|
|
Interview
with Hope Juber Part Two |
|
Hope Juber Interview continued from Part One
Just a few days prior to our
conversation there was jubilation in the Juber household as one of their
two daughters Ilsey appeared on Saturday Night Live, as a background
singer for Miley Cyrus and Mark Ronson as they performed “Happy
Christmas War Is Over.” Ronson and Cyrus also performed the song
“Nothing Breaks Like the Heart,” written by Ilsey Juber. A small
sampling of other artists for whom Ilsey Juber has written songs
includes, Michael Bublé (“Love You Anymore”), several songs for
Christina Aguilera, Kelly Clarkson (“Meaning of Life”), Linkin Park
(“Talking to Myself”), Beyoncé (“All Night”), as well as songs for
Drake, Britney Spears, Mariah Carey and a lot of others.
So mom how did you feel, we asked Hope Juber.
“I was crying, laughing and I was nervous. I was excited. It was great!
I have the greatest daughters and I am just so proud of them. They are
both amazing women. Let’s start with Ilsey, because you brought that up.
She is a songwriter and she has a remarkable career. The trajectory that
she is on is incredible. She has been focused on songwriting since she
was really tiny.
We knew Ilsey was going to be in music and there are a couple of reasons
for that. Laurence and I are both into music. My dad wrote the themes to
the Gilligan show and also The Brady Bunch, so there is a history of
songwriting in my family and of course (my husband) Laurence is such a
great musician.
She explains, “When I was pregnant with Ilsey, Laurence was in the
studio with George Harrison and I really wanted to meet George Harrison.
I have always loved The Beatles and I especially love the guitar, so I
wanted to meet George Harrison. We made arrangements for the next day,
so I would go in and meet George Harrison, but that night I went into
labor. I was no, no, I can’t have this baby! (Ilsey
obviously was not going to pass up an opportunity like this!) I have
to go to the studio, but it doesn’t work that way. Ilsey was going to
come when she was going to come. I went to the hospital and I had the
baby.
The next day Laurence went off to work with George Harrison. I was at
the hospital holding the baby and the phone rang. It was George Harrison
on the phone and he said I just heard that you had the baby and he said
as soon as you are able I would like to meet you and the baby. Ilsey was
two days old and the first place that she ever went was the recording
studio. George came and he lifted her out of the baby carrier and he
took her into the studio. It was a big cavernous studio with a wood
floor and he started dancing around the studio with the baby (Ilsey). He
was talking to her and we just stood back and watched. It was very
magical. At the end he came over to me and he said something to me in
Sanskrit. He touched her on the forehead. He handed her to me and I said
what did you say to her? He said, well I was just dancing and enjoying
the energy of this new life and at the end I decided I would like to
give her the gift of music, so I did.”
The Beatles connection is a common thread throughout Hope Juber’s life,
so we decided to talk about this for a few minutes.
“I always feel
like meeting Laurence started when I was seven, because that is when I
fell in love with The Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show and I became a big
fan of their music. I always loved The Beatles. People who knew me, knew
two things at the very least, they knew that I had red hair and that I
loved The Beatles. All of a sudden there was magic on TV and it changed
everything. It was such an incredible moment. (She
laughs as she says) I never
recovered. Every time a new album came out I thought it is getting even
more amazing. It just kept going that way. I had so much respect for
their growth musically and their growth spiritually and how they
affected all of the styles. It was incredible to me. It was like living
through Beethoven.
In college I wrote
a thesis based (entirely) on lyrics by The Beatles. It always meant a
lot to me. I was never the girl screaming on the other side of the
fence, but I was the one going I love this band, I just love this band.
When I graduated from college and I was writing that is when John
(Lennon) was killed. I don’t know anybody our age who doesn’t remember
that day. It devastated me, as it did most people who loved that band.
It was so astounding to have an artist assassinated like that. It
affected me. I didn’t want to get out of bed. I didn’t want to eat. I
just stopped. My parents started getting really concerned about me,
because I went into this existential depression. After a while my mother
called me and said I know what will make you feel better, why don’t you
go get your hair done? When she said that to me I thought I am having
this major existential depression and she wants me to have my hair done.
I also know she was my mom, she loved me and she wanted me to feel
better. I said okay I will get my hair done. She made an appointment at
a salon for me.
I went there and the hairdresser was doing my hair and he said what is
going on with you? Why are you so sad? What is happening? I said I have
been really depressed since John Lennon was shot. He said I have one
more client, so why don’t you go downstairs and walk around the block
once and he said when you are done, I will be done and we can go have a
cup of coffee. I went downstairs and I started walking around this
block. I wasn’t really looking where I was going and I had my head down.
It ended up I walked straight into somebody. Bam! It ended up that I was
standing on a pair of boots. I looked up and I was standing on Ringo
Starr in the middle of the sidewalk and he was there with his soon to be
wife Barbara (Bach). I was just stunned, because I was literally
standing on Ringo. I said I am just so sorry, I didn’t mean to step on
you. I am so sorry about John. I turned to leave and he said hold on a
minute. Can I talk to you for a minute? I said sure. I didn’t know him
at all. I was so stunned. He talked to me about his relationship with
John and about how for him work was the most important thing, because it
was a real focus and it how it can really help you. He gave me this pep
talk and it was unbelievable. He told me about a new album he was
working on and how it was really bringing him through this period of
time. I thanked him when he was finished talking and I went home and I
thought about it a lot, because it just came out of the blue and it was
Ringo Starr,” she says.
