Bob Koenig's new album was released on Catspaw Records in the states in September of 1996. Shortly after the completion of the new CD, I had the pleasure of talking to Bob at his home on Long Island. In this setting, surrounded by a bird, a couple of (domesticated!) rats, a cheerful lizard, a few turtles, and thousands of albums and CD's, we chatted about how Bob's career had gotten to this point, and about where it was heading in the future. From what I've heard of the new CD, it has the potential to go very far.

It's easy to see from Bob's easygoing demeanor and clever sense of humor that he's someone who takes things in life as they come and waits for them all, as is their tendency, to fall into perspective. For example; bands come, bands go, tapes get erased, he becomes a cartoon character ... but it all leads somewhere. And at the very least, it always seems to lead him to some new song ideas. That fact, coupled with an obviously happy marriage and some strong family ties, seems to be enough for this very musical gentleman.

So come along as Smilin' Ears takes a trip through the musical adventures of Bob Koenig!

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Tony - We're starting this interview right before the release of your new album; is this a "solo" venture.

Bob - Technically it's a "solo" album. It's on Catspaw Records in the states. It's called "Prose and Icons". There was a project which I had wanted to do at one point, basically something to pass around to friends and stuff, which was to take a bunch of my old lyrics and type them all out and put them together into a little collective book and it was going to be called "Prose and Icons". A take-off on "pros and cons", as it were. And thinking of a title for this thing ... which we sure as heck couldn't (laughs) ... we decided on using that play on words for the record. So there it is.

Tony - And it certainly works. So, would the book have included the same material as the album?

Bob - Some of it was the same. Well it's funny; George Peterson, the producer of this record, is a guy I've known since about 1986 when we worked together, and last year we discussed the possibility of him putting out a record of my material on his label. Well I didn't have too much new music at the time, so I just grabbed a bunch of old demo tapes that I had sitting around - a lot of little scraps of various songs that hadn't been put out before - and I threw him a tape of about thirty of these. Some of them were far from complete. And the songs on the new album are basically the songs which he picked out from that bunch; adding in some cover versions. Of these, the song "River In You, River in Me" was one that I sure didn't think he was going to pick. I had about thirty seconds worth of it on tape. It was just me trying to figure out the chord pattern, and a few lines here and there. That's all we had. So when he said we were gonna do this song, it was an "Oh, God ... I've gotta make a song out of this!" (laughs). So there was a little bit of work involved with some of the songs, but most of them were fairly finished.

The decisions came later as to whether the tracks would be just me, solo acoustic, or if George would help back me up on some keyboard parts, or whether we would have an actual band play behind me.

Tony - Is there a Bob Koenig Band on this album?

Bob - Well, sort of. Actually the funny thing about this grouping is that they're all guys that I've known throughout the years, but only one of them, the guitarist Dave Fuller, is anyone that I've actually played in a band with. What we did set out to do before this record ever came to be was to form a house band for a local Long Island club that would do 60's bubble gum music and Monkees covers and so forth (laughs). I had called these guys down to try out for the group, but the club folded ... and so did the idea of doing the cover band. It went from us doing that to me saying "Well, you already know each other, why don't you guys come down and rehearse and see what you think of these songs". So that's how that part of the record came together. Time will tell if we'll actually become a real group and start touring.

Tony - So, the band had its illustrious start doing bubble gum covers. Well now I'll ask you to do the impossible; tell me what's on this album. Have we got bubble gum here?

Bob - (laughs) The album's an eclectic combination of all different styles of music that I've played and that I like. Yeah, there's some bubble gum here. If people are acquainted with the old Alive and Kicking song "Tighter, Tighter", there's a cover of that on here. My wife Jessica sings on that too, so it's all kept in the family (chuckles). There's another 70's cover, of George Harrison's "Give Me Love, Give Me Peace on Earth" - there's that and the Sting song "Fragile". A number of the songs on here have a semi-religious or spiritual context to them. Somehow or other I guess with George listening to and selecting the songs he tried to get some kind of a theme out of it. For example, the first track, "The Apple", talks about Adam being tempted by the apple and how that metaphor is still with us today. "River In You, River In Me", is about having something mystical or emotional flowing through us, and how everyone's emotions are intertwined and about the ways which we "pick up on" each other. "Spirit Becomes the Master" is another one that deals very heavily in the spiritual.

