"I'm really anti-drum in a sense. Obviously you need facility and technique, but I subscribe to music, " states Utopia's Willie Wilcox. He has spent recent years becoming a total musician, developing his talents as producer, singer and songwriter, within the band and independently.
But Willie spent his early years concentrating on the facility and technique. Raised in the small town of Glens Falls, New York, Wilcox, at 13, was fortunate in finding his first teacher, Freddie Blood. In addition to delivering newspapers, Willie worked in Blood's drum shop, learning to repair and clean drums in exchange for free lessons. One of his earliest highlights occurred when Gene Krupa, a friend of Blood's, came to town and the three spent some time together. That same night, Krupa performed in town and called both Wilcox and Blood to the stage, relinquishing his drums to Willie while Blood took over the percussion and the two guests played a number with Krupa's band.
"When you're a baby, somebody has to take enough interest to help you believe in yourself during the period when you're so fresh that you don't know what to believe. Freddie did that."
After Blood instilled the love of jazz in his student, Willie went on to Berklee and the Manhattan School of Music to further his education. There came a point, however, when he realized it was the practical playing experience he craved. And he has been getting this experience ever since with such artists as Hall & Oates, Bette Midler and Utopia. For the consummate musician, his current situation with Utopia is ideal since he is afforded plenty of time to work on his other areas of musical interest. Recently he moved from Florida to be closer to New York, the hub of the music business.
While Wilcox is cognizant of the fact that the music sometimes becomes a business, he has developed certain philosophies and perspectives on the less than positive aspects. Mere contemplation and understanding of the situation are positive traits, both of which are evident in the following interview. Our conversation took place in upstate New York during the making of Utopia's Oblivion album, which was released earlier this year.
WW: All the Utopia things had been done live until this present record. The method with this album, so far, seems to be that we lay down the basic form of the tune, instrumentally. Then I go back and put down my ultimate drum track, and they overdub to that. The other times we all played the track and waited until everybody as a band got the take that they liked. This time, we fell into this sort of pattern. It wasn't-dis
cussed. We just started doing it. I actually like it in a way. It gives us a chance to think about it a little bit, especially since most of the tracks that we put down aren't songs when we start. They're just tracks with no lyrics or melodies. For instance, on this new album, we don't have any idea what we're going to do.
RF: Is that typical?
WW: That happens, but we also work sometimes with completed songs. Some body will come in with a track or a com pleted song, and we just put it together and see how it comes out. This time, we only have a month to do the album, and so far, we've been doing a track a day, writing it and recording it. We're doing pretty well. Somebody will have an idea, then some body else will have another part and we link them together. It makes the songs dif ferent because they're not conceived at once and they're not conceived so much in a style. We can take any kind of musical idea and turn it into something else. The whole attitude could change depending on what sounds are used on it, how it's played, at what tempo and other things. I thought I had twO pieces of material for the album, each being its own separate piece, but the band only liked certain parts of each one of them, so it ended up that I used a verse from one and the chorus from the other. That's one thing that's different about writing for the band, and writing for myself or dther people. We all have differ ent musical styles, and a lot of times, the style that you may do naturally might not be totally right for the band. There are, however, certain parts of your style that the band can use.
RF: Or they can use what you've written and make it into their own style.
WW: Right. "Utopiaize" it.
RF: Continue with how you actually work in the studio.
WW: We play the arrangement live and get that down. Then we play with the drum machine. We've been using the Linn lately, but we have an Oberheim too. I go back and get the drum track really tight with the Linn. Then I get a chance to think about my part a little more and exactly what I want to do. I start tQ realize the different changes in the song. When you're a studio musician, a lot of times you don't get to hear the song, which is a big complaint. It's like, "God, if I would have known that this wasihe bridge leading into the chorus of this section, or if I would have heard that melody, I would have done something totally different." The way we do it, even though I haven't heard the lyrics yet or the mel6dies, at least I get a chance to sense what the flow of the tune is, and play some thing I will be happier with later.
RF: How do you feel about the synthesized computer drums?
WW: I think it's really starting to get excit ing. I'm not at all threatened or put off by synthesized drums. Now that they're digi