Bryan Adams Interview Part 2 - "Reckless Deluxe" + new album in 2015

BRYAN ADAMS TO RELEASE THREE ALBUMS 

IN THE COMING 15 MONTHS (part 2)

ROCK´N´TALK: NEXT NOVEMBER 5^th IS NOT ONLY YOUR BIRTHDAY, IT´S ALSO 30 YEARS TO THE DAY “RECKLESS” CAME OUT AND YOU´LL BE RELEASING A “DELUXE” EDITION. WHAT CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT THAT PROJECT? 

 

Bryan Adams: It’s got 7 bonus tracks, some songs were covered by other artists,

LET ME DOWN EASY

TEACHER TEACHER

BOYS NITE OUT

DRAW THE LINE

PLAY TO WIN

DANGEROUS (RECKLESS)

but this will be the first time you will hear my versions of them, there are some other unreleased tracks too, maybe it will be apparent why I never did proper recordings of them, but listening to them all now, there was another album waiting to be released and it was completely ignored. Instead we wrote “Into The Fire”…

R´N´T: LOOKING BACK NOW, IS THERE ONE PARTICULAR SONG YOU THINK YOU SHOULD HAVE PUT ON THE ORIGINAL LP?

BA: Probably all of them. I left "Diana" off the album out of respect for her. (NOTE FROM THE EDITOR: For that same reason, I will not post that video, either).

R´N´T: I THOUGHT “EDGE OF A DREAM”

ALMOST ENDED UP ON “RECKLESS” AND IT GOT LEFT OFF AT THE LAST MINUTE, BUT IT´S NOT ON “RECKLESS DELUXE”. IS THERE A PARTICULAR REASON FOR THAT?

BA: I tried to find the demo, but it doesn´t exist sadly...

R´N´T: YOU´VE ATTRIBUTED THE SUCCESS OF THE ALBUM TO MANY THINGS: ALL THE TOURING YOU HAD DONE IN THE PREVIOUS YEARS, TIMING, THE HELP OF MTV… AS FOR THE SONGS THEMSELVES (WRITING, PRODUCTION…), DO YOU THINK THERE IS SOMETHING ABOUT THEM THAT MADE THEM STAND OUT FROM BOTH YOUR FIRST THREE ALBUMS AND ALL OTHER ALBUMS RELEASED IN ´84-´85?

BA: It was as if the other albums were practice runs leading up to Reckless, and there was a great team behind it, Jim, Bob Clearmountain (engineer and co-producer) and even Bruce Allen my manager. Bruce pushed to make it rock harder.

R´N´T: YOUR PREVIOUS WORK, “CUTS LIKE A KNIFE”, WAS THE FIRST ONE RECORDED WITH YOUR TOURING BAND (KEITH AND DAVE DID NOT PARTICIPATE ON “YOU WANT IT, YOU GOT IT” YET). COMING TO RECORD “RECKLESS”, HOW IMPORTANT WOULD YOU JUDGE THEIR INPUT AS FAR AS THE SOUND OF THE ALBUM GOES, SONG ARRANGEMENTS, ETC.?

BA: Certainly Keith was majorly important, he was such a great ally in the studio and worked hard to get good sounds, we were both into the equipment and getting great gear, that helped a lot. 

Mickey Curry and Pat Steward played drums and they took the ideas that Jim and I had and worked them out with me in the studio. 

 

I just wanted to have a band that was the same on the record as the albums and it was good for a time. 

R´N´T: DID YOU HAVE A CLEAR IDEA OF WHAT YOU WANTED THE RECORD TO SOUND LIKE, OR DID YOU TAKE SUGGESTIONS FROM BOB CLEARMOUNTAIN? WHAT WAS YOUR WORKING RELATIONSHIP LIKE WITH HIM DURING THAT PROCESS?

BA: He’s amazing and was the most important part of the team in making the record itself. He would always start off by getting a great drum sound, and from there it was making sure we had a great performance. But he wasn’t involved in the arrangements, that was all Jim and myself. He was there to make sure we made our songs into ‘records’ and there was no one in the world better for what we were doing than Bob. The guy is a master sound maker and still is. 

