Bill Wadhams from Animotion

Welcome to living a vocal life where I interview singers who have succeeded in creating a life in music. You'll hear from vocal offs of all genres in different stages of their careers, including singers who've been on the billboard charts and those who are teaching the next generation. What do they have in common? They're all performers with amazing stories to tell and experiences to share in our conversations.

You'll learn what inspired them to become a singer, the kinds of challenges they've encountered and how they've overcome them. I'll also share what I've learned on my own journey as a singer and educator. Practical tools and insights that will help you to live your best, most authentic vocal life. Welcome to another episode of living a vocal life.

My guest today is bill Wadhams, one of the lead singers from the eighties synth pop band and emotion, whose song obsession landed in the top 10 in countries around the world in 1984 I've known bill for years, but recently we've had a chance to get to know each other better on a tour. He's dubbed the genius insanity tour, otherwise known as last eighties in 2018 alone, our bands played 22 cities together in three months as he puts it. The genius part is getting all the bands together.

The insanity part is what happens when all the bands get together. Bill is a multi talented artist. Since his MTV days, his life has been a series of creative projects from his work as a songwriter to stints as a graphic designer with companies like Nike and city group. His latest foray is into the world of musical theater where he's found a home both as a singer and creator, whether he's performing, composing, or telling a great story. Bill is a natural.

Thanks for joining me on the podcast today, my friend.

Um, this was probably in 1962, something like that. My mother was singing lead on lemon tree. They re pretty N the lemon flowers. Sweet. You know, it's like Oh my God. Yes. Well we kind of have that in common actually. Cause my mom and dad sang and we sang in the car all the time. You know, harmony parts and stuff. Yeah. Yeah. What was the part that you sing? Did you sing lead or did you sing harmony? Oh, I sang harmony.

I actually liked harmony and my mom would usually take the melody and my dad was also kind of taking the melody, maybe an octave down and a little off pitch. But what he lacked in pitch, he made up for an enthusiasm. That's great. You've got to have the enthusiasm in there too . Yeah. Well did you feel like you were a natural singer or did you have to develop your voice? That's a good question.

When I was in something like second grade, my second grade teacher, mrs Sauer was teaching us to sing this land is your land. And when it came around to this part from the Redwood four is to the Gulf stream water. Whoa. You know, I just yelled at Whoa and got pretty high up too. And uh , she said, Billy was that you? And I said yes was a sour. And she goes, whenever we get to that point in the song, you sing that again.

Okay. And she really encouraged me throughout my entire elementary school career up until when I was in seventh grade. She was having me direct the class singing, consider yourself, you know, I was up in front of him conducting. So she really made a huge difference in how I thought about myself as a singer. Teachers can make all the difference. Right, absolutely. Wow, that's incredible. And great to have that kind of encouragement as a young person. Yeah. Everybody remembers their first gig.

Yeah. I read that yours was in Rochester, New York at Eddie's chop house . What do you remember about that gig? I remember that , uh, I was in eighth grade and some kids in my class were forming a band. They knew that I played guitar. One of the founders of the band, he owned the PA address. So he was the lead singer and he had an uncle or a father that owned a restaurant called Eddie's Chophouse , which was a manly place for manly man with a manly, you know.

So our first gig was at Eddie's Chophouse in kind of a downstairs room, kind of off the main floor. And I remember that we played Gloria, G, L O R I a glow . Yah . And then we tried to play last train to Clarksville, but it was too complicated, too many chords . So we had a meeting in the bathroom. What are we going to do? Let's play Gloria again. Okay. We came out and play Gloria and that's all I remember about that gig. It's a great memory though.

I mean, when in doubt, you know, just repeat to what you know . Yeah. Do what know. I love that. So did you know from an early age that you wanted to be an artist of some kind of musician? A singer?

Yeah, actually I wanted to go to the Berkeley school of music and I was actually taking guitar lessons from an instructor from the Berkeley school of music who was back home during the summer months, and he was helping me prepare myself to go to the Berkeley school of music. But my parents, they thought it was a new and not very credible school. So they didn't want me to go to it.

