Robin Spielberg Interview With The Final On Vinyl

It nice to finally have the opportunity to talk with Robin after covering her music all these! 
She provide great insight into her life and music.

Keith "MuzikMan" Hannaleck

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Transcript

Speaker 1 0:03

Hi everybody, this is Keith "MuzikMan" Hannnaleck with the The Final on Vinyl Podcast and today we're with Robin Spielberg. Hi, Robin.

Speaker 0:14

Hi there, how are you?

Speaker 1 0:17

Good. How are you?

Speaker 0:18

I'm doing great.

Speaker 1 0:20

Thanks for taking some time today. It's nice to hear a voice after covering your music all these years.

Speaker 0:27

Oh, and I appreciate you. I really do. Really appreciate you being an advocate for indie musicians like myself.

Speaker 1 0:36

Well, it's always my pleasure, believe me. Uh everybody deserves a good listen, you know, and uh you have tremendous talent and have been very busy lady. And uh just last October or November I covered reinventions, which you sent on a beautiful vinyl as well. And uh coming down the pike here on the 20th of August is give my regards to Broadway, right?

Speaker 1:02

Absolutely. Yep.

Speaker 1 1:05

Okay. So just what I'd like to ask first is to just give a little background so people can know, you know, from when she came and when did you start playing piano or some of your influences, things like that, if you'd like to share?

Speaker 1:22

Well, sure. Um I come from a a pretty musical family, and I I don't really have recollection of not playing the piano. Um I started lessons in um when I was seven, but um I've always played. I remember I mean I played when I was like three. Um and I was born, luckily, with with a really good ear, and so I was able to pick out tunes from the radio or tunes my mom was singing in the kitchen. So um I probably was the first piano student my teacher had that insisted on age seven on arranging Broadway show tunes. I um I didn't think it was a different at the time. But I started arranging show tunes when I was seven. Uh we lived not far from New York City, and my father worked in Manhattan, and uh whenever there was a new Broadway show that opened, he would come home with the vinyl, and we would listen to it over and over and over and over until my sister and I knew every single word, and then it was at that point that I wanted to learn the music on piano and would kind of beg. And my teacher, because I was learning, you know, classical repertoire, she's like, sure, it's fine, it's dessert. So as long as you do all your Beethoven, Bach and Brahms and all your all the all the exercises, we can do this as a little treat at the end. And so she started teaching me chords and chord patterns and ways of reading the music more like a map versus literally, which I have to say was the handiest skill I've ever learned. Uh, because having that skill kept me employed in New York City for 12 years in piano rooms and hotel lobbies. Um that was invaluable to be able to learn how to improvise and arrange music at such an early age.

Speaker 1 3:27

So like a child prodigy, that's for sure.

Speaker 3:30

Well, I didn't realize that at the time. You know, my my teacher, I had several teachers, and when I was about 16, uh, apparently my teacher at six when I was sixteen asked my mother or told my mother that it was time to start getting serious and think about conservatory and where I would uh end up, um, and audition material. And she could and my parents were like, What? You mean she's gonna be do this for a living? And he said, Of course. You know, she's has enough talent to do this for a living. And my mother said, Well, how do you know? My teacher said, Well, I don't know. We'll give it 20 years and see. And my parents said, That's it, you're going to college. Um because, you know, my father's father was in the NBC Symphony with Toscanini and uh played for the Metropolitan Opera House, and they were very poor. They lived in Brooklyn and were very, very poor. Um and lived through the depression in 1929, and you know, it was no way to make a living, especially for a woman. So uh off to college I went. I didn't go to conservatory, and uh I majored in theater because I couldn't do music, so I found my way back and started Yeah. They weren't that pleased about that either. But I majored in theater and then so I was both involved with music and theater, and of course then musical theater, and then I started writing musical theater and had a couple of shows that ran off Broadway and playing the piano and acting and different things, and it all just came full circle eventually, you know, what I was meant to do.

Speaker 1 5:21

So this Broadway tribute that you've created was long overdue?

Speaker 5:26

It was very long overdue. I mean, i it's not like I've never recorded a Broadway showtune. I I have, but very long ago, in 1995, I did an album for North Star Records that had a few show tunes on it. Some things from the Fantastics, I think, that ran off Broadway. Um and then in 2002 I did an album called With a Song in My Heart, and that had a couple. But you know, during this pandemic, you know, I found myself like so many other people just really missing live theater, really missing the excitement of being with a group of complete strangers and watching a live performance that you know will only happen once exactly that way and never again. And uh I missed it so much. And so when I heard that you know Broadway was really struggling as well and shut down the way it did, hasn't shut down like that since 1918 with that pandemic. Um, you know, it's starting to come back now slowly, and all 41 theaters are supposed to be open this fall, and I thought, well, what better way to you know write a love letter to Broadway by than recording the tunes that I consider really classic, the ones that really um helped shape me and my style. Uh and so that's what I did with this particular album. They're really classic songs. There are not a lot of new Broadway, there are no new Broadway songs on it. It's stuff from Manga La Mancha and you know, West Side Story. It's very, very classic. And I recorded a load of them and then narrowed it down to 20.

