Lou Gramm on Foreigner’s Vault Tracks, New Album, and Hitting the Stage Again

[SPEAKER_00]: It's easy to hear your favorite artist on WFPK from wherever you are. [SPEAKER_00]: Listen on your smart speaker, live stream from our website at WFPK.org from Louisville Public Media. [SPEAKER_02]: I'm Lou. [SPEAKER_03]: and welcome to another edition of Kyle Meredith with. [SPEAKER_03]: It's the interview series presented by WFPK, a WFPK.org consequence and the consequence podcast network.

[SPEAKER_03]: Thanks for making your way here. [SPEAKER_03]: If you're not already, please do hit that subscribe button. [SPEAKER_03]: You're going to get new interviews just like this one sent your way every single week. [SPEAKER_03]: You can grab us at us. [SPEAKER_03]: Spotify, Apple Podcast, NPR, WFPK.org, consequence, YouTube for the video versions are anywhere you get your podcast from.

[SPEAKER_03]: You can subscribe to Kyle Meredith with, and please do give this series a rating and leave a review wherever you're listing from. [SPEAKER_03]: Of course, we've had some great guests lately. [SPEAKER_03]: In fact, I just talked with Gobo Fraggle. [SPEAKER_03]: Gobo from Fraggle Rock, talked with him as well as his puppet master.

[SPEAKER_03]: John Tartaglia about the first new Fraggle Rock. [SPEAKER_03]: Sarah Barrellis was here to discuss her music in the documentary. [SPEAKER_03]: Come see me in the good light. [SPEAKER_03]: We talked with Gaden Matarato. [SPEAKER_03]: He stars as Dustin in Stranger Things. [SPEAKER_03]: Now in their final season on Netflix, [SPEAKER_03]: Felicity Jones and Carrie Condon dropped by, speaking to Netflix, they're in a film called Train Dreams with Joel Edgerton, Abe Silvia, the showrunner behind Palm Royale, now in its second season on Apple TV+.

[SPEAKER_03]: Pearson Foday, who is in a very merry-examous, the wrong Paris, he's in the upcoming The Last Misses, Paris, Audrey Nuna, [SPEAKER_03]: from K-Pop Demon Hunters, Penelope and Miller and Erica Christianson talking about the movie after all, and Florence Welch, leasing or Florence on the machine to discuss everybody's scream.

[SPEAKER_03]: That's what you can get when you subscribe to the Kyle Mirath with podcast, and that's me Kyle Mirath today talking with legendary rock and roller, Lou Graham, a foreigner. [SPEAKER_03]: We're going to be talking about returning to the stage for a select 50th Anniversary shows revisiting the unheard cuts tied to the 40th Anniversary of 4 and 4.

[SPEAKER_03]: Luz is going to dig into finishing those long loss vault tracks matching his classic vocal grit decades later. [SPEAKER_03]: and the surprising emotional spark that came from hearing those old tapes again. [SPEAKER_03]: He also gets into sobriety, balance, how touring culture has shifted since the early days, plus he's going to tell us about his first solo album in years.

[SPEAKER_03]: It's arriving in March, blending newly written material with songs. [SPEAKER_03]: He started decades ago, all that a more as we talk about, [SPEAKER_03]: How are you off? [SPEAKER_03]: I see that you're going to be playing back with a singing with foreigner again. [SPEAKER_03]: Let's see a couple shows here at the Capitol Theater, December 3rd and 4th.

[SPEAKER_03]: What does it take to get back on stage with the band these days? [SPEAKER_03]: Like why this show specifically? [SPEAKER_01]: It's the 50th anniversary. [SPEAKER_01]: I believe of the, I don't know if it's the band or the 4 album. [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, the band. [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, right.

[SPEAKER_03]: Yes. [SPEAKER_03]: Funny how those industries all get jumbled up in the past. [SPEAKER_01]: That's some point. [SPEAKER_01]: They do. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_01]: And I think we're. [SPEAKER_01]: It's another anniversary for the four or four album. [SPEAKER_01]: So so that that's been recorded in a release.

[SPEAKER_01]: And it's out now. [SPEAKER_01]: And there were some songs that were recorded during the time of that album that weren't finished and they didn't make it onto the album. [SPEAKER_01]: But here is all [SPEAKER_01]: I went back and dug up those songs and they were really good. [SPEAKER_01]: They just weren't finished.

