March 6, 2003 - Brian Hughes is busy these days he just started recording his new album on Feb 29 and he told Smooth Jazz Now "I'll be finished early in April and the release date is currently set for July 8th". Brian may be recording on a new label - he was with Higher Octave for his last few. Brian promised to keep us updated on the progress of the new tunes. We can't wait! Here's an interview we did with Brian in 2002.

John Beaudin - Welcome Brian. I think you were one of the first Canadian Smooth Jazz acts I have ever played on radio. I'll never forget the day your ex-wife knocked on the door of this little cabin in Edmonton where I was doing my show. I think it was 1986 or 1987 and she had your first cassette and I informed her that I couldn't put cassettes on air. As she's walking away she yells out, "Oh, it's so good you'll play it anyway!" (Laughing)

Brian Hughes - (laughing) I think at that point we were separated.

John - That's pretty good support from an ex-wife?

Brian - Yes, definitely!

John - A lot of the material on that first cassette ended up on your first CD "Between Dusk and Dreaming". I was happy to hear those songs in CD form.

Brian - Yes, all the songs were re-recorded. There was maybe only one song that didn't make it on "Dust and Dreaming."

John - Was that first cassette done in Edmonton or Toronto?

Brian - It was done in Toronto, in my friend's basement. When I re-recorded it I had been signed to Justin Time through that cassette demo that you had. We actually went to Montreal to do the album.

John - So, do I have bragging rights in saying that I was the first person to play you on radio? (Laughing)

Brian - (laughing) I guess so. Back then cassette was the kind of currency that one used to shop around for record deals and CD's were just starting to happen. I think you were the first.

John - I think in 1986 I had maybe ten to fifteen CD's in the control room (on air room) and that was it.

Brian - Well, you know I can't even remember when I got my first CD player. It certainly wasn't like now where you can just go off and burn a CD.

John - Yes, for thirty-five cents!

Brian - (laughing) Sure, thirty-five cents.

John - What's your take on CD burning?

Brian - Well, it's a major problem and it filters down. I think because the age demographic is older for Smooth Jazz and there's more of a conscience or maybe they're not as up on the technology. I don't think they're as inclined to be loading up their little Rio MP3 player or their little Apple machine. I've had emails from people saying that they love my stuff and that they downloaded all of my songs from Napster (laughing).

John - (Laughing) Don't they get it? Doing it is one thing but telling you about it in ignorance is pretty nutty.

Brian - Well, obviously they don't get it. They tell me that I'm their favorite artist and that they have downloaded all of my material from the web and love it! I've even had people tell me that they love my CDs so much that they've made copies for all of their friends.

John - Wow!

Brian - I've had people tell me that right to my face and they think that they're complimenting me.

John - Do you give them hell?

Brian - Well, that's really great if they love my stuff but why don't they go out and buy it for their friends and give it to them as a gift.

John - Do you find it challenging confronting those people?

Brian - No, I did tell it to one person but usually they've done it already. Sometimes all you can tell them is that you're glad they liked the music, unless you end up getting into a conversation with them. I think more and more you have to put the word out that it's not really cool. I think some form of it has always existed before. They had their cassette tapes and cassette player in the car and that was the normal thing. So, sure you would tape your album and play it in the car. With Napster and the new sites now a million people can download your stuff in two seconds! How do artists make albums and make money? You have to justify the investment of recording it especially when you're into something like Jazz or Alternative Rock. There aren't huge budgets and sometimes the bands are paying for it by themselves.

John - The great thing about CDs from my side of the industry is that I can catalog my Can-Con or rare Smooth Jazz albums. Artists don't mind if I have CDR copies, it usually leads to airplay in some capacity.

Brian - Sure. You're playing it and you're doing the artist a service. Just before our interview I was doing some liners for a radio station here in Santa Barbara and I was just burning them on to CD, so it's great to have that. The new stuff that I'm writing gets burned on CD so I can listen to it in the car or play it for friends.

John - What do think about the state of Smooth Jazz?