They would tell you if they were sitting here that it's their one only regret with me and raising me was that they did not support me going to the Berkeley school of music. But as I look back , um, you know how things go. If I had gone to the Berkeley school of music, I would not have had a hit with an emotion. I'm sure that I would have gone somewhere else and ended up somewhere else. So instead of going to the Berkeley school of music, I went to community college for a couple semesters.

Then I dropped out and drove the school bus for a year. I went back to school for another couple of semesters before I went to Los Angeles. So it's interesting how life's twists and turns can take you in a totally different direction of what looks like, you know, the biggest bummer when it happens, which I bet that felt huge to you. Not being able to go to Berkeley. Yeah . Turned out to be the best thing ever. So how did you end up in LA and what's the origin story of an emotion?

How did you come to be in that band? Okay . Um, I moved to LA in 1979. I had a one year old child and wife. And uh , when I got there, I started painting houses, painting houses was my day job. I ended up having my own company and everyone in the crew was a musician. What was the name of the company? Uh, I think I called it chaps painting company. I wanted it to sound like an old English chaps bill Wadhams painter, you know, champs . I don't know what that means. Like we're good old chaps.

You know , we had funny little, these funny little white caps that to me look kind of, I don't know, English or something old school. So we're like, hello, you would like some chaps to paint your house. That's hilarious. But you're all musicians in this. We're all musicians. Dwayne shock went on to play with Glenn Fry and one of our other painters, Rick Nayer went on to produce a lot of people and did some recording with Prince .

Another guy who was my main man painter was David Arkenstone and he is a huge new age, new age, not new wave, new age start named Arkenstone, you know? Yeah. Wow. So all of these guys got their start in your painting company. Well, all of us were struggling and trying to make our way in the music business and find our place in it while we were painting houses. So instead of being an actor working in a restaurant, you were a musician working in a painting company that you owned.

I mean, this is interesting to me because it seems like from the very beginning you've been very entrepreneurial. I guess so, yeah, I am. And how I got to an emotion. I was in a coffee shop wanting another job, a different job, and I saw an ad that said wanted someone to work in a recording studio. Honestly, it was as simple as that and there was an address. I don't think there was a phone number. There might've been a phone number, but anyway, you're supposed to go down there to the studio.

It was on the corner of sunset and LA Sienna got in an old building where the doors used to rehearse. It was actually a doors rehearsal place and it had a picture of an upside down tuba player on the wall of the building that looked like something from Peter max or yellow submarine, real wacky painting for the upside down studio. And I walked in and to make a long story short, I met someone there who introduced me to someone else who introduced me to someone else who introduced me to Astrid.

So it really, if I hadn't have walked in that door, I wouldn't have met an engineer who introduced me to another engineer who had a studio. And in this studio they were teaching engineering and they used me as a Guinea pig band. So in other words, they would record me while they were teaching their students.

I'd actually seen that band play. And , um, I thought they're cool and I , I liked Astrid and I thought she was very dramatic and , uh, theatrical on stage. And so I thought, okay, these guys, they have a manager, they had a music lawyer. They were willing to invest money in recording my songs with this new band. I'd been pursuing my own career sort of as a solo artist.

I changed my name from bill Wadhams to Billy Bond and I had the Billy Bond band, but I wasn't getting any attention from record companies. As soon as I started working with this group with Astrid, we were signed to a record deal in less than a year, which is kind of miraculous, which is kind of unusual. But even though you mentioned 1984, we did record our album in 1984 and it was actually released, but it kind of languished. You put out a record.

It kind of didn't do anything for nine months or so until , um , until one of the biggest stations in Los Angeles picked it up after throwing us into a battle of the unknown bands. So they played obsession against some other unknown bands and we won that little battle of the bands five nights in a row. So they added it to their playlist.

Another kind of moment that again, if that hadn't happened, right, everything else that followed it wouldn't have happened and it must have had that song must have had a special something because , um, well because of one, but it just, you know, there's some music that just kind of pulls people in right away. And it's not like you guys paid to play, you know, and you didn't pay to get it on the radio station. You were just in this battle of bands and it actually connected with an audience.

And then once it started to go into the top 10 on that station, she made sure that stations around the country took note of this song that had risen up in one of the biggest markets in the country. So that's how it went from LA to Miami, to Seattle, to New York city to, you know, London. It went on from there. But a lot of times it takes someone saying, Hey, did you hear this? Have you seen this? You know, who knew , who knows how to work it and has the relationships? Absolutely.