[SPEAKER_01]: So we finished them and and and they're our singles now. [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, there's one of those. [SPEAKER_03]: Cool if you love, well, I was thinking love so much better. [SPEAKER_03]: Oh, yeah. [SPEAKER_03]: Like, that is one of those things. [SPEAKER_03]: Like, like, okay, so I don't know what the unfinished state exactly sounded like, but even hearing this, it's like, to have been [SPEAKER_03]: swing as hard as you guys were on that four album.

[SPEAKER_03]: For that album to have already been so much packed like these songs could have been on an album. [SPEAKER_01]: Yes, they could definitely. [SPEAKER_01]: There just wasn't time to finish him and you know you couldn't put more than 10 or 11 songs on the album. [SPEAKER_01]: You tried to keep it to 10 because if you did more than 10 the quality, the space between [SPEAKER_01]: the cut on the album would start to distort.

[SPEAKER_03]: So you have to pick and choose, which ones at that point, right? [SPEAKER_03]: Like, do you remember why you guys didn't choose these? [SPEAKER_03]: Was it just because they weren't finished at the time? [SPEAKER_01]: That's all. [SPEAKER_03]: That's it. [SPEAKER_01]: That's the reason, yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because hearing them finish now, they could have made something and could have made the album. [SPEAKER_03]: So what did it take to get these across the finish line? [SPEAKER_01]: Well, they were two-thirds done. [SPEAKER_01]: I think most of the things I had to do, I had to sing one more verse and do the Adlibs on the Outcourse.

[SPEAKER_01]: And maybe a guitar soul. [SPEAKER_03]: So when you're doing something like that, when you're sort of future pasting, you know, it's something like that present pasting or whatever, like, do you feel that need to reconnect to whatever that was back then? [SPEAKER_01]: I hadn't even thought about those songs in three decades, you know, and or more, and to hear them again, really ignited something in me.

[SPEAKER_01]: And when I found out that they were going to be finished and included in the package and they want to re-go back in and finish the vocals and put some harmonies on and stuff. [SPEAKER_01]: You know, in Adlibs, it was a real pleasure to put the 24-track on there and hear the sounds as they were back in that day, and then sink to them, and I kind of had to match my vocals [SPEAKER_03]: I think that's what I'm getting it like right there.

[SPEAKER_03]: Like your voice is still in great shape from everything that I hear. [SPEAKER_03]: But is that a challenge? [SPEAKER_03]: Is it like, how do I make myself sound somewhat similar to what it would have been? [SPEAKER_01]: Well, what I did do was I had an open vocal track and I would sing along with this song and then we would listen to the two of them together.

[SPEAKER_01]: And if I needed to sing with a little more grit or a little more bite on it, [SPEAKER_01]: then I could do that and we ended up machined the vocal sounds to a tea. [SPEAKER_03]: Oh man, how lucky. [SPEAKER_03]: Yes, very lucky. [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, to get that. [SPEAKER_03]: Those songs really are.

[SPEAKER_03]: They're such a gift to have those, because it is one of those things like, wow. [SPEAKER_03]: And I'm just repeating myself at this point, because they look back and just think, like, you guys were already [SPEAKER_03]: writing so many incredible songs. [SPEAKER_01]: The fact that you still had those in your back pocket, you know, that's, you know, what I honestly could say that every album we recorded, you know, we had enough for the album and there was always two or three extra ones that were either finished and not quite up to snuff or just as good, but not quite, we didn't have the time to finish them because we get a deadline.

[SPEAKER_01]: Then if we wanted the album out of a certain point, [SPEAKER_01]: And we did have all the songs, but then we saw the other ones that were almost finished and knew how good they were and couldn't do anything about it. [SPEAKER_01]: But after the album was recorded and we too were there and we did another album and all that stuff.

[SPEAKER_01]: We forgot about the ones that were good that didn't make it until a couple of years ago when we started listening to the also brands. [SPEAKER_01]: And we got a finished listen and couldn't put it out. [SPEAKER_03]: Welcome back. [SPEAKER_03]: It's Kyle Meredith with Lou Graham. [SPEAKER_03]: Are there more still in the vaults?

[SPEAKER_01]: From every album, there's two or three. [SPEAKER_03]: So like is this something you could see, you're all, you all doing more of? [SPEAKER_01]: I think so, yeah. [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, we're not gonna focus on it because we wanna do new music too, but I think I think the fans love it when we dig something up from the past that wasn't finished, finish it and put it out.