Some of the other songs are less mystical. "Egos On Parade" deals with ... well, I wrote that after a rehearsal with one of my various bands. The guys used to have fights over where everyone stood within the group and I'd say "Oh, here we go, the egos are on parade again". So that's where that came from.

Tony - A loving tribute to the former bandmates.

Bob - Sure (laughs). But a lot of it comments on what was going on at practices. I'd be busy wondering 'Who will my next girlfriend be?', and 'What'll I do when I get out of rehearsal tonight?' and 'Since I'm obviously not making any headway here, maybe I'll just trade my place in the band and just sink in the background and let them handle things' ... and etcetera. The only thing that I added to the 1996 version of the song is a kind of reference to John Lennon's "How Do You Sleep". So if certain people are listening to this song, then maybe they'll have an idea as to what it's talking about or what particular person it's referring to (laughs).

Tony - Let's give our readers some history. You mentioned that George Peterson was someone that you'd worked with, but let's cover the various bands that you've been in and sort of fill in the gaps. When did you start making music?

Bob - Well I started writing songs in roughly 1978 or '79. A few friends of mine and I attempted ... and I mean ATTEMPTED ... to put a band together, which we called "The Labels". That centered around trying to be a sort of Beatle cover band, though we did try some original songs. The leader of that band wanted me to be the George Harrison of the group. So since George's first song was "Don't Bother Me", well than mine was going to be "It Doesn't Bother Me", which became "It Doesn't Bother Me At All". And that was one of the first tracks that I actually sang. Several years later in 1983, a group of other friends got together and recorded a very rough demo - real garage band version - of "It Doesn't Bother Me At All". That was really the first "serious" attempt.

The guitarist Dave Fuller - who also happens to play on the new record, bringing it all full circle - and I had gotten together through mutual friends who were in a great band called The Wind and had begun trying to write songs and learn each others' material. We ended up forming "Abandon Here", which was a take on 'Hey is there a band in there?' ... 'Yeah there's Abandon Here' (laughs). So that band lasted a couple of years before it faded out in between squabbles ... ah, and right back to "Egos On Parade" again.

Tony - Was there any recorded output from that band?

Bob - Yeah, there were at least four songs that we'd done in a studio situation. Two of those, the ones that I wrote, actually came out. One of those was a version of "It Doesn't Bother Me At All". The later one was recorded better, but the earlier one from '83 was ... more funner (laughs). Anyway, the two that Dave wrote are still unreleased. Mine came out on the first record I put out which was a six song EP by a band which we had fashioned as "The Keys". The EP was essentially two old "Abandon Here" tracks combined with four other songs that I'd written. We had "guest" friends come in to finish up the new tracks. I seem to do this a lot in my career; I mean putting a record out first and then figuring out what band I'm going to have later.

Tony - You're not alone in that, though.
Bob - No. I know other artists do that. I guess if you have a vision, it's better to do it yourself than to get intermingled with everyone else's input. At the time, though with doing the Keys' EP, "Grand Opening", my drummer Ken Schaefer basically produced the songs which I wrote and sang. He gave them a sort of direction. So we worked out a deal then, and it worked for a few years. (Pause) But now that's stopped (laughs).

Tony - Oh, I detect a sign of "No Comment" in that tone of voice.

Bob - (laughs) Well, no, The Keys actually worked into a full fledged band with John Piccolo on bass, and Bob Hardy on lead guitar. That was the basic line-up which everyone would know from our second release, which was a six-song cassette entitled "Changes". We were on a national TV show called "Dance Party" on the USA Network where we lip-synched to a song from the older album ... which they weren't on anyway, but that's okay (laughs).

Tony - Somewhere in between, there was a mysterious flexi-disc.

