Eli ‘Paperboy’ Reed Delivers Q&A

Mixing the frenetic stylings of a youthful James Brown with a voice that demands attention, Reed’s full-tilt R&B explodes from his albums as well as his live shows while his videos showcase a natural energy and exuberance that jumps right off of the screen.

Reed’s first album for Yep Roc – My Way Home – arrives June 10.  Inspired in part by his years-long friendship with soul singer turned preacher Mitty Collier, plus his experiences teaching gospel, the album features Reed and his small combo made up of J.B. Flatt (Zongo Station) on organ, Michael Isvara Montgomery (Sinkane) on bass, and Noah James Rubin (Skaters) on drums.  The LP was recorded in less than a week at the Bushwick, N.Y., studio belonging to musician/songwriter Loren Humphrey (Guards, Cults).  You can pre-order the disc via this link.

What’s different about My Way Home compared to past Eli “Paperboy” Reed LPs?

It was sort of born out of a little bit of frustration from the previous processes I’ve gone through with a lot of the bureaucracy I’ve dealt with, with major labels and stuff like that.  Also, just kind of getting back to what I was doing when I started doing this.  2005 was the 10th anniversary of the release of my first record.  I went on a tour in Europe to play that music with the same guys I recorded with.  It gave me a little bit of inspiration to start writing more music, not necessarily in that vein, but a little bit more in that realm, I guess. 

I started writing, and I wasn’t even intending to make a whole album, it just came together very quickly.  A friend of a friend had a really cool recording studio in his apartment in [the] Bushwick [neighborhood] here in Brooklyn and we recorded the whole thing pretty much live to tape in about four days.

What led you to soul and R&B?

I’m a big collector of rhythm & blues and gospel music from the Boston area. … For me, it started with my dad and the records I listened to while growing up.  He’d play Sam Cooke & The Soul Stirrers, Howlin’ Wolf, also George Jones, Conway Twitty and stuff like that. There was a lot of great music around my house from a very young age.

Energy is so much a part of your live show.  Are you as energetic when recording in the studio?

I think so.  I love making records.  It’s really fun.  I guess the one thing [that might be] a fault is that I’m not very patient.  I don’t like to do a lot of takes.  If I think it’s good enough I’d rather just leave it. I’m not a perfectionist when it comes to the studio.

Artists like Mick Jagger, Bruce Springsteen, Beyoncé – like you, they just don’t sing their songs, but they “perform” their songs.  What contributes to the Eli “Paperboy” Reed that people see in the live show?

No matter how cliché it sounds, the 10,000 hours thing is a reality.  As improvisational and spontaneous it might sound, behind every performance is so much practice, so much rehearsal, so much study, so much listening.  Listening is probably one of the biggest elements musicians or singers miss out on. You got to spend a lot of time listening, figuring out what you like, what you don’t like, and why.  That was a big piece of it for me, just trying to get an understanding of what was important to me as a singer and a songwriter, what I valued.

You’re also teaching gospel quartet in New York.

I’m working with a really amazing program in Harlem that’s called “Gospel For Teens.”  I ended up, three years ago, starting kind of a subset of that program where we do strictly quartet music as a small group.  Quartet music has been one of my loves for a long time.  I think the greatest singers in history came out of the quartet tradition …. Sam Cooke and … all the amazing R&B singers, pretty much without fail, came out of quartet. There’s also singers that never left quartet who are incredible and unheralded.  People like Ira Tucker [in] The Dixie Hummingbirds or Robert Blair [in] The Fantastic Violinaires. 

So I wanted to give these young men an understanding of what quartet music is all about, and give them something that was specifically for them.  The program itself, in general, is strictly choir music – the big, large choirs – and most of that music is female-led.  So I wanted to do something that was strictly for young men. … We have class every Friday if I’m not on the road.  It was very inspirational to me to do this class.  It guided my writing and, kind of sonically, my approach to this new record.

Do you ever bring in songs you are working on to try out with the students?