We are not done yet folks! Juber continues, “A couple of days later my
dad called and he said there is a new show coming on NBC and I would
like you to come down and be a writer on this show. I had said no to my
dad a few times for shows that he was working on, because I really
wanted to do it on my own and I had even changed my name. I didn’t want
to do it, because of my dad or my brother. I was going to say no (this
time), but all of a sudden I had this flash of talking to Ringo and when
he said work is the thing that can really pull you through. I said maybe
this is the thing that I need and maybe I should do that. I agreed with
my dad and I started writing on the
Brady Brides.
I went to Paramount and I worked on the
Brady Brides. Our soundstage
was right next to the Mork &
Mindy soundstage. I ended up in a relationship with Robin Williams
from Mork & Mindy. He was
going to New York to do The World
According to Garp and he wanted me to come to New York with him. I
couldn’t because we were filming. He said if you go on hiatus call my
house and get the address of where I am going to be and then come there.
We went on hiatus and I called his house and this woman named Charlie
with a very thick English accent answered the phone. She said Robin told
me that you would be calling and to let you know where he is staying. I
will let him know you are coming.
I went to New York to be with Robin and one night he was doing an
interview. He said I am going to send you to a club to wait for me. I
got in the car and I went to the club. I heard that someone was talking
to Paul McCartney’s guitar player. I thought that was pretty cool. I
didn’t know the members of Wings, but I thought it was a good thing. I
was talking at the bar with this woman who said she is a singer and she
had some musician friends she was working with and did I want to meet
them. I said sure. These three guys walked towards me and Laurence was
in the middle. It was like one of these crazy movie moments where
everything else got all fuzzy and fell away and there was just Laurence
and me. There was this instant electricity. I forgot all about waiting
for Robin and I left with Laurence. We went out for dinner and we went
back to his apartment where there was this big
Wings poster. I had not put
the two things together that he was the guitarist they were talking
about. I said wait a minute that’s you. He said yes I was in that band
Wings.
We started talking and he started telling me about this old girlfriend
that he had and that she was staying in LA, while she was doing an
album. He also told me whose house she was staying at. I said no she’s
not at his house. He said what do you mean? I said she is at Robin’s
house, because I talked to her right before I came to New York. I was on
the phone with Laurence’s old girlfriend.
Then he started telling me about this album he had been working on with
Ringo, so that album Ringo was telling me about, Laurence was playing
guitar on it. It was so crazy. Laurence started talking about marriage
the night that we met. He knew. In April it will be thirty-eight years
ago that I met Laurence. He said the moment that he saw me at the club
he knew we were getting married. He said there was not a doubt in his
mind that we were getting married.
It is so crazy, because my dad when he was writing in LA he went to New
York for a week and he ended up meeting my mother. He decided to stay
another week. He fell madly in love with her immediately. When I was in
New York with Laurence I decided to stay another week, because when we
met it was obviously something very special. I called home and my mother
answered the phone, so I told her I was going to stay in New York for
another week. My mom yelled to my dad, she is going to stay another week
in New York I heard my dad yell back to her; she’s going to marry him.
My mother said what him? She didn’t say anything about a him. If she is
staying another week in New York she met a him and she is going to marry
him, my dad said. It is so crazy. That is how I met Laurence.
I think the most important thing to take away from this story is if your
mom wants you to get your hair done, do it,” she says.
Hope Juber adds, “I seem to somehow be tangentially connected to The
Beatles and that whole cosmic swirl. On my side I have this very
Americana, Pop, Gilligan’s Island and The Brady Bunch, while on
Laurence’s side it is very English. We live at the nexus of Pop culture
over here (she laughs lightly).
Never one to follow the usual paths whether in her personal life or
creative collaborations, Hope Juber met Marcella (Marcy) Detroit, one of
the three members of the singing group
The Nasty Housewives (don’t
forget to put “the” in front or you will not like the results) at
the gym.
She tells the story, “That is my key secret to finding partners, people
to work with, friends and everything. Go to the gym. I met pretty well
everyone that I work with at the gym. Marcy and I were on exercise
machines next to each other and it was right before the 2016 election. I
looked over at her and she was shaking her head with her head in her
hand and I said are you okay? She said no. I am not. I can’t stand him
and she was referring to our current president. We bonded over our
mutual hatred of the orange one and we started talking about different
things and I found out that she is a songwriter (Editor’s
Note: Marcella Detroit has enjoyed an outstanding music career. Google
her. The other member of the trio is Roberta Freeman has also
experienced a stellar music career).
I had an idea for a parody of a song that I thought would be fun to do.
She came over to work on it and it turned into an original song. That is
how The Nasty Housewives
started. That album came together so quickly. We liked nasty, because of
that nasty woman thing and then since I had
The Housewives (more
about this in a moment) it just seemed to make sense to go with
The Nasty Housewives.
