Dream Of Gino - Radio Free Rock - Indianapolis, September 1977

Montreal. Home of the hockey Canadians, the 1976 Olympic Games, and one of the most impressive World's Fairs ever. It is also the birthplace and life-long residence of Gino Vannelli, Italian boy-beautiful, dedicated musician, and one of the most popular curly haired performers since Harpo Marx.

In the city where he once sweated through six hour club gigs, Gino now relaxes between touring and recording sessions. He retreats there for privacy and relaxation, away from the demands placed on the newly famous; for Gino Vannelli is quickly becoming the brightest star to emerge from our northern neighbor since Gordon Lightfoot. This emergence into international prominence is no mere fluke. It is the fulfillment of a dream which began sixteen years ago when nine year old Gino saw his singing father perform, and decided that his goal was also to be a singer. It proved to be more than his goal, It was his destiny.

While other kids dreamed of hockey contracts and firemen's pensions, Gino and his older brother Joe (later joined by young brother Ross) began experimenting with music. Early jams in the Vannelli household featured Joe on the family piano with Gino pounding out rhythms on pots, pans and cookie jar lids. Vannelli envisioned himself the successor to drummer Gene Kruppa, and was immersed in jazz rather than rock in these early years. (He had five years of drumming lessons.) Gino and Joe soon assembled a crude home recording studio in their family's basement. It was here that Joe began to learn many of the techniques that he still employs today as Gino's producer, arranger, keyboardist and all-around right-hand brother. Here too, Gino began to compose his own songs on piano.

By the time Gino was sixteen, he had a contract with RCA and a record in the lofty heights of the Canadian top ten - heady stuff for such a tender, inexperienced lad. Determined not to be a one-shot pop phenomenon, he hit the New York club circuit, eager to acquire experience and recognition in the Big Apple. Alas, he labored virtually unnoticed, although he gained a large cult following.

Gino had already returned to Montreal (to concentrate on writing and composing in familiar surroundings) when he was spotted by Herb Alpert. Convinced that he had discovered something that was begging to be shared, Alpert guided Gino's first release in 1972. With the issuance of Crazy Life the twenty year old artist found himself firmly entrenched on the doorstep of the big time. Although four more LPs and a lot more musicial sophistication have passed beneath the bridge 'twixt now and then, Crazy Life is still the favorite LP with many of his fans.

With the completion of his second album, Powerful People, Gino's foot was in the door like a vacuum salesman's with three mortgages to pay. With nothing more than national exposure need to completely open that door, Gino was soon to be treading the welcome mat. The album produced a single "People Gotta Move", which found its way onto AM and FM programming charts around the world. (And don't forget those old Indiana Pacers commercials on Channel 4!)

The disco boom was at that time emerging, and though Gino's music is far removed from the stereotyped restrictions of the genre, "People Gotta Move" certainly helped spawn the movement. The intensely personal style that embodies Gino's songwriting began to dominate his music by 1975. His third release, Storm At Sunup, featured many introspective ballads, as well as the upbeat dance number "Mama Coco", which strengthened Gino's growing reputation with black and white audiences alike.

In 1976, Gino released Gist Of The Gemini. "I had no secret quest to bare my soul on this album, which drove me to a very emotional state," Gino has candidly observed about that album. It was this intense, emotional state which further developed his personal lyrical style and his experimentation with complex pieces as an alternative to three minute songs.

The year 1977 was a busy one for Vannelli, with world-wide touring plus recording sessions in London with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. These orchestral sessions resulted in two works, "Black And Blue" and "Pauper In Paradise" (the latter in four movements) which comprise side two of his latest album, A Pauper In Paradise.

In late November, with A&M Records backing him feverishly, Gino embarked on yet another tour. The Vannelli caravan began to encounter the difficulties that develop when a major entourage attempts to travel in the worst weather seen in these parts since ... well, since just last winter actually! Among the hardships they endured was a blizzard in Pittsburgh, truck break-downs in Chicago, and food poisoning in Milwaukee -- several Midwest dates, including Indianapolis, were rescheduled for March, "in the spring, when the flowers are blooming and everybody feels a bit better."

On December 12 the tour was nearing holiday break, and Gino had a chance to relax and chat about both recent and not so recent events. Sipping coffee in his sunny suite in the Phoenix (Arizona) Hyatt House, he gave the interview which follows.

Do you ever sit back and wonder if it is really happening, this mass acceptance that is now coming your way?
Well, you see, the mass acceptance has not become full-fledged. I am very happy with the way my career has lead itself; I'm very pleased about the kind of audience I have. It's an exciting, relatively intelligent, very good music audience, and they make me very happy to perform. I never go on stage saying 'Oh well, I'll do this because I know the dummies will like it.' I always go onstage trying to give them the best -- the best sound, the best lights, the best of me, the best of the band -- because I know that's what they are there for. I think the coming thing for music is not going to be the numbers -- how many people your playing to -- but what kind of people you're playing to, and that's very important to me.

Having such deep respect for your audience, do you ever experience stage fright?
All the time. Every time there's that moment as you get dressed when you finally realize that you're going out there to perform. I really try to forget about what I'm wearing, how my hair looks or whatever, and just think about singing my best. At that point, I get huge Monarchs floating around in my stomach.

Do you play any instruments in your live show?
Yes, for a couple of songs I dabble a bit on the piano, but that's about the extent of it. I need to concentrate all my energy on my singing so that I can produce my best vocals.

