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| Richard X Heyman Talks to ACED from Behind His Door |
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| Interviews - Band/Musician | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Written by Lena Putzer | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Monday, 09 April 2007 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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ACED: What was your goal or dream when you first started out? Have you achieved it yet? Has the dream changed at all? RXH: I don’t think I actually had a goal in my mind. I just knew when I was four or five years-old that I was supposed to play the drums. Events unfolded from there. It was a natural progression from the drums to piano to guitar and singing and writing songs. I had visions of rock stardom, I suppose, but the main focus was always on the music. ACED: What has had the biggest influence on your life? RXH: The main influence was really the era in which I grew up. There was so much coming at you at once – Dylan and the Beatles, soul and Motown and American folk rock. Beach Boys. British Invasion acts, and on and on. You started to take it for granted, there was so much great music.
RXH: The worst and best shows I ever performed were, for no apparent reason, in Philadelphia. At the worst show, we started our set and the bass amp blew up on the first song, so Nancy (my wife and bass player) had to plug into my amp along with my guitar, which produced a sound akin to a sick cow. On the second song I lost my voice so that all that came out of my throat were injured moose-like tones. It was all downhill from there. My favorite show was played in front of an audience of six, three of whom were employees of the club. But we rocked to the point of working half the crowd into a dancin’ sweaty frenzy! {mosgoogle right} ACED: Knowing what you do now, what (if anything) would you do differently if you had to start out in the music industry all over again? RXH: Buckle down, get good grades... and become a lawyer. ACED: If you had to cover a song, which song would you choose? Why? RXH: I love doing covers. In our current repertoire, we do “Tin Soldier” and “Song of a Baker” by the Small Faces, “Till The End of The Day” and “She’s Got Everything” by the Kinks, “Keep On Runnin’” and “Somebody Help Me” by the Spencer Davis Group, “Shine On Brightly” by Procol Harum, “So Sad About Us” by the Who and “Wave Your Flag and Stop The Train” by the Move, among others. There are two songs I would like to attempt with radically different arrangements from the originals. One is “Flower Lady” by Phil Ochs and the other is “Close Your Eyes” by James Taylor. I would do them as pure pop songs. ACED: What is the hardest thing, for you, about the music business? How would you improve things, if you could change anything you wanted? RXH: The music industry seems to be in transition as well as in turmoil. They are selling a product that can be cloned, an exact copy of the original. And there’s no one to blame – the technology allowed it to happen. If you could point and click on your computer and out came a brand new pair of blue jeans, why would you ever go to the Gap again? A lot of people see music as this intangible nebulous vapor. As a recording musician, I look at it as the end result of a lot of work. Whether or not you consider it art or product, the artist should still be compensated for work done. I just hope there are enough people interested in buying my albums so I can feed my wife and cats. ACED: If you were not involved with music, where do you think you would be today? RXH: Shoe salesman. ACED: What's the last song you listened to on your iPod (or equivalent)? Would you recommend it to your fans? RXH: I don’t own an iPod. My ears are screwed up enough from decades of rock and roll. I never listen to music with headphones except when recording. I do listen to my stereo. A talented young woman named Marla Hansen played viola on my new album Actual Sighs, and she plays with an artist named Sufjan Stevens of whom I had never heard. So I got his stuff and I love it. The last song I heard is called “Pittsfield” from the Avalanche album. ACED: What drives your passion and creativity? Was it something you were born with, or was there a particular person or event that sparked it off? RXH: I had the intuition and ability to play the drums at a young age. Where that came from, I’m not sure. My immediate family is not particularly musical, though my father played a little trumpet when he was younger. The inspiration for a song can come in many ways. Sometimes just walking around New York, a melody will pop into my head. Where did that tune come from? I have no idea. I didn’t formulate it, it just occurred. Other times I’m playing piano or guitar and the ideas that come are a response or reaction to what I happen to stumble upon on the instrument. I think my main motivation is how the music makes me feel. What I loved about music from the start was the emotions it conveys. The choice of the next note or the following chord is based largely on how it moves me – happy, sad, wistful, angry, hurt, whatever. ACED: What are your plans for the next 12 months? Where would you like to see yourself in, say, five years time? RXH: I’m looking forward to starting another album with new material. I want to experiment with different productions. There will be a lot more piano and orchestration. In five years time – walking, healthy and breathing would suit me fine.          
3.25 Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved." |
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ACED Magazine chats with Mr. Heyman about his latest album, what drives his passion, his influences, the worst show ever, his experience in the "biz", not to mention what he will be doing this coming year. Check out the Q&A for an interesting perspective on things from him!
ACED: What was the worst show you have ever performed or the best show, why?
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