I Think It's Gonna Work Out Fine

Like the rest of you, we've got Mayer Hawthorne's insanely catchy debut single on repeat. "Just Ain't Gonna Work Out" is an example of everything that's good about contemporary soul music. Built on the "Get Out My Life, Woman" drums and Hawthorne's homespun harmonies, it's a doo-wop inspired breakup song that's oddly uplifting and decidedly endearing. The single has already become a sought-after collector's item not only for the quality music, but the killer format: Stones Throw released it as a strictly limited heart-shaped 10" reminiscent of the Manhattans' version of "You Send Me". We're looking forward to big things from the talented Mr. Hawthorne in the coming year, (no album til at least spring, plenty of time to practice your falsetto) so we decided to ask him a few questions.

What’s your musical background? When and how did you first get involved in music? What instruments do you play?
My Dad is a great Bassist and he taught me how to play when I was young. My Mom made me take piano lessons which I hated and quit. Now I wish I woulda stuck with it! I love playing the Drums too. I try to play as many instruments as I can on the album.

Talk about your upbringing in Michigan and how Detroit’s music scene affected you.
Detroit breeds many of the best musicians / artists in the world. I’m very fortunate to have grown up in a place with such a rich musical history, and with so much soul. Hopefully that soul comes through in my music.

What soul music are you listening to lately; any direct influences on the sound of the track?
Lately I’ve just been going back through the Motown catalog and discovering a lot of amazing songs that weren’t very popular when they were released but are just as good as some of the biggest hits. A lot of Smokey Robinson, Martha & The Vandellas and The Marvelettes.

Who are some of your favorite falsetto singers/ jams?
Obviously Smokey is a huge influence. Curtis Mayfield and Eddie Holman are also favorites.

How did you record this track? Sounds like a 4-track or something dusty.
I record almost everything in my bedroom at home. It’s very lo-fi. Most modern recording equipment is too good for the sound I like. I sing a lot of the vocals through a pair of old headphones.

Was “Just Ain’t Gonna Work Out” written about a specific instance?
I broke up with my girlfriend recently and everyone thinks the song is about her, but I actually wrote it before I even met her.

Explain the making of the song, your intent and the process behind the music and lyrics.
All the songs just kind of pop into my head. A lot of times I feel like I don’t even write them. When I wrote “Just Ain’t Gonna Work Out” I was driving to a friend’s house in Detroit and the whole thing just came to me. It started as sort of a joke, just for my family and friends. I never planned for a career singing doo-wop.

How was the decision made to do the limited press on heart-shaped vinyl?
I’m extremely fortunate to be working with a label like Stones Throw. They’re very open minded and supportive of new ideas. I asked them if they would press the single on red, heart-shaped vinyl because the songs were both about love. I was kind of surprised when they said yes. Thanks to Joey Jointz for making it happen!

How do you feel about your songs being tagged as “retro”?
People are always going to try to label you so it doesn’t bother me. It’s important for me to update it though - I’m not just making retro soul.

If/ when you play live will it be over pre-recorded beats or with a band + backup singers?
I’ve got a great live band assembled from my favorite Michigan musicians.

Tell us the story about how you got onboard with Stones Throw? What was the initial reaction to your music?
I was introduced to PB Wolf at a party in LA. He asked me to send him some tracks and at first he didn’t understand what they were. He thought they might be re-edits of some songs from the 60s. Once he realized that they were new, and that I wrote, played, sang and recorded them, he offered me a deal with Stones Throw.

Talk about the podcast you put together for the label. Are these just your favorite tracks or what you’re listening to right now? What are your absolute favorites on the podcast?
I’m always discovering new songs and my favorites are constantly changing. The podcast was a combination of past and current favorites. It was just a brief look at some of my influences. I’m working on a soul 45 mix with Wolf right now for our upcoming Spring tours.
Check out the podcast

How does it feel to get props from Gilles Peterson and Mark Ronson?
It’s a great feeling to get a compliment from someone you respect. Mark and Gilles are both very talented and influential – so it’s definitely a blessing.

