John - What did he steal your tools? (laughing)

Chuck - (laughing) No, he's really the greatest guy. I've had Gato Barbieri in my garage and Michael Brecker.

John - You mean your studio. (laughing).

Chuck - I'm sorry my studio.(laughing) Randy Brecker is going to be here in a couple of days so a lot of great artists stop by like the guys from Spyro Gyra like Jay Beckenstein.

John - Well, you work at home when you record and produce and that's okay?

Chuck - I'll tell you something interesting when I was growing up I was listening to Rock'n Roll before I got into Jazz and one of my favorite records was "Music from Big Pink" by The Band. It was called "Music from Big Pink" because it was recorded in a pink development house and they had a picture of it on the record.

John - I remember.

Chuck - I remember thinking what a great thing you know to have a recording studio in a house and then you could just relax you wouldn't have to watch the clock so much. So when they started coming up with the technology first with a four track cassette, then they had digital audio tapes and then they got into the computer and as soon as they got into that stuff I got right on the bandwagon. I always felt that if I had unlimited time to work on my stuff in my own house in my own environment at my own pace it would be such a liberating feeling and I think that's what it is. It's sort of democratized the recording process so more people can do it. You still have to go to the nice big studios to do some of the things because you can't do a big string orchestra or the big horn section you know what I mean?

John - Sure but you know if you could bring the string section to your home chances are someone in there could change your oil?

Chuck - (laughing) That's true. I do like to get a violist under the hood every once in a while.

John - The new album "eBop" is a very positive album to me and there's a nice variety of styles on there.

Chuck - Yeah, it's a different tact for me from my other CD's. A lot of the music on this CD is generated mostly by me. I did most of the programming of the keyboards, the drum programming, a little bass playing and of course the guitar playing. I did incorporate a lot of other musicians of course but I think I was kind of in that space where I wanted to express myself because mostly I involve quite a few people on my CD's. It makes me feel good that you think it's positive and happy music because I think that's what I wanted. The idea was sort of fun you know, music that's just fun to listen to.

John - I don't program the Breeze here in Calgary. It's a B.A. station but when I did program the music at other stations I would always look for tunes like "Back to the Bistro" or "Foolproof," tunes that are inspirational driving songs.

Chuck - Yeah, you mean kickin' it up a little bit right?

John - Yeah, I like the format now but I feel the format does not play enough of those types of songs and you had a few good ones on "eBop."

Chuck - Yeah, I agree with you. Sometimes you want that kind of energy going through things and you know I think there are more kinds of those songs on this album than on others.

John - The title song is the only single so far in the U.S. right?

Chuck - Yes, so far.

John - How do you work the singles at Shanachie and is it a group decision?

Chuck - Yeah, it's kind of a group decision certainly in the case of "eBop" it was the obvious song that jumped out at everybody and it was also the one that I and my executive producer Danny Weiss felt was the prime candidate from the beginning. Then we run it by the people that work with radio, Bill Chaisson and Marla Roseman and then we take it to the independent radio people and we even play it for a few people at the stations to see what they're feedbacks going to be. It's kind of a little evolved process that we go through but it's usually easy because like I said there's usually a song that's just jumping out at us.

John - Sometimes I'm totally off with that. For instance, right before I talked to Jeff Lorber I heard the single "Gigabyte" and I really didn't like it but a week after that it was my favorite tune.

Chuck - Yeah, so it grew on you. I tell you the truth that when a song is right, it's right! Obviously, there's been times on my album or albums I've produced where we'd pick a song and we think it's the right song to pick but sometimes thinking is not the right tact to take because sometimes you should pick it from what you feel. When something moves you it's going to move other people and that's how I feel about it. I'm a listener and lover of this kind of music and I trust my instincts when I hear my own music. If I listen to my own stuff and I like it the way I like a classic (George) Benson or Weather Report and if I feel that little thing that I felt when I heard a classic Jazz tune then I trust that. That's when I know I'm going in the right direction and I keep going in that direction.

John - I like the traditional feel on "Brainstorm."

Chuck - I chose that title because that's the way it happened, it was a brainstorm. At the time I was setting up my studio with two computers in it and I was doing a technical test to have one computer follow the other with the music. I played a little lick and I started the computer and it kicked in and when it started the two computers started playing this little pattern together and I thought of a melody and when the melody came it all happened in a burst. So, it kind of had an old Bob James from the seventies feel like maybe "Mr. Magic" or something and it spurred a brainstorm and that became the title.

John - Well, that more traditional feel really works and you were becoming a serious musician during those days.

Chuck - That's right.

John - "Back to the Bistro" is my favorite track on the new album. I like the drum pattern on that.

Chuck - Yeah, I like it too and it's very funky.

John - I got on my kit and tried to learn it right away but Chuck I should admit that I'm the worse drummer in the universe. (Laughing)

Chuck - (Laughing) No, no, that's not true. That would be me!

John - (laughing) Hey, don't take my title that's all I got!

Chuck - (laughing) Okay, I'll be the second worse drummer in the universe.

John - I can tell that those drums on "Back to the Bistro" are programmed. How'd you come up with that loop?

Chuck - Yeah, that's programmed. That song was written by the keyboard player in my band. When we were working on it he had something that he was just writing to, I'm talking about this loop that was going on over and over again. I told him it was very good but that we needed to tweak it a little bit. We spent a couple of hours fixing and changing things in the loop and when we were done I thought wow this is like Steve Jordan and Steve Gadd mixed together

John - "Foolproof" is another one. It's funky and very catchy. That song brought me to a point of appreciation for what you do. You're not one of the new guys and you've been doing this for a while and yet you sound as current as someone who's twenty two.

