April 10, 2006
Interviewed by Bonnie Schendell

Mindi Abair is a force to be reckoned with.  She has paid her dues over the years playing in dive clubs, and has stayed true to her sound, her roots and her style.  She has had an amazing year and achieved tremendous success and popularity.  With the release of her new CD, Life Less Ordinary, Mindi is embarking on a solo tour.  Before heading out, she took some time to talk with SmoothViews and catch us up on all that has been happening.

SmoothViews (SV):  Hi, Mindi.  So glad to have you back on SmoothViews! 
Mindi Abair (MA):  I am so happy to be here.  Thanks!

SV:  It’s been a busy year for you, since you last spoke with us.  Guitars and Saxes shows, cruising, Christmas shows, a new CD... oh yeah, and getting married!  I’m tired just thinking about all you have done.  What’s it been like?
MA:  It’s been a crazy, crazy year and I wouldn’t change a bit of it.  I have to say I stayed so busy this year and in-between the busy, the hurricanes hit us and other crazy things happened in the world.  It was truly an insane year for many reasons.  It was awesome to be out with Guitars & Saxes.  Mainly I had just been out with my own band and that’s mostly what I know.  It was so much fun to come together with a few different people… Wayman Tisdale, Warren Hill, and Jeff Golub.  It was just awesome to be a part of everyone’s music.  It was really fun to be a team out there and go city-to-city.  That was a nice way to spend my summer.  And then to go on the Christmas tour with Peter White and Rick Braun, as usual, was just a blast.

SV:  That has become one of my favorite shows.  It is fun to sit there and watch how much fun the three of you are having.
MA: Oh…thank you for saying that.   We are having a ton of fun.  It’s not a show, in that perspective.  It’s just a big party!  For each of us, we really feel like we have something to give to the show that’s different from each other.  We feel like the three of us make this really cool package because we each have such distinct personalities.  I just think it makes such a fun show.  I have such a blast doing that show every night.  Actually we are thinking of doing a CD of the show.  So, many people came up to us the last few years saying, “Do you have a CD of the show, because I’d buy it!” And we thought that’s a really cool idea, but couldn’t quite pull it together for last year, but we might just have it together for this year.  Peter, Rick and I are really good friends and I think that comes through in the show.  It helps in my band.  I have all of my really close friends in my band.  Sometimes I have to sub-out, but then it goes to another friend.  But it is nice to have that camaraderie, friendship, and mutual respect that shines through.

SV:  How did you manage to fit in getting married between everything you had going on this past year?
MA: I don’t know how I fit that in, but I’m a pretty low-maintenance person and I didn’t want the huge pomp and circumstance.  I’ll get in the trenches and work and be on the road.  I didn’t need a year to get ready for the wedding and didn’t want the big poofy dress!  I just wanted it really small and intimate and when we decided to get married we thought, okay, this isn’t going to be rocket science, just get some flowers together, invite the family…and head out to the beach!  It turned out to be beautiful with very little effort.  I wouldn’t have changed a thing.   

SV:  You have a new CD out now, Life Less Ordinary.  Great CD.  The feel to me is kind of a “gritty” one… a little rawer than the past CDs.  Is it that way to you, too?
MA:  You know, it’s funny… I kind of morph and change as CDs go, and I notice some differences.  Obviously the music I listen to over the course of making a CD is very much represented in what comes out.  We pushed each other, me and Matthew Hagar, who has produced all of my records.  We pushed each other to really just dig inside ourselves further and really make this good and something that would be great.  Maybe this time that was a little grittier.  I felt like all the songs on the CD were so representative in one way or another of something that happened in my life over the past year.  I had to name it Life Less Ordinary because this past year has been so extraordinary.   I just thought that this is so much a part of what I have gone through in this last year.  I wrote more songs than appear on the record, but the ones that really were a part of what I went through were the ones that made it to the record.  “The Joint” is really gritty and old school.

SV:  That was one song I wanted to ask you about.  You always have such great stories about the songs you write.  Tell me about “The Joint.”  I am guessing there is some background to that.
MA:  Well, no one grows up and becomes a musician and plays huge places or big arenas.  We all grow up, go to college and play these dives.  And I would play six or seven nights a week in these clubs that you might get shot in!  I remember in one of the clubs, the wallpaper was peeling down off the walls.  I would never want to see the place with the lights on.  Thank goodness I never did.  It was just a dark and dingy club. But I have to say that the spirit that was in there was awesome!  Everyone was having a good time.  No one was posing.  It was just friends hanging and dancing and people were sweaty, and not caring about what they looked like.  It was all about the music and the social atmosphere.  I played so many of those clubs coming up in the ranks that I just started writing this song with Matthew Hagar and it sounded like one of those clubs.  The spirit of it just sounded like one of those clubs.  And I still go back to some of those clubs and sit in or just listen to a band.  I just like the spirit of it and that’s what the song was about.  And live, that song is the best on the record!  You never know how something is going to translate to the live stage when you write it, because you are in a controlled environment when you are writing.  Some of these songs, though, translate great!

