Cherie
Currie Talks About Her New Rock Album Reverie
Cherie
Currie Talks About Her New Rock Album Reverie
If
you only have enough money to buy one album this year then buy Cherie Currie's
brand new album Reverie. Cherie's
vocals have never been better and the song "Inner You," is an absolute musical
gift. The album is produced by Jake Hays, Cherie Currie's son and he contributes
vocals to many of the songs and takes the lead on "Shades Of Me," another
treasure. Reverie is the best Rock
album that Riveting Riffs Magazine has heard in many years.
In the 1970s Cherie Currie was the lead singer of The
Runaways, an all-girl teenage group managed by the late Kim Fowley. Although,
there is no doubt that Reverie sends
a loud and strong message that Cherie Currie is an exceptional solo artist, she
collaborated on the songwriting portion of this album with Fowley and Hays and
Lita Ford another former member of The Runaways lends her vocals to Currie’s new
album.
Cherie Currie sat down with Riveting Riffs Magazine to
discuss her new album, three days after it was officially released through
iTunes.
She says, “It took over a year (for the album to come
together) and it happened when Kim Fowley reached out to Blackheart Records to
see if there was any paper (legal contract) between myself and them, which I did
not have one. He had heard that I had said that I would work with him again, so
he reached out to me, knowing that I was a free agent. Working with Kim again
was something that I wanted to do. It was a way to bury the past and to start
over and that’s what we did.”
The album opens with the title track “Reverie,” a solid
Rock tune written by Currie and Hays and on which Jake Hays plays every
instrument and yes you did read that correctly. One of the things that struck
this writer immediately was how good Cherie Currie’s vocals are and considering
with the exception of two years ago when she went on tour, she doesn’t do a lot
of gigs, we wondered how she has been able to retain quality vocals.
“I don’t sing. I really don’t. I don’t know (she
laughs lightly). When I was in The Runaways I was only 15 years old and my
voice was very low. It was quite deep for a girl that young. I was not born with
great pipes, I just wasn’t and I never considered myself to be a singer in The
Runaways. As I got older…I don’t know. I don’t practice and I don’t warm up. I
don’t do any of that stuff, I just go in and I sing. It is a very rare occasion
that I sing to be honest with you. I will go years without singing. I am a
chainsaw artist and that is what I am,” then we share a joke and she says, “If
anything, it probably hinders it (her vocals) breathing in that gas and oil. I
don’t think that is good for anybody.
A lot of these songs are one take, especially the songs
with Kim. He was not one to waste time and he let me sing it twice and that was
it. As much as I would turn to him and say I can do this better, he would say
no, you’re done (she laughs). It was
the same way with The Runaways, when he would have me sing it twice and he would
just combine the two vocals,” says Currie.
As for the song “Reverie,” she says, “We (Jake
Hays and Cherie Currie) actually wrote that song for a movie five years ago
and the kid just said mom will you go away for a minute. I was at Bob (Robert
Hays, whom she refers to as the greatest ex-husband in the world) and Jake’s
house and he said just go away for a minute, because I have something in my head
and when I came back he had “Reverie,” written in five minutes. That is how
crazy good this kid is.”
One of the best songs on Reverie is “Inner You,” sung by
Currie and written by Currie, Hays and Fowley. Jake Hays plays too many
instruments to mention here, Nick Maybury is stellar on guitar and Cliff
Rettalick appears on piano and keyboards, as well as combining with Elizabeth
Aston to contribute background vocals.
The song “Inner You,” is both introspective and
hauntingly beautiful and moves along mid-tempo. The lyrics can be interpreted
through a variety of lenses, but one thing is clear, the central message is
about learning to overcome disappointment and heartache (You
took a piece of my soul / Without even asking me / All you’ve left is a hole…),
while discovering what is really worth the emotional and life investment.
Cherie Currie describes the song process, “Kim would ask
me questions at his apartment. He would say this is your record. He would ask me
questions and then he would just break into song from how I would answer his
questions about my life and “Inner You,” was one of those. He just immediately
took what I had to say and he turned it into a song.”
That same songwriting process is what was used to create
the autobiographical “I’m Happy.”
“I will tell you something, when Kim sang that song and
Jake has it on his iPhone, I burst into tears. I cried when Kim sang “I’m
Happy,” and he made it up on the spot, about my life. I don’t want to get
emotional, but it just was a moment that I will never forget. I had two takes to
make that song and it is so funny, because I wish I had sounded happier (she
laughs). 
I miss Kim. I miss him. What an amazing songwriter he
is…was, I hate to say was, because that hurts (Kim
Fowley died January 15, 2015 from cancer). He passed before the record was
finished and that was painful. I asked my son (Jake Hays) to come with me to
Kim’s apartment, because I knew he would learn something, as far as songwriting
was concerned. He was going to witness something and with him being there it
made him co-writer on three of the four songs. Jake brought a guitar and Kim
told him to just start playing, as Kim started singing. Lita happened to be
there as well. I called her and I said we are going to go to Kim’s apartment and
we are going to talk about a record. It was just an amazing experience.