Brian - Well, I think the format has changed in an adverse way. I think it was three to four years ago when they started going with singles and every station was playing the same single. Four years ago stations would be playing six or eight tracks from one of my albums. Also, the station in Boston would be playing different tracks than the one in Detroit and it would depend on their demographic. Now, it's just boiled into one song. They'll play it regardless of the city, whether it's a large urban center or a smaller city. I think people don't hear enough to get an idea of whether they're going to like the whole album.

John - What was your first reaction with the CRTC's decision to go with an Urban format rather than Smooth Jazz in Vancouver?

Brian - Being down here I'm kind of out of the loop. My first thought was that is kind of odd.

John - Have you been doing any schmoozing shows for radio stations? I used to love setting those up so the fans could get a bit closer to the acts.

Brian - I'm going to be doing this weekend cruise in Mexico and I'm just going to go on and play six songs to track and then do a little schmoozing with the people. So my wife and I get to go for a little cruise for the weekend. (laughing)

John - (Laughing) That's Okay?

Brian - Yes, I'll play for a half an hour with a few people, so that'll be fun.

John - Now that you live in California, don't most people just figure that you're from the United States?

Brian - I think mostly people just like the music. I think some of them are more in tune and dig a little deeper into the background.

John - The bio people.

Brian - Yes, the bio people. I think a lot of people assume that I'm American.

John - Are you still working with Loreena? (McKennitt)

Brian - Yes, but she's sort of been in retirement mode for about the last four years now. Last spring I went up and she wrote some music for a play at Stratford, it was the "Merchant of Venice." I think it took about three weeks but that's the last thing she did. We've talked about doing some stuff together but just not yet, so I've been grooving away doing my own thing.

John - I hear you have a lot of vinyl.

Brian - Well, I have about five hundred albums.

John - That's not bad. I got rid of mine about seven years ago.

Brian - I used to have about two thousand albums when I was in Edmonton and when I moved to Toronto I ditched half of them.

John - Well, hell they're heavy!

Brian - Yes, they're very heavy. The ones I couldn't bear to part with were parked at my parent's place and over the years every time I've gone back I've looked through them and hauled out another ten or twenty. I don't listen to them that much anymore but it's good to know they're there.

John - Do you have time to listen to a lot of music?

Brian - Yes, I listen to a fair bit of music. When I'm cooking dinner I'll have something in the background and you know I'm always trying to keep an open mind and check out new things. I'm in the writing process right now so I'm not listening to too much stuff. I'm just trying to focus on my own things.

John - So when will the next album be out?

Brian - Probably late Spring or early Summer. I'll probably be finished writing this time next week. I'm good at making deadlines because that's the only way I ever get anything done.(laughing)

John - Are you working with your touring band in the studio?

Brian - Yes, I've got a new band together down here. My keyboard player, Les Portelli, who plays on all the albums except the first one moved down here so that's great.

John - He was from Toronto?

Brian - Yes, he moved down in the Fall. I met a couple of great players when I did a weeklong adventure in Romania in September. It was a PBS show with this Romanian gypsy artist by the name of Damian Draghici and we played a concert over there right in front of seventy-five thousand people! It was kind of like one of those Yanni at the Taj Mahal things. There was the Romanian State Orchestra. The drummer and the bass player in the band were really great so I hooked up with them. Joel Taylor is the drummer and he tours with Allen Holsworth. The bass player is Tim Landers who has played with Mike Stern, so they are great players. I also have a percussionist Jason Hann, who tours a lot with Isaac Hayes and Ricky Lee Jones. It's really starting to gel and feel good.

John - What's in the set list?

Brian - I'm mostly playing tunes from "Shakin' not Stirred" and the earlier albums. We haven't really got into playing a lot of the new stuff I'm sort of keeping it guarded.

John - "Shakin' not Stirred" is probably my favorite! Your music always inspires me to do stuff, it's lively.

Brian - Thanks John, I'm glad you like that album. To me the newest one is always my most favorite and the next one will be that much better and so on.

John - That's kind of a music business cliché.(laughing)

Brian - (laughing) Yeah it is, well you know I can look back at them all and I don't cringe too much, so that's probably pretty good.

John - Well listen, none of your stuff sounds dated. It stands up perfectly.

Brian - There's still stuff in the repertoire from all the albums which is kind of good. Some of the tunes work great live so you kind of stick with those.

