Smitty: That’s cool. (Laughs)
OS: So from there on in, it just kind of happened. The first album came out over in the U.K. here and it became quite a nice little cult album and we were doing some great gigs, and we just sort of grew into it. It wasn’t a preconceived idea and all of a sudden we found ourselves gigging at Jazz Café. And that’s kind of my memory of Danny, as just being this wonderful natural talent. Whereas people like me had to sort of work to hear things, to have that little edge, musical edge. He was very naturally gifted with that. He could just pick up a melody, hear it once and play it off and by the same token, I had this sort of production technique and experience and it blended really well, the two styles.
Smitty: So what do you like most about making music?
OS: What do I like most about making music? Well, I’d like to say the girls, but…
Smitty: (Laughs)
OS: .…if I’m home alone all day, probably not locked away in a dark recording studio.
Smitty: You gotta get out there, man, because I hear chicks dig the keyboard.
OS: Well, yeah. (Both laughing) I’ve heard that too but 16 years down the line is, yeah, I’m still hoping. No, I’m kidding with you. I’m hitched, I’m all good, I’m all good.
Smitty: Oh, good. I understand your brother (Simon Russell) is very instrumental in helping you with your career. Talk about his influence and what he has done to help you with your career at this point.
OS: He is a huge soul fan, and he’s a bit older than me. Growing up in our house was just an absolute soul fest all the time because he was big into it. He actually worked from the age of 13 or 14 in a specialist soul, funk and jazz record shop in London, and you can imagine at 14 years old, it’s not the sort of career path that you would imagine a typical teenager to have. He still has thousands of LP’s from back then. But what I then discovered is that when I turned maybe 17 or 18, all of a sudden I had access to these old records that had been played to me from the age of one. When I listened to them again, something just stirred inside me. I can’t really explain it, but something just stirred inside me when I listened to things like Quincy Jones, like the Dude album, for instance, stuff like that, things like Jeff Lorber’s track called “Really Scary” from the In the Heat of the Night album. And these are records that suddenly I had access to and I was just in heaven and I thought, my God, why this is the music for me. I hadn’t realized it up to then. And it took Simon’s love and passion to sort of stir that in me.
Smitty: Well, you gotta love that.
OS: Yeah, and mainly because he’s like you and me. He just absolutely couldn’t live without music.
Smitty: Yeah, yeah, I can totally appreciate that. You’ve been to the U.S. and you’ve had an opportunity to perform in the U.S. a few times. Talk about your first visit to the U.S. and what that was like. Were you nervous? Was it just totally exciting? And what was the fans’ reaction?
OS: Well, the first time I came to the U.S. I was over with James Vargas as part of his debut album shows, two shows at Catalina, October 2004. Actually, all of my family….my mum and dad and my brother came with us on the trip, and as it was the sort of first trip, I think that everyone really wanted to be a part of it. And I must say that it was just the craziest 12 days, up to then that I’d ever been involved in. From the moment we landed on the tarmac. I’d never been to that part of America before. I’d never had a flight that was more than seven and a half hours. Then no sooner we landed, we were at the hotel, we were sleeping, and then we were up, we were rehearsing, which was just mind blowing. The guys that played the guitar, bass and drums (Allen Hinds, Keith Jones, Donnell Spencer Jr.) were just incredible….I’d not really been around musicians of that level before and it took some getting used to and I knew that I had to be on top of my game to blend in and to sort of keep up.
Smitty: (Laughs)
OS: I wanted them to go away from the experience, the rest of the band, and say, you know, “That was really good. Those gigs were really good.” And I knew that I had to be in top form for that, so that took some getting used to. These guys had played with as you can imagine, they’d played with everybody. Allen Hinds just got off tour with Randy Crawford, Donnell had been playing with Lionel Richie and, it doesn’t sink in what sort of level of musicians you’re playing with.…so the gig itself at Catalina I’d say it was probably slow motion, but it just went perfectly. I was fairly nervous but not as nervous as I thought I would be, because it was sort of surreal in nature. So the show was wonderful and the fans’ reaction was the height of the surreal experience. Just coming down after the show, about five or ten minutes after we’d finished the show and walking around the side of the ballroom towards the shop and just the queue of people for autographs was all the way around the building, and everyone’s clapping and cheering us, and I wasn’t expecting that at all because I’d never experienced that. So that was the first experience of America.
Smitty: Very cool. Did you get to meet Art Good?
OS: Of course, yeah, I did get to meet Art, only very briefly because, I mean, I came over with James (Vargas). But I’ve been speaking to Art. I actually did an interview with Art a few days back, which was cool.
Smitty: He’s a great guy, isn’t he?
OS: We’ve been chatting so, yeah, he’s cool. I like Art. He’s a very laid back chap.
Smitty: Yeah, and he always puts on a great show wherever he’s doing any kind of event. He always does it top notch. He’s a great cat.
OS: I totally agree. I think he’s absolutely at the forefront of that sort of promotion and that type of festival.
Smitty: Yeah, he’s one of the best. So, now, let’s talk about the record.
OS: Okay.
Smitty: Because I think this record is just unbelievably cool and your first single to radio was “Easy Does It.”
OS: That’s right, yeah.
Smitty: And that’s a great choice, wonderful track and…
OS: Thank you.
Smitty: You’re welcome, and you’ve got a great bass player, Julian Crampton, on there and…
OS: That’s right.
Smitty: .…and Matt (Park) on guitar. Why did you select this song for the record because to me it stands out from all the other tracks. Did you build around that song or was that just one you added to the mix?
