallen about shooting the noteworthy episode as a first-time director and about how the band—vocalist Eddie Vedder, bassist Jeff Ament, guitarists Stone Gossard and Mike McCready, and then-drummer Dave Abbruzzese—approached their acoustic set with equal parts refined musicality and unfiltered bravado.     

While Gallen's impressive production and directorial resume includes a variety of memorable musical events, movies and comedy specials ("Not Another Teen Movie," "Zoolander," the 2003 Super Bowl Halftime Show, 17 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremonies, the last 14 years of "Comedy Central Roasts" and the Peabody Award-winning post-September 11 benefit concert special "America: A Tribute to Heroes"), he charted his first professional successes at MTV in the late 1980s and early 1990s. During this prolific period, Gallen produced the MTV Video Music Awards and the MTV Movie Awards, while also working on some of the most memorable episodes of "MTV Unplugged"'s earliest days—including iconic shows from Paul McCartney, Eric Clapton and Pearl Jam.  

Joel Gallen: During my first few years of working on "Unplugged," we used to shoot multiple episodes within a single day to help on production costs and get more bang for our buck. We actually shot three shows on this particular day: one with Boyz II Men, Joe Public and Shanice around two or three in the afternoon, the very famous one with Mariah Carey around seven or eight that night, and then Pearl Jam at about midnight. I remember it was so cold that day and we had just had a snowstorm, so the Pearl Jam fans were waiting outside for hours in the freezing cold. When it was time for the show to actually start taping, they were enthusiastic and ready to go.

Up until that point in my MTV career, I was mostly just a producer. However, I usually operated as a bit of a backseat director and was always very involved with the production work, the editing, getting the right shots, and all that. Once I heard we were going to be doing an "Unplugged" episode with Pearl Jam, I went to Doug Herzog, my boss at MTV, and I told him that I would really like to direct it. Not only was I a big fan and already knew their music, but also it was the third episode of a single-day shoot, which seemed like a lot to ask of any director. In this specific case, that was Larry Jordan, who directed the first two episodes that day. Doug gave me the green light and this ended up being the first show I ever directed in my life.

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At the time, both "Unplugged" and Pearl Jam were in relatively similar places in their career arcs—both were relatively new but equally on the brink of massive stardom and pop-cultural ubiquity. "Unplugged" was still finding its footing as being more than just a television show, having only released Paul McCartney's episode as an album and still being months away from releasing the juggernaut Eric Clapton "Unplugged" album. Similarly, Pearl Jam had experienced some success with the release of their debut album Ten, but at the time of their "Unplugged" taping, had only released "Alive" as their sole single to radio. Because of this, some MTV executives considered having the young band appear on the show at such a crucial momentum-building time as somewhat of a risk.   

Joel Gallen: For the most part, I think most people at MTV were pretty excited about having a Pearl Jam "Unplugged" episode, but there might've been some concern because they were relatively unknown at the time. If there were some MTV folks who did feel that way, they minimized the risk by scheduling them on the same day that we were already recording two huge names: Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men. It might’ve been in their minds that, even if the Pearl Jam "Unplugged" didn’t work, it wouldn't exactly be wasting production funds because we were doing the other two no matter what.

Some of the more conservative executives might've thought Pearl Jam was risky, but it was MTV and rock music was still doing very well on the channel at the time. You have to remember, this was 1992 and about six months after Pearl Jam's "Unplugged," we had the most rock and roll MTV Video Music Awards ever: 5,000 screaming fans on the floor of UCLA's Pauley Pavilion with all the VIP and industry people around the sides. That night, on the same stage we had Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Black Crowes, Def Leppard, Eric Clapton, Guns N' Roses with Elton John on piano, and we also did a live remote with U2. That night was actually the second time I got to work with Pearl Jam and we've worked together about 15-20 times since then.

For any trepidation that Pearl Jam's youth and inexperience may have potentially produced in the MTV offices, one would only need to see their seemingly limitless energy, powerfully expressive musical abilities and charismatically emotive frontman commanded every stage on which they performed to have any fears put to rest. Although the acoustic setting of "Unplugged" would find them playing on rented instruments with no real rehearsal just a few short days after completing their grueling first-ever European tour, the band unquestionably rose to the challenge of harnessing their raw electric roar into a more nuanced acoustic approach. While "Unplugged" would require they play without the benefit of some of their signature sonic tools—guitar distortion, amp feedback, wah pedals—they successfully transformed a small slice of their song catalog and, according to Gallen, remained incredibly photogenic in the process.      

Joel Gallen: You know how "Unplugged" works: the band walks out, everybody applauds, and then the rest is their show. Pearl Jam is just spectacular in that kind of setting. The whole band was just so raw and sensational. From a directing standpoint, I just had to try and put my cameras in the right place, anticipate the energy of the band, and react to the moments they were creating. In rehearsal, they gave us no heads up as to what they had planned. They just sort of strummed through the songs, so I didn't know what all they were going to do once the show started.

