Daryl Hall digs into his bag of tricks on first tour without John Oates
Daryl Hall, lead songwriter and vocalist of the legendary soul rock group Hall & Oates, brings his House Band to Cincinnati Sunday, Aug. 7, supporting the new compilation “BeforeAfter” – a retrospective of songs from his five solo studio albums interspersed with cuts from the acclaimed online performance series, “Live From Daryl’s House."
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I recently spoke with the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer about his writing process, his love-hate relationship with the entertainment industry and about how to avoid burnout while juggling touring, television production and a house-restoration hobby.
Question: You started getting serious about tunes at Temple University as part of the Temptones vocal group and became connected to artists like the Delfonics and the Temptations. What about Philadelphia led you toward soul and R&B?
Answer: I grew up just outside of Philadelphia and I've been singing in front of people since I was about 4 or 5 years old. That whole area is steeped in a certain kind of music. It's what people know as the sound of Philadelphia. It's very vocal and harmony-heavy and uses certain kinds of chords. I was drawn to it because that's what I was hearing around me.
Q: You're known primarily for your vocals, but you're also a multi-instrumentalist. What comes first when you're writing a tune? Do you have a melody in your head or is it plunking around on a keyboard or a guitar that moves you toward a song?
A: It can come in a lot of different ways. More than not, it comes with either a drum groove from a drum machine or in my head, or some kind of a chordal pattern either on a guitar or a keyboard. That's sort of evident in the music. I usually start my songs with the dominant riff in the song, and then it goes from there. I can be inspired many different ways. A lyrical phrase can set it off. Then I just let it develop naturally.
Q: This is your first tour without John Oates, and it's on the heels of the release of "BeforeAfter," which focuses solely on your work without him. You’ve spoken a lot about taking a break from the duo to establish your legacy as a solo artist. But you've always worked with other musicians, whether it's Robert Fripp or your House Band or Todd Rundgren, etc. What do you see as the role of collaboration in your music?
A: It's essential because my style is very collaborative. I write a lot alone, of course, but I like to put myself against and with other people. Somehow it feels like it's more than the sum of its parts. And you're right, I have done this over the years. That's part of what this compilation is all about – to show all the different collaborations I've done outside of what everybody knows about with John Oates. They're all slightly different because of that. What holds it together are my sensibilities and my vocals. That's why I do “Live From Daryl's House.” It's an extension of the same thing – working with other people to see what's going to happen.
Q: Speaking of “Live From Daryl's House,” you get tons of artists to join you on there. How do you pick who to invite over to jam?
A: A lot of times, it comes to scheduling. I don't have any problem getting people to say yes to the show. I never did, even from the very beginning. When I first had the idea of it, one of my first guests was Smokey Robinson. I called him up and I said, “Hey, Smokey, do you want to come to my house in the middle of nowhere?” And he said yes. I’ve had no problem with people saying yes, but then they say, “Yes, but I'm on tour. This whole year is booked up and blah, blah, blah.” So that's the biggest challenge.
Q: You've had a lot to say about your dissatisfaction with the music industry in general and your hesitance, for instance, to get “Live From Daryl's” onto network TV. Did your experience with “Daryl’s Restoration Over-Hall” or with cameos in TV shows inform the decision to maintain tighter control over “Live From Daryl's”?
A: My relationship with people who sell the art is always very tenuous. I go in a lot of different directions, and I'm hard to categorize and pin down. For the entertainment business, it's hard to understand exactly where I'm coming from. I've banged heads with record companies from the beginning. Sometimes it all works, but a lot of times it doesn't. My restoration show, that was a real experience in the TV world – with all the restrictions that accompanied it, although I had a great time doing the show. I tend to operate better autonomously without having a whole lot of people looking over my shoulder.
Q: Do you think the internet has changed how you approach the business aspect of the creative industry?
A: The internet allowed the whole thing. “Daryl's House” would not have existed if the internet hadn't been available to do it. I was the first one to do this. The internet, back when I started that show, wasn't really an entertainment vehicle at all. It was for information and association and things like that. There were no podcasts, there was no nothing. So what I did was revolutionary and it could only have happened without any restrictions or discipline. Nobody was saying anything, so we just went for it. That's the strength of the show. It was unfettered.
Q: You've had an extremely busy life and clearly have a strong work ethic. What keeps you going? And what do you do with your free time when you're not making music or touring or restoring houses?
A: I don't have a lot of free time. I'm restoring the house that I live in right now, and that's taken my time up between tours. Then I'm out on the road again. Then we're going to start filming the new episodes from “Live At Daryl's House” in September. And it just goes on and on, so I don't have a lot of downtime.
Q: What keeps you from getting burnt out?
A: I try and change things up. I don't do any one thing to death, and I'm always changing things. I'm always trying new things and creating challenges for myself, and that keeps it interesting and keeps my energy flowing. I just have an active mind and I like to make things happen.
Daryl Hall and Todd Rundgren
When: 7 p.m., Sunday, Aug. 7.
Where: Timberwolf Amphitheatre, Kings Island, 6300 Kings Island Drive, Mason.
Tickets: $40-$80.