Star Apps: Chicago and REO Speedwagon
Before iHeart Radio, TuneIn, Songza, Pandora, and Rdio, there was FM radio. Chicago and REO Speedwagon were two of the rock bands dominating FM airwaves in the '70s and '80s. With 34 top 20 hits and numerous gold and platinum records between them, these Illinois icons are hitting the road for a 27-date tour this summer. I chatted with Chicago vocalist/keyboardist Robert Lamm and trumpeter Lee Loughnane and REO Speedwagon singer Kevin Cronin about the tour, making music in the digital age, their advice to new artists, and their favorite apps.
The Chicago and REO Speedwagon tour rolls into a city near you this summer.
(Credit: REO Speedwagon (top): David M. Earnisse Photography; Chicago (bottom): Randee St. Nicholas )
Why has it taken so long for both bands to tour together? Will you be collaborating onstage?
Kevin (REO Speedwagon): It doesn't make any sense that we haven't played together, considering both bands come out of Chicago. But it's kind of cool that we've never played together, because it makes this tour that much more special for fans of both bands. As far as us playing together on stage, I think that is probably, for me, the most exciting part of it -- that we're going to cross-pollinate for a while at the end there. I'm just very excited to have the great musicians in Chicago playing along on some of our songs. To hear the Chicago horn section on "Roll With the Changes" is something that I'm really looking forward to doing.
Do you think it had anything to do with the fact that at your respective heights you had different fanbases?
Robert (Chicago): Oh yeah. Chronologically Chicago's probably about five years earlier, and we did come out of a progressive jazz/rock foundation. Yeah, it would have generated a different group of fans. But the fact that both bands are perennial tour guys has kind of homogenized our audience. The information I've been getting is that this is the best preselling package tour, at least the best-selling one that Chicago's ever been involved with. I think that that tells us a lot.
You each have so many hits. How will you squeeze them all into your respective one-hour set lists?
Lee (Chicago): We have an overabundance of songs. Even when we play shows on our own, we play a two-hour show and can't get all of the songs that have become hits into the show. We've had to pare it down to an hour set. Picking the songs is difficult, but we will weather the storm and figure it out, and pick out three songs for each band to play in conjunction with others in the encore.
How much of the new album will you be performing?
Lee (Chicago): Probably one song off of the new album.
Kevin (REO Speedwagon): A very similar situation. We have a core of songs that if we don't play them, there'll be an angry mob waiting for us outside, right around the tour bus. There are those songs that people buy tickets to come and hear. I've always adhered to the theory that people are spending their hard-earned money to come and see us play, so we're going to give them the songs that they want. To me, there's nothing worse than going to a concert to see a band, and they leave out some of their bigger songs for some reason.
If Chicago doesn't play "25 or 6 to 4," it's like of course they're going to play that. If we don't play "Ridin' the Storm Out," it would be silly. We're going to give the people what they came for and then some. For the encore, it's going to be songs on steroids. I think everybody's going to hear the songs that they want to hear.
How are you approaching the songs that you're doing together?
Robert (Chicago): I was actually sitting and practicing the REO songs today, and I was kind of giving that some thought. I know [Chicago trombonist] James Pankow is off and sketching out some brass stuff for the REO things. I actually don't know the answer to this question, but there's got to be a way that would put a couple of the Chicago songs more in the REO neighborhood of composition and approach. Maybe that means no horns, I don't know. It's something, though, that I've been thinking about. As we all agree, the concept of the two bands together, at least visually and sonically and certainly volume-wise, will give the people more than they planned for.
Kevin (REO Speedwagon): To me, as a songwriter, there's nothing better than when you take a song and just take it outside the comfort zone and turn it inside out. Chicago, these guys are like real musicians; we're just a bunch of knuckleheads with guitars. To have the Chicago horn section...Robert and I were communicating over the past few months, and I was thinking about Robert singing a verse on "Keep on Loving You." The more you think about it, the more you come up with ideas. There's so many possibilities because of the fact that the bands are so different. It really gives us both a chance to get outside of our comfort zone.
What are some of the mobile apps that you guys are using on the road?
Lee (Chicago): We're using Pro Tools for our recordings on the road. In fact we have a whole rig, and we have recorded our entire album this last year using it. We've recorded in hotel rooms, conference rooms, ballrooms, the bus, on stage, anywhere you can record. We've put together the new album on it. You can catch clips of the album on chicagotheband.com.
Robert (Chicago): Also on YouTube.
Kevin (REO Speedwagon): I found a really cool app called Songwriter's Pad, and it really helps when you're writing songs, especially on the road. Sometimes you get an idea, like I'll wake up in the middle of the night with some melody or some lyric idea, and I've just got my cell phone next to bed. You sing into this thing to remember an idea, and it's also got a thing where when you're writing lyrics, you can move verses and bridges around and stuff like that. It's just kind of a cool little songwriting tool. There's so many apps that have come out that really help you, if you choose to use them, in songwriting and in recording. It's pretty amazing.
REO Speedwagon and Chicago have graced our radio stations and our stages for nearly five decades now. A lot has changed over the years in the industry and the economy as well. How have those changes impacted your bands?
