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_{dBs Drummer Will Rigby}

_{_{What
do the Peter Holsapple (guitar, vocals, keyboards), Will Rigby
(drummer), Chris Stamey (guitar, vocals) and Gene Holder (bass) have in
common? Well, quite a lot of things actually, they all grew up in
Winston-Salem, North Carolina, they formed a Power Pop band, the dB’s in
June of 1978 and earlier this year (2024) they reissued their first two
albums, Repercussion and Stands for Decibels, on the
record label Propeller Sound Recordings.
On December 6th, they will conclude a 3-month tour in
Winston-Salem, North Carolina at the Southeastern Center for
Contemporary Art.}
Drummer Will Rigby
sat down with Riveting Riffs Magazine to talk about the band’s history
and the two albums reissued.

“We started in New York City and Chris Stamey was already living there.
He invited Gene Holder the bass player and myself, the drummer to come
up and play some gigs with him in June of 1978. Peter (Holsapple) joined
us in October of that year, to record the first two dBs albums. However,
we were all from Winston-Salem, North Carolina. I was in the third grade
with Peter, and I have known him since then, for more than fifty years,
going on sixty at this point. I believe we did meet in 1964. Most of us
knew each other, long before we made it to New York. Gene and I did not
know each other, before we moved to New York, but I knew who he was, and
I am sure he knew who I was. The rest of us all knew each other.

_{Read More}}

Poco - Rusty Young

“I really am pleased (with that album). It was a neat experience. I had never done a solo record. I had always focused on Poco records and in 2013 and 2014 I was thinking about retiring and just doing things that I enjoyed, fun shows with friends and that kind of stuff. Jimmy Messina called me, and he said I have five or six shows on the west coast, and it would be great if you came out and played with me. We did old Poco songs and it was a fun thing to do.

We were doing a show in California and this guy Kirk Pasich came up to me afterwards and he said have you ever thought of doing a solo record? I said not really. The opportunity has never presented itself. He said, I have a label Blue Élan and we would love to have you make a record for us. I thought about how everybody who has ever been in Poco have done solo records, Paul Cotton and Richie Furay, Timothy B Schmit and Randy Meisner. I thought it might be an interesting thing for me to do at the end of my career. It was the best way for me to illustrate my part in the sound of Poco. If you listen to Richie Furay’s records you can hear what he contributed to the band and the same with Paul Cotton (and the others). They all have their style and their songs. It was a chance for me to show what I brought to the scene. I thought it was a really good challenge at that point in my life.”

Continuing to talk about the album he says, “The first song that I wrote was “Waiting for the Sun.” After I wrote it, I called Kirk and I said listen let’s do this record.

We live in a cabin or a log home in Missouri in Read More

Funky Dracula - Ben Brown

Bobby “Boris” Pickett gave us the “Monster Mash,” in 1962, cowritten with Lenny Capizzi and The Rocky Horror Picture Show gave us “The Time Warp,” but now we have a new full-length album just in time for Halloween, “Funky Dracula,” courtesy of Ben Brow, from Austin, Texas.

Ben Brown talks about how he arrived in the studio with this collection of songs, “For some reason I was listening to a lot of ‘80s Prince music, so that was a sonic strand. At the same time, I revisited reading famous satire stories, like Orwell’s 1984, Voltaire’s Candide Ou l’Optimisme and I have also been a fan of low brow horror movies, as well as science fiction. I like the idea of a horror movie that works as satire, and you don’t have to know anything about what the screenwriter was interested in to enjoy it. A lot of cheesy horror and science fiction movies function as cultural satire.

I am a product of the eighties and nineties, so Return of the Living Dead could be construed as a film about militarism. H.P. Lovecraft’s Reanimator could be construed as a story about what happens when you tinker with medicine, biology and genetic experimentation.