To get people to listen to it. Yeah. So it's kind of miraculous though, that you had a record deal within a year after you and Astrid joined forces. You know, I'll add one little bit to that is that we were lucky that an ANR man named Russ Reagan came down to see us in our rehearsal studio and that's how he decided to sign us. He'd worked with Neil diamond, the beach boys signed Elton John signed kiss.

I mean, he's a legend in the business and an easygoing guy and he comes down to our rehearsal studio. We played four songs and he said, all right guys, gather round , have a seat. He said, look, here's what I'm thinking. She sings. He sings. Could be like a Fleetwood Mac for the 80s wow. What do you think? You know, and it was based on just, I think I could sell this as a Fleetwood Mac for the 80s and that was that. Wow. Yeah. That's some good company.

So you'd go to this studio, you get introduced to Astrid, you do this battle of the bands thing. The bright people are there to help you get a record deal. What happens between the time that the record comes out and it's just kind of languishing. You went, you went back to painting, then you , uh , once the record was very successful.

I was on entertainment tonight being interviewed and I told a story about how I was painting a house after the record had come out and our video was not on MTV, but it was being played by a local video program called video one. And uh , and this was in Los Angeles and um, Richard blade, who we work with even today. And he was with KRLQ, he was a creator of this video program. And so I'm painting a house and I heard obsession coming from the TV in the living room of the house.

I was painting and I'd never seen it on TV. And I knocked on the door. I said, excuse me, do you mind if I come in to your living room? I think I'm on TV. And she says to me, if you're on TV, what are you doing? Painting my house. And I, I taught , yeah . And I told that story on entertainment tonight. And the funny thing is that after that people would stop me in the grocery store and say, Hey, you're that house painter who sings.

They knew, they didn't even know the name of the song or the band. They just knew you're that house greener , that sang that song. It became a hit and you were still pin . You know,

And our first single called I engineer was climbing the charts just the same way that obsession was like entered at like 90, went to 80, went to 70 and then disappeared. And we asked the record company what happened. They said, we are boycotting independent promotion and we really don't have the internal resources to get your record every place it needs to be. So it's falling off. And uh, that was kind of that we , we put out one other single and a video.

MTV was giving us a world premier status. They were really pushing us, but the record company just didn't have the resources to get us into radio and they were at the time having to make a choice of who are we going to prioritize with the resources we have. And um ,

And you go back into the pool of, you know, the endless pool of , of things that people aren't going to really pay attention to. In other words, it's who you know, and what independent promoters had relationships.

So an independent promotion company, a network, it might be a half a dozen guys that travel around the country and they, they have buddies at the radio station or they've developed a relationship with people at the radio station and they just advocate they're artists and they come into the radio station, they say, Hey man, do me a favor and play this new record. Um, I'll make it worth your while. And so there's different ways to make it worth your while. Um, there's books about this stuff.

Yes, there is. There's a great book that we read

However, when we released our second single, we were told, you know, now you gotta play the game and , uh, and , and we're back. These independent promotion people are back, right ? So, and by the way, they ended up , um, on that a list of money that you have to repay the record company for. You know, like all the hamburgers you eat during the recording session and the independent promotion, the um , videos that you make are all recoupable by the record company.

So yeah, it's interesting, but you know what's interesting to me about this too is that without the money part, even it is all about relationships. And when people ask me, you know, what, what's the most important thing that you learned through this process? That's the thing I would say, you know, and so it's not just relationships with business people, but it's also relationships with your bandmates .

You know, like when you finally find people that you can make music with, that you really are about the same kinds of things in terms of what you value and why you're doing it and all of those things. It's a miracle. It's like finding somebody to get married to except there's like four or five of them. And so , um, speaking of which , uh, people always thought that you and Astrid had a thing going on, but you didn't.

In fact , um, as far as relationships go, you've had a really interesting relationship with her over the years. Tell me about it.

We had different tastes in music and fashion. So we were, we're kind of at odds and we were at odds throughout our career in the 80s. And um, you know, it took me a couple decades to look back and realize that it was our differences in some respects that made us interesting.

