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charlene · 02-09-2019, 02:55 PM

FROM 1981 - https://www.moderndrummer.com/articl...tudio-kingpin/
Barry Keane: Canadian Studio Kingpin

Barry Keane is one of the most in-demand studio drummers in Canada. He has recorded numerous commercials, jingles, TV and Film scores; but most people know him from his work with Gordon Lightfoot and Anne Murray.

by Scott K. Fish

Barry Keane: Canadian Studio Kingpin

Barry Keane is one of the most in-demand studio drummers in Canada. He has recorded numerous commercials, jingles, TV and Film scores; but most people know him from his work with Gordon Lightfoot and Anne Murray. Barry has recorded five albums with Lightfoot (a sixth one is being recorded as thisis being written), and seven albums with Ms. Murray. The only person Barry Keane goes on the road with is Gordon Lightfoot, and this is his sixth year with that hand. He has been a producer, A&R man, and always a great “idea” man.

SF: How did you get started in music?

BK: My parents took me to a Ricky Nelson concert when I was about 12 years old. I wanted to play guitar like Ricky Nelson. They gave me guitar lessons and I studied for about 2 years, but I wasn’t playing any Ricky Nelson songs! I was playing “Home, Home On The Range” and learning how to read music. I really didn’t like it, so I quit. About four years later I saw the Beatles and The Dave Clark Five when all the English bands were on the Ed Sullivan Show. I said, “Boy, that looks like a lot of fun. I love that music.” So I just started playing around the house on pots and pans. My parents said, “Okay. We’ll buy you a snare drum, but you’ve got to take some lessons.” I took a couple of drum lessons, learned how to play bossa novas and waltzes, but I didn’t want that. I wanted to play like Ringo and Dave Clark.

From there, I just kept listening to drummers, and tried to copy what they were doing and I evolved from there. By this time I was 15 or 16, and I only had a cocktail set with a little cymbal on the snare stand. I played along with Roy Orbison and Gene Pitney records. I didn’t know what I was doing, but it felt like what I was doing was right.

I connected with a few guys in high school who played guitars and sang. I was the only guy around who was even close to a drummer, so they asked, “Why don’t you be in our group?” I went over with my snare drum and my little cymbal and we actually made some music! They knew two or three different guitar chords, and I knew one or two different drum beats, and we played for 4 or 5 hours.

Later, I bought a bass drum and a couple of tom-toms. I fooled around in bands 4 or 5 years, maybe. I got a little better, learned a few more things, and then I started working for Quality Records in a record distributor’s warehouse. I started in the shipping department and worked my way up in that organization while I was playing music part time. I went from the warehouse to working as a copyboy. Then I got to be a travelling salesman, selling records on the road and doing gigs at the same time with my band. I’d come home on weekends and go off with the band.

Quality Records was the largest manufacturer/distributor in Canada. They had 50% to 55% of the pop chart at all times. Around 1970, they decided that it would be interesting and profitable to start talent scouting and producing local acts as well. Because of my experience in records and music, I was appointed A&R man when I was only 20 years old.

I was the leader/producer of the group and A&R man at the company. We had a pretty good-size hit record in Canada called “You’re Gonna Miss Me” and the group was called Wishbone. It was almost a dead copy of the Grass Roots’ sound. The tune was very similar to “Midnight Confessions,” and the sound of the group that I was after was a very pop commercial thing.

SF: Did you write the song?

BK: I helped. I got in touch with a friend of mine, a songwriter, and I gave him some recordings of Tommy James & the Shondells, some Grass Roots, and some other commercially successful people of the time. I said, “Write some songs like that.” So he did. He wrote some pretty good songs. We had a top-10 hit in Canada and made a deal with Scepter records in the States, and the record was just starting to cook. It was on almost 150 stations in the States. I think it was the #1 record in Tucson, Arizona, and was really happening in some places. Then the Grass Roots released a record called “Sooner or Later,” and our record just died. The radio stations decided they wanted to play the Grass Roots, not some band from Canada that sounded like the Grass Roots. And I can understand that.

SF: What was it like growing up in Canada at that time? Since most of the music was coming from England and the States, did you find it frustrating?

BK: Toronto is a very interesting city. Not too many people know that much about it, because the music that went on there, and much of the music that still goes on there, stays there! The very successful musicians in the folk and pop scene who grew up in Toronto (Neil Young, Steppenwolf), as soon as they reached a level of success they moved to the States, which was natural. There are many problems with earning a musical-living in Canada. It’s a very large country with a small population relative to its size. You do a cross-Canada tour of all the big cities like Montreal to Toronto to Winnipeg to Vancouver, and you have to travel 3 or 4 thousand miles. In the States, you can play in New York, Philadelphia, Washington and Boston, and travel fewer miles to play for more people. In Canada, you have to travel forever to get to people.