Speaker 1 7:09

So, you know, as you always do, you add your improvisations and um you know, along those lines. You probably had all these songs memorized. You could just sit there and and pound them out on the piano, but did you sit down and write the music out and put your little missions in? Or how'd you do it?

Speaker 7:30

No, I kinda did it like I was playing in a piano bar, you know, and so I did each each tune a few times a little differently. Like, for example, there's a song from Guys and Dolls that is not as well known as Sit Down, You Rock in the Boat or Guys and Dolls title song. It's called I'll Know, really sweet. Um, it appears on the record kind of in swing, and I recorded it that way. I recorded it more like a ballad, I recorded it, you know, a few different ways. And then in balancing the album, my husband who produced it, you know, we picked this rendition because it, you know, it it's a little it gives more balance to the album. It's has a swing to it. So that's what pretty much I do. Um when I write my original work, when I do an album of original work, I definitely play, you know, sit with that for a long time and have that, you know, note for note how I want it to be. But when it comes to covers, yeah, I can't help but kind of mess along with it as as I go.

Speaker 1 8:42

So it sounds like you found your soulmate with your husband, huh?

Speaker 8:46

Yeah, well, you know, he knows my music better than anyone. We're married now 26 years, and so he's been with me since I guess like the third record, and just knows my music so well. Um it was so nice about having him in the studio. It gosh, it's first of all, it saves me a load of time. I have to keep getting up and going back into behind the glass and listening. He knows when I had another take in me. He knows when I've when I nailed it, you know. He knows when I didn't quite read it meet its mark. Um, so that's a real comfort to have someone who's able to do that.

Speaker 1 9:26

You're fortunate. Definitely. Yeah. So growing up, obviously that Broadway influence and your parents were huge and and set you in a certain direction. Other than that, were there certain groups that you like? Did you like the, you know, put on the 45s and rock out the favorite singles or the favorite singles? Oh gosh, yes.

Speaker 9:47

Well well, yeah, I I mean, I grew up with classic rock and um I I fought I'm a fool for anyone with a guitar and a story to tell. So I actually like a lot of the folk music, just something really simple, just love, love, love, especially if it has really smart lyrics and great harmonies. Um so it's a mix of that, you know, and I grew up with all the classical music. So I I I think all of that defines my style, and so what happens is that, you know, what does a Broadway show tune have, a really good one have? Well, it has a really strong melodic line. It's the one that you're you're walking out of the theater and you can hum, right? You remember it, you hum it because it's it was so powerful. And I love the structure of classical music, I love the form of that. So I think all of that um, you know, combines in my own style. Um I'm a I'm a real sucker for a strong melodic line. Um I've only made one album that kind of rambles a bit that's meant to be more of an improvisational dreamy album, but the rest uh, you know, it's structure and a strong melodic line. So in my house, you'll hear a lot of folk, you'll hear a lot of classic rock, you'll hear um a number of things. And my my daughter is just finished college, so she's had an influence. She's always introducing me to music she's discovering.

Speaker 1 11:10

Oh I bet.

Speaker 11:11

Yeah. Uh-huh.

Speaker 1 11:14

You know, you mentioned the melody rhythm. That's something I notice in your music, you know, and uh I'm just gonna sneak this in. I do have a review ready to go, as you know, and um I just really felt that music, you know, and I know that I have a different way of proceeding with a review and and writing, and um for me it's more about emotional, it makes me feel and uh you know, uh, but I don't know, it's it's probably a lot different than what you've become accustomed to as far as reviewers, but I just evolved into that type of of writer, and it seems like people really appreciate it because mu uh you know music is very emotional, very personal. Um it takes you on a journey. Even what you're doing that you're going on a journey subconsciously, you know.