Chuck - Well, you know I think having the roots there helps. When I come in contact with some of the younger players and their aware of the music that happened in the sixties, seventies and eighties I think you can hear it in their playing but as you say I think it is important to stay current. I try to stay aware of what's happening technologically and musically because it's evolving and music is a living thing. It's always evolving.

John - What's your goal when you record?

Chuck - Well, I don't know if I always achieve it but my goal is to say to myself if I heard this is ten, twenty or fifty years would I still bop my head and say hey, that's still a groovy thing? So, I think that's a good acid test to have.

John - You use Pro tools right?

Chuck - Yes I do and I'm sitting in front of it right now.

John - I've heard some interesting quotes from some musician about the computer studio stuff on how on some levels learning the new program is just an extension of learning their own instrument. It's just another learning curve.

Chuck - Well, I think there's some truth to that but when I look backwards things just come out of the guitar for me. My knowledge of music just grew for me because I'm a guitarist. It came from the guitar! My knowledge of harmony came from the guitar however because I did a lot of music for television, jingles and films and things I had to work with computers in the early eighties. So when that whole thing started I got into it. I've been doing it for so long it's become second nature to me. I remember at one point thinking that I'd become a virtuoso of Pro Tools (laughing). It's kind of a weird talent to develop. With Pro Tools of course it also changes and there will be a different Pro Tools in a few years. So when you're learning and becoming an expert with it you need to remember you're an expert in something that might not last, not like the guitar that will basically be the same.

John - My computer beast is Photoshop which has a lot of things in common with Pro Tools in that it's one of the most popular programs in it's category but I could work with Photoshop for ten years and still not know everything that it can do but I get in the groove of using just certain things that work for me.

Chuck - Yes me too. I use what's pertinent to me on Pro Tools and if you get into plug-ins remember each one is a program on to itself. Now there's plug-ins that are very powerful samplers. You edit sounds and edit waveforms so it's pretty limitless and I think if you're creative it's an art form. There are people who spend all their time programming and tweaking in Pro Tools so yeah it's limitless. You can do a lot of stuff.

John - It is not surprising though that you have gotten very good at this and you still practice a lot, right? You live and breathe this stuff because that is who you are.

Chuck - If I don't practice with my instrument, if I don't play the guitar I am out of sorts as a person and I don't feel like myself. So, playing the guitar is a therapeutic and important part of my life and I think that it is a gift that God gave me to be able to play the guitar and being involved in music on a daily basis and composing, producing and playing they are all equal parts of the pie for me. I love producing tracks and I love composing and that is an amazing thing where you are creating something that does last forever, a song.

John -Yesterday it wasn't there and all of a sudden you've got this entity, this thing that hopefully will last either way...

Chuck - It can be interpreted in so many different ways and take a song like "Yesterday" and you could do it as a Classical piece or you could do it as a Pop song and it is this beautiful melody combined with the harmony and the chords. It is a mysterious thing but there is nothing like just performing and getting up and playing your instrument in front of an audience and things are just clicking and they understand what you are trying to do and feel it and you feel what they are feeling and it is that back and forth magical connection that happens between human beings via music. There is nothing like that in the world.

John - Do you ever wonder where in the hell it comes from? I have seen quotes from you before and you say you don't know where it comes from it just comes out and it is just there.

Chuck - I am a spiritual person and I will tell you a quick story. When we were doing an album called "Love Is All There Is" I had the great pleasure of having Mr. Kirk Whalum over here in my garage, in my studio play on that CD. We were just about to record and I asked Kirk if everything was okay in his headphones and if he was ready to go. Kirk said he was all ready to go but there was one more thing that he would like to do, he said that he would like to pray. I thought okay so I went outside and my daughter and her boyfriend were in the room with us and Kirk said that he wanted to thank God for letting him make a contribution that wasn't really even his to a song that wasn't even really mine and that they were all from God. So, I thought that was really great and that sums it all up for me and when things like that happen how can you explain that. I am walking down the road and all of a sudden this melody is going around inside my head and I have to write it down. I have to get home and I have to document this and you almost feel like a secretary writing it down for someone else. When music happens like that and it doesn't always happen like that but when it does it brings like a fall of dominos where the chords come together and the beat comes together with the parts and melody.

John - I started writing when I was quite young and I would hit a road block I remember I had a mentor who use to say to me, "It is not like going to the bathroom son, you don't want to force it out, just take it easy and let it go for awhile and it will come out. Not everyone is like that but I get a feeling you are."

Chuck - There is a certain amount of letting go that you have to do.

John - Spirituality is very important to me and I sometimes think that asking where it comes from is like splitting hairs. I am sure you have heard the old saying the fastest way to make a miracle disappear is to ask it why it is here. Chuck, do you wonder where that inspiration comes from.

Chuck - I think it is one of things I probably think about more than anything else at least secretly. I mean I read a lot of books and stuff like that about creativity in general on any level. What is life? When you see life springing forth in a flower or in a tree, that is creativity and that is creation. I think each human being is given their role to play in creativity, in the creation of the universe. As musicians or as writers or as radio people, whatever we are doing we are part of that process. I think it is a spiritual thing because there is no clear explanation for it because it wasn't there before and it is there now. As you said before this thing didn't exist yesterday and today it exists. If you think about this for example in areas as diverse as where the Aztecs lived and then in China then you go to the middle of Russia and down in Africa there are still twelve notes in a scale. In all those places it is developed the same way, it is so weird. There really is no clear reason for that, why couldn't there have been thirteen notes and yet we have seeming limitation on things but the variations are endless. It is something I think about quite a bit to answer your question. I think about it a lot.