10 Questions with Hall & Oates

 

 

By Alec Wooden

In the most literal sense, Hall & Oates began as elevator music. Taking refuge in a freight elevator from a fight inside a Philly nightclub in the late ’60s, a young John Oates & Daryl Hall would meet for the first time, beginning a ride together that would never come down. For the better part of three decades, they would own pop music, penning countless Top 10 hits and selling over 60 million records to become the most successful pop duo of all time. Now, following the release of a career spanning, four disc box set, John Oates took a few moments to reflect on his music, the importance of songwriting and today’s musical climate.

Athens Blur Magazine: Do you remember your first impression of Daryl Hall?

John Oates: I first saw Daryl in his vocal group, The Temptones. I saw them perform at a show and was impressed immediately. I knew they were great singers; they were all really great singers. So I was aware of Daryl before he was aware of me. [Our bands] were out at the same time, competing with each other basically on local radio. So we became aware of each other and then we met, and my band was kind of falling apart, the guys were going their separate ways. His group actually needed a guitar player, so I joined up with him as a guitar player. When that band fell apart, Daryl and I just kind of gravitated toward each other.

ABM: What was your mindset starting out? There probably wasn’t any way to know all those years ago that now you’d have the success you guys have had. Do you remember having your first ‘wow, we have something really special here’ moment?

JO: Never (laughs). We really never did. We always took it one step at a time. You know, we had small but important goals that we tried to achieve. We didn’t just want to have success and then disappear and go somewhere and get a job. That wasn’t even something that entered my mind. We took everything in very realistic steps — ‘How can we write a better song?’ ‘How can we find a better producer?’ ‘How can we find a better studio?’ ‘Find a great band?’ ‘Go into the studio with our better band?’ These are all goals we achieved along the way, you know. The first goal was to get a record contract and go on tour, and after that we just kept on moving forward.

ABM: This box set (Do What You Want, Be What You Are – 10/13, RCA/Legacy)  does a wonderful job of spanning your entire career. Obviously other than the fact that it’s a song, why is Do What You Want, Be What You Are the perfect name for this project?

JO: I think it represents our philosophy not only of life but of music. We did what we wanted to do in the way we wanted to do it and we focused on what was important to us, which was the songwriting, the playing, the arranging, the singing and the performing. The commercial success was a byproduct and followed that philosophy. We didn’t go out there saying ‘We’re gonna set the world on fire, become the biggest duo of all time and have numerous number one records.’ That was not our motivation, and over the years I think we were sold short, especially by rock journalism in the early days, as kind of hit makers with some sort of premeditated or prepackaged formula for number one records, which was anything but the case.

ABM: What’s your favorite bit of the unreleased material on the set?

JO: My favorite is the live tracks from the ‘70s. It was just a great moment. It was our first trip to Europe, our first show in London. We were the darlings of the London underground for that period of time. We were a cult band, really. We had no hits, and there was a buzz about us. Everyone turned out, and we were on fire that night and we were just a really cool young band just going for it. I hear the energy and I hear the passion of the ‘trying to make your mark’ kind of statement that we did that night.

ABM: As you look at the liner notes for this collection and all the musicians commenting on what your music has meant to them — why has the music of Hall and Oates stood the test of time?

JO: Because of the songwriting. It’s a very simple answer. We started as songwriters, we’re passionate about songwriting, we put most of our emphasis into songwriting…and everything else just sort of falls into place.

ABM: Those people have all learned something from you — but what have you and Daryl learned from each other?

JO: I have no idea what he’d say about me (laughs). What I’d say about him is that he’s a consummate musician and has a passion for what he does and it’s the only thing he really cares about in his life. He’s always been that way. Probably what I brought to him was the appreciation of the traditional American acoustic music and folk blues that I was steeped in before I even met him.

ABM: You keep mentioning the songwriting, something for which you were honored a few years ago with an induction into the American Songwriter’s Hall of Fame. How big of a validation was that for you?

JO: [It is] probably one of the most satisfying things that has ever happened. I mean, to be honored in that way is very, very personally important to me. It’s really given me a chance to reach out, and work and associate with people that I respected. It’s just been a real good thing.

ABM: Who’s the one artist or songwriter, current or historical, that you’ve always been in awe of?

JO: For me, Joni Mitchell is the consummate songwriter. I think her artistry is just superb. Ya know, but there’s so many: Bob Dylan, Chuck Berry, Chris Mayfield. The list goes on and on. There’s so many great songwriters. You know I would be remiss if I didn’t mention so many more, so I don’t even want to have mentioned the ones I mentioned.

ABM: You’ve been a performing artist through many of the most fascinating periods in music history: the rise and falls of genres, the rise of technology in this digital age. So much has changed in the music world since Hall and Oates began — but what’s something that hasn’t changed?

JO: Passion for music that every generation seems to have. I’m always impressed with the new generation of musicians that are coming up now. The ones who are good are really really good. They’ve got this incredible background and depth of material to draw from that we didn’t have and you know the passion that they have is still burning.

ABM: Keeping in mind all that’s changed, what would you find exciting again if you were a young, aspiring musician in 2009?

JO: Well, I find exciting things and depressing things. Exciting things are that you have the ability to reach the world through the Internet, the virtual world. And the depressing thing is that you have the ability to reach the world through the Internet and things (laughs). Because you get lost in the mass of all the crap that’s out there and all the crazy stuff that’s going on. It’s hard for people to focus.

ABM: Here’s a nice full circle moment: 29 years after its release, “You Make My Dreams” was featured in “500 Days of Summer,” one of the big film sensations of this past summer. Did you see the movie?

JO: Yeah, I did. The song was the highlight of the movie (laughs)! It was well acted. It was a great story and very creatively done. And the song really encapsulated that euphoria that you can have when you’re falling in love. I think it was a really, really well done moment. I saw it in the theater with my family and that song came on and people started clapping along and I thought that was really awesome, because that doesn’t really happen often in a movie theater. I mean, it really reached people.

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