John - A friend of mine Paul Armitage has played with Richard Hardy and he has nothing but glowing thing to say about him. I hear you also worked with him.

Brian - That came through the record company Higher Octave. Richard is part of Third Force and we're all on Higher Octave. I've played on a few of their tracks through the years and when "Shakin' not Stirred" was coming out we were talking about doing something with Third Force. I sent William Aura down a couple of tracks to see if he'd be interested in doing a remix or something. They kind of took them in the studio and chopped them up a bit so I didn't really meet Richard.

John - That's the big misconception in the entertainment industry that if you're on the same label or in the same movie you should be great pals. I see the morning crew at the radio station maybe four or five times a year and one of those times is at the Christmas party.

Brian - I was watching some of the Golden Globes the other night and somebody was saying what a great actor that person was even though I didn't really act with him in the film. There's definitely a lot of that in the music business.

John - So, when you were first starting out did you ever fathom in a million years that people would pay to hear you play?

Brian - No. (laughing) In the beginning it was just for personal enjoyment but maybe in the beginning my head was full of fantasy rock star moments thinking, yeah, that would be cool. That was in the rock context, I certainly wasn't thinking about Jazz or Latin music.

John - So how did you detour into Jazz?

Brian - Getting into Jazz was just a series of events, hearing Wes Montgomery on CKUA in Alberta and I was working at A&A records part time in high school. There were some other people working there who were more into Jazz so they were turning me on to different records. As for the Latin thing I always liked that feel. You know the Bossa Nova thing, the Girl from Ipanima, I just liked the feel of it. I liked Santana a lot. I think my dad had some of those Bossa Nova albums and I always liked them even though it was probably not cool at the time. I think it kind of stayed with me.

John - Isn't it funny how those things go full circle. So many artists talk about that. You know the hating your dad's record collection only to find yourself replicating it as an adult.

Brian - My dad would always play Dixieland music especially loud on Sunday mornings. (laughing) You'd be trying to sleep in and I'd be like, "Dad turn that stuff off!" Not that I'm a huge Dixieland fan but obviously it's the roots of Jazz. It's funny that I'd become a Jazz guitarist after that upbringing.

John - What new stuff do you like? Is there anything that has wowed you the way our old albums did when we were growing up?

Brian - I don't know. Maybe when you become a professional musician it's harder to feel that again. I really liked the "I Am Shelby Lynn" album. It's a fantastic album.

John - Did it ever receive a lot of good press.

Brian - I really like Badly Drawn Boy and their album "The Hour of Bewilderbeast." It's like a British pop thing with great songwriting. I like different word music, Classical, Mozart and Bach.

John - Badly Drawn boy have a great website, it's very different. Did George Harrison's death affect you? Did you reminisce at all?

Brian - I was a big Beatles fan and that was definitely another tragedy.

John - Reminds you of how old you are doesn't it?

Brian - Yes, exactly. He died fairly young I suppose. He has an amazing legacy. I don't know if it was last year before Christmas that the '1' album came out?

John - Year before last.

Brian - You know one thing I realized then was that it really didn't take that long for them to put all of that music out, which I think is the most amazing thing. All of those songs came out within a span of ten years.

John - I just bought the DVD on the making of Elton John's "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road." Elton said that back then he didn't spend too much time writing and recording, he would do a song in one afternoon and that's both writing and recording! He mentions the Beatles and said the greatest music in the world was written fast and recorded fast. Look at the Eagles. When they recorded "The Long Run" they were thinking too much and over produced the album, they spent too much time with that one. When artists do that it can blow up in their face. I think the only time that worked consistently was with Steely Dan. They spent a lot of time in the studio but it always paid off.

Brian - Sure, you can really get into analyzing the whole process. Then you get into the thinking that the new album has to be more successful than the one before. It's like Michael Jackson, what's he suppose to do after "Thriller."

John - Well, let me suggest living a kooky life and a kooky existence. (laughing)

Brian - (Laughing) Yes, what are you suppose to do.

John - Brian thanks so much for the interview, it's always great connecting with you.

Brian - As always John, thanks for the support.

February, 2002

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