The Nasty Housewives has some of its roots in a band that Hope Juber had
earlier in her career and it was simply called
The Housewives.
“I liked the band The Waitresses
in 1978. I thought it was such an unusual name for a band, so I thought
if I had a band what would I call it? I (decided on)
The Housewives, because
nobody had ever done anything like that before. I started writing this
list of song titles. I thought a band called
The Housewives should do a
song called “Ironing Board,” or a song called “Be My Babysitter,” and
“Call a Repair Man.” I had all of these ideas for songs. I didn’t have a
band called The Housewives
till I met Laurence and we got married. I was cast into that role all of
a sudden, because I gave birth to Nico nine months exactly after our
wedding night. I was immediately a new mother and I was all of a sudden
surrounded by baby stuff and a house. I thought I can start writing
these songs.
I told Laurence I have this idea and I asked him if he would be
interested in helping me with the music. We started writing songs
together. All of a sudden they just started coming out. Sometimes I
would do the lyrics and he would do the music and sometimes I would come
up with the melody and I would just sing it to him. It would go back and
forth like that. The Housewives We did a lot of television spots. We
were on the Home Show and
Oprah and all of those kinds
of shows. I fell into it with no training whatsoever and it wasn’t
anything that I even thought I had the talent to do until I was actually
doing it.
Sometimes when you open that channel it just starts to flow through you.
I was waking up in the middle of the night and almost seeing lyrics in
the air. Sometimes I didn’t write them, I just discovered them. They
were just there. Other times if I was in the shower or something the
whole song would just fall into my head,” says Juber.
Hope Juber talks about her relationship with Laurence, “It is not always
a good idea to work with your spouse, but for Laurence and me it turned
out to be the best idea. I produce all of his albums. I have a respect
for creativity and I think sometimes artists who are beginning to create
something need to feel like they have the complete freedom to try
anything. Sometimes if the door they walk through isn’t the right door
it doesn’t work, but you have to go through that door to get to the next
one. If you get shut down you never go any further and with Laurence’s
guitar playing I can see ways of letting him feel safe to try anything
and getting him to places as a producer is one of the joys of my life.
He is such an incredible guitarist and I am so fortunate to be able to
work with him. We have three hours of covers of The Beatles. That is
very special to me, because I was able to hand Paul McCartney an album
of Beatles’ songs that I produced. What an incredible moment right?
I am always very conscious of the emotional communication in every song.
It is one thing to move your fingers really fast, but it is another
thing to move people. You have to be saying something and even if it is
just instrumental you have to be saying something. There are ways to say
things when it shuts people down and if you say that was no good, all of
a sudden somebody feels judged, but if you say it like this, when you
get to that place instead of going to this kind of fill, why don’t you
go to this kind of fill and see where that goes. That is a positive and
it is a construction. It doesn’t negate anything that they have already
done. It allows them to try other things and that is when you get the
magic.
I am so lucky, because Laurence and I are almost thirty-eight years into
this relationship and it just gets better and better. All marriages take
work, but when it works and it works great, there is nothing better. I
don’t ever take it for granted.”
Hope Juber also wants you to know that Laurence and her are incredibly
proud of their other daughter Nico, “My daughter Nico has two kids of
her own. She is an advertising executive, but she also runs a nonprofit
organization for young cancer survivors. She was diagnosed when she was
nineteen with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and she almost died. She went
through chemo and radiation. She was extraordinarily brave and she got
through it. When she was done with her treatment she decided there were
very few resources for young people who have gone through those kinds of
experiences. Having their whole lives ahead of them there were very few
resources for them to go to for things like the ramifications of chemo
or insurance things or how it affects fertility. She wanted to form a
nonprofit that would be a resource center for young people who have gone
through this, one that they could turn to and one that would support
them. She runs a support group. She is extremely creative. She writes
beautifully and she has a great voice. Nico and Ilsey would sing
together sometimes, but Ilsey was the one who was really focused on
music and Nico was a lot more academic and she could do many, many
things. She has been running that foundation for a while and I am really
proud of her. She is one of the busiest women that I know.”
As our conversation comes to a close Hope Juber becomes reflective,
“Sometimes I feel like I went from being my dad’s daughter, to being
Laurence’s wife to being Ilsey’s mom (she
laughs lightly), which is great because it has been a remarkable
series of creations. For me when I hear Nico doing her nine to five job
with benefits I don’t know where she came from. For us she is the one
with the regular job. None of us have ever dealt with that. We have
always been slightly on the edges of...there is no stability there,
because you don’t know what you are going to be doing next. I am used to
that. It is funny how for some people their comfort zone becomes being
on shaky ground.” Top Photo: Hope and Laurence Juber; Middle Photo: L - R Sherwood Schwartz, Hope Juber, Lloyd Schwartz ; Bottom Photo: Ilsey, Hope and Nico
|
Then
Hope Juber shares the family secret and magical spell that Ilsey was
under since she was born. Well those are our words with a bit of
hyperbole thrown in for good measure. 