And now when we're performing, we allow each other just to whatever she wants to wear, whatever she wants to say, sing whatever is fine with me because she also grants me the gift of just whatever I want to bring to the stage. You know, as long as I'm not doing something that in some way there's a, you know, abrasive or aggressive or I mean we will play a cat and mouse game on stage. We will just allow each other to be who we are. But back in the day it wasn't that comfortable.

And part of the reason was is because when you're having this rush of success, everybody is starting to think, Oh my gosh, how are we going to keep this going? And then you look over and you think, my band mate is screwing this thing up, right ? She's going to take us down the wrong alley or something. She wants to be more like , um, the cure and the Smiths. I want to be more like the police, you know.

And so , um , there was this going on at a certain point when we had had , uh , an unsuccessful second album. We're looking at the third it was make or break it and we got new hard-ass managers and the managers said, you guys need to replace Astrid. And we have someone in mind. That's why the band broke up because new managers came in and said, this is what we think you need to do.

And so , um, the guitarist , the keyboard player and myself, we walked into Astro dinner, boyfriend, the bass player and said, we are breaking up the band and we're taking the name. And it was, you know, it was a cool, we took, we took over the band , we bumped them out. Um, when we got back to the manager's office, we found out that they actually had another singer in mind.

Wow. And it was Cynthia Rhodes and Cynthia just happened to be the girlfriend of someone they were managing named Richard Marx . And because of tensions within the band at the time, I was open to replacing Astrid. I didn't know that they were going to push synthy on us.

So it was, it was really disorienting and it was kind of um, you know , uh, looking back, one thing I would just throw in as a statement of how to be in a band is like stick with your mates, stick with the people within the band because everybody on the outside is going to try to tear you apart or remake you and , and if you've got something that's working, try to keep working with what's working with your mates. In our case, we tried band build the thing.

Everybody on the guitar is going to try to tear you down and people are player . Greg and I, we thought we had an idea, something we wanted to do. The management company had a different idea of what's working. I went along with it for a while. I liked Cynthia. I recorded with Cynthia, she's a lovely person. But when we got down to choosing songs, we had a new ANR guy and he wasn't accepting the songs I was writing. Um, he wanted to remake an emotion.

He said he wanted us to be more like heart and Starship . And if you knew anything about heart and Starship in the 80s they were giving up their original sound in favor of having their songs written by Hollywood songwriters. And matter of fact, Starship came out with a song we built this city on rock and roll. Rolling stone readers called it the worst song of the 80s. Wow. I just saw that the other day.

But the thing is, is that we built this city was um, lyrics were by Bernie Taupin who wrote the lyrics for our second album. First single I engineer again the record company saying, well, we think this song is better than anything you have in your playlist written by bill or whoever. So we're going to lead with this single, this is a story that I keep hearing over and over again, right ?

And there are so many factors from the musicianship and the band to the songs, of course, to your management and your manager's ability to have, you know , a good relationship with the record company. And it is easy to look around at your bandmates and go, Oh, you must be the problem. You know? And then, yeah, bands break up because of musical differences, personalities that rub each other the wrong way or money.

And so if you were talking to someone who is putting together a band for the very first time, what would you tell them about how to pick musicians? How to structure the band, how to keep band politics from interfering with the creative process. You know, you just really have to trust your own instinct that you're in the right place with the right people.

I've been working here in Portland for a couple of years with someone named Paul TruBid chick and Paul and [inaudible] are so musically compatible and he is also very supportive of what I write. I'm also, I try to be supportive of what he writes. If I make a mistake and I drop a verse or something when we're performing, he will immediately correct his direction. It'll be right there with me. You just need to find allies. You need to find people that you think are compatible musically.

If you can possibly find people that you think are even better than you musically, that's great. It's like, you know this old saying of like , if you want to learn how to play tennis, find someone who plays better than you and just up your game. That's great advice.

You know , I would just say find people who are very good and who have something unique that you don't have and then try to find people that you can trust and then once things start moving, you have to trust your gut and trust your bandmates and try to define what you're doing and where you're going as best you can at all times and then go forward being as true to yourselves as you can.

Cisco, [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible]

It's taken me from smokey clubs to packed arenas, from performing in obscurity to making hit records. I've spent years in the trenches as a performer and teacher working with students of all levels of experience each with their own dreams and goals. This has given me a front row seat to the kinds of struggles that singers like you wrestle with every day at every stage of your career. Becoming a singer is the course I would have loved to have had when I started my path.