No. It’s really important to me that this class be about them and not about me.  I try my best, if I can avoid it, to not do any singing unless I’m demonstrating something. I want them to figure it out on their own.  A lot of the kids are now alumni.  So if we start trying to do a song, I’ll let them figure out the harmony on their own and if somebody is missing something I’ll point it out.  We have work-shopped and written songs as a class, but I think it’s important to let these kids stand on their own and figure things out for themselves. 

Have you seen any possible future stars in your classes?

They’re all so talented.  It’s incredible.  It kind of blows my mind, how talented they are.  Whether or not they stick with music or go into other fields, I think they will be very successful at whatever they set their minds to do.

You mentioned recording the new album live.  Do you prefer to record live as opposed to layering tracks?

The last record I made for Warner Bros. was very much a studio creation built up piece by piece.  A lot of trying out different stuff, different sounds.  I really enjoyed it.  It was a way I never recorded before and we came up with something I thought was unique.

But, then again, when I’m recording for myself, I love to get in the room with the guys in my band and just play, and try to figure out what we’re going to sound like. What you hear on this new record is pretty much what the band sounded like in the room.  We overdubbed the vocals but everything else is live together.

Do you prefer recording digitally or analog?

It depends on the project.  This new record was done on tape, which I enjoyed doing.  I’m a firm believer that if you want to record on tape, it basically means, regardless of the quality of the sound of analog, you have to make your decisions ahead of time.  You’re not going to be able to edit things the same way as you could if you were working digitally.  If you’re committed to what you want to do, then go ahead and do it on tape and have fun.  For the previous record we were kind of figuring out the sound as we went.  So I thought digital was the way to go because we needed more options.

After 10 years of recording albums and touring, can you still perform merely for the joy of making music, even if you’re not in front of an audience?

Absolutely.  I play and sing every day, just for myself or for my wife at home.  I love music.  Making music with the kids, there’s no audience, it’s [just] singing.  For me, it’s one of the great joys.  If I couldn’t do that I don’t think I’d be doing this anymore.  To sit at home and write a song, or to sing something that pops into my head, that’s the greatest joy.  I’m about to have a daughter.  It’s my first child and I know I’ll spend a lot of time singing and playing music for her.

When you get that first spark that develops into a song, is it something that comes out of nowhere?  Or can everyday thing,s like a trip to the store, inspire a song?

It can be anything.  Sometimes I’ll be listening to something but sometimes it can be a turn of a phrase that jumps out at me, something that can become a hook or inspires the direction of a song.  For me, I write from lyrics, mostly.  If something pops into my head and is like, “Oh, that’s a cool idea …” I can see the story develop and I’ll sit down and put it together.

Can you pick a subject and write a song about it?

I think so.  That’s kind of a fun challenge, especially if you’re given the subject by somebody else.  It’s hard to tell yourself, “Today I’m going to write a song about … whatever.” … If somebody says they want you to write a song that sounds like this or has this kind of idea, I think you can make that work.

What kind of venues help you and the band really shine?

I like fairly small venues. Not super-small but places where I can see everybody but also where the stage is big enough so that the band has some room to spread out.  I like to be able to see everybody in the band.  If the stage is too small and we’re too squished together, I can’t see everybody. The way we set up now, the drums are on the side so I can see the drummer and everybody can make eye contact, which is really good. … Those kind of places where you can see the audience, the band, you can hear everything, there’s a good vibe in there, it’s not too sterile.  Empty Bottle in Chicago is a great venue, one of my favorite places to play.  Continental Club in Austin is a great venue, a beautiful room.  I could go on and on naming venues.  Places like that.

Is it a challenge to bring the Eli “Paperboy” Reed persona in all its energy to the TV screen?

I’ve done a lot of TV overseas which I’m very happy about.  The goal with this record is to do more TV here in America.  I think, when given the opportunity to perform live, the performance on [“Later … With Jools Holland”] was a big catalyst for me in the U.K. because people could see just how exciting and fun the live show is and they were immediately drawn to it.  For me, I think I can convey the energy through the lens of the television camera, for sure.