As a director and producer, I don't know that there’s a better close-up in rock and roll history than Eddie Vedder singing. I’ve shot Bono, I've shot Springsteen, I've shot Prince—I love them all and they all give great close-ups, but there’s no one better than Eddie Vedder. The energy and feeling and passion that you feel coming out of him when he's singing, especially all throughout that "Unplugged," is truly unsurpassed.  

While the band played their more reserved tracks like "Alive," "Oceans" and "Black" in a somewhat composed manner, the more rambunctious numbers like "Jeremy," "State of Love And Trust" and "Even Flow" found the band negotiating the "Unplugged" setting with a more constrained, dog-on-a-chain demeanor. By the time the band hit the escalating climax of the frenetic "Porch," Ament was playing his bass while standing on top of the kick drum as Vedder was creating the most iconic visual of their "Unplugged" set by using a sharpie to write "PRO-CHOICE!!!" down his entire left arm and onto the back of his hand. In fact, eagle-eyed viewers will spot that "Even Flow" was actually played after "Porch" (even though the two songs were broadcast in reverse order) due to the fact that the scrawled exclamation points can be seen on Vedder's hand, peeking out from under the sleeve of his jacket. At the end of "Porch," the broadcast closer, Ament launched his bass offstage to the open arms of his sure-handed guitar tech.           

Joel Gallen: We only had like five or six cameras to work with and I had a super helpful Assistant Director named Christine Clarke, now Christine Bradley, who helped make sure it turned out magical. However, I’ve got to give credit to my long-lens close-up camera operator, John Meikeljon, because he was the one who somehow got an in-focus shot of Eddie writing "PRO-CHOICE!!!" down his arm with a sharpie. It was really such a magnificent visual and a wonderfully emotional moment.

I also thought Jeff's bass toss at the end of "Porch" was a really great closing moment. I’ve been lucky enough to shoot three really cool guitar tosses: Jeff at the Pearl Jam "Unplugged" show, Nirvana's Krist Novoselic at the 1992 VMAs where his bass came back down and hit him on the head, and then Prince's incredibly memorable guitar tossing after he played "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" with Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne at the 2004 Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony. Quick story: Prince barely made it to rehearsal for that performance and when we got him plugged in, he was just kind of strumming around and making sure his levels were okay. I asked, "You’re going to really give it to us tonight, right?" and he just smiled really big at me and casually said, "Don’t worry about it." That's all he said to me and then later that night he just ferociously unleashed that unforgettable guitar solo during the performance.

As with most "Unplugged" sessions, the band played more songs than could be included in the 30-minute run time of the show’s early days. In Pearl Jam's case, the tracks they recorded that didn’t make it to broadcast were "Oceans" and their cover of Neil Young's "Rockin' In The Free World." While their "Unplugged" version of "Oceans" made its first official appearance on the "MTV Unplugged" DVD that accompanied the band’s 2009 reissue of Ten and it appears on the vinyl release of MTV Unplugged (3/16/1992), their "Unplugged" version of Young's "Rockin' In The Free World" is not included on either the 2009 reissue DVD or the new vinyl release for this year's Record Store Day Black Friday.     

Joel Gallen: I do remember shooting "Rockin' In The Free World" but I don’t know why it didn't make broadcast or get released in audio form. Since it was a part of the encore, maybe they knew it wasn't going to be in there and they played it a bit looser or something like that, but I’m just guessing. Now that I think about it, probably the simple reason why it didn’t make it to broadcast is that "Unplugged" was still a half-hour show at that point and there just wasn’t enough time for it. I mean, what song would you cut to put "Rockin' In The Free World" in its place, that's the question. We weren't going to get a full hour for such a new band, which would've been the only other option. Even Mariah Carey was still only getting a half-hour show at that point.      

For Gallen, directing the Pearl Jam "Unplugged" episode not only signaled the start of his directing career, but it also began his professional relationship with the band and his personal friendship with Vedder. Gallen went on to produce quite a few more memorable moments with Vedder and the band, including their scorching performance of "Rockin' In The Free World" alongside Young at the 1993 MTV Video Music Awards and Vedder's induction speech (and three-song performance) of The Doors at the 1993 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony.   

Joel Gallen: I've done a lot of big music shows and events over the years and I still think that with everything that I’ve done, one of the most significant programs with the most personal meaning to me has to be this Pearl Jam "Unplugged" show. When I first played it back in the MTV offices, everyone was really blown away. There’s a reason why Pearl Jam's "Unplugged" has really stood the test of time and why the band has always loved it and cites it as an important moment in their history. The Pearl Jam "Unplugged" episode was also what formed a really cool bond between me and Eddie. We've worked together a lot over the years and almost every time I see him, we end up talking about it in some way. I'm lucky enough to have this beautiful professional and personal connection with the guy and it all started with their "Unplugged" taping.

Nirvana Manager Danny Goldberg Talks 25 Years of 'MTV Unplugged In New York'