R´N´T: DO YOUR MUSICAL INFLUENCES SHOW ON “RECKLESS” OR WOULD YOU SAY BY THAT TIME YOU HAD ALREADY DEFINED THE BRYAN ADAMS SOUND AND THAT´S WHAT IT SOUNDS LIKE?

BA:  My sound is just my voice.

R´N´T: WERE THERE OTHER SONGS RECORDED FOR THE LP THAT YOU HAVE NOT INCLUDED IN THE “DELUXE” EDITION?

BA: Yes and they are all coming out.

R´N´T: RIGHT NOW THERE´S A “RECKLESS 30^th ANNIVERSARY TOUR” PLANNED FOR THE UK AND EUROPE IN NOVEMBER AND DECEMBER (I´LL BE SEEING YOU IN LONDON MYSELF) AS WELL AS IN CANADA IN JANUARY AND FEBRUARY 2015.

R´N´T: ANY PLANS TO KEEP DOING THAT DURING THE REST OF 2015?

BA: Yes it will carry on for a while I would imagine. (NOTE FROM THE EDITOR: Check the tour dates at www.bryanadams.com)

R´N´T: IN 1988 YOU WERE ASKED TO LOOK BACK ON YOUR CAREER AND SAY IF YOU THOUGHT ONE OF YOUR ALBUMS SHOULD HAVE DONE BETTER AND YOU ANSWERED “YOU WANT IT, YOU GOT IT” (I AGREE 100%). IF I ASKED YOU THE SAME QUESTION NOW, WHAT WOULD YOU SAY?

BA: It’s not fair to say one should have done better than another, they all did pretty good, some better than others. That’s the way it is.

R´N´T: ANY PLANS OF RELEASING ANY MORE “DELUXE” EDITIONS OF OTHER ALBUMS?

BA: There are no plans, it was tough enough to find the material for Reckless, A&M records lost all the original artwork and master tapes.

R´N´T: I HAVE TO TAKE THIS CHANCE TO ASK YOU TWO QUESTIONS. MY FAVORITE ALBUM EVER IS “INTO THE FIRE”, PROBABLY ONE OF THE MOST CRIMINALLY UNDERRATED ALBUMS IN THE HISTORY OF ROCK´N´ROLL, IN MY (AND MANY OTHERS´) OPINION. WITH THE PERSPECTIVE OF THE 27 YEARS THAT HAVE PASSED SINCE ITS RELEASE, WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT IT? 

BA: I like that album too. It was the beginning of a new way of working, technology was starting to weed it’s way into our work, there were some good songs too.

R´N´T: ALSO, I WOULD HAVE LOVED TO LISTEN TO WHAT JIM CALLS “THE LOST ALBUM”, THE ONE YOU WORKED ON WITH STEVE LILLYWHITE IN BETWEEN “INTO THE FIRE” AND “WAKING UP THE NEIGHBOURS”. I´VE LISTENED TO “AFTER THE THRILL IS GONE” AND OTHER SONGS YOU GAVE AWAY DURING THAT PERIOD LIKE “ROUGH TOWN”

OR “NATURE OF THE BEAST”.

I LOVE ALL THOSE SONGS. WILL YOU EVER CONSIDER RELEASING THOSE DEMOS, MAYBE INSIDE A BOX SET ANTHOLOGY OR ANY OTHER FORMAT?

BA: I´m not sure, maybe.

R´N´T: AS I MENTIONED EARLIER YOU HAVE ALSO BEEN WORKING ON AN ALBUM OF BRAND NEW SONGS. PLEASE TELL US A BIT ABOUT IT.

BA: I´ve been working with Jeff Lynne. Jim and I send a demo to him and he sends back a master tape. It´s amazing. If all goes well, it will be one of the best records I´ve ever made.

R´N´T: YOU JUST MENTIONED TWO VERY IMPORTANT PEOPLE YOU CHOSE TO WORK WITH ON THIS ALBUM. THE FIRST ONE IS JEFF LYNNE, WHO IS PRODUCING IT. 

HOW DID THAT COME ABOUT AND WHAT ARE YOU HOPING TO ACHIEVE BY HIM PRODUCING YOUR SONGS? 

BA: We met in the 1980´s when I played up in Birmingham, I should have asked him to produce "Into The Fire" now that I think of it, but anyway, we met again recently and he asked me if I wanted to do a track together. We´ve done 7 so far.