Which frontmen have influenced the stage act?

A lot of the things I do onstage just come from playing.  You can’t really practice that stuff.  You just have to see what happens.  I make it a point to leave sections open and I’ll tell the band in rehearsals, “We’re going to see how this plays out, just follow me” or whatever.  If something good comes of it, maybe I’ll try it the next night.

Probably my favorite live album is Same Cooke’s Live At The Harlem Square Club. But I also love Queen’s Live At Wembley ’86. I think Freddie Mercury is one of the greatest frontmen of all time.  He just has the audience in the palm of his hand. I think Springsteen is a great frontman.  Prince, obviously.  I think it’s very important to convey both a sense of elevation and that you are not on the same plane as the audience.  That, as a performer, you are bigger and larger than life.  But also a sense of intimacy so that everyone in the audience is getting the message directly sent to them.  That’s a hard blend and that’s what I strive for.

What do you see for the next few years?

This is my first record for Yep Roc Records. I feel really good about them as a label. They’ve already shown that they are in it for the long haul.  I’m excited to make more records.  I’m hoping we can use this record as a catalyst to do more in America and to go back to Europe, Australia, and Japan to do all the things I’ve been doing over the years.  I want to continue to expand my audience, grow, and keep writing and making music as much as I can.  I’ve been very blessed to have been doing this for 10 years.

When touring internationally, do you see differences in the ways audiences respond to music?  Will a British audience react differently than a German audience in regards to which songs they might sing along with or clap to?

Everybody has their quirks, culturally.  From my perspective, I can’t really let it shift how I approach doing the show. You just have to do what you do and people kind of accept it the way that they do.  For instance, playing in Japan everybody was really willing and ready to … clap, put their hands in the air, whatever.  And maybe playing in Germany they may not be like that, not as ready to engage.  But as a performer you still have to give it your all and try no matter what.

What’s going through your mind during those last few seconds before walking on stage?

I’m trying to remember the lyrics to my songs. (laughs) I don’t stress about performing any more.  I wouldn’t say I go on autopilot but something kicks in and you just do it.

Do you think, sometimes, that the onstage Eli “Paperboy” Reed is almost a different personality than the person I’m talking to right now?

I think it’s just magnified.  I am who I am.  I feel that I’m a pretty gregarious and charismatic individual, hopefully, and I hope people see it that way.  And when I get on stage, I just have to turn it up a few notches.  You really have to get the message across louder and clearer when you’re on stage.

Speaking of being lod,  If the power goes out while performing, would your voice still fill the room without amplification?

That’s actually happened to me.  More than once, actually, the power has gone out.  Yeah, I can sing loud enough to fill up the room, no problem.

If you could talk to the future Eli “Paperboy” Reed, say five years from now, what would you ask him?

Are you still able to pay the bills?  (laughs) That’s the most important question, I suppose.

Eli “Paperboy” Reed’s upcoming shows:

May 31 – Madrid, Spain, El Sol
June 1 – Berlin, Germany, Privatclub
June 2 – Amsterdam, Netherlands, Bitterzoet
June 3 – Paris, France,  La Boule Noire
June 6 – Zurich, Switzerland, Moods
June 7 – London, England, The Jazz Café
June 9 – Los Angeles, Calif., Bootleg Theater (album release show)
June 10 – San Francisco, Calif., DNA Lounge
June 11 – Reno, Nev., Robert Z. Hawkins Amphitheater
June 13 – Salt Lake City, Utah, The State Room
June 14 – Las Vegas, Nev., Vinyl @ Hard Rock Hotel
June 16 – Brooklyn, N.Y., Union Pool (album release show)
July 16 – Rockaway Park, N.Y., Jacob Riis Park
July 29 – New York, N.Y., Lincoln Center Out Of Doors 

For more information, please visit Eli “Paperboy” Reed’s website, Facebook page, Twitter feed and Instagram account.