Bob - Actually that came after "Changes". I'd been into comic books for years, since I was about five years old. Now a fairly recent comic that had struck my interest was about a group of all female heroes ... wonderful stuff it is ... called "Fem Force". It's marketed out of Florida in the states by AC Comics - not to be confused with DC comics - cause then you'd have AC/DC y'see. Anyway, they were working with a producer in Hollywood at the time, a guy named Mike Frankovich, on an idea for a full-fledged movie on these super heroines. They're still trying to do it and I don't know if it's ever going to see the light, but that's Hollywood for you. Anyway, they wanted to have some music for this as a soundtrack. I met up with them and we talked, and they seemed to really enjoy The Keys music at the time. So I took a song from the "Grand Opening" album called "Something Special" and rewrote the lyrics to make it "The Fem Force Theme". Issue number fifty of their comic book came with flexi-disc of the song. Aside from the flexi there are a few pages with pictures of us and the origin of the band. In another issue there's a scene where one of the heroines, a character called Synn, goes to one of our concerts. And there we are up on the stage in the comic book. So it was nice to become a comic book character for a change, instead of just reading about them (laughs). They made me look a little more like Tom Petty than myself, but that was okay.

Tony - After The Keys there was a sort of "country" project; Rob Koenig's "Backroad Pond". I'm calling it country, but it was kind of an amalgam of different styles, really.

Bob - While I was still in The Keys, I was thinking about having enjoyed my dad and my uncle playing country music around the house over the years, and I was considering doing something in some way related to that genre. Now there was a track on "Grand Opening" called "Angry Man" which was sort of country, but on "Backroad Pond" - and you can consider that the band name or the title of the album, I wasn't sure at the time - I really delved into it more. On the title track I got to play rhythm guitar, bass, and even mandolin, which I normally don't play too much; I mean, I have one, but I don't usually get a chance play it. I also played washboard (laughs).

Tony - For folks who want to go back in time after hearing the giveaway CD, is most of this still available?

Bob - Well, there are still plenty of copies of the first Keys album, which is on vinyl for those of you who are still into those bigger pieces of plastic with the hole in it ... that DOESN'T go into the CD player so don't try it. It won't fit. And there are still a number of copies of the country tape "Backroad Pond". Unfortunately there are no remaining original copies of the "Changes" cassette due to an ex-band member who left a box of them on top of a PA speaker, which demagnetized them (laughs). But (winks), he knew what he was doing.

Tony - Returning to the current album, you mentioned that on "Tighter, Tighter" you have your wife singing with you.

Bob - Yeah, my wife Jessica's with me. The people on her block called her family The Partridge Family while she was growing up because there was always music going on in the house. Her sister is in the folk duo "Petronella", and her mom and dad play at various churches and sing in choirs. Her brother is a counter-tenor who sings at churches and things. It was only inevitable that somehow or another we'd have to pull her into the music business. She also plays keyboards on the cover of "Fragile".

Tony - Are designs set on a Jessica Koenig solo album down the road.

Bob - Mmmm, she's told me that she used to write some stuff, or at least some lyrics, but I've yet to see them to this day (laughs). So I don't know. But I feel that if I got her to do this, who knows.

Tony - You talked about hearing country music around your house growing up. What are the other things that you can think of that went into your ears that caused your music to come out?

Bob - Ah, my influences. Well, it started from my dad playing country music ... stuff like Johnny Cash and Hank Williams. I basically enjoy playing rhythm guitar and singing, so if I got that from the Johnny Cash "thing" of having that guitar in front of you and singing, well than that influence remains in me today. Whether it sounds like his music or not is a different story. In 1968 my mom took me to see the Beatles' film "Yellow Submarine". That changed my life at that point because I couldn't take my ears or ears off the screen. That was the changing point in my life. After that I needed to see things and hear things with "color", in a psychedelic sort of way. It wasn't just the Beatles at the time. I listened to and enjoyed anything I heard on the cartoons that I watched. I liked The Banana Splits and The Jackson 5. I also liked The Monkees, and so I had records of that genre as well. Everyone thinks that MTV started things up with kids picking it up from the television to go and buy a record, but back then it was the cartoons that sold us. They don't realize how much influence that was. We had the Monkees and The Partridge Family and so forth. So I was known as the kid on my block who would have the latest singles every week. if I heard song that I liked that week I'd visit the local record store and get one or two singles before I delved into the unthinkable and got a full-length album. I mean, I thought I really went to hell with myself when I bought the album "Dark Side of the Moon". But before that it was country and bubble gum, really.

