On September 22nd, 2010 I, Acousticfan had the honor to participate in a phone interview with legendary recording artist Stan Bush. Again for those who don’t know, Stan Bush has been recording albums for at least the past decade and is an Emmy Award-winning singer/songerwriter.Stan Bush is best known for his song ‘The Touch”(Sam’s Theme) and that was featured in the movies Transformers (the animated film) and Boogie Nights. Also “The Touch” was featured in two television shows; one was Chuck and the other was American Dad. The interview lasted for a good thiry minutes and I enjoyed every single minute of it. Check out our conversation below:
AF: Stan Bush, I want to thank you for doing this interview with WhargarblTV
SB: No sweat, glad to do it
AF: Your album “Dream The Dream” was just released reccently and your song “The Touch” was in Transformers, it was releasd for Guitar Hero, it was on Chuck and The American Dad. Did you ever think your song “The Touch” would be usef for all these tv shows and video games?
SB: No, it’s pretty mind blowing; it’s been amazing. It’s like the song won’t go away
AF: Who was the first group of people to ask you to use that song? Did Michael Bay come to you first?
SB: Actually “The Touch” wasn’t in the Michael Bay film. It was going to be but then two weeks before the movie came out somehow something happened and it was taken out I don’t know why; never found out why. Besides the original transformers movie, the animated one, the next film to use it was the movie Boogie Nights with Mark Wahlberg
AF: Well that must have been a real honor for ya to get all these offers
SB: Yea it was pretty cool. The song definitely made the rounds
AF: You had worked on “Dream The Dream” for a year and a half. Had it taken you this long to work on previous albums?
SB: It seems like most of the albums were around a year. I think “In This Life took about a year. Some albums that I’ve done in the past were basically like a compilation of songs over two or three years on some of the earlier albums because they were recorded in different places. I think the average time to write and record for me takes about a year. You could spend a year writing and then record the whole thing in two/three months if you really work fast. I like to stretch it out because that way you can live with the songs and really know what you have.
AF: Did you record all of your songs in the same studio or were they in different studios at different times?
SB: We did all the tracking. The studio was in… my producer Holger Fath’s home studio. We did pretty much all the guitars, vocals, keyboards, and all that and then we went into a big studio and recorded the final drums and bass. We mixed it there
AF: Holger Fath was your producer once again for this album. Had be produced any of your previous work besides “In This Life”?
SB: No that was the first one. We had been friends for a number of years and we wrote some stuff together but “In This Life” was the first one that he produced with me.
AF: Did he come to you first asking to produce your album or did you ask him?
SB: It was kind of a mutual decision. The “Shine” album I think was the third album I had done with Curt Cuomo and Curt is really good. We wrote together for years; we did three albums together. He worked with Eddie Money and Kiss. Anyway, it seemed like Curt was kind of all over the place and he was hard to nail down. Holger seemed like the perfect situation for me because one of things Holger had done in those years was he kept gradually upgrading his equipment. So once he had the full Pro Tools HD then going with him was a no brainer. It was always sort of the equipment ya know that was always the big limitation before. That’s one of the things that’s so important. When you record an album you need that high end stuff. Especially the digital to analog converters; a lot of places that home studios don’t have the really good quality converters and that makes a big difference.
AF: Since the recording industry has changed quite some time ago due to the digital change, do you like the digital change or do you actually prefer the analog? What do you prefer?
SB: When you use the really good mic preamps and the really high quality converters as I mentioned, I think the digital is just as good. In fact you can get tube preamps that sound just like analog stuff; it’s really not that much difference. One of things with recording on analog tape, all the years I did 24 track and stuff was that fat tape compression that when you record you hit the levels really hard and it makes a warm, fat sound. That’s still pretty much attainable now with effects and plug-ins and everything else. It’s just easier to use the Pro Tools and all that. It’s a lot more versatile; for instance right now, I’m editing my vocal on a new song that we’re recording right now; anyway, it’s a great new song. We’re excited about it. I edit my own vocals so I can take a few tracks and just work with it until it’s just what I want. I take the best pieces of my performance and make it into one great performance.
AF: Well I’m looking for to your new song
SB: Thank you
AF: I have to be honest with you, I am a bit of a new listener to your music but you’ve been around musically speaking for a very long time; for at least 15 years. I want know what inspires you to write as a song writer?
SB: Well, I write love songs too. One of the things that’s sort of a nitch I kind of feel into was the believe in yourself, go for it sort of anthem. I’m sort of a child of the 70’s and 80’s in terms of the big anthem song, the big chorus…I love that. For some reason the whole mood with the feeling of “The Touch” sort of stuck with me and that kind of became my thing. I just like really positive songs, positive messages. For me, that’s just kind of what I do like “Dream The Dream” the song “Dream The Dream” has got that sort of uplifting message.
AF: That’s good to know. Well off of that album “Dream The Dream”, do you have any songs that you like more than others or do you like them all the same?