It's also the course I wish I'd had to give my students during the 20 years I taught in my private studio. Whether you're just getting started or could use some guidance on your journey, becoming a singer will prepare you to step out on stage with confidence and purpose. If you're being called to make a life in music, head to my website at Valerie day , sings.com to find out more. And now back to the interview with the incomparable bill.

Wadhams if you could go back in time and give your younger self some advice on how to work best with Astrid, what would you say to him?

She says, this is the kind of lyric that, you know, this is the kind of song that Charles and I, her boyfriend lichen and I remember the lyric was, and if a double Decker boss runs all right over us, you know, and I'm like, what the hell? You know, so, but I didn't listen to enough of the Smiths . There was a lot of great stuff with the Smiths and , and also with the cure. And , um, and I think that if instead of going, yeah, but that's not my bag , you know, that's not an end.

You know what Astros , I'm the writer of the band. I'm the writer of the band. And so, you know, go with me on this. I was really massive fan of Peter Gabriel in what he was doing with the solo album. I think a lot of people were. So I , yeah, I would just say to my younger self, you know what, right around the time I first met an emotion, I was thinking about leaving the band. It wasn't really my jam and I, and every time I came to a rehearsal to say I'm gonna quit, something would happen.

Like they'd bought a used amp for me, a used guitar, and I was in between amps. And here they gave me a wonderful amp. And so I throw cam , not quitting today, you know, and then another day would come and I stuck with it. But at a certain point I think you have to take a look and go, okay, there's a good reason to stick with this. I don't know what it is, but my gut is telling me. And well, in the case of an emotion, there were things happening.

We were getting calls, you know, from a producer or from a record company or something. And that had not been happening with my own band, partially because I had no contacts, you know, zero. I had debt was just blip playing at the Troubadour and playing at Madame Wong's . But , um, so now I was in the world of managers and lawyers and things like that. And things started to click.

And I think that the best advice I could give to my young person who was launching this thing with an emotion, I'd say, just close ranks with a band. You've got a good band. Just tighten up and work with everybody to , uh, to do the best job you can. That's some hard won advice. And the great thing about it is that you guys have a great relationship. Now talk about the band getting back together. How did that happen? Well, we had had a bloody breakup, right? The coup .

And then a 14 or 15 years went by and I contacted astrogen Charles to say, Hey, would you like to just get together and uh , have a beer glass of wine? And Tom talk, I really had no agenda in mind, but um, they said yes. And we went and we sat down. And what really helped was that they had formed a couple bands after an emotion. And I was the leader of the band musically speaking in an emotion.

They had agreed that I would be the musical director because at first I was the only writer in the band. And early on we would have some conflicts about how this song should be realized. And I said, look guys, I'm only going to be in this band if I can. If I'm bringing in my own songs, you have to go along with me the way I want them played. You know, I mean, I'm not going to tell you how to play every note, but um , I'm the musical director.

So along the way I want it to fire the drummer because the drummer, I wanted a different drummer. I wanted a better drummer. In my mind, that's what we needed to make the songs what they needed to be. So we cut to 14 years, 15 years later, I'm sending with Astrid and Charles and they're saying, we finally understand what you were going through and we were giving you such a hard time.

Now we know when we have a vision and we started with it created, they created their own band and the people would come in and then they found that they were getting the same kind of friction from their bandmates that they were giving me in an emotion. So they forgave me. They, they, they understood , uh , why , you know, I might've been treating them poorly and they, I don't know that enough water had been under the bridge. They're like, wow, we had a good time together.

We had some great times together and we kind of understand why you were, you know , crazy about certain things or why this or that happened. And then we just agreed that if an opportunity came up that we would consider playing together again. And then out of the blue an opportunity came up and then you started playing together and you still are, you're still doing these shows, which is , um, you know, it's been really fun

When I was younger I felt like, yeah, we were lucky, but I still had so much to prove and I don't carry that kind of, I have to prove myself chip anymore, which is such a wonderful thing. I can just relax a little bit more and have fun and appreciate the moment and the audience and you know, the other people on stage and just , um, it feels like a high school reunion where everybody's dropped the stuff, all the stuff that they carried around and, and just are glad to be alive .