One song I'd remembered from back then I covered on "Backroad Pond", it's called "Girl On the Billboard". It's the story of a trucker driving through town who sees a girl on the billboard wearing " ... nothing but a smile and a towel ...". He starts trying to find where she is and if she's for real. He tracks down the artist who put up the billboard, and he kicks him out. So the guy never finds out if she's for real.

Tony - Did the country rock movement of the seventies, like The Eagles, influence you?

Bob - Oh, sure. Well, I was never particularly fond of The Eagles. I was more into The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, or the solo music of Michael Nesmith, or Gram Parsons ... that stuff was some of the best. The Dillards were very good. In the states many people knew them as the backwards family on "The Andy Griffith Show", but they were actually a very progressive bluegrass and country-rock mixture. That stuff's really fun to listen to. You also have folks like Michael Martin Murphy, etc.

Tony - You also referred to an early track as having a garage band feel. Do you keep an ear to what's happening in the grunge circuit?

Bob - Oh, very much so. I really enjoyed Nirvana, and now I'm into The Foo Fighters and Superdrag. There's a new guy named Beck ...not Jeff Beck ... and he's really good. I even like some of Alannis Morisette's stuff. I try to stay current. I'm more current now in what I listen to than I used to be. When I was in high school I liked to wear paisley shirts and listen to old 1960's garage band stuff. I'd have The Yardbirds written on my notebook and kids would want to take magic markers and scratch it out to write Led Zeppelin on it saying things like; 'What are you listening to that garbage for? You should listen to Zeppelin'. Not realizing, of course, that Jimmy Page was the guitarist of both of the groups that they were talking about.

But for angst, aside from the grunge stuff, Pete Townshend was always a favorite of mine; and more his solo stuff than The Who. If it was songs by the Who it was usually songs that he sang, or things that I've heard the demos of over the years ... 'cause I'm not too fond of Roger Daltrey. Can I say that?

Tony - Sure, he'll probably beat the hell out of you the next time he sees you, but (laughs) ...

Bob - Ah, but as God said, "Though shalt not commit a Daltrey". (laughs) And can we leave that in. So anyway, the punk music of the seventies also had an influence. The Ramones were favorites of mine. They were like the seventies Velvet Underground in a sense that anyone who was into them at the time ended up forming a group later on.

But there are all sorts of influences on the new album. Talking about staying present; one thing that occurred with this record, and it's the same with any project I seem to work on, is that if there was something that I'd listened to heavily at the time the project started, it was reflected in what I created. Now I'd been listening to a lot of those "Incredibly Strange" records, and records of 60's "lounge" and "exotica" music. So the Sting cover of "Fragile" has been reworked so that it sounds very "exotica"-like; very Martin Denny-ish. It even has my bird Louie the Cockatiel chirping in the background. So some of this album has a "lounge act" sort of feel to it; though it's a mixture of lounge, unplugged and ... acoustic grunge.

Tony - Great term 'acoustic grunge'.

Bob - I like those (laughs). I mean, there's a song on "Backroad Pond" called "Metaphysical Cowboy" ... so that was 'metaphysical country' as I called it.

Tony - Now that "Prose and Icons" is released, will there be some live shows.

Bob - Yes, we hope to have some kind of live band. I guess I'll see how the other guys feel about actually getting in a band again ... y'know, I mean actually making this a "real" band.

Tony - And then is it right back in the studio with new material or will you take a break?

Bob - Basically we'll hang in and see what happens with this record, but I believe there's a possibility for another record with the same crew ...hopefully.

Tony - Well, thanks for joining us at "Smilin' Ears", Bob.

Bob - Thank you. The best to your readers, and I hope the folks out there like what they hear on the CD.

Written for Smilin' Ears Magazine, but unpublished.

For more information about Bob Koenig's CD "Prose and Icons", please return to my home page and send me an e-mail!