It’s very tough for bands economically. Also, the record business in Canada lacks both in quality and quantity. The good creative guidance people, like producers and managers (with few exceptions), have all come out of the States or England. Toronto is a very big jazz town and always has been.

There are a lot of great jazz players coming out of Toronto. I think it’s one of the “Jazz Cities” in North America. During the last ten years, there was a very low level of competence in producing records and managing groups, mostly from inexperience. There was some copying of what went on in England, and a lot of copying of what was going on in the States. There wasn’t much generating of new ideas. There wasn’t even enough copying going on! Musicians were into playing jazz. Music for music’s sake. The record companies were into distributing foreign records There wasn’t a lot of local talent developed in the pop and rock fields.

SF: Did you make a transition from listening to and playing pop music to listening to and/or playing jazz?

BK: I didn’t personally. I’ve always been more into AM and FM rock music like Jan and Dean, the Beach Boys, Paul Revere & the Raiders. When I went to see Ricky Nelson, that was a big turn-on! I really, really got into pop music. I thought, “Wow! To be a pop-star! To be a rock-star!” I thought that Ricky Nelson was the greatest thing that ever lived, and that the Dave Clark 5 was the best group in the world!

SF: And the leader was a drummer!

BK: That’s right. And it didn’t look like he had to do very much. He was having a great time and the music was great. It was fabulous. Learning to copy “Glad All Over” or “Pretty Woman” was a lot of fun. Just going whack, whack, whack on my cocktail set, I could envision myself playing with Roy Orbison. That’s still sort of the way I feel. Unless the music is a lot of fun, or in some way inspiring, I’m not as into it.

Barry KeaneI’m not really into the technical side of it. I’ve had to get into it in the last few years for some of the work that I’ve done. It’s been a terrific experience and education doing film work and jingles, and having to read and execute charts accurately and quickly. But the real driving force for me is the fun kind of music.

SF: You never had much in the way of formal lessons or rudimental studies?

BK: Never did. But I wish I’d had a teacher who could have tricked me into learning rudiments and theory, because I sure could’ve used it now in a lot of the things I do.