Speaker 12:11

So yeah, no, I'm glad you get that. Mus music brings us to time and space, you know? Well for me, time and place. I I feel like whenever I'm playing something original, I can tell you, you know, where I was in my state of mind. It's like a a diary. You know, some people keep photographs for photo albums or they write journals. For me, it's a person place thing, feeling, emotion, event. If I really want to remember it, I'll I'll write a soundtrack for it. And it brings me right there. And for these tunes on the Broadway album, you know, for it's probably not the same for all the listeners out there, but for me, it brings me back to childhood because my parents used to sing in the car when we took long trips. These are the songs that they sang. And when I was recording like the impossible dream, like I was just moved to tears because I was thinking of the words, you know? Um they are so, so, so powerful. You know, about courage and bravery and writing wrongs and reaching for what's impossible. Um I it they're just beautiful words. So uh it was they were all really powerful to me, whether it was that about courage and bravery or songs about you know deep deep love or loss. Um I really felt them. Uh so it was really it was really lovely to write this. And then when I was when I was in high school, I was in the play, you know, You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown. And when we finished the play, no, they we the um it had returned to uh to Broadway. And I went to see it. And I didn't I didn't know at the time, but uh these these actors, but you know, Ben Platt was in it, and Alana Levini is now a friend of mine who played Lucy and Kristen Chenowith, who went on to have a big career, and uh the girl who played Lucy, Alana, I said, Oh my god, I couldn't stop thinking about her. I recorded Happiness, so I sent it to her, you know, and she included it on um a podcast she does, you know, a Broadway podcast that she does. But as I'm rec writing, you know, as I as I was playing it in the studio, you know, I was thinking of watching it like we just acted it amateurely in high school as amateurs, and then we saw it on Broadway, and it just had such a profound, you know, effect. It was so much fun. Um, it just took me back all those years.

Speaker 1 14:48

That's great. That's that's that's a sweet thought, and uh such a blessing, you know. That's the way I look at it. And I'm constantly amazed at the piano, the sounds that you can produce. And if it's just piano, it's like I know.

Speaker 15:07

I am too.

Speaker 1 15:08

Sounds so great. And oh, it's just amazing to me.

Speaker 15:11

The piano is an amazing instrument. You know, I always joke that look, it's 300-year-old technology that that's what I work with. Three I don't plug into anything. It's 300-year-old technology, it's still perfect. Um, it works if the internet goes out, it works if the lights go off. Um it's pretty amazing technology. And one of the things I love about the piano is that no two people play it the same. I I if you really study piano and you you like piano players and you listen to their music, I can tell you who's playing. It's like uh, I don't know. It's just one of those instruments that everyone seems to approach it, you know, differently. My father used to say he lived he worked in New York City, and so when I was playing piano in the lobby of the Grand Hyatt Hotel, which is right above Grand Central Station, it had these revolving doors you went through, and then you went up and up the staircase, and that was the piano. My dad wanted to sometimes come and visit me, but sometimes I would sub out the job, like if I had an audition or something else going on. He said he would go through the revolving doors in the time it took to go around the revolving doors, which is like six seconds, he could tell if it was me playing or not. And if it wasn't me, it was my sub, he'd just revolve out and go back on the street. So like in those five seconds or six seconds of going through the revolving door, he knew if he was gonna hear me or not. Knew if it was me or it was my sub, Howard. I get it.

Speaker 1 16:34

I mean, if you're connected to music, that's what happens, you know.

Speaker 16:38

Exactly.

Speaker 1 16:39

So Steinway is I'm sorry, I don't mean that.

Speaker 16:43

Oh no, no, my Steinway, I'd love to talk about her. I have a I now have a 1896 uh Victorian Steinway. Wow. I'm so crazy about. Um it's really the piano of my dreams. And I recorded the title track for the album on that piano. It's the first time I ever recorded on it, and I'm sure I'll be doing more. Um it is just incredible. It took a few years to get it rebuilt, and so it was rebuilt outside Atlanta, and it arrived just in the beginning of the pandemic. So I bought it in 2018, and it arrived, you know, spring of 2020, and it was uh really perfect timing because if you have to be in lockdown, you might as well be in lockdown with a really inspiring perfect instrument. And uh so that was really fortunate. Uh kind of kept me sane. This is why I did so much uh had so much output during the pandemic. Um pretty much recorded three albums and put out two songbooks and did 125 live streams. So doing one tonight, I do a live stream every Friday and Saturday. Uh you have to keep going as a musician. Like you really can't. I I have so many friends, colleagues that are so worried about going back to touring because they've lost the muscle, they haven't been on the road, they haven't been playing. And here I was in this opposite situation, like I've been in the best playing shape of my life and no concerts. Like this is so unfair. But I have been live streaming. So Friday nights I do piano bar, which is all like cover tunes and chit-chat with the audience. I've got a nice group that comes and we do it on Twitch, Facebook, and YouTube. And then Saturdays there's no talking, it's just one 45-minute set of solo piano music. Oh cool. You can listen to it however you want. Just, you know, I don't know if someone's cleaning their house while they're listening, you know, or do or doing their dishes or having dinner or reading, and it doesn't matter. You know, when you're in a live theater, you know, there's just very different uh formats. In your live theater, you're in your chair and you're watching and listening in that experience. And here, you know, you can be multitasking doing different things, but I'm providing live music. So we're gonna keep it up. You know, a lot of people they have a novelty wore off and they stopped doing them, but uh we've continued, you know, and I find it's just as good for me as it is for whoever's listening, whoever needs it. I kind of need to sit and do it. I'm so lost without without playing.