SV:  Your first single “True Blue” has been one of the most added on Radio recently.  Congratulations on that!
MA:  Thanks.  It just went up to number 18 and most added again this week, which is pretty awesome.

SV:  You have such a great writing relationship with Matthew Hagar, who again wrote most of the new tracks with you.  That seems to be a constant in your recording.  How did that relationship begin and to what do you attribute the success?
MA:  I have been friends with Matthew Hagar since college and I started playing in his band in college.  I was playing keyboards and soprano sax and singing in his band.  Then from there he would come to my shows, but never really played in my band.  We started writing songs together.  We’d write a bunch of pop songs and a bunch of rock songs… then it just morphed.  I was feeling more instrumental stuff so I asked him “Hey, what are you doing?  Want to write?”  I always end up writing and playing with my friends.  I don’t know how it happens for other people, but for me, that’s my comfort zone.  So, it just happened that we wrote a bunch of music together.  And from my first CD until now, most of the songs have been written with my friends... friends that I have come up with through the ranks playing with or went to college with or hung out with for years and played with on the road.  I’ve tried to write with some people over the years that I didn’t know, and I feel that it really helps to know someone to write a meaningful song.

SV:  Because of the connection?
MA:  I really feel that way.  I feel that you don’t have to be anything you’re not with them.  That’s one of the things I have loved about working with Matthew Hagar and working with a lot of other friends like Ty Stevens, Stevo Theard, Jamey Tate, and so many other friends.  You can be yourself and you know each other well enough to hopefully bring out the best in each other.  And, I know being in the studio with Matthew over the years, there’s a comfort level.  And I don’t know if I would have that with someone I didn’t have that deep of a relationship with.  I feel like I can make mistakes.  I feel like I have the comfort level to try something that may look or sound really stupid, but may turn out to be something really cool. 

SV:  So you trust his judgment because of the comfort?
MA:  Yes, that’s true, too.  Some people get a record deal and try to get the star producer.  And maybe that star producer doesn’t know what makes them special.  And maybe that star producer hasn’t grown up with them for the last ten years listening to all these bands and having the same musical tastes, listening to the same records and going through the same phases together.  I think it really helps to know all that about people.  So we can draw from so many types of music we have listened to over the years and bring in cool things we remember that would sound awesome in our songs.  Like, my favorite record was this Rikki Lee Jones record from 1983.  I actually stole Matthew’s copy of The Magazine, which is a Rikki Lee Jones CD.  I had it in my car all last year and that’s the reason I covered her song, “It Must Be Love,” because I couldn’t stop listening to it.  I kept thinking it would be beautiful for the record.  I was so in love with that song.

SV:  Let’s talk about your vocals.  You are so comfortable with them and now we all look forward to a vocal or two on each CD.  When did you begin singing?
MA:  You know, I kind of sang before I ever played any instruments.  My parents said I used to just sing all the time, because I grew up on the road with my dad’s band, and they said I would just sit outside of the band truck and sing my songs! (laughs)  I don’t remember, but I’ll take their word for it!  But, my grandmother was an opera singer, so she was always singing and would sing along with me.  So, I started piano lessons when I was five and sax at eight.  What was really weird was when I came to Los Angeles, I had tried to get a record deal for so long and was turned down by so many people for a variety of reasons, like having enough sax players, or we don’t know how to market a girl because there are no girl sax players.  I also would get, “Are you a singer or are you a sax player?” an awful lot.  I wondered if I had to really choose.  It was explained to me by a few different labels that it would be confusing to people, that people want to think of you as one or the other.  I thought that you should show people who you are and all of the aspects of who you are because that makes you different from anyone else.  I always felt that you should be who you are, and if that was to your detriment, then it’s to your detriment.  But I have always respected those artists who, no matter what, were themselves.  Miles Davis got pounded for many, many years through different album cycles.  People liked his be-bop stuff and wanted him to do that, but he didn’t want to…it wasn’t in his heart.  He was who he was even though he took a lot of flak for it.  I think the only way to really truly succeed is to be yourself.  Anyone who is posing to be something they’re not, is just that.  I’d rather sing and play sax.  That’s who I am.

SV:  What inspires your lyrics?
MA:  Everything inspires music.  As for lyrics, I think love is a great inspiration, like with “Ordinary Love.”  I think so many people write songs from the point of falling in love, or falling out of love, or loss of love, or wanting love.  But very few songs are written from that comfortable middle zone where you fell into love and then you are so comfortable with that person.  It’s not that fiery spark at the beginning, or not that awful thing at the end… it’s the wow…we’re just in love, in the middle of this and can sink into it like a chair.  So, that’s what that song was written about… that beautiful middle spot.  That song was played live for the first time at the Governor’s Ball [after the Oscars]. 

SV:  Your CD is just about to be released and then you embark on a pretty extensive tour.  Is the regular band coming out with you?
MA:  Yes, I have the regular guys coming out and it’s so nice to keep that family together.  It’s going to be Jay Gore on guitar, Jamey Tate on drums, Andre Berry on bass, and Rodney Lee on keys.  It’s such a fun band.  Just to give these guys the license to rock out and have a good time… and be the rock stars that they have inside of them, is pretty funny to watch!

