John Oates’ new digital album is out now at streaming
services. The veteran singer/guitarist’s strongest studio effort to date,
Oates often delves into soulful groove rock and R&B territory
after recent forays into acoustic folk and Americana.
As the
creative other half of Daryl Hall + John Oates - the rock era’s most
successful duo with 11 gold or platinum studio albums and 22 top 20 singles on
the Billboard Hot 100 (six reached the pole position) – Oates co-wrote major hits
like “She’s Gone,” “Sara Smile,” “You Make My Dreams,” “I Can’t Go for That (No
Can Do),” “Maneater” and “Out of Touch.” Oates also contributed vital
harmonies, guitar, and occasional lead vocals (“How Does it Feel to Be Back,”
“Possession Obsession”) across 18 albums and a 54-year music partnership.
For the
eponymous album, John Oates co-produced with David Kalmusky (Journey, Keith
Urban) and Sam Bergeson (Blake Shelton, Gwen Stefani). Featured vocalists include
Grammy-nominated R&B artist Devon Gilfillian and Wendy Moten,
a “The Voice” runner-up, with Tim McGraw & Faith Hill tours and past Oates studio
sessions to her credits.
Last August, Oates finished a brief tour at The Troubadour in West Hollywood that
was livestreamed via volume.com (check the website for on demand
replay). He plans to add more scattered shows, possibly in late fall, and then
next February in Florida associated with appearances at the sold out Rock Legends
Cruise XIII.
“I don’t
really like to go on tour where I’m out for long periods of time,” Oates admits.
“The reality is, where I’m at in my life, my age and everything like that, I
want to be at my best when I play. I can’t just be out there on the road living
in hotels anymore.”
Oates checked
in from a tour stop in Connecticut. The interview has been
lightly edited for clarity.
Q: Since some of the Oates tracks were previously available for
streaming, how did you go about deciding which ones to include on the album?
John
Oates: Over the
last 15 years, I’ve been working in Nashville and working in the Americana/acoustic
roots music lane…When I did the Reunion album (in 2024), it felt like
the culmination of all those years of work. The players on it were people who
supported me when I first came to Nashville - Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas, Jim
Lauderdale, Bela Fleck, Sierra Hull, Guthrie Trap - all these incredible Americana-oriented
musicians. They were all on the record and I felt like it was really the best
expression of that.
It was
time to do something else. I have a lot of influences, and I love all sorts of styles.
Urban R&B and vintage soul are part of my musical DNA. [First], I did the
song “Pushin’ a Rock.” Then I did a song with Devon Gilfillian, a Philadelphia R&B
singer and a young guy who’s really great. I met him in Nashville, and we
really hit it off. When we wrote and performed and recorded “Mending” together,
it turned me on. It just got me really excited. I said, ‘You know what? This
feels really good. This feels like a place to go for me.’
I [could] take
a step and still stay in my wheelhouse because it’s all stuff that I’m
comfortable with, but I kept it on the sidelines. That was the catalyst. It really
made me [continue], and then I started writing like a madman. I wrote all sorts
of songs. Then I looked back and I saw songs like ‘Get Your Smile On,’ ‘Pushin’
a Rock,’ songs that were, as you said, previously released. The songs all worked
together and had that vibe. Between the older material that I pulled back in
and the newer stuff I was writing, the album came together very quickly.
Q: The version of “Pushin’ a Rock” on your 2014 album Good Road to Follow
was quite different.
John
Oates: Can I tell
you a quick story about that?
Q: Go right ahead.
John
Oates: I wrote
that with Nathan Paul Chapman, who produced the early Taylor Swift material (the
multiple Grammy-winner also produced, written, or played on albums by Michael
Buble, Keith Urban, John Fogerty, Lady A, Lionel Richie).
He and I
wrote that and to be honest with you, I always thought the lyrics were great, but
I never felt the music stood up to the quality of the lyrics. Then during
COVID, I had a lot of time on my hands. I started looking at all my material
and things I had in the can.
I listened
to it again. And during COVID, that song sounded even more appropriate and
timely. I started messing around with the music because I really thought the
lyrics were great. I called Nathan and said, ‘I’d love to do a revised version
of this song.’ He said,’ Sure, give it a try.’ And I did. When I sent it to
him, the response was, ‘That’s the way it always should have sounded.’ That
really made me feel good…it fits so well with what I’m doing now.
Q: While listening to these songs, I was really impressed by the use of
your falsetto on “Pushin’ a Rock,” “Away’s Away” and elsewhere. How do you keep
your voice in such great shape these days?
John
Oates: I’m a
natural singer. I know how to sing and how to save my voice. Again, it gets
back to what we spoke about earlier about doing too many shows. It’s a muscle and
I have to be careful. I’ve learned how to use it and how to sing, and I've
started to do much more falsetto because it’s part of this musical DNA that I
have.
