{image1}Last year Danny Federici, integral member of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band since 1973, recorded Sweet, an album of mostly original compositions. This week the album is re-released this week on V2 Records. The album, retitled "Out of a Dream," consists of piano- and saxophone-driven instrumentals, mostly of original compositions. The album's cover is an incredibly cool high-contrast close-up photo of Federici superimposed over a late-night New York cityscape.
Federici's lovely accordion playing powers "4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)," one of Springsteen's most touching recordings. Federici's brightens up powerful Springsteen songs like "Thunder Road" and "Hungry Heart" with his beautiful glockenspiel playing, and his devastating Hammond B-3 organ parts turns good Springsteen songs like "Racing in the Street" and "I'm on Fire" into masterpieces.
"Out of a Dream" is Federici's second album as a bandleader; in 1997 he recorded another all-instrumental album called Flemington, named after Federici's New Jersey hometown, released by Music Masters Jazz. In 2001, Hip-O Records re-released "Flemington" as "Danny Federici." Federici describes the new album as smooth jazz, which I don't dig, though the pretty piano melody of the album's opening song, "Light Is Calling," written by Federici, deserves a listen.
OMC: Why haven't I heard of "Flemington" before this interview?
DF: I still love that album. It's a great record, but it was a little too heavy, a little too rockish. I used Nils Lofgren on guitar (and Federici's and Lofgren's E Street Band-mate Garry Tallent on bass), and I don't think radio knew what to do with me. You have to fit into a certain genre, you know.
("Flemington" had) more rockish guitar, more funky stuff. I'm going to play some of it live; it really sounds good. Matter of fact, a lot of the music on the new record I'm going to hype up a little bit too, because I don't want to put people to sleep in the audience.
OMC: Will you be playing live to support this album?
DF: Yeah, we're just waiting to see how the record's doing, where people want me to come. It's a little different in smooth jazz than it is in rock 'n' roll, because it's more based around airplay than it is about going out with the band and getting people to buy the records. It's much more about what they hear in their cars or when they're taking it easy at home in the evening.
OMC: Is it difficult, when playing with a pianist as gifted as Roy Bittan, to keep from stepping on each other's parts?
DF: It's a good question. Bruce has been an unbelievable boss when it comes to delegating parts and being a sort of director. That way, we'll be in the studio and Bruce will go, "Yeah! That's great, Roy! You should play that!", and then, "Danny, that's great; you should play that!" That way, you say, "Fine, yeah, great, Bruce; okay, we'll do that." So there's no stepping on each other that way. Through the years we've learned how to play in the holes between each other.
OMC: Do you have an integral hand in arrangement?
DF: In the studio, there's a system that we work out. Nowadays, Roy, Max (Weinberg, E Street Band drummer), and Garry will probably go in and do basic tracks, so the groundwork's laid down, and I'm adding color.
OMC: Who wrote the tunes on album besides Dylan, Jagger and Richards? (Federici covers "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" and "Miss You" on "Out of a Dream.")
DF: A combination of myself and my producer, Michael Cates.
OMC: Who played on the album besides (bassist) Juan van Dunk, (percussionist) Daniel de los Reyes, and (guitarists) Jon Johnston and Todd Parsnow?
DF: I have a guy, John Hauser, who plays guitar on the record. There's a few different jazz people, and also Darwin Martin is a keyboard player I use who doesn't have a lot of credits to his name. He went to school at (the University of) North Texas; (even) if you fall asleep in class (there), you come out really fantastic anyway. Darwin has been real important on this record. He plays a lot of the string parts and pad parts in the background. I wanted all the right players for this type of music.
OMC: Do you listen to this type of music?
DF: This is what I listen to, and this is what I play.
OMC: Are you planning a third album?
DF: Yes, I am. You sort of have to be ahead of that, you know?
OMC: What do you think it'll sound like?
DF: It'll probably be similar (to the current album) to some extent, but it might be a little more Latin-based, because I love Latin rhythm, and maybe a little more accordion on it. That's my main instrument, and I never get to play that enough. I was in Europe just recently; I was sitting at a little café, and I was listening to modern European jazzy accordion music, very European-type stuff, and it really sparked my interest.
OMC: What else are you listening to these days?
DF: I don't listen to a lot of music, because they tend to repeat themselves a lot on the radio. I hope I'm that lucky, that I'm one of those guys that gets repeated a little bit.
OMC: Who's your favorite harpsichord player?
DF: There was a guy, Bernard Cranis, years and years ago that I played with. He did baroque music. I went on a tour with the guy, and it was just fabulous.
OMC: Your favorite pianist?
DF: Actually, Brian Culbertson is my favorite pianist. He and I play similarly when it comes to piano. I'm playing a lot of piano on this record because I've played organ for so long, and I find it to be either pedal-to-the-metal rock 'n' roll or coloration, very smooth, to fatten up the sound of the band. The piano has more rhythmic qualities; it can be much more delicate. I love playing the piano.