SV:  Will your Dad be joining in at any of the shows?
MA:  Well, my Dad and Mom just moved to Los Angeles a few months ago.  What’s really neat is the fact that they can come to a few more shows.  So, my Dad is going to choose a few and sit in here and there.  He just sat in a couple of nights ago when we played in Valencia, CA.  He just brings the house down.  For me, it’s such a dream come true.  It’s awesome to play with him.  And for him, it’s a dream come true because not everyone gets a chance to play music with their kids.  He gets to be a part of it.  I think people are surprised because I’ll bring him up on stage and they’re looking at him like yeah, the old guy’s gonna play.  Great.  Not so sure about this.  And then he comes on stage, plays a few notes and starts really going for it, and people step back, get up on their feet and start clapping.  He is such an awesome player.  I think that people can see where I was influenced by him.  We stand next to each other and play off of each other.  It’s such a cool thing.

SV:  So many people love seeing a woman excel in what is typically a man’s world.  Do you see yourself as a role model for young girls?
MA:  I never thought of myself as a role model.  It’s definitely nothing I ever worked towards or considered.  I think that became a reality for me during the Backstreet Boys concerts.  When I was on the road playing with the Backstreet Boys, I was in front of so many young girls and their moms and I started getting e-mails…and over one million hits on my website… but e-mails from these young girls saying we’ve never seen a girl play an instrument really well for a living and be a role model for us for that.  They didn’t know it was a possibility.  These girls had seen women play guitar and sing like folk music, but hadn’t seen someone like me playing keyboards and percussion and sax.  They said it inspired them to practice or to follow their dreams.  I was so taken back by that.  What a wonderful feeling to inspire anyone. And for me, looking back, I had no role models as woman musicians.  It was nothing I had ever thought about until then.  I guess it’s really cool to have that said about me and to have the chance to be a role model.  If I can make it any easier for any girls coming up the ranks after me, I’m honored.  I think that’s an amazing place to be. 

SV:  With all of the touring and the variety of folks you travel with, any good road stories?
MA:  The first show I ever did with my band on the road after getting signed by Verve Records was opening for Al Jarreau.  I was so nervous; however, he had handed me my college diploma at Berklee College of Music.  Each year they give two artists an honorary doctorate, and they get to hand the diplomas to the graduates.  My graduation year it was Al Jarreau and Phil Collins.  Me being first, Abair, I get my diploma from them and the first thing I said was, “Hey, you guys need a sax player?!”  They said no, but I went on from there and then I finally got the chance to meet Al at that first show.  It was at the Beacon Theater in NY.  I told him how honored I was to meet him and he couldn’t have been nicer.  After the show we did this thing with a bunch of contest winners, Al was so gracious.  At the very end of the night, after midnight, I realized my purse had been stolen and I had a flight at like 6am.  So within a couple of hours, I needed a purse.  I had no ID., no lipstick, nothing.  And the only two people left in the building were myself and Al Jarreau.   I told him that my purse was stolen out of my dressing room and he said, “What?  That’s unacceptable. We’ve got to look for it.”  He starts running around and going through trash cans!  I stood there looking at him going through a trash can in the hall and I said “Al, what are you doing?  You’re Al Jarreau.  You can’t go through a trash can!”  He’s just looking at me and telling me how we need to go through every trash can because that’s where they throw them after taking the money.  So, he’s going all over and I’m watching Al looking for my purse in trash cans.  He’s so awesome. We never found it.  The next morning on the plane, I had no ID and I was just newly signed to Verve Records.  So, we showed them my CD and the cover of R&R that I was on that week, and put them up to my face.  And I actually got on the plane!  I gave copies of the CD to security.  So, for any artists who get robbed, bring extra CDs!!

SV:  I’ve also heard you’ve taken up mountain biking!
MA:  You’ve been talking to my friends!  A few friends of mine are really into mountain biking, but not the nice mountain biking.  They’re into the full body armor and helmet.  They will jump off big things and fly through the air and think nothing of it.  Even my husband is now into it, flying down mountaintops and over things.  We went to Mammoth Mountain and it was so beautiful just getting out there in nature and being a part of it was amazing, but to see how fast you can go on a bike down a mountain, down wild trails with all these rocks, is really scary!  I landed right on my face! Not much else I could do, so I got up.  I’m pretty hardy.  I was alright!

SV:  So in-between the mountain biking and gardening, what else have you been doing in the few minutes of spare time you have?
MA:  I have been baking a lot.  I made a pact with myself that anyone who added my new song this year, I’d bake them cookies.  It’s like a little family with the radio stations in this format.  So, I thought it would be fun.  I usually bake for my neighbors while I am home.  So, I’ve been baking cookies and brownies.

SV:  That’s great.  A normal, ordinary life.
MA:  And in some ways, not so ordinary.  A Life Less Ordinary!!!

SV:  That’s a great note to end this on.  Mindi, thanks for talking to us again.  Best of luck with the new CD, Life Less Ordinary, and with the upcoming tour.  I know I’ll see you and the band in a few weeks.
MA:  Oh, it’s my pleasure.  I can’t wait to see you and everyone else on the road.