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02-09-2019, 02:55 PM	#19
charlene Moderator Join Date: May 2000 Posts: 15,886	Re: Video: Meet Barry Keane FROM 1981 - https://www.moderndrummer.com/articl...tudio-kingpin/ Barry Keane: Canadian Studio Kingpin Barry Keane is one of the most in-demand studio drummers in Canada. He has recorded numerous commercials, jingles, TV and Film scores; but most people know him from his work with Gordon Lightfoot and Anne Murray. by Scott K. Fish Barry Keane: Canadian Studio Kingpin Barry Keane is one of the most in-demand studio drummers in Canada. He has recorded numerous commercials, jingles, TV and Film scores; but most people know him from his work with Gordon Lightfoot and Anne Murray. Barry has recorded five albums with Lightfoot (a sixth one is being recorded as thisis being written), and seven albums with Ms. Murray. The only person Barry Keane goes on the road with is Gordon Lightfoot, and this is his sixth year with that hand. He has been a producer, A&R man, and always a great “idea” man. SF: How did you get started in music? BK: My parents took me to a Ricky Nelson concert when I was about 12 years old. I wanted to play guitar like Ricky Nelson. They gave me guitar lessons and I studied for about 2 years, but I wasn’t playing any Ricky Nelson songs! I was playing “Home, Home On The Range” and learning how to read music. I really didn’t like it, so I quit. About four years later I saw the Beatles and The Dave Clark Five when all the English bands were on the Ed Sullivan Show. I said, “Boy, that looks like a lot of fun. I love that music.” So I just started playing around the house on pots and pans. My parents said, “Okay. We’ll buy you a snare drum, but you’ve got to take some lessons.” I took a couple of drum lessons, learned how to play bossa novas and waltzes, but I didn’t want that. I wanted to play like Ringo and Dave Clark. From there, I just kept listening to drummers, and tried to copy what they were doing and I evolved from there. By this time I was 15 or 16, and I only had a cocktail set with a little cymbal on the snare stand. I played along with Roy Orbison and Gene Pitney records. I didn’t know what I was doing, but it felt like what I was doing was right. I connected with a few guys in high school who played guitars and sang. I was the only guy around who was even close to a drummer, so they asked, “Why don’t you be in our group?” I went over with my snare drum and my little cymbal and we actually made some music! They knew two or three different guitar chords, and I knew one or two different drum beats, and we played for 4 or 5 hours. Later, I bought a bass drum and a couple of tom-toms. I fooled around in bands 4 or 5 years, maybe. I got a little better, learned a few more things, and then I started working for Quality Records in a record distributor’s warehouse. I started in the shipping department and worked my way up in that organization while I was playing music part time. I went from the warehouse to working as a copyboy. Then I got to be a travelling salesman, selling records on the road and doing gigs at the same time with my band. I’d come home on weekends and go off with the band. Quality Records was the largest manufacturer/distributor in Canada. They had 50% to 55% of the pop chart at all times. Around 1970, they decided that it would be interesting and profitable to start talent scouting and producing local acts as well. Because of my experience in records and music, I was appointed A&R man when I was only 20 years old. I was the leader/producer of the group and A&R man at the company. We had a pretty good-size hit record in Canada called “You’re Gonna Miss Me” and the group was called Wishbone. It was almost a dead copy of the Grass Roots’ sound. The tune was very similar to “Midnight Confessions,” and the sound of the group that I was after was a very pop commercial thing. SF: Did you write the song? BK: I helped. I got in touch with a friend of mine, a songwriter, and I gave him some recordings of Tommy James & the Shondells, some Grass Roots, and some other commercially successful people of the time. I said, “Write some songs like that.” So he did. He wrote some pretty good songs. We had a top-10 hit in Canada and made a deal with Scepter records in the States, and the record was just starting to cook. It was on almost 150 stations in the States. I think it was the #1 record in Tucson, Arizona, and was really happening in some places. Then the Grass Roots released a record called “Sooner or Later,” and our record just died. The radio stations decided they wanted to play the Grass Roots, not some band from Canada that sounded like the Grass Roots. And I can understand that. SF: What was it like growing up in Canada at that time? Since most of the music was coming from England and the States, did you find it frustrating? BK: Toronto is a very interesting city. Not too many people know that much about it, because the music that went on there, and much of the music that still goes on there, stays there! The very successful musicians in the folk and pop scene who grew up in Toronto (Neil Young, Steppenwolf), as soon as they reached a level of success they moved to the States, which was natural. There are many problems with earning a musical-living in Canada. It’s a very large country with a small population relative to its size. You do a cross-Canada tour of all the big cities like Montreal to Toronto to Winnipeg to Vancouver, and you have to travel 3 or 4 thousand miles. In the States, you can play in New York, Philadelphia, Washington and Boston, and travel fewer miles to play for more people. In Canada, you have to travel forever to get to people. It’s very tough for bands economically. Also, the record business in Canada lacks both in quality and quantity. The good creative guidance people, like producers and managers (with few exceptions), have all come out of the States or England. Toronto is a very big jazz town and always has been. There are a lot of great jazz players coming out of Toronto. I think it’s one of the “Jazz Cities” in North America. During the last ten years, there was a very low level of competence in producing records and managing groups, mostly from inexperience. There was some copying of what went on in England, and a lot of copying of what was going on in the States. There wasn’t much generating of new ideas. There wasn’t even enough copying going on! Musicians were into playing jazz. Music for music’s sake. The record companies were into distributing foreign records There wasn’t a lot of local talent developed in the pop and rock fields. SF: Did you make a transition from listening to and playing pop music to listening to and/or playing jazz? BK: I didn’t personally. I’ve always been more into AM and FM rock music like Jan and Dean, the Beach Boys, Paul Revere & the Raiders. When I went to see Ricky Nelson, that was a big turn-on! I really, really got into pop music. I thought, “Wow! To be a pop-star! To be a rock-star!” I thought that Ricky Nelson was the greatest thing that ever lived, and that the Dave Clark 5 was the best group in the world! SF: And the leader was a drummer! BK: That’s right. And it didn’t look like he had to do very much. He was having a great time and the music was great. It was fabulous. Learning to copy “Glad All Over” or “Pretty Woman” was a lot of fun. Just going whack, whack, whack on my cocktail set, I could envision myself playing with Roy Orbison. That’s still sort of the way I feel. Unless the music is a lot of fun, or in some way inspiring, I’m not as into it. Barry KeaneI’m not really into the technical side of it. I’ve had to get into it in the last few years for some of the work that I’ve done. It’s been a terrific experience and education doing film work and jingles, and having to read and execute charts accurately and quickly. But the real driving force for me is the fun kind of music. SF: You never had much in the way of formal lessons or rudimental studies? BK: Never did. But I wish I’d had a teacher who could have tricked me into learning rudiments and theory, because I sure could’ve used it now in a lot of the things I do. more - next post