OMC: Any other favorite pianists?
Roy, as much as it sounds patronizing. We listened to a lot of piano players after David (Sancious, first E Street Band pianist), and Roy is just a fabulous pianist. He plays just the right things.
OMC: Sancious is a hard guy to follow, isn't he?
DF: Well, David is a totally different animal when it comes to piano playing. I think David's a little bit more jazz-based. Not that Roy can't play (jazz); what the music calls for, I think, is something a little different. But that was never (Sancious') reason for leaving; he wanted to do his own thing.
OMC: Your favorite organist?
DF: My early inspiration on the (Hammond) B-3 (organ) was Felix Cavaliere from the Young Rascals. If it wasn't for Felix, I would have never played the B-3. He brought that into the music biz. I mean, that was something that was sitting in your home that nobody would ever lug out. Felix and Booker T (Jones, of The MGs).
OMC: How about your favorite accordion player?
DF: Well, when I first started, it was Myron Floren on "The Lawrence Welk Show." I think he's still out there, still playing. (Floren died this past Saturday.) Matter of fact, the other day I just picked up my first accordion, that my mom had bought me, from my hometown in Flemington. Some woman had saved it for me. I just got it here a couple days ago. It was pretty cool to look at that little thing.
OMC: What kind is it?
DF: You know, half the letters are off the front of it -- I can't tell! But I had my first music book, so I was looking at the thing: this is what started it all.
OMC: Do you have a favorite melodica player?
DF: No.
OMC: How about synthesizer?
DF: Not really; I'm a more basic-instrument kind of guy. So, even when synthesizers were big, I would just use them (because they) sounded like a piano or an organ. I would never really play the synthesizer thing.
OMC: Ever use a string synthesizer?
DF: Years ago. We used a taped-string synthesizer in the band. It was a mellotron.
OMC: On "New York City Serenade"?
DF: Yeah, and it was OK, but the notes were kind of short, because the tape was kind of short. You could only hold the string part for so long. It was a little limiting, (as) opposed to the tools we have today.
OMC: What inspired you to put glockenspiel on your records?
DF: On my records, I put it on because I thought it would be something familiar that (audiences) could attach to me.
Same (with) the organ. On "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" and "Miss You," I did organ on those songs because I was playing so much piano on the record. Then I figured, "You know what? These people, they know me for playing the organ. Maybe I ought to play organ on a couple of these songs." It ended up being the instrument of choice on those songs, 'cause I've tried accordion, piano, and organ on a lot of the songs. "Miss You" wouldn't have been right with piano; it had to be the organ.
OMC: Were Phil Spector's records an earlier inspiration in using the glockenspiel?
DF: Absolutely! Absolutely. Man, we all grew up with that stuff. And the early Philly stuff -- a lot of bells on all that stuff. It was funny; they were using different instruments for different jobs. They were playing keyboard parts that were actually string lines in those days. If they didn't want to hire a string player, they had the keyboard player play the string parts. You know, it really made for interesting sounds in those days. All that stuff is very inspirational.
OMC: What are some of your favorite recordings with the E Street Band?
DF: Well, I love "The Rising." I mean, I love the production of it. And, of course, I have a couple of songs that are my favorites that you can hear me on, like "Sandy," where we used the accordion years ago. I'd love to do that again, and there's a couple bootlegs that are out there that I really like, that are stuff we did at a radio station with three of us.
OMC: You, Bruce and who?
DF: Vini Lopez, our drummer. He'd bang on a cardboard box and I'd play accordion. Bruce played acoustic guitar. Some of those early riding-in-the-station-wagon kind of things.
OMC: The bohemian days.
DF: Yeah, right!
OMC: Any musical experiences that made the hair on the back of your neck stand up?
DF: I guess the first time Vini and I saw Bruce was one of those times. We asked Bruce to put a band together with us. He was in a band called Earth, and Vini and I were pretty much the hottest club guys in Asbury Park at the time. We saw him, and just were blown away by this kid from Freehold, when we needed a guitar player and a singer, not to mention he wrote songs. It was a good find, wouldn't you think?
But then we had another one just recently, on "The Rising" tour. We were in Milan, and it was our last show in Europe, and it downpoured. I mean, the sky opened up and it just rained for like an hour solid. It was not a drizzle. And Bruce ran out on one of the runways, because you can have all these runways in Europe. It was outside, and it must have been 60 to 70,000 people. It was pouring rain, and everybody was getting soaking wet. (Bruce) just took the mic, looked around, grabbed the cowboy hat, went out on the ramp and stood in front, leaned against the PA, microphone stuck to his mouth and the water coming off the front of the cowboy hat, pouring down in front of his face. I picked the right instrument. I get to sit down and play the organ and watch Bruce run all over the stage and go out in the water.