SB: I really like the title song “Dream The Dream” . I like “I’m Still Here” quite a bit, that’s a cool song. They all sort of have their own special thing about them “All That I Am” is a really cool song. Some of the other songs like I say that are either love songs or songs about believe in yourself, there’s a couple that are a search for meaning where you maybe try to go inside yourself. I think all of us sort of go through life and try to feel like we’re doing something important or saying something important. To me that’s kind of the whole deal you know. It’s like we make our own reality. I think people don’t realize how much power they have you know.
AF: Yea, you’re actually one of the few artists that want to put something positive and realistic out there.
SB: well thank you
AF: You’re welcome. With this album, there’s a good balance of fast and slow songs. Do you prefer singing the slower songs or do you like the more upbeat stuff?
SB: I kind of like it all. The ballad thing is great. It just depends on the song honestly; you try to do something with everything. During the 90’s, I got into kind of an acoustic vibe. I was doing a little more towards the Henley thing which was kind of neat. I kind of got back into my rock roots. The thing about the rock n’roll, the style the 80’s thing kind of went away. You know the whole grunge thing came along in the early 90’s. It was like no more rock anymore except for overseas; the people. A lot of the fans were still there for Europe and Japan; that’s kind of where my market went. Mostly I was doing stuff overseas as far as making records and doing a little touring and all that over there. It was kind of a cool thing because it kept me going during the 90’s and early part of the 2000’s. Then things started to change back. The rock thing came back real big. It’s very typicall, things change and come around again.
AF: On this album you worked with Matt Bissonette and Matt Laug. Have you worked with them on any previous albums at all?
SB: Yea, Matt Bissonette he played bass on the “Shine” album as well, he’s great. I mean he played with David Lee Roth and a ton of other people, Rick Springfield. Matt Laug played on the “In This Life” album. He’s a fabulous rock drummer. Those two guys are probably my favorite rock drummer and bass player in L.A I’ve kind of used them over the years. That’s the first time that they’ve played together with me but on different projects I’ve used one or the other. They play great together
AF: Well that’s good to know.
SB: yea
AF: Has working on this album been a different experience for you than past albums?
SB: I think one of the things with this one, it’s just the thing of taking a lot of care to make sure that songs were all really good and so forth as I say spending this much time and energy trying to make it great. It’s just one of those things you know where other albums maybe come easier or whatever. They all have their different sort of style I guess.
AF: You’ve managed to work with a lot of people, is there anyone else you’d like to work with in the future?
SB: I’d like to work with Jonathan Kane again from Journey. I had a real good experience with him. We wrote a couple great songs back in the day; yea Jonathan is really talented. I always been a huge fan of Joe Walsh and Don Henley obviously. Those guys probably aren’t too realistic but I did meet Joe Walsh and hung out with him a little bit in Miami once and that was like my fan boy moment. Other than Paul McCartney or somebody he’s like of the coolest guys because I was into the early Joe Walsh stuff when he was in James Gang.
AF: It sounds like you have a lot of musical influences
SB: Yea. I grew up listening to The Beatles and Led Zepplin and a bunch of cool stuff; R&B stuff, I love Motown. That’s one of the things growing up in the 70’s, music was so cool. They had kind of some of everything, they had all this great stuff. The 80’s were cool too. I kind of grew up during a really great time I think in music
AF: The genre rock music has changed a lot since the 70’s and 80’s, do you see another direction with it in the future?
SB: Well I’m not sure honestly, there’s no way to really tell. There’s always going to be enough of a variety just because now with the internet and everything else and the way the music industry changed, it’s just all over the place because people can get anything they want on the internet. So it’s not as focused, it’s sort of all over the map.
AF: You’ve already released one video from “Dream The Dream” are we going to see any more music videos from that album?
SB: I don’t know. We’re talking about doing a music video maybe of Dream The Dream. I’ll probably know in the next few weeks. People can check my website http://stanbush.com/ and there’s a link on there for the Youtube channel link.
AF: Well those are all the questions I have for ya Mr. Bush. I really appreciate your time for speaking with Whargarbl TV and a special thanks goes out to Michael Spillane, your talent agent, yea a special thanks goes out to him for setting this all up.
SB: Well it’s my pleasure and I appreciate the support and I look forward to hopefully meeting you someday and thanks for everything.
AF: Do you ever attend any special music events? Like for the comic side there’s Comic Con but do ever attend special events like that?
SB: Yea I was actually at the last three Comic Cons and I go to the Transformers Conventions as well. Yea I’m into that stuff and it’s kind of cool to be sort of like one of the music people that most of, especially the Transformers people, they all mostly know who I am. I guess it’s good to be known for something
AF: Well I’ll be writing a review of your album very soon. Your music is still inspiring. Though I am new to your music I think it’s great and inspiring.
SB: Well thank you ever so much, I appreciate the support
AF: You’re welcome. Have a great day and I thank you ever again for your time
SB: Thanks a lot and take care
Again I want to thank Stan Bush for his time and Michael Spillane for setting up the interview. It was a real pleasure and to anyone that has read this interview, I hope you enjoyed it and if you’re not a member of WhargarblTV, feel free to join our facebook community and comment on this interview or any other post. Keep checking back with Whargarbl TV for more interviews/posts.
