HUEY LEWIS and the NEWS Taking Things Back to the Old School with a Shot of Classic R&B
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NOVEMBER 2010 ISSUE MMUSICMAG.COM Q&A Marina Chavez Huey Lewis (right) and the News HUEY LEWIS AND THE NEWS Taking things back to the old school with a shot of classic R&B HUEY LEWIS AND THE NEWS FIRST not easy, no matter how good a singer you are. Are overdubs always bad? shot to fame in the 1980s with hits like “The There’s a commitment there, on Redding’s There’s nothing wrong with “machined-up” Heart of Rock & Roll,” “The Power of Love” part, that’s hard to match. So rather than do recordings. [Producer] Mutt Lange is a good and “I Want a New Drug.” With their latest the obvious songs, or try to give instantly friend of mine, and he makes albums piece album, Soulsville, Lewis and company turn recognizable songs like “Knock on Wood,” “In by piece, inch by inch. I don’t like working back the clock even further—digging deep the Midnight Hour” or “(Sittin’ on) the Dock that way, but that’s my taste. To my ears, into the Stax catalog and beyond, covering of the Bay” an original interpretation, we it sounds too cold, too perfect, too exact obscure but wonderful soul nuggets. Working searched out songs people might not have and too slick. I like it funkier. This album is at Ardent Studios in Memphis, Lewis and his heard before and recorded them faithfully. old school. The songs were recorded pretty bandmates captured the authentic sounds We weren’t concerned with trying to give much in the same manner they were recorded of a classic era. Lewis, 60, told us about his them some sort of modern, 2010 twist. in their day. It’s about microphone placement journey through the musical past. and capturing the performances. What were the sessions like? How did you discover soul music? We rehearsed the songs and recorded What were the ’80s like for you? I grew up in Marin County, Calif., as did them fi rst in our little garage studio, with There were a couple of years where I really most of the band, and the soul station the horns and everything, fi ve tunes at a had my fi nger on the pulse. I could have KDIA—sister station of WDIA in Memphis— time. Each rehearsal session took two days. told you which songs were going to be hits was our favorite. We were rebelling against In the end we decided we should cut the and which ones weren’t. When the Sports the psychedelic thing that was going on at songs live in the studio with the horns. So album [1983] came out and “Heart and the time. Soul was the fi rst music that really we took everyone to Ardent, and they gave Soul” became a big hit, I knew there were grabbed me and made me want to sing and us Studio A and Studio B to work in. The a lot more hits coming for us. I remember play harmonica. But you need to be careful horn section was set up in Studio B, with a we had a band meeting and talked about with this stuff. It’s singer’s music for sure, and camera on our drummer in Studio A, where that. We said, “Let’s just enjoy this. You go I wasn’t sure at fi rst that we could pull it off. the rest of us were. And we did everything from nowhere to everywhere only once in live. Everyone was allowed to do fi xes, but a lifetime. Let’s have fun.” We enjoyed that How did you choose the songs? no re-dos! In fact, “Just One More Day,” ride. It was a whirlwind, but we consciously We struggled with that. You have to do an the Otis Redding tune, has no overdubs made it a pleasure. Otis Redding song, for instance—but that’s or fi xes at all. –Russell Hall ‘Soul was the fi rst music that really grabbed me and made me want to sing.’ 3232 M mag 7_BARS.indd 32 11/17/10 5:11:15 PM.