We spend a lot of time thinking about how we can do this, especially getting up doing a few songs, getting you know all that.

Yeah. So you got back together, you've been playing again for what now? 14 ,

I mean sometimes you know, it just, we would get down the road and then something would pull the plug on it. W w either one of us or two of us or just energy or it's somebody would go somewhere, you know, it just, it's tough to get everybody together, right . A lot of false starts. And then a little label in London called invisible hands asked us to make a new record. They're like, you guys make a new record. We will put it out. And they gave us a budget and I'm TNO.

I called up my original guitarist Don , who has been playing with rod Stewart for the last 15 or 20 years now and he's been with rod Stewart this whole time traveling around the world every year. I mean if you look at rod Stewart schedule, it's absurd how keep going . He just had a number one record in the UK. He has, it's, it's, it's phenomenal and it's a very professional band.

I told him, I said, we have a record deal and he said we should have rod Stewart's musical director, Chuck Qantas produced the album. So Chuck has had a studio in Los Angeles. And they said, okay, well where are the songs coming from? And I sent them some demos that I'd had or things that are an emotion I had recorded. What we ended up doing was rod Stewart was in residence at Caesar's palace.

So I flew to Las Vegas and I spent some days with the producer Chuck, who's also a keyboard player and with Dawn on guitar. And we wrote together and we recorded in a hotel room at Caesars and we came up with like, I don't know , in four days we came away with most of an album. Wow . That's kind of different than the old day. Yeah . Oh yeah. It was great. And then we went back to Chuck studio in Los Angeles. Astrid came down and she, she had written some songs. She submitted some things.

We encouraged her to complete those songs. She had some songs on the record and uh , our original keyboard player, Greg, came in and played once we had a budget and a record company saying, let's get this going. We pulled it together and put it out , um, in January, 2017. So what would you say was your biggest takeaway from making a record?

Um , now compared to years ago, I was very fortunate to have a producer who was really skillful with me in the singing in the recording booth especially, and having everybody in the band being very supportive of the words that I wanted to bring to it, the voice that I wanted to bring to it. I just felt very supported as an artist. What a lovely feeling. I feel like good producers. Yeah. Are like good doctors that have great bedside manner, you know? Right.

They like know how to bring out the best in you. And not everyone does. I was going to just give an example of, we were working on the record and usually almost all of the background music was done by the time I'm singing the vocal. And so I'm hearing that record. It's exciting. And the producer would say, okay, just go at it any way you want. So I'd come in and I do what I think is like, I'm going at this song, bam. And then he says, all right , I want you to take a deep breath.

The next time you sing it, I want you to have more air. I want you to breathe. I want you to get your air in your lungs before you sing each line or whatever. Not every single line, but he just essentially just said to me, put more air in your voice and that something real subtle like that made the difference. Um, and you know, and then, and then I would go, okay I'd sing and then he'd say, okay your singing.

It sounds like you're a little bit angry as you're singing this just soften for me on this next take. Things like that.

But to me it's some skillsets that I learned way back when some of these graphic programs first started showing up in the 80s with free hand and you know, this is even before Adobe stuff came out as so along the way, I've just been really lucky to get jobs that were kind of fun and creative and doing mostly magazine ads, working on graphics for some television commercials, things like that. And eventually websites. And does your graphics work support your musician life?

A lot of people listening are thinking that they haven't made it in music unless they're working full time in music. You know, you and I both did music full time for a bit, you know, for a while or a few years or something. For me, when I left an emotion in the 80s I got a job at NBC TV and Burbank and I was having such a good time.

I hardly could be bothered to try to get back into the music business, which was full of , for me at the time, the music business was like bunch of pirates just treating each other badly. And next thing you know, I'm a working at NBC and I'm cruising around smoking a joint with the vice president of NBC at lunchtime, you know, and then just going back and working on ads for the golden girls while I'm buzzing, you know, like it was so much fun. Um, Oh, fun.

That sounds way more fun than the music business. And uh, so along the way, graphic design has paid my bills for years and years, but I think that having your basic needs taken care of whatever your job is, as long as it's , in my case, it's never stressed me out or rung me out so much that I couldn't go play music in the evening, you know, or take a three day weekend and go travel with the band or something. Um, take a vacation and go travel the band or go somewhere. Play with some musicians.

