| Q&A with Chris Vachon from Roomful Of Blues |
| Written by Derek Harrison | |||
| Wednesday, 14 December 2011 09:57 | |||
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TimesSquare.com (TS): Roomful of Blues recently won a Boston Music Award for Best Blues Act of 2011. What is it that makes such a long-running band able to still stand at the top of its game and be recognized for that? Chris Vachon (CV): I think we just really like what we do. We try to keep the show happening and we really enjoy it so we work harder. We put a lot of work into keeping it fresh and keeping it going. TS: You have a series of dates coming up mostly in New England, in the wake of the award, including BB King’s Blues Club on January 5th. Does Roomful of Blues play at BB King’s regularly? CV: We play there about twice a year, and we’ve doing that for about the past four years. TS: When did you take over as the bandleader? CV: I joined to band 22 years ago and I took over around 15 years ago. TS: Your latest album “Hook, Line & Sinker” was released earlier this year. What makes that album stand out from the back catalogue? CV: We got a new singer Phil Pemberton and we needed to get a record with him on it. We didn’t really have time to write any new material so we picked stuff we’ve always respected by the artists and songwriters we’ve always respected. We started with 80 songs and whittled it down to the best 12. I think they’re good songs and that the band played well. We recorded it live in the studio, it took us about a day and a half to do, then I took all the songs and mixed them at my house. I think we captured a really natural performance, without using any overdubs, which we really didn’t want to do. We just recorded two takes of each song and took the best one. I’m not sure if it’s one of our greatest albums. TS: With so many albums under your belt, and covers having always been an important part of the band’s catalogue, does song selection start to become a problem as the band uses up more and more of its favourite songs? CV: Well there’s a lot of stuff out there. I just had everybody pick 10 songs and that’s how we ended up with 80 to start with. There’s always more to choose from, a lot of stuff people have heard, that isn’t familiar. As the bandleader I’m always looking for more songs that we could play. I think the next album will be mostly originals, because we’ll have the time to write the material. But covers are always important to us. TS: As a songwriter do you have any personal goals for the future recording career of the band? CV: We really enjoy what we’re doing. I think we’ll have another record in about a year, since we do records every two years, so I guess my goal now is to get everybody geared up to write some new songs. TS: How long have you been producing the Roomful of Blues albums? CV: For about 12 or 13 years. I’ve done 6 or 7 albums. TS: Rich Lataille is the only original member. Do you think the band will continue if he leaves? CV: He’s been in the band for 43 years, but I think it probably would keep going without him. There’s been 50 people in the band, so it really has a life of its own. I guess if he left we’d just have to find somebody else to play the sax, but he is really special to the sound. He’d be hard to replace, but if the guys want to keep it going it’s going to keep going. TS: Anything else you want to say? CV: Just that I’m looking forward to playing at BB King’s. We always have a great time there, there’s a great crowd, really supportive. Roomful of Blues will be playing at BB King’s Blues Club on January 5th.
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