One day I had a bunch of material that had a spooky gothic sound to it. I thought it would be (interesting) to combine those songs and somehow the title Funky Dracula came to me. To me it represented the seductive synth Pop of the ‘80s Prince and the spooky gothic, romantic literature of Read More

Maia Sharp and Reckless Thoughts

It is always great to sit down, (even if it is over the miles) and chat with Maia Sharp. The renowned singer, songwriter and musician, whose songs have been recorded by artists such as, Cher, Trisha Yearwood, Terri Clark, Bonnie Raitt and Art Garfunkel, will have just released her new album Reckless Thoughts by the time you are reading this. Maia Sharp is as candid, as she is thoughtful when talking about her life, career and songs. She breathes fresh air into the world of music. She is comfortable collaborating with other songwriters and she is quick to share the spotlight and credit with them, even though it is her name on the album for which the songs appear.

From her home in Nashville (yes, she did indeed move from California a few years ago), she talks about when the seeds for Reckless Thoughts were first planted.

“The first song that I knew was going to be the beginning of a new album project was “Kind.” I wrote that with Mindy Smith and Dean Fields in 2019. When we were finished with that one, I knew I needed to start thinking about another project, even though Mercy Rising (the previous album) wasn’t even out yet. I knew that one was already finished. I knew that “Kind,” wasn’t going to be on Mercy Rising. It already set the wheels in motion and I thought I guess I am going to be making another record.

“Too Far Now,” was the next one. Those two songs are so different from each other that they really presented a challenge. How am I going to write or look through my catalogue for a body of work that makes sense, so all of these songs can play together and sound like one animal. They are the most different genre wise. I think my production, the Read More

Electronic Firefly from Spain

Electronic Firefly combines the extraordinary talents of violinist Silvia Carbajal, cellist Carlos Perez-Íñigo, and keyboardist Rebeca Nayla who all now live in Madrid, Spain, but at one time lived in different parts of the country. Recently, Carlos who prefers to be called Charlie and Silvia sat down with Riveting Riffs Magazine over a Skype call during the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic in Spain and talked about their careers, the formation of Electronic Firefly and the future. For the purposes of this interview, as we often do we are going to dispense for the most part with referring to them by their last names and stick to first names.

The pandemic and for almost three months having to stay inside their homes, put the debut Electronic Firefly album on pause. Sylvia and Charlie have recorded music together aside from Electronic Firefly.

Silvia begins by talking about their music, “We do different types of music and some covers, because people want to hear something that they know like electronica, Frank Sinatra, Amy Winehouse and AC / DC are our favorite types of music. This music is for events and concerts, because people want to hear something that they know. We also do our own compositions. We work with a pianist (Rebeca Nayla) and we do a mix of electronic music and music for films. We are doing our first album and it will be an album with our songs.”

Charlie continues, “We have quite a lot of songs recorded, but this project with the electronica is new. There are three of us in the group and it is completely different than anything we have done before. We have recorded five or six songs already.” Read More

Katja Rieckermann - Double Release

You know the song “Da Ya Think I’m Sexy,” from when Rod Stewart recorded it on his 1978 album Blondes Have More Fun, but you have never heard it played like this before. Saxophonist, arranger and composer Katja Rieckermann and TMTQ turn in a stunning dance version of the song, with new vocals by Sir Rod Stewart. Rieckermann who toured with Stewart for fourteen years and during that time she began her solo career, which to date has produced three albums, the self-titled Katja (2007), Horn Star (2010) and Never Stand Still (2014). Katja Rieckermann has performed with a diverse group of artists, which include, Carole King, Brooks and Dunn, David Foster, Mary J. Blige, Al Green and Jeff Goldblum.

Katja Rieckerman first started thinking of recording “Da Ya Think I’m Sexy,” “about two and one-half years ago. Originally it was going to be an instrumental version of “Da Ya Think I’m Sexy?” and it was going to be very close to the original with the tempo and the vibe of it. I wrote a couple of horn sections for it and we recorded it.

I sent it to Rod for approval and said what do you think? I said hey Rod what do you think? I am thinking about releasing this version. Do you like it? He wrote back, yes I love it. How about I sing on it? I was like wow! That is crazy. Of course, that would be fantastic. He ended up singing over the original track that I sent to him.

I thought now I have these newly recorded vocals of Rod and it is too close to sounding like the original, so I should do Read More

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