In a recent conversation, Bill Champlin offered his take on what constitutes “west coast music” and what the genre represents. Having been a part of several of the early milestone releases in the late seventies, he should know a thing or two about the subject – though he admits that at the time, “we were ...
Five years ago I got the chance to sit down for a couple cups of coffee and a handful of trips down memory lane with Steve Lukather of Toto and two of my closest friends. It’s time to share some of that conversation. Lukather looked back on his very first days as a session player, ...
When I first came in contact with the music I’m now writing about, I approached it as a listener. I appreciated the way the music made me feel. It didn’t take long to get my head involved, and the musician in me started analyzing and discovering secrets in the intricate arrangements on an intellectual level. ...
This is part two of the transcript of my talk with songsmith and recording artist Alan O’Day. You can find part one here. In this final part, O’Day talks about his musical influences, and we discuss the slickness of the westcoast sound. How do you feel about your musical output from back then? You know, ...
I recently had the great pleasure of talking to songwriter Alan O’Day about the music he made in LA in the Seventies. Having written number one hits such as his own “Undercover Angel” and Helen Reddy’s “Angie Baby,” O’Day continues to write and perform his own material. He still resides in his native Los Angeles, ...