I've always been able to keep up my being a musician while I'm working my day job, you know? Nice. And it's a day job. It sounds like that you enjoy. That's great. Yeah. So are there things that you've learned from being in graphics design that have helped your music career and vice versa? I think the main thing is just that , um, I've been able to create little posters. You know , I've been , I've been able do my own graphics and build my own website and things like that so that, that helps.

But now that I'm thinking of it, when I worked at Weiden and Kennedy here on Nike and Microsoft and Coca Cola , um, I'm working with incredibly creative people. One of the things that I learned from the advertising business that I wasn't really into before was revising a lot of us as songwriters. We'd write something, we're like, that's so precious. I can't believe I came up with that wonderful thing.

Well, you know, when you're in a creative team at an ad agency, someone you'll come in and say, I've created this wonderful thing. And they're like, yeah, that's pretty good, bill. But let's make it better. No , it's all wonderful except for this whole side here is ugly, you know, or some, this whole thing here doesn't make any sense. So you've got a good idea.

When I was working at Weiden and Kennedy, I met one creative director in particular named jelly helm and uh, jelly would take a look at what I had done and say, this is great bill, but I want you to spend the afternoon , um , revising this part . I think more about this one part of it. Is there something else you can do to make this better? To make, to make this communicate more clearly or to look better?

Yeah, so I've learned to revise and then in the last year I've taken two classes at Portland state university , um, on writing. And both of them again, are really helping me write . And , um, I think revision is , um, something that I didn't really do a whole lot of as a young person. And I'm getting more into it now.

And so he called me and asked me if I would be interested and I had studied acting in Los Angeles, but I hadn't really put it to use much. So he said, would you be interested in this? And I said, yes. I had to do a video audition for the sort of acting part of it. So I did a monologue and they hired me and then boom, I was five weeks of rehearsals in 42 shows. And I loved it. I loved it. You're a natural. Yeah, you're a natural.

Well, but the hardest part about it was for me was that I had to actually sing beyond my own range. I'm glad we got to this because I did want to talk about a couple of teachers. Um, I know you're a teacher and a teacher can make all the difference in the world. I was lucky to study with someone named Roger Love in Los Angeles, and he was a protege of another acting teacher who, I think his name is Seth Riggs .

And Seth Riggs was a Stevie Wonder's singing coach and George Benson and all these amazing singers who could go way up into their head voice. So when I first started learning the songs for next to normal, I was doing exercises that I'd been taught by Roger Love to try to extend my range. And then I discovered through the Berkeley school of music, a teacher named Ann Peckham . And I got from her a CD with vocal exercises.

She was it called the singers handbook and Peckham , P, E, C, K, H, a, M. and man, I love her exercises. So I would spend almost an hour before every show back in kind of like the workshop area and I mean where they build sets of the theater. Nobody else in the cast was having to do this. As far as I know, maybe they did a little bit of warm, they did a little bit of warmup , but I had to spend an hour just coaxing my voice to get up there because at one point I had to sing an a and that.

I mean I would typically I'm comfortable singing E and F, F sharp may be once I get to G, I'm not so sure I'm going to hit it tonight and then a was out of the question, but there was a point in the play where I had to look at this young woman and just out of thin air up , you know right up there just hit that moat . I even said to the musical direct , how am I supposed to do this? I don't think I can do it. And he just kept saying, you'll get there, you'll get there and get there. I don't know.

I just loved the experience. And then afterwards, musical director said, you should write something because there aren't that many parts for, you know? I mean, at the time I was 50 something, now I'm 60 and so I've been desperately, not desperately scratch that word. I've been conscientiously conscientiously working at writing something that I could sing, you know? And it's funny that now I've got a musical done.

My writing partner didn't want me to sing any of the parts because she wanted me to be objective. As we're working on this in progress and the part that I wanted to sing, now we've got a guy, I love him singing this part so much that I kind of don't care. I'm playing in the band, I'm playing in the backup band for the musical and I'm really, yeah. So tell us a little

And the FBI approached the governor and said, we are expecting 50 to a hundred thousand protesters to confront the American Legion in 1970 at their convention. And what are we going to do? What are we going to do here to avoid violence? Kent state had just happened, there were protests all over the country. And , um, at one point, Tom McCall's assistant I named ed Wester doll said these hippie protesters want to create a concert like Woodstock. They want to have a concert.

