Matthew Hager Interview Page 4

Smitty:  Yes they are.

MH:  You need an escape. And guys like, oh, who’s from Houston?  Joe Sample and….I mean, there are some amazing people from Houston.

Smitty:  The Laws Brothers, Hubert and Ronnie Laws, ZZ Top, and Archie Bell and the Drells!

MH:  Oh yeah, and Lyle Lovett, who’s one of my favorites. It just….between Houston and Austin, it’s just like a who’s who of quality music and musicianship.

Smitty:  Oh yeah, unbelievable stuff.  Yeah, you’re right.

MH:  Yeah.

Smitty:  Tell me a little bit about 76 Steps.

MH:  (Both laughing.)  76 Steps Music is the name of my production company and it’s the name of my publishing company, and the way that came about was I was living in Silver Lake at the time, which is a neighborhood in Los Angeles and (laughs.) I was renting the bottom floor of this house on top of this hill, and the house had no driveway, so literally there were 76 steps that you had to take to walk up to my house, and it was brutal. I mean, I’d be carrying amplifiers, you know, I’d be having people come over with drums and keyboards, and it was just awful.  I remember Stan Sargent would come over once in a while and play bass on some stuff and he’d….by the time he got to the top he’d be sweating and like just drop his bass outside and sit on the porch and just be like “Oh my God,” you know?  And I think it was Stevo Theard, who plays with Mindi and who actually co-wrote one of the songs on her latest record, but he’s also done like Terence Trent Darby and Dave Koz, great drummer, great drummer.

Smitty:  Absolutely.

MH:  He came up to the house carrying, you know, about six drums and percussion and stuff, and he was just like “Man, I counted.  You have 76 steps and that should be the name of your publishing company.”  I was like “That’s a great idea,” you know, and I took his advice.

Smitty:  How about that?  Oh, that’s a great story.  I knew there had to be a great story behind that.  I said “There’s something to this 76 Steps.”

MH:  Yeah, well, what’s funny is like the first time I heard it, I thought that was hilarious. But then it was like, I had been in L.A. at that point probably ten years, I hadn’t made much money at all in music, I was still working a day job, you know, it was hard, man, I didn’t have any money. And I just thought, you know, 76 Steps, that’s about how….I would imagine that there are that many steps to success, you know?

Smitty:  Yeah, yeah.

MH:  So it just made sense to me. www.76steps.com

Smitty:  Can people contact you there?

MH:  Yeah absolutely. I live in a different house now, so they don’t have to walk as high.  They don’t have to climb to my studio anymore.

Smitty:  Talk about you guys’ hangout at Lucy’s.

MH:  Oh yeah.  Well, Lucy’s El Adobe is a really famous Mexican restaurant in Los Angeles and the owner, whose name is Lucy, is just this wonderful like matriarchal type woman.  I just love her to death.  And we had been going to Lucy’s for, I don’t know, 10 years, and when we first started going, we didn’t know it was famous, we didn’t pay attention, we didn’t know that everyone else knew about it.  We thought it was just this quiet Mexican place that had great margaritas and, you know? It just became our little secret, we thought, and one day we were writing for Mindi’s first album and we decided to name one of the songs on that album “Lucy’s,” so we figured we’d introduce ourselves to the owner and say “Hey,” you know, “we wrote a song, it’s called ‘Lucy’s,’ it’s on an album that’ll be out in six months or whatever it was,” and she was so blown away that she would sit with us and she would talk to us about the history of the restaurant, and she would talk about all the different musicians that have been there over the, you know, 20, 25-year period, and about her husband, who unfortunately has passed away, and the impact he had on those musicians and how he would feed some of these people for free, you know, when they were coming up.  And we discussed politics. 

Lucy’s is extremely involved in politics in the Latino community, both on a local level and even a national level.  I mean, this place is amazing.  I mean, Robert Kennedy came into Lucy’s right before he got shot.  I mean, there’s….yeah, there’s just some really, really powerful stories and, you know, we didn’t even know the significance of it, but we would go there and we’d talk about politics and we would talk about life and talk about art, and art and commerce, you know? We would just talk about everything and what was bugging us and what we were happy about. It’s a great little place.

Smitty:  It’s a great song and you can feel that there’s some serious history and emotions there with the place. To name a song after the place, there had to be a definite love and a definite feel for something that you enjoy.

MH:  Yeah, I think Lucy’s just kind of symbolized a place where we kinda met every week and we kinda grew up together, you know, we sorta became adults at Lucy’s.

Smitty:  Yeah, yeah.  Very cool.

MH:  Yeah, it’s great.

Smitty:  So what’s next for Matthew Hager?

MH:  Well, to be honest, right now I’m very excited about Mindi’s album coming out. (April 18 th)  I’m kinda helping her put some live stuff together for her tour coming up. And I’m writing for some other people right now.  I’m just kinda taking it easy and seeing what comes next. I don’t have anything too major on the table.  I just keep writing and see where it takes me. That seems to be the way it works the best for me.

Smitty:  Very cool. Well, I must say, my friend, it is a pleasure and an honor to talk with you.  I certainly admire your work and certainly wish you all the success in the world.

MH:  Aw, thank you so much, man.  I really appreciate the opportunity to talk to you as well.

Smitty:  Thank you.

MH:  I always enjoy reading your articles and reading your reviews, and I think you’re “spot on” and I think that the jazz community could definitely use more people like you, so thank you for doing a great job.

Smitty:  Well, thank you so much.  That’s quite a compliment coming from you, my friend.  [Both laughing.] Hey, and hurry back to Houston for a visit, man. We’ll do a hang.  How’s that?

MH:  Oh, I’m there.  The next time I come in….I have three new nephews;  One is two months old, one is a year old, and one is two years old, and I come back down and visit them at least two or three times a year, so the next time I come, we’ll definitely go have some good food.

Smitty:  Yeah, you know we’ve got it here.

MH:  Yeah, I know, man, I know.  It’s so funny too, I played a show in Dallas about a year ago, I forget what for, but I went down and I played a show.  I was so excited to get some real Southern food. And the record label ended up taking us out that night. So they took us to a California cuisine restaurant, thinking that that’s what we’d, you know, like….

Smitty:  [Laughing.]

MH: ….which was really sweet and I was like “Oh, man, I need some ribs!”

Smitty:  [Laughing.]

MH:  If I wanted a salad, I’d stay home.  [Both laughing.]

Smitty:  I totally feel that.

MH:  But that happens all the time. You’ll go to Tokyo or something and they’ll find like a….they’ll find a place that serves American food.

Smitty:  I think we all tend to lean that direction, thinking we’re pleasing someone.

MH:  Yeah.

Smitty:  Well, that’s cool. Matthew, it has been such a pleasure. We could probably talk for another four hours.

MH:  Yeah, I know, man. I really like talking to you. Thank you so much.

Smitty:  Yes, same here, and we will certainly chat some more, I know.  I know our circles will always bump into each other.

MH:  Absolutely.

Smitty:  We’ve been visiting with one of the most versatile producers in the business, he’s just finished collaborating on Mindi Abair’s great new project (Life Less Ordinary). Matthew, congratulations and the very best to you in 2006 my friend.

MH:  Thank you Smitty and all the best to you.

Baldwin “Smitty” Smith

For More Information Visit www.76steps.com