Speaker 1 19:38

So you're in good musical shape, that's for sure.

Speaker 19:42

I'm in great musical shape, and there are no concerts making me nuts. Uh just was talking to someone I I was in China in um 2019 on tour, and he said, you know, there's a good chance I can get to Japan or South Korea, but probably not till 2023. I'm like, oh Lord. So um you gotta stay in shape. It's kind of, you know, those Olympic athletes who had to, you know, stay in shape that whole extra year.

unknown 20:15

Right.

Speaker 20:15

You know, when they're playing, you know. Um musicians really need to. It's it's not kind of like getting on a bike. You know, you don't play for a little bit and you feel it.

Speaker 1 20:26

Yeah.

Speaker 20:27

Yeah, you feel you just feel it.

Speaker 1 20:31

Is there a charge for your live streaming or you just do it too?

unknown 20:35

No.

Speaker 20:36

No, there's no charge. And so I do them and people do tip if they want. Um, and like many musicians during the pandemic, there were I started a Patreon, and if your listeners aren't familiar, Patreon is it's fabulous for indie musicians. It's kind of like the old style fan clubs. Remember, you send $10 in the mail and you join you joined a fan club and you'd give a stuff. So we send stuff out every month.

Speaker 1 21:03

Yeah.

Speaker 21:04

Exactly. I send out posters and CDs and t-shirts and backstage passes and you know, um it's posts and things that I don't post otherwise on socials. So it's a nice inside um look, and those people hear my music first, or I might post an album cover, a few different versions, and they help tell me which one they like best, you know. Uh I just had a few people who are on my Patreon came to my show in Maine last two weeks ago, and it was nice to meet them in person. So um, you know, that's a that's a wonderful way also to support artists and it allows me to, you know, pay for the bump and you know, you had a stream, get like a bump in our internet. So there's some monthly cost to do the streaming for the technology. So it helps pay for that. And for the piano tunings, of course, I get my piano tuned. twice a month, every other week. So those those charges can kind of rack up.

Speaker 1 22:07

That uh refurbishing that styling I bet you was a pretty penny.

Speaker 22:12

Yeah, well, you know, it's funny because I have another piano. I have a signway um a 1962 piano and it needed some work. I couldn't record on it because um well I don't want it to be boring, but when you're listening, when you're re listening to a recording, it's very different than listening into a concert hall, right? Because you're taking the microphone and you're literally putting it inside the piano. That's the equivalent of taking the human ear and putting it inside the piano. Well we don't listen to piano that way, right? We listen in a concert hall. So what happens when you put the human ear inside a piano? You hear all this other mechanical noise. There's hammers and back checks and pedal sound, all kinds of things that you never would think about. So in order to get that refurbished I got a very very high price um to get my piano refurbished. So it made me think, well gee, if I'm going to spend that much to fix this one, might as well, you know, fix one of my dreams at this point. At this point, you know um so it's kind of you know the car you you you choose to drive. You can't leave the car in the driveway or and never drive it. It has to be driven in order to perform well. So this is a piano that has to be played a lot to perform well and be tuned.

Speaker 1 23:36

Right. It's like us we have to be tuned once in a while too right yes that's right we all need to be tuned talking to you finally Rob and I I really appreciate it.

Speaker 23:47

Well it's so nice to talk to you great talking about all that you do.

Speaker 1 23:54

It's always my pleasure believe me uh I've just like I say I'm blessed to be able to have this opportunity to listen to the music and and talk about it and then actually talk to the artist like I'm doing with you. I mean I wish I'd done this a long time ago with the interview because I absolutely love doing it and um it's just that gives a lot of insight into the music and you know how things happen along the way and different equipment that people use and so forth. I'm sure we're going to be uh hearing from you I'm gonna I'm gonna guess you probably would have something in the works already and we'll have another album out by around Christmas, right?

Speaker 24:37

No, I'm not gonna have one out by Christmas but I will have one out um in twenty my 22nd album will be in 2022. Oh so um yeah and that one will be all originals because this one was you know the covers from Broadway the one previous was me reimagining classical masterpieces and the one prior was love songs called Love Story. So I'm definitely overdue for one of All Originals and I've already started um composing for that so that'll be out in sometime in the later part of 2022.

Speaker 1 25:11

Oh okay well I anxiously await that and uh once again thank you for your time thank you appreciate it take care now okay be well you too bye bye