MH:I don’t think about money when I’m working with artists. As a matter of fact, I kinda have a policy where I don’t discuss money until I’ve worked a few times with an artist. I’ll have artists come over and we’ll write a song or we’ll sit back and….I remember working with Peter White. Peter’s manager called and asked if I’d be interested in writing with him, so I was like “Yeah, Peter, come over,” you know? And Peter called and he came over to my house and we sat for….I think we sat for like four hours before we even picked up a guitar.
Smitty: There you go. Very cool.
MH: It was incredible. We just talked about all of our influences, and we had so much more in common than I ever thought we would’ve had and, you know, that was right after Mindi’s first record so I hadn’t had much experience in Contemporary Jazz. I call it Contemporary Jazz. I don’t call it Smooth Jazz, but I hadn’t had a lot of experience so I didn’t know what to expect. I kind of expected….I guess I kind of expected someone to come in and either want to replicate Mindi’s sound or just kinda do the stuff that I had heard a little bit on The WAVE, and I just didn’t know. And just sit back and all of a sudden we were talking about Led Zeppelin and Emerson, Lake & Palmer and just….really obscure….and Pat Metheny and just like so obscure, you know, and I was just like “Man, I like this guy,” and so he came over for, I mean, probably a month before we even discussed working together, before the manager called my lawyer or anything like that. It was just like “When do you wanna come over again?” (Both laughing.)
Smitty: Yeah, I like Pete, he’s a bad boy. I think that’s a great way to do it. You establish some common ground, a good rapport, and you understand the artist more. You understand their heart, you know, what means most to them, you know, all of that.
MH: That’s what I wanna know, you know? If an artist comes over and their heart….the extent of the depth of their personality is that they want to be a star, then I’m probably the wrong guy for ‘em. (Both laughing) I would love to think that what we could do could possibly make ‘em a star or sustain their stardom or whatever it is. But I’m really into just kinda closing my eyes and writing some music and just kinda getting to know each other and see where it comes.
Smitty: Yeah. I think it’s a great approach, a great process, because….and it really is a process….and I think your approach to it, well, the results speak for themselves. I mean, think about it: Mindi’s had a fantastic career up to this point. In fact, I told her if she wrote her memoirs today, it would make a lotta people sit back and just, you know, make their heads spin.
MH: Yeah, I’d buy it. You know, I was there for most of it and I’m still blown away by it. I’m a big fan of Mindi as a human being.
Smitty: Yeah, man, exactly. And it doesn’t stop there with you, there’s John Taylor…
MH: Yeah, and speaking of another great guy. I actually just had lunch with him today.
Smitty: Really?
MH: Yeah, he’s another one of my good friends. That’s another thing, man. I’ve been able to make some friends in this business, which is hard to do. You know, even though John’s busy with the Duran Duran stuff, and they’re actually in England right now working on their next record. But, you know, he has family in town and he was in town for a few days and so, you know, he came over to the house the other night and we played a little bit of music and we went to lunch today and, you know, it’s a gift.
Smitty: Yes indeed.
MH: There are some good people in this business.
Smitty: Yeah. And then there’s Mandy Moore, wow! (Both laughing.)
MH: Mandy is exciting. I kinda feel like….it’s a funny thing I kinda feel like I grew up with Mandy Moore. Even though I had worked with John Taylor on a couple of records before Mandy, I had written for people before Mandy, Mandy was the first big current pop star that I had worked with and I had a chance to tour the world a couple times. You know, I had played MTV so much in one year that I knew where all the bathrooms were in their New York office…
Smitty: (Laughing.)
MH: ….and where, you know, where they hide the Diet Cokes in the fridge. I knew all that stuff. It was just a very surreal year. And I learned a lot about myself, I learned a lot about what I was capable of. ‘Cause everything was just going by so fast, and I have a philosophy that if anyone asks me to do something, I say “yes” and I worry about it later. And Mandy was a great example of that. Like I wasn’t sure if I could pull off what I pulled off with her, but I said “yes” and I ended up, you know, doing it….I’m very proud of the work that we all did together and, you know, Mandy became a friend after that as well. But it was funny….let me see, how do I put this? Once I finished up working with Mandy and I started doing some other projects and Mindi came my way, I started getting back in touch with that part of me that is a musician….that actually loves music.
Smitty: I can appreciate that.
MH: And I started realizing that although it’s great to be on MTV and it’s certainly a huge gift to work with current pop stars, you know, my love of music, it just gets stronger every day, and to be able to work on records like Mindi’s has just reminded me of why I’m here.
Smitty: Yeah, very cool. Well, let’s switch gears, man. Here’s a name: Julie Rogers. [Both laughing.]
MH: Julie Rogers is an old friend of mine from high school. We met when we were, gosh, I think 14 or 15 years old. She was an incredible violinist even then. She was going to a school called High School for the Performing & Visual Arts in Houston, Texas, where I’m from.
Smitty: Yeah, baby!
MH: Yeah! God, I miss the food in Houston.
Smitty: It’s just gets better here!
MH: But that’s a whole other story. (Both laughing.) So she was going to HSPVA and I wanted to go to HSPVA, but my parents were afraid that I might get caught up in the wrong crowd, so I ended up going to a school that wasn’t full of artists. So I had met Julie….I forget….I think I met her at some party or something, and we kept in touch ‘cause I really respected her as a violinist and as a woman who seemed to be taking her instrument so seriously. I was young so I hadn’t seen that before. So she immediately gained my respect, and we kinda lost touch for probably about ten years and then Mindi was actually working on a movie and she called me when she was coming home from the set of this movie, and she goes “Oh my God, there’s this girl, you gotta meet her, I think you two would totally hit it off, she’s cute, she’s blonde, she’s a violinist,” and I was like “Julie Rogers.” Mindi was like “What? You’re kidding me! How did you know this girl’s name?” I’m like “’Cause it’s the only blonde cute violinist I’ve ever met. It’s gotta be her.”
Smitty: (Laughing out of control.)
MH: So it turns out it was. It was just random coincidence. So we all became friends again. And now she’s really close friends with Mindi and, here, Julie and I rekindled our friendship and I’ve hired her to work on every string section I’ve ever done, and I do string arrangements with her, I hire her as my first violinist on everything. I did stuff with Mandy Moore with her, I even brought her on tour, on this acoustic promotional tour we did. She did the string arrangement for the song “Far Away” on Mindi’s new record.
Smitty: Yeah that’s right!
MH: And we worked on a song called “Cyan” on the last record and, yeah, I’m just a big fan. And I love….she’s from Houston too, so it’s like, you know, I’m going to her wedding next month, it’s just….it’s great, it’s great.
Smitty: Yeah. Well, you know, there’s a lotta talent that’s come out of Houston, and maybe it’s the food, I don’t know. (Laughs.)
MH: Oh, it’s gotta be man, and it’s so hot.
Smitty: Yeah.
MH: Like I’m one of those people that believe that, like art tends to come from uncomfortable situations. Like the best art that came out of New York was always when New York was in a recession, and Houston’s hot, man, the summers are mean.