Do you make other types of music, or is this soulful crooning style your main thing?
I’m one third of a hip-hop/electro/soul crew called Now On – we just released a new album called “Tomorrow Already” which I’m really proud of. I’m definitely into all kinds of music so who knows? I’ll do anything and everything I feel like I can get away with.

Working on a full length? What can we expect from it and is there an expected time it’ll drop?
I’m currently recording my debut full length for Stones Throw – look for it in Spring 09.

For the truly disconnected, here's the track:


Photo By Doug Coombe, Interview by Nate LeBlanc and David Ma.

Bass, Girls, And Jheri Curls

I reviewed Stones Throw’s hilarious Arabian Prince release for the September issue of REMIX Magazine. Read the excerpt HERE.
L-R: Arabian Prince, Jerry Heller, Eazy, Dre, Yella (Photo Courtesy of Stones Throw)

I re-listened to Innovative Life the other day and found myself still laughing at the childish raps and cheesy song construction. Old booty bass/electro rap is usually entertaining, even if I'm not always in the mood for it. Plus, Arabian Prince’s career (Egyptian Lover associate turned N.W.A. member) is a West Coast benchmark that connects the decline of electro to the rise of gangsta. It must've been awkward having to decide whether to stay electro or go gansta.

"Do whatcha like and do whatcha please, like an 88-year-old lady tryin' to do a strip tease..." from the track "Strange Life". Hear it here:


****To purchase Arabian Prince's Innovative Life, please visit Stones Throw's store, HERE.

Heavy Rotation: Carolina Funk

For months now, I keep going back to Now Again’s brilliant Carolina Funk: First In Funk compilation. The release, like others in the series, are lost recordings of heavy, sweat-drenched funk tunes. Artists like The Soul Drifters, Frankie & The Damons, and The Tempo’s Band, are stellar examples of the comp's level of excellence. It’s no wonder Cut Chemist sampled portions of these tracks. This, right here, is rhythm caught on record.

Below is my favorite (among many favorites) from the release:
Roy Roberts’ “You Ain’t Miss It”. Notice how everything--the bass, guitar and vocals--cuts through the muddy recording to compliment each other perfectly.


And check back in a few weeks where we’ll be talking to Egon, general manager of Stones Throw and esteemed headmaster of the Now Again label.

***If you dig the track above, please visit http://www.stonesthrow.com/nowagain/ to purchase the comp and get more info on Now Again. While you’re at it, peep more landmark releases from the series (Midwest Funk, Florida Funk and Texas Funk). They won’t disappoint.

A Letter From Egon: Conrad "Prof" Johnson (1916-2008)

Conrad O. Johnson, bandleader of the Kashmere High School Stage Band from 1968-1978 and owner of Kram Records, the label that issued the Band’s legendary eight albums and three 7” singles of Texas jazz, funk and soul music, died in Houston February 3rd at 92 years of age.
World-renowned Kashmere Stage Band reunited February 1st in Houston for the first time in over 30 years and played a tribute concert for their leader, the legendary Conrad "Prof" Johnson. Below is a letter from Egon Alapatt, owner of Now Again Records, the label responsible for the release of the Kashmere Stage Band Texas Thunder Soul 1968-1974.