Going back
to my influences, people like Curtis Mayfield and the [late 1960s-70s] Philly [sound]
stuff, used a lot of falsetto singing and it’s pretty prominent there. I haven’t
featured my falsetto much in the [recent] past. I thought, ‘This feels like I’m
making a connection to my musical influences.
Q: “Enough is Enough,” your collaboration with young NYC soul-pop duo
Lawrence is a standout on the new album and has such an ebullient vibe with the
horn section and everything. I could listen to it on endless repeat. You were
so impressed by their sound that you tried to write a song like them, right?
John
Oates: Exactly. I
got on a roll to write a lot of new material to add to the existing material. I
was at my place in Colorado, in writing mode, looking for inspiration. I
started listening to Lawrence and felt a kinship with them in terms of [how] they’re
from New York, they’re a pop group, they're great writers, great singers, and great
instrumentalists. They don’t use samples. They don’t use [prerecorded] tracks
[onstage].
They’re
really a new version of old school and I love that. It appealed to me. I also
liked the joy and energy that I felt coming from their music. I really felt
like I needed to write something that maybe could have that same type of joy
and energy, you know?
Q: Yeah.
John
Oates: I started
writing and came up with the song, ‘Enough is Enough.’ It started sounding like
them and seemed to have their vibe. Then when I got to the second verse, I didn’t
have any really good lyrics. I couldn’t come up with anything decent. I looked at
their songs and (2021’s) ‘Don’t Lose Sight’ seemed to be talking about the same
thing that I was, except it was their version. The gist of their lyric was
about frustration with the music business. The gist of my lyric was frustration
with the place where I was in my life. I cobbled together some lyrics from
their song and stuck them into my second verse.
Then I said,
‘I’m not going to steal their words, obviously, so I reached out to them
through some mutual friends and.sent it to them. I said, ‘Listen, I want to
give you a share of the publishing and we’ll do a share of the co-writing,
whatever it takes. But I really like the way this is working and if you like
it, I’d love to collaborate with you.’ They did and it was awesome.
I cut the
track in Nashville with my guys and did my part. Then we went to New York and brought
Clyde and Gracie (Lawrence) into the studio. It was really cool, being at the new
Hit Factory, which was like completing a circle in a lot of ways. That’s the
place Daryl and I started recording in New York in the late Seventies…I hadn’t
recorded in New York in ages. There was a lot of good juju there.
Q: Did collaborating with younger artists like Lawrence, Devon Gilfillian and
Sam Burgeson on this album provide a creative spark for you?
John
Oates: Yeah. I
collaborate with a lot of people. Over the years, what I found was - and I don’t
mean to say this in a negative way - but every time I would collaborate with
someone in my same age area, or who is drawing from the same kind of influences
that I do - it always seemed a bit stifled and almost like we were treading
water.
But every
time I’d collaborate with younger artists, they would bring a different point
of view, a different set of references. I would bring experience and some other
things that they might not really have. It seemed to work, so I began to really
seek out younger artists and songwriters. It’s just fun.
Q: The two Latin-tinged songs on the album provide a pleasant change of
pace. What prompted you to do them?
John
Oates: They are both
outliers, songs that I had in the can that I really wanted people to hear. ‘Bajo
La Luz, De La Luna” (Translation: ‘In the Sun, Under the Moonlight’) was specifically
written for the film ‘Gringa’ directed by a friend of mine. He asked if I’d
contribute some music, and I did. That was one of the songs I contributed. I
just dipped into my high school Spanish and threw out a couple of words. If you
see the movie, it works really well with the theme (The track plays during the
end credits of the 2023 drama starring Steve Zahn, Roselyn Sanchez, and Judy
Greer).
On ‘Dreaming
About Brazil,’ I wrote that song because I’m a huge Antonio Carlos Jobim fan
and very much a bossa nova fan. I have played bossa nova my whole life. I
started messing around with something that was like very Jobim-inspired, in
terms of the chord progression, but then I couldn’t sing it; I could, but it didn’t
sound very good.
Q: Because you’ve worked with Wendy before, she was the perfect choice.
John
Oates: Exactly. I
love Wendy. She’s one of the greatest singers on the planet, and I will stand
behind that statement. She’s an amazing person and an amazing singer. She’s
toured with me and sang with me on records. I asked her, and I just thought it
might be a cool moment to have another personality on there. She came in and of
course, she just killed it and did a beautiful job. I loved the song and wanted
people to hear it.
Q: In 2023, you put your own spin on a cover of Louis Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful
World.” What led you to tackle Mark Cohn’s “Walking in Memphis” on the album?
