MICHAEL JAMES FLATTERS INTERVIEWS

 

ROCK REUNION INTERVIEW (EXCERPT) INTERVIEW BY RALPH GEIGER

You are singing on James Byrd’s new album. How did you get in touch with James?
Well, it actually all came about one night way back in early 1999. My friend Ray Schwartz (more on him later) was down visiting from Seattle. Ray was the drummer in Heir Apparent way back when, and in 1987 they hired a close friend of mine, Steve Benito, to be their new vocalist; replacing Paul Davidson. I met Ray through Steve during the recording of 'One Small Voice'.

Ray and I actually remain close friends to this day, whereas Steve and I rarely talk at all. No ill will or anything; it's just that Steve is one of those guys that kind of zooms in and out of your life from time to time. Anyway, on this night back in '99, I met up with Ray and Steve for a few beers, and Steve told me he'd been contacted by James Byrd, and that James wanted him to sing on his new CD. He said because he was too busy, that he wouldn't be able to do it, but that he'd given my number to James, and recommended me for the gig. James contacted me, and after a few phone conversations, and the mailing off of some demo tapes to James, I got the job.

I already interviewed James about the album. Could you please also tell something about the recordings?

The recording of 'Flying Beyond The 9' was a really great experience for me. It came at a time when I was really questioning my place in the music business, and actually came at the end of about an 18-month hiatus from any singing at all. My previous band had basically imploded right when it was turning into a sizeable draw in town, and I was really growing tired of all the inner-band bullshit that I was encountering. When I got the call from James, something told me I really needed to do it. It was a bit of pressure to get myself back into singing shape without the help of live rehearsal, but I worked hard on my own to get back to where I needed to be.

Because James lives in Seattle, and I'm basically in Portland, Oregon, we had about 200 miles between us. So the first weekend I went up to record, I took a Monday off of work, and we recorded the first three songs in three days. The first track was 'Nevermore' and it took a little over 10 hours to get all the vocals done. And believe me, there were a lot of vocals on this record! From there, each song took anywhere from 5-7 hours to record. We had to go hard since we didn't have much time. James worked me good, but he'll be the first to tell you that I'm just as hard on myself as he ever was. In the end, nothing got by without both of us being happy. As the record got closer to being done, we went at a bit more leisurely pace; taking time to watch some movies and just hang out. And James is a cool guy to hang out with, so at times we had to force ourselves to end the social hour and get back to work! I hope that when we do the next one, we'll be able to strike a nice balance between work and play.

Did James come up with the vocal lines already written and prepared, or did you have some liberty to bring in your own ideas?
James had all of his vocal melodies and lyrics written. The only area where I had any input was in some of the vocal harmonies. At times, James would tell me to just sing what came naturally as a harmony. On a few songs, ('Flying Beyond The 9' and 'Nevermore' come to mind) I found that approach to be very easy, and most of the harmonies were recorded exactly that way. Other times I'd have a hard time hearing where to go, so James would get out the acoustic guitar and we'd figure them out together. Finally, there were harmonies that James had previously worked out in his head, and he'd just show me what to sing. As far as "how" I sang each track, James mainly dictated that. But after working together for just a short time, he was able to see that I had a very versatile singing voice, and that we could treat each song, as it's own vocal entity. This to me is the beauty of this album: VARIETY! We were able to paint 9 different paintings, but maintain a nice cohesion throughout. So you can listen to it over and over, and every time you're going to hear things you didn't hear before. If this all sounds confusing, I would recommend you just buy the CD. Then it will all make sense.

To some, this may seem a very dictatorial relationship. My answer to that would be "yes and no". The bottom line is that I was hired to take the vocals James heard in his head, and get them on tape as close to his vision as possible. I knew this going in, and never wavered in my efforts. However, even though I was literally being spoon-fed my vocal material, it never really felt that way at all. I didn't write one word or note of music on FBT9, but I sang it as though I'd written every bit of it. And that is why James and I got on so well, and why we'll be working together in the future.

TO READ THE FULL INTERVIEW GO HERE.