RomanceEverAfter

The Arts - Music

You have untaken a new and exciting project.  Discuss the genesis of Project 7X.

I’ve spent the majority of my musical efforts over the past few years in the studio producing original music. But for quite some time, I’d had this desire to put together a live show.

I suppose it all really got started back in 2002 when I was asked to play at a private party. I called on some old friends – Steve Haraburda, Sam DeMarco and his brother John DeMarco – to see if they might be interested. Well, they were all on board and we worked up a couple hours of material. Playing the party was huge fun.

After the party, Steve, Sam and I really thought seriously about doing some more live performing. However, the trick was deciding on the right material and the right kind of show. Between Steve and me, we had a lot of original material. However, we felt the best direction was to put together a show of very popular, recognizable music. Yet, on the other hand, we wanted to do something a bit different from a traditional "cover band" approach.

Then in 2004, I saw this late-night infomercial about a TimeLife audio CD collection from the 1970s. Watching this, I remembered all the great music that was produced during those years. Then it hit me – why don’t we do something that focuses on the 1970s as a sort of theme.

Soon after, the concept started to take shape. We would do a show that showcases the progression of rock music of the 70s - starting in 1970 and moving along chronologically until the end of 1979. So, really, that’s how Project 7X got started.

Once Steve and I worked through the arrangements, Sam got involved – and finally we recruited Vern Hammersmith on drums. After a few months of rehearsal, the show was ready. We had our first live appearance in January 2006, and it was great fun. And after all the work putting the show together - we were very pleased that the material was well received.

Project 7X brings a fresh, updated flavor to classic 1970s rock music.  What criteria did you use in selecting the material for your performances?

One of the first things that Steve and I agreed upon was that Project 7X was not going to be an oldies act. Instead, our goal was to take songs that were popular and well written, and then interpret them in our own way. We approached the material as if one of us had some lyrics, chords and melodies – and went about producing the songs as if they were brand new – while still being mindful to retain what we call the "signature" aspects of the songs.

To begin, we found listings of the top 100 songs from each year of the decade. That’s a lot of music. From this list we selected songs that were really well written at their core - in terms of lyrics, chords and melodies. There are many attributes that constitute a well written song. But in our case, we defined a well written song as one that could be stripped down to one voice and one guitar – and still convey its energy or message. 

(left to right:  Scott Newton, Sam DeMarco, Steve Haraburda)

Some songs we looked at were great recordings, but what made them great was the studio production or the instrumentation of the original performing artists. For these, if you sat down and played them on an acoustic guitar with one voice – they just didn’t work. On the other hand, take Layla by Eric Clapton. He had a huge hit with that song back in the early 70s – and then again as an unplugged song in the late 90s. This was possible because the core of the song was written well and it could be stripped down. So that’s the kind of material we were looking for.

Then the next step was to sort the list even further for songs that could be performed effectively by a band with a guitar-based lineup – which is what we were going to go out as. For example, we looked at a lot of music from the band Chicago. Their material was really amazing stuff. But with many of their songs, if you didn’t replicate that fantastic brass section – the signature elements were missing – and the spirit of the song did not lend itself to a new interpretation.

It was actually very tough to trim down the list to our initial 2 hour show because there was so much great material to choose from. But as we go forward, we’ll definitely introduce new material to the show.

The popularity of 1970s music seems to cross all age boundaries including the MTV generation.  What's the appeal?

For people that grew up in the 70s – which includes me – this music was the soundtrack to our lives during a very formative period. Hearing a particular song often has this incredible power to take you back in time to when you first heard it. Even now, each time I hear Bob Seger’s Night Moves, I flash back to 1977 - driving a ’71 LTD station wagon on a summer night with my arm around Julie. So, for people my age, there’s an understandable level of affinity for this music.

And for the younger people, they’ve heard this stuff on classic rock radio – and it’s survived thus far because it’s good music. In spite of the fact that it’s the music from their parent’s generation – it’s a very welcomed alternative to the rap and hip hop that’s so prevalent today. 

When I was a kid, the stuff our parents listened to was mostly easy listening 50s music – and we really had no interest in that. Some of the rock music of the 50s was inspiring, but it was still in its infancy. For younger people today, their parents listened to Led Zeppelin, Jethro Tull, and Yes. So for the 20-30 year old generation, I guess it’s cool to like your parent’s music – because so much of the music was genuinely cool and has aged quite well.

Vern Hammersmith

On a more expansive perspective – I feel that the 70s was a very special period of time in our society. The 60s had been very turbulent, and by the 70s, I think pop culture just wanted to relax a bit, get a little silly and have some fun. That collective chill pill could only last for so long however, and with the 80s came a new phase that was very excessive and somewhat edgy and harsh. 

There was an innocence that existed during the 70s – that was unique to that decade. I mean, compare the world today with the 1970s. In the 70s, once the nightmare of Vietnam got squared away, our greatest concerns were gas prices, Watergate, and dealing with inflation. Today we have the threat of nuclear and bio-terrorism and the looming economic decline of our society in view of global financial realignment. So I can completely understand how a little glance back at the innocence of the 70s can be a very welcomed retreat – for both young and old.

Project 7X -2 (Continue)