[SPEAKER_01]: They love that because it was that special time in place, [SPEAKER_03]: I'm glad to hear you say, you know, doing the new music, too, but even just like, like, you're, uh, what's, what's the word? [SPEAKER_03]: It's not back, everything is the back catalog, but, but these deeper cuts is, I guess, is what I'm getting at too, because, you know, I'm looking, like, I know you're, I'll also out, you, you still do your, uh, Lou Green Bay and solo runs, and I'm looking at the set list.

[SPEAKER_03]: I'm like, man, you probably have to make some tough decisions, because it's, it's very [SPEAKER_03]: you know, and you've got what is it midnight blue is in there, but I'm like the fact that lost in the shadows isn't in there knowing that you have those early recordings, like there was that early recording release like 10 or 12 years ago, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: Yes. [SPEAKER_03]: Like what's uh won't somebody take her home? [SPEAKER_03]: Oh, that was that was that was that was when I was in high school. [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, which still sounds like it could have been a hit, but it was pretty good. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_01]: But that's, that's what I'm getting at.

[SPEAKER_01]: And it's there, Joe. [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, right. [SPEAKER_03]: And I'm sure that what you, how you hear it is very different than how I hear it. [SPEAKER_03]: OK. Yeah. [SPEAKER_03]: How can you do that? [SPEAKER_03]: But that's, that's my point. [SPEAKER_03]: It's like, like, when you go out on these shows, do you have those ones?

[SPEAKER_03]: You're like, oh, man, I'd really like to play these live, too. [SPEAKER_03]: It's not a hits. [SPEAKER_03]: But can we put it in the show? [SPEAKER_01]: Well, the ones that were playing that were from the four or four times, [SPEAKER_01]: You know, I was I was putting charge of finishing at finishing the lead vocals, the guitar player put put more leads on it and we'll put more Core vocals on it and stuff like that and and and and some of those are released now.

[SPEAKER_01]: and doing very well. [SPEAKER_01]: So when we play live, we're going to play them too. [SPEAKER_03]: Oh, that's great. [SPEAKER_03]: Have you ever done like a full deep cuts show like fan serving hardcore fan only kind of a thing? [SPEAKER_03]: Well, they they they tell me what they'd like to hear.

[SPEAKER_03]: Maybe yeah. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I think I probably have over the years. [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I'd be a fun show to hear right there. [SPEAKER_03]: There are no hits. [SPEAKER_01]: There's no, well, if they want to hear a hit, we'll play the hit, but [SPEAKER_01]: But they're, they're, they're pick up other songs that they want to hear release and I don't know.

[SPEAKER_03]: Because what's, that's, I guess it's kind of what I said, you know how you hear things, how we hear things like you might hear like we didn't quite nail it on that song and that song's probably somebody's favorite song. [SPEAKER_03]: Yes, whether we don't we nailed it or not it's funny how that relationship kind of happens So when you do get back on stage with with foreigner like how do you choose which songs you're going to sing because you're sharing those vocal duties, right?

[SPEAKER_03]: Yes, so how do you like how do you pick? [SPEAKER_01]: They obviously let me pick first and and I'm only doing five four five songs And so I pick I pick you know not not all the the great ones [SPEAKER_01]: There are a lot of great ones, but but just some of my favorites that I like to see.

[SPEAKER_01]: I get to pick those and we scatter them throughout the set, you know. [SPEAKER_03]: It's nice that they give you first steps. [SPEAKER_03]: That would have been pretty rotten otherwise. [SPEAKER_01]: I think so too. [SPEAKER_03]: I might have told them nothing doing. [SPEAKER_03]: I was I was kind of laughing too because when I when I look at some of the you know shows that you do pop up on I thought I wonder if this has to do with proximity Because the Ellis Island capital theater is like these are sort of close to your home, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: So like you just [SPEAKER_01]: that foreigner is doing that clip, we're going to be playing because it's the 45th, I think 45th or 40th anniversary of the foreign forum. [SPEAKER_01]: That's what the short tour that we're doing coming up is because about it's to celebrate the anniversary of the foreign forum.

[SPEAKER_01]: So we're on those shows, I think there's six of six of them, we're doing the whole four album in its entirety from top to bottom in the same running order that the record is and when we finish that [SPEAKER_01]: I want to know what love is, did you pack shit on a bunch of other ones, yeah, but that's going to be fun doing the whole form of forum, you know, so it's more about the out of celebration and less about, do I get to keep my house keys in my pockets.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, you got it now. [SPEAKER_01]: Thank you. [SPEAKER_01]: I understand. [SPEAKER_03]: It's all right. [SPEAKER_03]: I wouldn't blame you otherwise. [SPEAKER_03]: I wouldn't. [SPEAKER_01]: It's, you know, being an old war dog, road dog, you know, [SPEAKER_01]: We toured a year and a half to support that album and only got home for maybe two or three weekends throughout that whole year and a half.

