HUEY LEWIS: Used a drum machine on a classic 80's album
Huey Lewis admits that Sports was recorded with a drum machine. He recently told Montgomery, Alabama's Advertiser that after mixing the album several times, he and his band The News still weren't happy with the results.
He says they went back into a New York studio, where they "set the drum machine up, sequenced the bass and put it on 114 and it was unbelievable. It came to life."
The lesson was "You just can’t fake it. Merging machines with humans, you have to be very, very [cautious] and you have to assemble it very carefully. And the Sports record was assembled very, very carefully. Since that time, we’ve concentrated on playing better to where we can now capture the songs as just to recreating them. It’s been an interesting journey."
Huey Lewis and the News continue their summer tour this week with shows in the Northeast.
PETE TOWNSHEND: Rock legend discusses Justin Bieber phenomenon
Who better than Pete Townshend to put the Justin Bieber phenomenon into perspective?
With typical hard-to-follow reasoning, The Who guitarist explains the Canadian superstar's impact on pop culture in Variety, saying he thinks "we hand ourselves to Justin Bieber; and he’s a good guy, he does his best to entertain us. What’s important is not Justin Bieber, and I think he probably would agree with me, it’s that we are 'Beliebers.' It sounds a bit preachy, but that we stand together in his presence."
Townshend also has what he calls "a new piece" in the works. He says he's been working on it for "a long time" and doesn't want to say too much about it, but that "all the doors are open" as far as how he'll eventually present it, whether it's with "a hillbilly band, dance band, rock band or orchestra."