FROM EGON ALAPATT OF NOW AGAIN:
He received one hell of a send off. On Friday, the Kashmere Stage Band reunited for a performance at the High School’s auditorium. Filmmaker Mark Landsman, who is producing and directing a documentary on the Band, worked with Johnson’s foundation and Kashmere High School to set off the event for his crew’s cameras. But the reason that the Band’s members, many of whom left the music field after their departure from Kashmere High, reunited and rehearsed, daily, for a month prior to the concert, was to give Johnson the respect he deserved and had fought for, for so long.
The Kashmere Stage Band’s story can be found here (link to the Now Again Section of Kashmere - http://www.stonesthrow.com/nowagain/kashmere/index.html). But in a nutshell, here it is: Johnson, known by those close to him simply as “Prof” took the reins of the Band in the late 1960s and worked with his charges to perfect the idiom that they understood most: funk. Heavy funk at that. By the time that the band recorded their third album, Thunder Soul, they were funking like a mini-JBs. And, by the time they won “Best Stage Band In The Nation” in 1972, they were funking as hard as the JBs themselves.

Yet the Band was relegated to the annals of funk lore, largely due to the fact that the records they released were so rare and, when a collector did get his hands on an original copy, he usually wanted to keep that power for his own ears. A few people did bootleg a song or two in the mid 90s, and, by 2000, the band’s name heated up then fledgling chat rooms when DJ Shadow sampled their namesake track “Kashmere” for the Handsome Boy’s Modeling School cut “Holy Calamity.” With Stones Throw, I reissued “Kashmere,” the first legitimate reissue of a Kashmere Stage Band track, on The Funky 16 Corners in 2001. The band that performed on “Kashmere” as teenagers back in 1973, including Gerald Calhoun on bass, Earl Spiller on guitar, Bruce Middleton on tenor sax and the indomitable Craig Green on drums, performed the anthem and other Johnson-penned classics like “Zero Point” at the auditorium on Friday. It was a overwhelming to say the least. I’m not the kind of person easily impressed by a funk band, and I’m especially critical of those bands that played intensely in the late 60s and early 70s reuniting and performing as a shadow of their monstrous selves, but the Kashmere Stage Band funked like their lives depended on it. By the time they reached the climax on Bubbha Thomas’s modal jazz classic “All Praises To Allah,” and Craig Green rode the uptempo breakbeat like Clyde Stubblefield and Gerald Calhoun plucked those same staccato notes that danced along those same rhythms nearly forty years ago, I stood breathless.
After the event, I mentioned to Prof's son that there were still some Kashmere albums at Prof's house on Rosewood Drive that I needed to transfer, for the possibility of assembling a compilation of Kashmere's ballads. He told me that the family had moved Prof out of that house he'd lived in for nearly sixty years, and that he had moved all of Prof's records into a storage unit on the side of the house. I made my way over and sorted through everything on Saturday, becoming more inspired as I went through the stacks of vinyl. The man's recorded output with that stage band was just tremendous, and the fact that he had kept such meticulous archives of his music, well into his 90s, blew me away.
On Sunday, I drove out to Conrad Jr.'s house to catch up with Prof before leaving for Los Angeles . When I arrived, vinyl in hand for safe delivery, I sat and talked with Prof… we had one of the best talks we'd had in months: about the band, and how good they sounded ("Doggone! Man, could they have sounded any better?" he asked), about Bubbha Thomas and his Youthful Musicians Summer Program and the 45 that they released in the mid 70s - a cover of Prof's "Lost Love," about future performances of the band, and, of course, about future anthologies of the band's recordings. He was most excited about that. Smiling, laughing, and gently prodding me with the same types of questions he did over the first years of our musical courtship ("Look here man, how are you going to do it? With what songs? From where? With the reel to reels?") - and, of course, making sure his business was straight.
He was so thrilled, so happy, so with it... I left feeling uplifted. I hadn't just spoken with a sick man, a man recovering from the heart attack that had confined him to a hospital bed just days before. I had spoken with a peer - a man who was going to be with us forever - carefully stewarding the next steps of his legendary Band, the band whose legend seems to grow greater by the day.
In a way, he will be.
-Egon

Egon is selling original copies of some of the band’s LPs and 45s in order to help the Johnson family pay for Prof’s funeral expenses. If you’re interested – serious buyers only, as these records aren’t cheap – email egon@stonesthrow.com, subject line “Kashmere Records.”