[SPEAKER_01]: I remember I had young young children at that time and when I did get home, I got dropped off by the bus at about 230 in the morning at my house. [SPEAKER_01]: And I went in and I turned the alarm off and I walked in and I shut the door and I locked it. [SPEAKER_01]: And I heard Tutum, Tutum, Tutum.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I picked around the corner, and it was my son, Matthew, who at that time was about three years old, and he was holding onto the railing, walking down the stairs from his bedroom. [SPEAKER_01]: And I picked around the corner and I says, Matthew, I says, Daddy's home, I had a big smile on my way to him, and he smiles at me, and I'll say, he goes, Mommy, he didn't recognize me.

[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, that's funny, but that's also like completely heartbreaking. [SPEAKER_03]: Like, I have friends who have had that story. [SPEAKER_03]: Like, why is the guy who mows our lawn, staying all night right now? [SPEAKER_01]: I don't like that story. [SPEAKER_03]: And we'll be right back right after this.

[SPEAKER_03]: Welcome back. [SPEAKER_03]: It's Kyle Meredith with Lou Graham. [SPEAKER_03]: It is interesting how artists have sort of taken a little bit more control of, you know, what we say of their mental health these days, you know, it's like to, to do the, that kind of schedule that that we all did for, you know, the first 40 or 50 years of this rock and old business, you know, it's like, that's probably a good thing that that isn't exactly the norm these days.

[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, it's not anymore. [SPEAKER_01]: And I think our students can take more control of the personal lives. [SPEAKER_01]: You can't go out there and beat yourself up just for the almighty dollar, because it takes us still to have to walk. [SPEAKER_03]: As you know, when I look at your career in the wide scope, [SPEAKER_03]: You know, when we get to the 90s and you've come out of rehab, did you consciously redirect your whole career at that point?

[SPEAKER_03]: Was that more about taking control? [SPEAKER_01]: For me, it was, you know, I mean, we were just still touring the foreigner, but, but, you know, for me, I would sit in the back lounge by myself. [SPEAKER_01]: While the rest of the guys were in the main cabin playing cards and, you know, [SPEAKER_01]: and everything else, and you know, a year or two earlier, I was right there with them.

[SPEAKER_01]: But I made the conscious decision that that's not what I wanted anymore for my life. [SPEAKER_01]: And I've been about 34 years silver now. [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, congrats on that. [SPEAKER_03]: Thank you. [SPEAKER_03]: But I'm guessing that was still probably pretty hard to do in the 90s, because we weren't, we weren't to the point we're talking about now.

[SPEAKER_01]: No, we definitely aren't. [SPEAKER_01]: And I used to be sitting in a back lounge by myself watching, watching a movie on the, on the monitor screen, and I would hear them laughing and having fun playing cards. [SPEAKER_01]: And then when I leave that back at that back room to go use the bathroom, I come out of the bathroom and I remember Rick Willes standing up and put his arm around me and he was shot, you know, and he goes, Lou, I got to fill you.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're also proud of you for what you've done, you know. [SPEAKER_01]: And I said, thanks Rick, he says, you were a mess. [SPEAKER_01]: You know, he's telling me I was a mess. [SPEAKER_03]: Right, as he is looking like that. [SPEAKER_01]: Yes, it is very, very, you know, it's definitely mind-blowing.

[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I bet, but you did the work. [SPEAKER_03]: I mean, you did, you still got all the stage, you did the work, you brought the show and lived to tell the tale, as they say. [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, after I did get sober and I was still playing with the band, I had some of my best shows in my career.

[SPEAKER_03]: end to go on and you know to the Lou Graham band. [SPEAKER_03]: I'm sure. [SPEAKER_03]: Yes. [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, it's a keep that going and everything and and I know you sort of hinted in the past, right? [SPEAKER_03]: About I mean, you just said it a minute ago about writing new music.

[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, is that who you're writing the music with? [SPEAKER_01]: I am a friend of mine who was in my my solo bands. [SPEAKER_01]: His name is Bruce Turgan and he [SPEAKER_01]: And he and I have been friends since we were teenagers. [SPEAKER_01]: And he plays bass. [SPEAKER_01]: He's played with a lot of great bands and musicians over the years, and we wrote songs together back in the day.