John
Oates: That was because
I did ‘The Masked Singer’ and in the first episode, they give you a list of
songs. You don’t just get to pick anything you want. They have a theme involved
with every show, and that that was the only song I wanted to do from their
list. So, I did it. And having done it on ‘The Masked Singer,’ it reminded me
of what an amazing song it is. I wanted to put my stamp on it. Did you get a
chance to hear the Grabbitz remix?
Q: Yes. When my first reaction was, ‘Now John Oates would be cool to the Coachella
kids.’
John
Oates: I’ve got a
mutual friend who knows Grabbitz (the Buffalo, N.Y. DJ scored a 2016 dance hit
with Deadmau5 on “Let Go”) and sent him the song. He loved it and said he
wanted to give it a try. I’m open to all these possibilities. It keeps me on my
toes, and it’s really great to hear people’s interpretations.
Q: Another one of the standouts for me on Oates is the acoustic
guitar-accented “World Gone Wrong.” What was the impetus for it?
John
Oates: I wrote
that right around the time I wrote ‘Enough Is Enough.’ I was in my house in Colorado,
and my wife and son had gone back home. I was going to spend a few more days
there wood shedding. I was just sitting there and had this really weird, sad
emotion about how terrible it would be if this were my reality and they weren’t
around. I know it’s dark and a little bit depressing…
Q: I want to switch gears now. Veteran classic rock musicians who get
played regularly on SiriusXM’s Yacht Rock Radio stations sometimes complain
about the invented genre. But yacht rock’s popularity has made unfairly maligned
1970s pop music somewhat fashionable again and brought new listeners to Daryl
Hall + John Oates’ music. What is your opinion on it?
John
Oates: Listen,
anytime our music can get played, especially vintage and classic rock things - keeping
this music alive is very important. On SiriusXM, the yacht rock station is [one
of] their most popular stations. There’s a reason for that: the songs are good,
and people love them.
Look, I
don’t care for the title. I think yacht rock is silly. I don’t even know what
it means. I don’t know where it came from. Regardless of that fact, it’s a
great format to keep the music of the past alive. And I’m thrilled that they’re
playing Daryl Hall + John Oates songs.
Q: On Spotify, the most streamed song by Daryl Hall + John Oates is “You Make
My Dreams” – amid the platform’s Billions Club. What elements in that song do
you think has made it connect with more people than any of your others?
John
Oates: Interestingly
enough, that song really wasn’t a hit when it first came out. I mean, it was a
hit, but by our Eighties standards, it was not a hit (the song reached No. 5 on
the Billboard Hot 100). It was never even released as a single in England or
Europe or any place outside of America.
It really
was an outlier and when it got picked for the ‘(500) Days of Summer’ movie soundtrack,
it really started getting traction with millennials and the younger generation.
It’s a very simple song with a very direct message and it’s got a great groove.
Q: Agreed. This past July, there was plenty of media attention surrounding
the 40th anniversary of Live Aid. You and Daryl performed with Mick Jagger,
Tina Turner, members of the Temptations and on your own. Would you consider
your appearance at the all-star benefit concert to be a highlight of your
career?
John
Oates: Absolutely.
That was a landmark moment in music history, and it was the first time music
was simulcast around the world - to more people than ever before…Mick Jagger
had done a solo album, and he didn’t have a band. He reached out to us to back
him up. We had just played the Apollo Theater with Eddie Kendricks and David
Ruffin (a corresponding live album arrived two months later). We wanted them to
go on with us and we did a reprise of the Temptations medley.
It was
just a great, exciting moment. Of course, it was in Philadelphia [where we got
our start], and we were at the top of our game in terms of the world of commercial
music and hits. The whole thing just was really powerful and I'm very, very
proud of that.
Q: Looking back to the entire Daryl Hall + John Oates catalog, which albums
do you think stand the test of time and which, if any, would you listen to for
pleasure?
John
Oates: I can
pinpoint albums that I think were pivotal to the changes in our career. ‘Abandoned
Luncheonette’ (The 1973 release featuring “She’s Gone”) really put us on the
map. That album, to this day, is our version of a masterpiece. I don’t know if
the rest of the world agrees, but as far as I'm concerned, it is.
The ‘Voices’
album, because it was the first album that we produced ourselves. What it really
did was set the tone for the Eighties. It put us in a creative place where we
could really do exactly what we wanted to do - and do it in the way we wanted
to do it.
I would
say that the big hits on ‘Private Eyes’ and ‘H2O’ are important. I think that
the most important record would be ‘Big Bam Boom’ because it was a change in
technology. It was the end of the analog era and early in the infancy of the
digital era. We were combining these two technologies for the first time and
doing some groundbreaking stuff in terms of sonically and production wise. I
don't think enough people give us credit for that. I like a lot of the records,
but those are the high points.
My interview originally appeared as the September cover story for rockcellarmagazine.com.