When you talk about Kim Fowley, he is just one of a kind
and I have never seen songs written the way that he writes songs. He is truly,
melodically not great and that is where I came in with these songs. He would
just recite from start to finish, a song, with Jake playing a guitar and telling
him when to change notes. You had to have a tape recorder, because the thing is
the man (Fowley) never messed up and his lyrics were flawless from start to
finish. With “Inner You,” “I’m Happy,” “Dark World,” and “Queen of the Asphalt
Jungle,” the songs that he wrote (editor’s
note: co-written), they were written on the spot that afternoon and then
Jake and I brought them home to my house and I worked out a melody and we
tightened up the music. That’s how those four songs were written. Then within
three days Kim had us in the studio. It is the last sitting in a recording
studio that Kim did. He became too ill after four days and he couldn’t return,
so he asked Jake to take over. That is how this record happened,” she says.
There are not any weak songs on the album
Reverie, but the other song that
stands out above the rest is the love ballad, “Shades Of Me,” a Currie / Hayes
duet. Think of the best duets you have ever heard, regardless of genre and this
one ranks up there with them. This is a timeless classic that showcases the
immense talent of Jake Hays, and his fingerprints are all over this tune, as a
singer, musician and he produced it.
“Jake wrote this song (“Shades Of Me”) for me five years ago when I did the
record for Blackheart with Matt Sorum, but Matt wasn’t happy with the lyrics and
so he had me rewrite the lyrics and that is a record that has been shelved by
Blackheart at this point. Hopefully, it will come out, it might and it might
not. Anyway, Jake was not happy with the rewrite and all of that and the way
that it was recorded by Matt. Matt did a great job it’s just a different song.
When Jake and I were trying to write and to put together six songs for this
record, because we only had four that Kim had written I told Jake, let’s do
“Shades Of Me,” the way that you originally wrote it. That’s what we did.
After we recorded it musically, I told Jake I wanted to
do a duet. He did not want to do it. He thought it would be weird, because of
the lyrics and he said I can’t be singing this with my mother (she
laughs heartily). I said Jake no you’re wrong. You have to sing this with
me. It is rare that you have somebody sing a full verse and a chorus when you
are doing a duet. Usually you split the difference, but he just sings so well. I
said you have to continue, you have to continue on and then I will sing the next
verse and chorus and you end the song. He was like, wow alright and so we did it
that way. I am so pleased, because it does showcase his amazing talent, as a
singer, songwriter and producer. He played every instrument, drums, guitar,
bass, keyboards and all the background vocals. It is just amazing and he
produced the record. He is quite the song master. He real is,” says Currie.
Continuing along a similar line of thought she says,
“Being able to (make) Reverie with my
son was truly the highlight. Can you imagine I was 15 years old when I first
went into the studio with Kim Fowley and now I am 55? Kim was very ill and he
was sitting behind the console and my son was there and he was playing for Kim (you
can hear in her voice a mother’s sentimentality). For me there was a lot of
sadness thinking back to the days when I was a kid and then for it all to have
come full circle. Kim and I buried the hatchet and it was just a wonderful
experience. Jake got to witness what I had witnessed at 15 years old, to be in
the studio with this man. Jake has more talent in the tip of his little finger
than I have or even my wonderful ex-husband Robert Hays has. My goodness this
kid is incredible. He plays every instrument and he sings… (she
is at a loss for words). He is just amazing.”
Currie took a moment to acknowledge some of the other
people who contributed to this album. “I want to thank Mitch Perry, who listened
to “Shades Of Me.” He is an amazing guitar player and a wonderful human being.
He lives just down the street from me. He is known in the music industry as a
fantastic guitar player. He was also Lita’s (Lita Ford) guitar player for some
time. I had picked him up to take him to a show that Lita was doing and I played
“Shades Of Me,” for him. He immediately said that he wanted to play on this
song. He did the slide guitar and Nick Maybury did all of the lead guitar work
on The Runaways songs (“American Nights” and “Is It Day Or Night”) and on the
Kim songs as well. Nick Maybury is one of the best guitar players and he is a
huge Lita Ford fan. Lita had injured herself and she was unable to play, so he
came in and played. He knows Lita’s guitar playing like the back of his hand and
he has been my guitar player for the last five years. He has played on all of
The Runaway songs that I ever did live. He did a fantastic job and Grant
Fitzpatrick did bass on the two Runaways songs as well. I am just so blessed to
be surrounded by these wonderful guys.”
It is a shame that we live in a world where the majority
of independent artists are ignored when it comes to the final nominations for
major music awards such as the Grammy Awards, because Cherie Currie’s Rock album
Reverie and the songs that comprise
the record are better than many of the songs, albums and artists that are
nominated for those music awards. We can only hope that as more of today’s
younger generations of music fans opt out of listening to commercial radio
stations and find their music elsewhere that the tide will change and it will
create more of a level playing field, so artists like Cherie Currie will once
again receive the recognition that they truly deserve.
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