Michael Landau — Liquid Quartet and Lockdown

JLTT: Hello Mr Michael Landau how are you doing?

ML: We are doing okay staying at home and I’m with my wife.

Yes, it is a very weird time at the moment. Where are you now?

I’m currently at home in Los Angeles.

One of the first important decisions, when you want to make a live record, is where do we want to do it. What was it about this particular venue The Baked Potato Jazz Club for you?

Well, it is in Los Angeles and we play there a lot so it is kind of another home for me. I don’t usually like playing dry rooms but this room really works. The tiny stage is in the centre of the room and the audience surrounds you from both sides. In addition, the sound system surrounds the band as well, it’ like you’re inside the P.A., the close proximity of everything gives the effect of everyone wearing headphones but together in the same room.

Opener ‘Can’t Buy My Way Home’ has a real funky bassline and swinging drum sound. What was the inspiration for that track?

‘Can’t Buy My Way Home’ is a song from one of the bands I was in called Burning Water which I was in with David Frazee who played guitar and vocals on this album and it is a cool track to start the evening with. The band consisted of Abe Laboriel Jr on drums and Jimmy Johnson on bass as alongside David and me.

‘Well Let’s Just See’ has a really fluid guitar tone. What guitar were you using?

That is a brand new song that we did for those sets.

‘Greedy Life’ reminds me a bit of Robert Cray specifically the track ‘Sittin’ On Top of The World’ but it seemed like you just needed to channel your anger surrounding corporate America.

I can see what you mean about the Robert Cray thing in terms of the verses. That song was from a band I was in called Renegade Creation which I formed with the guitarist Robben Ford. It is quite an angry song but that stuff is still going on today.

Exactly. If you told me that it was one of the new songs I would have believed. ‘Killing Time’ sounded like a Crosby, Stills and Nash track.

Thank you very much I really like how that song came out.

On ‘Bad Friend’ it has this get up and go approach and it sounds like it has hints of ‘Voodoo Chile’ I don’t know if that was intentional or not?

Voodoo Chile?

Yeah at times I thought “Oh he’s gonna go into Voodoo Chile” and then you didn’t and then I thought “Oh he’s gonna go into now!”

(Laughs) Yeah. I have this effect called a Univibe and that’s very kind of Hendrixy and Voodoo Chile I guess. I’ll take that as a severe compliment, sir!

Thank you very much! ‘Can’t Walk Away From It Now’ when I heard the lyrics of this song along with the other tracks, I feel that overall there was a theme of confliction. Like there’s an individual and they are really conflicted about what they want to do next. Would that be a fair kind of statement?

Okay. That’s the other new tune on the record. Those are all David’s (Frazee) lyrics and I really like the lyrics of that one. I don’t know if it’s confliction but I just like the sentiment of the tune is nice.

On ‘Renegade Destruction’ lyrically it really makes you think. Quite a lot like ‘Greedy Life’ in a lot of ways. It kind of makes you stand up and think about what’s happened in the past and what is still going on now. I don’t know if you can see where I am going with that?

Yeah, that makes sense. That was from the same record that I made with Robben (Ford) ten years ago and ‘Greedy Life’ is on that same record. So yeah we had a bit of a political and environmental thing back then. That does fit in with ‘Greedy Life’ absolutely and it still goes on today. We will keep playing it.

There is a great song by the American band that my Dad quite liked called Spirit.

Spirit? Oh yeah from the Sixties?

Yes exactly from the Sixties. There was a big lawsuit with Led Zeppelin because there were issues with one of Spirit’s songs called ‘Taurus’ and a Led Zeppelin track.

Oh yes, I remember this! Spirit was big in the US.

Well, they have a great song called ‘Nature’s Way’ and I don’t know if you have ever heard that before?

No, I haven’t I will revisit that.

It is from that time but it is essentially talking about the environment and global warming before we even heard the term.

Back then though.

It has this great line where it goes “Its nature’s way of telling you something’s wrong. It’s nature way of telling you in a song.”

Oh, man!

You play it back now in 2020 and it is still as important, significant and relevant today as it was back then. Back then global warming wasn’t even on people’s radar but it felt very Nostradamus-y!

Absolutely! I mean people were talking about nature back then but it definitely sounds ahead of its time.

I definitely recommend that if you like Spirit and it is not one you are overly familiar with you might get it.

Yes, definitely I’m writing all this down! You had a hip Dad! He’s not around anymore?

No, he passed away in February this year.

I’m so very sorry. But he’s here in spirit I truly believe that.