Kevin (REO Speedwagon): I think the biggest change that I've noticed is that the music business is nothing like it used to be. For bands like us, that have been fortunate enough to build up this repertoire of hits that both bands have, we're now at a point in our careers where we can really just get back to how things were when we first started, before we had the pressure of recording contracts, and actually trying to maintain the integrity of the music that you write, and at the same time create hit records, which is what the record companies demand. Now we can write songs with total freedom. We don't think about airplay and hits. It's really just about being back to how we were when we were kids: just writing music and having fun. That's what we're doing. We're writing songs at sound checks, and just compiling new songs. We can release them any way we want to. I think it's great that Chicago is making a new record, and I look forward to doing the same thing. It just sounds like fun to me.
Lee (Chicago): There's sort of a garage band way of looking at recording again, where we feel like we're starting over. Probably the most difficult thing to figure out is how to get the music out to the most people.
What advice would you give to new artists?
Kevin (REO Speedwagon): Practicing is definitely part of it. You've got to be able to play the instrument. If you expect people to come and spend their money to see you play, you've got to know what you're doing to a certain degree. I think that everybody wants to be a rock star, everybody wants to have that part of it, but I think it's more about your need to express yourself. I know for myself that making music, writing songs, performing -- it's like breathing, it's like water, I have to have it. There was never a plan for me; there was never another alternative for me.
I always tell young people that you're going to have people who are going to tell you that you suck 100 times, until the 101st person who gets what you're trying to do. You're going to have to be willing to put up with a lack of encouragement, and you have to believe in yourself so strongly that you can withstand it.
I'll tell just a quick anecdote: I was in Clive Davis' office. I went in with my little demo tape, and I sat in his office and played him the tape, and he turned it down. He said, "This just isn't me; I don't hear this." That would have been enough to make a lot of people give up. I swear, I walked out of the meeting, and in my mind, there was something wrong with his tape machine. It turns out that on that tape were two songs that became No. 1 records: "Can't Fight This Feeling" and "Time for Me to Cry." You can't give up, and you've just got to keep believing in yourselves.
Lee (Chicago): You have to come to grips with making mistakes and failing. Being able to get back up and [say], "You know what? I'm going to do it better this time." Figure out that most people hadn't heard that mistake. They hear the overall sound of the song and the intent and the feeling that you're putting out there. That's what people connect with. You have to get by the personal, "That wasn't good enough" stuff and just keep going.
Robert: (Chicago) I agree with everything that I've heard so far. A couple of thoughts came to mind for me. I think a lot of young musicians get into it for what they perceive the result will be, whether monetary or fame or glory. All of which are fine if they happen, but that's really not the reason most musicians spend their lives learning their instrument and listening and exploring music. Music has got sort of an infinite end line. The more you do it, the more you realize you don't know, which leads to my second point. A really important component to being a musician is to be able to listen: Be able to listen to the other players in your band, be able to listen to music in general. There's music now that we have access to on the Web from every corner of the world, every culture in the world. It's really important that we remember that music is a communication. Listening to music, and being willing to use music on a personal basis for communicating to other people, is really what we're doing.
Recording technology has advanced tremendously since your bands first formed. What are the pros and cons of digital?
Lee (Chicago): A lot of the hardware that is used to create the sounds in Muscle Shoals, LA, and Paris, wherever the studio might be, and Abbey Road, all of those hardware items are now called plug-ins; they're digital plug-ins. The companies that made those hardware pieces have signed off on the plug-ins. When you start using them, you can create sounds, you can have the API board, the API mic, and create that sound anywhere that you want in the world, in your hotel room. All of this stuff is available and out there ready for purchase and use. Every musician is on the same playing field now.
Robert (Chicago): I don't think you lose anything in terms of the emotional content; it's just a matter of how you capture it.
Kevin (REO Speedwagon): For younger bands, they're at a different place in their career. For them, they've never experienced going into a studio like Muscle Shoals, or going into a studio like the Record Plant in LA, like we all have. For them, to walk in and feel the vibe in that room and get inspired by it, that can be a really important part of the growth of a band, to bring them together and to feel those vibes. There's a place for that in the world. I think those studios are really important, and I hope that they stay in business and continue to prosper. But at the same time, we've been there, we've experienced those things. They were all great experiences that got us where we are. Nowadays, with us, and I'm sure with Chicago, we've got band members living all over the country. For our last record, [bassist] Bruce Hall's dad plays the clarinet. Bruce was able to take his dad into a studio in Florida, and we've sent the files for the song that we wanted him to play on over the Internet. Bruce went in, his dad, who was in failing health, played this clarinet part, sent the file back, we put it into the song, and it was beautiful. His dad passed away about two weeks later. This was an amazing thing for Bruce and for his family to have his father play this wonderful clarinet solo on this one song of ours. It could never have happened any other way except with this new technology. It's a matter of how you use the technology and capture the vibe.
Lee (Chicago): When we started playing, we lived in the same house in 1968 when we came out to California. For a year, year and a half, maybe two years, we lived together and rehearsed every day. We really honed the craft. Besides playing in the clubs, just rehearsing every day and working on stuff was extremely rewarding for us.
Robert (Chicago): It's what made the sound.