The band is better than ever today. Everybody's healthy and happy, so that's a good place.
OMC: What was the name of the band you started with Bruce?
DF: We had two bands before the E Street Band, a band called Child and a band called Steel Mill.
OMC: Do you remember the Uptown Theater show in 1975?
DF: Oh, yeah. I remember the early ones better than the later ones. Yeah, we went out for a while and partied for a while after that show. And we came back! We don't have a lot of memories like that; that was a special one. We actually went out and hit the local pub and came back, and we had more creativity when we came back. (laughs)
OMC: And you were loose.
DF: We were looser, no question about it. Not our style. We don't do that sort of stuff, you know!
OMC: How long did the new album take, from idea through completion?
DF: I probably did half the record during "The Rising" tour. I was in Europe, inspired by a lot of art, and I had many moments where I'd get stuck in a city. We'd get done playing a show in a very industrial European city, and then wouldn't move on to the next show, so all the excitement of the show had passed, and now I'm just in this city. I would start going to museums and looking around.
I would come back to my hotel. I have a little computer and a keyboard, and I'd start putting ideas and feelings of the moment and types of art. Then I'd come back and put the pieces together -- see if it works, doesn't work, if I can use something or not. I could relate it to my experience where I was.
OMC: So the locale contributed to the feel of the song.
DF: Sure, and what was going on, and how I felt that day, and if I was inspired or not. I had a lot of stuff that's inspired by New York. I moved to the East Coast again, after 15 years in California, and it's an inspiration here ... the tempo in New York City. People going to work and just the movement, and the energy is a lot higher than it was in California.
OMC: Was California an inspiration on any of the tunes on the album?
DF: I actually wrote "Maya" while I was in California, but that was for my fiancée. I was in my house, on my piano, just put a couple mics up, and my producer had set the night so I was able to wake up and capture it right away.
OMC: What's the oldest song of yours on the album?
DF: Maybe "Golden Apples." It had to do with my children, Madison and Harley Monroe. I wanted to find a mood that would work just right for them. That took a while.
OMC: Why the Wisconsin-based names?
DF: My ex-wife is from Janesville. Last year I took the girls (to Milwaukee), and then we went to the lake -- you know where they have the duck boats?
OMC: Wisconsin Dells!
DF: Yeah! So we go back there and see their grandmother and grandfather and spend time.
OMC: If and when you tour to support this album, who would be in the band?
DF: I really don't know yet. I was looking into a few guys. I've been speaking with Mark Rivera, who's Billy Joel's saxophone player. We're kind of looking at players right now. It would be, probably, really good studio musicians in New York.
OMC: Does a song ever come to you in between consciousness and sleep?
DF: Absolutely, and it's usually the first thing in the morning. We all have certain patterns and certain things that we play that are familiar to us, so if you wake up and put your hands on the keyboard, usually the first thing that comes out would be something totally different, something new.
OMC: So you don't have a stock warm-up piece.
DF: Not really. Usually I'll put the tape recorder on first thing in the morning, because in the first 10, 15 minutes, that is all totally new inspiration.
OMC: So you still use tape -- good man.
DF: Well, it's the quickest way to put it down. If I had to go on a MIDI instrument or put on a microphone, go through the whole process of turning the machine on and this and that, I would lose it. (The inspiration) goes away pretty quickly.
OMC: What are your favorite songs on this album?
DF: I love "Light Is Calling." It was really inspired by this film (of the same title) by Bill Morrison. His film was based on 1930s footage. He had this technique, that he developed, that would represent decay. It was very haunting, and it just captured life and beauty and old times. The organ in the end of the song was similar to the film.
And "Maya," of course. We added the strings and a little bass guitar on that, and some percussion after the fact, but we almost left it as it was, because it was one of the first things that came out of my mind in the morning. It carried itself without any accompaniment.
And I love "Miss You" and "Knockin' on Heaven's Door." It's very difficult to pick a cover tune to play instrumentally and make it your own. It's been done before, so how are you going to personalize it?
OMC: How did you happen upon Morrison's film and other such artistic influences?
DF: My fiancée is an art dealer, and she really got me into art. There was a time when I really didn't understand it. The way I got into art was (by finding) out what I didn't like. I eliminated the things I didn't like. I would see things in museums -- you know, contemporary art, like a room full of light bulbs, and I just couldn't understand it. I was like, "You know, I could do this." You know the kind of art? You see a dot on a piece of paper and you're like, "They call this art? I could've done this." So I would start eliminating things that I didn't care for, and it brought me closer to the things I like.
OMC: So what are the chances that we might hear a really raw, down-to-earth album or song from you?
DF: From me? Real raw? You mean a rockingish thing? A very basic, funky thing? When I play this music live, it doesn't put the audience to sleep. I want to do a little something different with it.