They're asking us to give them a park. Somebody came up with the idea to give them a park 45 minutes outside of town. It's a beautiful park river. We'll give them the park, let them have a concert out there, and I draw them away from the downtown core teacher one and that will be our solution. While a lot of the protesters didn't like that.

So there's conflicts within the free people of people's army jam, Marie , these different groups protest LA and then you have the business people in the American region . So there's all kinds of wrangling that was going on and it was all meant to avoid violence happening on the streets. And eventually they sanctioned a rock concert . Just half sister Kate sensitive to side of your Portland homes.

They told the police don't bust anybody if they're smoking pot, if they're drinking, if they're naked, make the best of it , throw them in jail just as long they stay out there. At the park and nobody's getting hurt. Let them do their thing.

He sings a bullet to the temple of a promising career because he thought, I'm going to do this for the good of Portland even though I might lose my career over it. And he was actually reelected. So it was , um, it was, it turned out good for him. Yeah. Yeah. And so what we do is we're looking for a company to produce it here in Portland.

And how we do that is we put it up on stage with all our actors, 12 actors in a five piece band and we perform it and we get as many people that can say yes to some kind of production to come down and see it and get some support. Um, we've performed at once on stage and now we're about to do it a second time. This time will be the full thing. First time was a partial performance. And when's that happening? February 3rd here in Portland. February 3rd.

It's a Monday night at a place called the village ballroom in North Portland. I'll also be at Al's Dan the first weekend

And for me, success is being able to support myself in life however I can. And in this case, it's from multiple streams of income, from graphic design, from some , uh, sometimes performing, sometimes royalties, multiple income streams. So it's just for me, success means finding a balance in my life between work and play, home family, friends, and everything in moderation.

He's been through two divorces as I , I'm on my third marriage. I said I have the winding road of my life. That was my first idea for a musical. So over the last couple of years simultaneously with working on the vortex, I've been working on what could be a one man show or it could be a one man with a backup band. It's similar to Springsteen on Broadway in that it's stories and songs and it Chronicles the turning points in my life, the ups, the downs and the songs that I wrote along the way.

That's why I was taking these classes at Portland state. We're developing it. The first draft is essentially done. I've created up SoundCloud playlist that has all the stories and all the songs and now we're kind of at that stage where we're shuffling those things around and trying to figure out what's really the best version of this before we , um, try to get it put into a theater. How lovely. You have a lot going on mr Wadhams. I do.

I love how there's actually this connective thread, this thing that kinda , I dunno , ties it all together and you just don't stop and continue to create no matter what. You know, I got advice from a karate teacher once, which is kind of off the wall, but right before I moved to LA I said, I'm sorry, I'm gonna have to quit the class because I'm moving to LA. I'm trying to make it in music.

And everybody says, Oh yeah, you'll go to LA and they'll chew you up and spit you out and you'll be coming back home with your tail between your legs, like everybody else. But he said to me, you know what? Everybody gets a break. You just have to be sensitive to when your break comes. Don't stand there with your mouth hanging open, you know, grab it and make the best of it.

And I think really, even though I looked at what was going to become an emotion, I was like, nah, I don't really, this isn't what I thought I would be doing. But there was a door opening and it was really opening and there was momentum behind it. And I think that everything that I do, there's someone sort of cheering me like, Hey bill, how would you like to do this? What do you think about this?

And then as I start going down the path of doing like my personal show, this guy in Philadelphia, the directors helping me out, and then I take a class and the students say, yeah, we want to know more about your brother tad. You know, it's just it. I have momentum, but the momentum comes from people supporting me and from me listening to people around me and helping guide me to go down the right track.

You can get in touch right there on my website or on my Facebook or Instagram pages at Valerie day sings or on Twitter at Valerie day. If you like what you've heard, consider sharing with a friend. You can also subscribe on iTunes or wherever you go for podcasts. Better yet, leave a review. The more reviews, the easier it will be for other singers to find it. Until next time, be well, keep singing and thanks for listening.