R´N´T: THE OTHER ONE IS, OF COURSE, JIM VALLANCE, WHO´S CO-WRITTEN ALL THE SONGS WITH YOU. 

I KNOW THAT NOWADAYS YOU DON´T EVEN HAVE TO BE IN THE SAME ROOM TOGETHER TO DO THAT; YOU´D EXCHANGE IDEAS VIA EMAIL AND YOU´D HAVE THE SONG, SO THERE´S ONE BIG CHANGE FROM WHEN YOU TWO FIRST STARTED OUT. BUT WHAT I´D LIKE TO KNOW IS: 

IN ALL THESE YEARS THAT HAVE PASSED, ESPECIALLY AFTER GETTING BACK TOGETHER TO WRITE, HAVE YOU NOTICED ANY CHANGES IN HIS SONGWRITING METHOD, WHETHER AN EVOLUTION OR A DIFFERENT APPROACH? AND THE SAME QUESTION GOES FOR YOURSELF: HAVE YOU CHANGED THE WAY YOU WRITE SONGS OVER THE YEARS?

BA: It´s all changed but it’s all the same. We can still work the old way of sitting together, and we can use the internet to send files and ideas back and forth, it's working well.

R´N´T: NOT THAT LONG AGO, ONLY A FEW YEARS BACK I THINK, YOU SAID YOU WERE NOT PLANNING ON RECORDING ANY MORE ALBUMS BECAUSE OF THE STATE OF THE MUSIC INDUSTRY, AND THAT YOU´D RATHER PUT OUT INDIVIDUAL SONGS EVERY ONCE IN A WHILE. NOW YOU´RE GOING TO RELEASE THREE ALBUMS. WHAT MADE YOU CHANGE YOUR MIND?

BA: I tried to get everyone interested in the one song at a time idea, but the record company people are only interested in things the old way, so I carry on as I always have.

R´N´T: IS THERE ANY OTHER PROJECT IN SIGHT FOR THE NEAR FUTURE, IN MUSIC OR ANYWHERE ELSE?

BA: The only thing that comes to mind is the duet I did with Diana Krall of the Randy Newman song “Feels like home”.

R´N´T: HAS PARENTHOOD CHANGE YOUR CAREER PLANS FOR THE FUTURE? DO YOU PLAN TO “ROCK ´TIL YOU DROP” OR WILL THERE COME A TIME WHEN YOU´LL SAY: “OK, I´M GOING TO SPEND MORE TIME WITH MY FAMILY NOW”?

BA: I’m really not sure, and if you had asked me this question 30 years ago, I would have said the same thing. Eventually everyone ends up as Voltaire describes in Candide, in the garden.  

R´N´T: OK, ONE FINAL QUESTION AND IT´S A PERSONAL ONE. YOU´VE PLAYED MY HOMETOWN OF BILBAO, SPAIN THREE TIMES: 

JUNE 1988

DECEMBER 1991 AND FEBRUARY 2005. I´D LIKE TO KNOW IF YOU HAVE ANY PARTICULAR MEMORY OF ANY OF THOSE GIGS AND THE CITY.

BA: Not really, I should have stayed longer when we came through there on my way to England in the 60´s to see my Grandparents, and we all had to endure the ferry on the Bay of Biscay, which even today was the worst boat trip I´ve ever been on!

R´N´T: WELL BRYAN: I CAN´T THANK YOU ENOUGH. NOT ONLY FOR TAKING THE TIME TO ANSWER MY QUESTIONS, FOR WHICH I WILL BE ETERNALLY GRATEFUL, BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY, FOR ALL THE JOY YOU HAVE GIVEN ME THROUGH YOUR MUSIC. SO THANKS AGAIN AND HOPEFULLY I WILL BE SEEING YOU VERY SOON. TAKE CARE AND GOOD LUCK IN THE FUTURE. KEEP ON ROCKIN´!!

BA: De nada (sic), thank you.

P.S: You can follow Bryan on:

Twitter:               www.twitter.com/bryanadams

Facebook:          www.facebook.com/bryanadamsofficial

YouTube:            www.youtube.com/user/bryanadams

And on:               www.bryanadams.com