[SPEAKER_01]: And when I got him before, he was participating songwriter too. [SPEAKER_01]: And I think that's what Fawner sounded as best actually. [SPEAKER_01]: And so I'm still in touch with him. [SPEAKER_01]: And he helped me write songs for my upcoming solo album, which is being released in March.

[SPEAKER_01]: in March. [SPEAKER_03]: Tell me more about this, I mean, what can we expect? [SPEAKER_01]: Well, once again, I've been working on the sale for about over two years. [SPEAKER_01]: And I have been looking through my backlog of songs that were great songs, but were unfinished and didn't make it to the cut on my records, and went back and finished some of them and there are some songs.

[SPEAKER_01]: So I'm taking some new songs that were written and some of the older songs that deserved to be on the album, finished them up, polished them up, and they're on the album. [SPEAKER_01]: So it's a little conglomerative of past and present. [SPEAKER_01]: Marks for the album, I think that the single is going to be early February.

[SPEAKER_03]: Can I wait to hear that? [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, it rocks hard, boy. [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_03]: I was also thinking about your son writing, and maybe I'm looking for a thread that's really not there, but knowing that way back when you started as a drummer, right? [SPEAKER_03]: Like you started.

[SPEAKER_03]: Do you think there's a thing? [SPEAKER_03]: Can you tell when singers were drummers? [SPEAKER_03]: Like does that there's a lot of little Collins sure right yeah even Chris Cornell sound garden, you know, we have those but but like does does having your beginnings as a drummer influence how you are as a singer.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, definitely the rhythm of it. [SPEAKER_01]: How I, how I phrase things and and and place them in a song is much I think much different if you listen carefully than than a singer who was not a drummer, you know, that not I'm not putting those people down [SPEAKER_01]: But when you have the background in rhythm, then you're singing plays off that rhythm.

[SPEAKER_03]: And so you get a big rock record coming in? [SPEAKER_01]: Yes, I think I hope it's going to be a big rock record. [SPEAKER_01]: It's all good songs and I've been in a nail mountain a while and I'm hoping that it attracts some attention and some support from the fans. [SPEAKER_03]: Well, I know a lot of people have been waiting for this for a while myself included, so I don't think you have a lot of problems with that, especially pairing it up as you were saying with these these tracks on this forner for deluxe edition, like just knowing that you're going back and doing those tracks to like what an exciting time to be a fan.

[SPEAKER_01]: It really is, yes, I think so, yeah. [SPEAKER_03]: Well, I'll be looking forward to that. [SPEAKER_03]: And again, you popping up on stage with forner and those moments and celebrate in this 50th anniversary, what an incredible [SPEAKER_03]: uh... what an incredible catalogue and and history that you all have it's a great time in my career to play playing the hits and playing old new stuff um... digging it out all right well it was such pleasure to talk to you thank you so much for giving me the time today my pleasure and my thanks to Lou Graham 50th anniversary of foreigner you can find select dates at loose popping up as well as is a Lou Graham band [SPEAKER_03]: And of course, thanks to you for checking out the episode here, before you get out, hit that subscribe button if you're not already.

[SPEAKER_03]: You'll get new interviews just like this one every single week. [SPEAKER_03]: It's Spotify, Apple Podcast, NPR, WFPK.org, Consequence, YouTube for the video versions or anywhere you get your podcast from, you can subscribe to Kyle, Mayor of the with, and please do give this series a rating and leave a review wherever you're listing from.

[SPEAKER_03]: After that, you can head over to WFPK.org, where I do a show Monday through Friday, starting 6pm Eastern, 4 hours of classics from the 80s and 90s, the best in new music, bonus interviews, lots of music news as well. [SPEAKER_03]: One of my recent shows featured some classics and favorites from Bob Dylan, the Mountain Goats, Amanda Shires, Allison Krauss, Betty Carter, the chili peppers, counting crows, caracene, wolf Alice, Father John Misty, Grace Potter, and my interview with Ian [SPEAKER_03]: That's what you can hear when you tune in weeknight, starting 6pm Eastern at WFPK.org.

[SPEAKER_03]: Consequence says your music and film news, you can also find me on any of the social media sites, the address is always at Kyle Meredith, please do like, follow along. [SPEAKER_03]: That does it for another edition. [SPEAKER_03]: I'm Kyle Meredith. [SPEAKER_00]: consequence podcast network.

Lou Gramm on Foreigner’s Vault Tracks, New Album, and Hitting the Stage Again

Kapitelklicken springt direkt hin

Shownotes

Transkriptvom Podcast bereitgestellt · Zeitmarken springen hin