Thank you I really appreciate that. ‘One Tear Away’ very psychedelic floaty sound. I’m getting The Doors vibe. I like it as it is really out there.

The Doors definitely that’s a good one for me. That’s another track that I had cut with my brother and we had it laying around for a little bit. I played it for David (Frazee) and he is just such a super creative melody maker and lyric writer. I just gave him the track which in itself has a nice vibe a slow dirge but he turned it into a whole complete thing and I was really impressed with it. It had such a nice beautiful creepy feeling about it.

On the last couple of tracks, you have one called ‘Tunnel 88’ and I wanted to ask you is Tunnel 88 a real place?

It is not a real place. But we were in Hong Kong playing a couple of shows and we went out as the promoter took us out to eat and these crazy two girls tagged along as they knew him. They were just really drunk and they were drinking this stuff called Tunnel 88 and I have always seen it over there. I wrote that one down and it seemed like the right tune to use it for. It is named after booze!

I wasn’t expecting that but I like it. You ended with the track ‘Dust Bowl’ which I thought was a nice pleasant way to round off the evening. Was it planned to end it with instrumentals or was it just going that way?

We do that sometimes and I think that was then end of the first set as we did two sets that night. Sometimes we like to end the show with a quieter thing instead of a rager. I have been playing that song for two or three years no but it has never been recorded on record just versions on YouTube. It came out really nice and everyone just gels together.

Here’s a question for you – What makes Mr Michael Landau happy and what makes you angry?

(Laughs) Playing guitar makes me happy, recording, eating good food and a tasty meal. What makes me angry is arrogance and narcissistic people. Stuff like that!

It is really quite funny actually because when I asked that question to Mr Richard Marx he gave the exact same answer!

Oh s***! Richard Marx! Wow!

I interviewed Richard last year in Hyde Park, London he was on the bill with Barbara Streisand who was headlining. 

We have the same manager.  He’s a nice fellow, I know Richard.

He’s lovely, isn’t he? In doing some reading on yourself, I was looking at your session work and I was like “I’ve got a lot of albums with you on!”

That’s funny. There was a lot of recording going on in the Eighties and Nineties for me at least. I was very fortunate to be working with a lot of people and it is fun to look back on that.

Then I look and you were on Michael Buble records as well!

Do you quite like pop music then?

I have quite a varied taste really. The second concert I ever went to I was eight years old and it was James Brown at the Hammersmith Odeon in London as it was known then. I ran down the front and James Brown got his guitarists together and said “Right, we gotta stop the show for a minute. We lost a brother not so long ago and we’ve gotta do a tribute!” He brought the guitarists forward and they did ‘Night Time Is The Right Time’ because Ray Charles had just died.

Oh, man!

It ended up being James Brown’s last UK concerts because he then passed away soon after.

I was gonna say it was not that long after that he passed. Was your Dad a Pretenders fan?

Yeah, he quite liked them. We saw them in Oxford over here.

Their guitarist is one of my favourites too James Honeyman-Scott who died tragically way too young. I love that band.

Whenever you are in London we should meet up for a drink.

For a while, I was going there once every year to Ronnie Scotts.

I absolutely love Ronnie Scotts! Was that for your own gigs at Ronnies?

It is a great club. No, I almost had a couple of nights there with my band but I played there several times there with the Steve Gadd Band.

I’m aware of Steve.

Kind of a fusion instrumental band and we loved it. That’s where I met Ian Thomas and started playing with him.

When I first went there it was to see Seth MacFarlane the creator of Family Guy who had a full band performing swing music. I’d never been there before and he brought on Emilia Clark from the television show Game of Thrones and they did this beautiful duet together. So I was able to meet them both afterwards and then this man was behind me and it was Stephen Fry!

Oh wow!

I had a cocktail as well and it was an Espresso Martini and the bartender said to me “You always serve it with three coffee beans no more, no less.” I go “Why’s that then?” He replied, “One means happiness, one means luck and one means joy so they each have a significant meaning.”

(Laughs) I wonder if that works for olives too?

When you are next over we will go to Ronnies and get some martinis how does that sound?

Absolutely I would love that!

Thank you very much for doing this and for your time. It is a really great album and you were able to do what you wanted to do with it and that’s come through really clearly.

Thank you Glenn I really appreciate it. Great to speak with you.

Michael Landau’s new live album ‘Liquid Quartet Live’ is out now on The Players Club/Mascot Label Group. For more information visit www.mikelandau.com

(Many Thanks to Mascot Label Group UK Office and Michael Landau for this interview)