For many stars, especially virile ones like yourself, fans can become dangerous. Have you ever been afraid of actual physical harm from fans?
A few times ... in Chicago, I inadvertently went to touch a few hands and they pulled me into the audience. The second night was even scarier, because -- well, we lost count finally -- about a hundred girls just sort of leaped up on stage at once, and we just had to make a run for it. Sometimes I go back to my hotel (I always register under an assumed name) and some people who must work for the CIA find out what room I'm in and come banging on my door at six o'clock in the morning. I may get frustrated about that, but overall, if you really want your privacy you can have it. Attention is part of the job, and if you scorn it, you're defeating your own purpose. Your music is sensual and suggestive, and often excites the ladies.....
Can you explain that to me?
Well ... I think it's some of the best bedroom music around ... I mean, when the sensitivity and warmth of your lyrics and the rhythms of your arrangements are your only contact with much of your audience, then your lyrics become your personality .... the sex symbol syndrome.
I think it's somewhat of a paradox that it's going on. The whole sex symbol thing is something that was not premeditated, nor do I think it was contrived. As you said yourself, the lyrics are really just a reflection of my personality. The lyrics are an honest reflection of myself. A lot of people ask me those questions, and they're really hard to answer. I don't feel like I'm trying to be a sex symbol. It's so simple from my end of it ... If you spent a week traveling with me, you'd know that there is no big master plan saying, 'how can we get the women?' I just go on stage and I sing my songs and I think about my set-up. We;ve spent a lot of money on lighting and sound systems; we just try to put on the best show possible, and all of a sudden these women jump on the stage and are doing these things.
Now, I'm not belittling them in any way. It just happens and we're actually amazed by it -- we smile at it. We don't expect it. We don't encourage it. It happens. Maybe it seems premeditated, from the press' point of view, the outside looking in, but from the inside looking out it's so simple.

So there is no overt image-building involved?
No. In fact, A&M has always been pretty much against it. The only people who have really inflated the whole thing are the press, because they usually write about incidents at the concerts and that promotes it further.

The importance of your brother Joe as an influence on your music, through his producing and arranging, is fairly well documented. What about your younger brother Ross?
Ross is a singer-composer also, and he's been writing songs for a few years. He is very close to our whole music concept and has really contributed a lot. He's played and sung on a few tunes on the album, and he's a very key factor in our live show because he mixes the sound, which is a very big part of our show.

Is he going to attempt a career on his own?
Yes, very shortly, perhaps within a year.

I know that your father was one of the biggest influences in your desire to become a singer. On the "Storm At Sunup" album you had a number "Father And Son". Was that a general observation or a personal statement of your own experience?
It was personal, directly relating to my father and me .... It was difficult ... there are many unspoken things in the lyrics because I didn't fell it should be blunt. It was a very subtle way of saying that I belong to myself. It's very hard to tell someone you really care for that you do belongto yourself, and you don't belong to them and can't be them or can't always please them. If you both understand that, then you can both be better friends.

Was it anything to do with your career or your music?
No, it was just that we were too close. When you're that close and you're born worlds apart, you may have the same ideals, but the road you take to those ideals can become so different that it becomes very frustrating.

What about Jack, the subject of both "Son Of A New York Gun" and "Jack Miraculous"?
He was a person I knew in Montreal, and he really was the son of an underworld figure. He's not living in Canada anymore. He was deported.

Because of his own actions or of his father's?
Ha!! Actually both.

Well, we won't go into that then. How did you feel about the skyrocketing acclaim over "Powerful People" and especially the cut "People Gotta Move"?
"People Gotta Move" fot some airplay on Top 40 stations, but it actually didn't do that much for my career compared to "Storm At Sunup" with its subsequent touring. When "Powerful People" was out three years ago I was just playing clubs, man. Nobody really knew who I was. They couldn't relate the name with the album. It introduced me to the media and the record buying public, but there was no love yet between the public and me, no relationship. It wasen't until "Storm At Sunup" that promoters really started taking chances with me. With "Gist Of The Gemini" we began to do pretty well and this year we've started playing a lot of major halls and coliseums across the country.

Speaking of "Storm At Sunup", it includes a song called "Gettin' High". If you read the lyrics, it isn't speaking in the sense that most people think, and though it's an anti-drug song, many listeners believe the opposite.
It's funny, because when I wrote that song, it kept coming up alot. When we started touring, a lot of people wanted to turn me on to drugs. First of all, legally I just couldn't, because I'm a Canadian citizen, and if I were caught, I wouldn't be able to re-enter this country for at least five years. There are a lot of narcs on the road, you know: posing as hotel clerks, groupies or whatever. A lot of people have had a lot of trouble getting caught by the law, and that's one reason why I stay away from it.
Another reason is that I tried to go on stage once real high, and I just couldn't perform. I need to stay in touch, be mentally alert to sing. I want to absorb what's happening on stage. I really meant in that song that there is no clear, cut-and-dried substitute for a relationship with a woman ... that communication, that high you get making love to her or just being with her. The song is a bit euphemistic I guess, but it describes my character a little bit here and there. In the beginning of the song, for example, my feeling that my philosophies are a little different, 'I don't care much for smoking weed, I'm a man of a different breed...' I don't want to preach, but I'm into keeping fit. I go to health clubs all the time, and I'm very much a health food fanatic. I really have to be to keep up with the grueling schedule on the road.

Do you feel like an athlete?
Well, in many ways you have to be an athlete. I've got to watch my weight, because if I've five pounds overweight, I can't move right on stage. I can't sing right because my stomach doesn't have the right breathing, and I feel sluggish and heavy. On the other hand, if I'm too light, I don't have enough power. I try to maintain my weight around 160, so I have to watch the foods I eat. Eating bad foods cause your energy level to go down, and I need a lot of protein. Unless, of course, you pop speed before the show, and then it doesn't matter, except ten years later.

Or sometimes after the show! "A Pauper In Paradise" is currently in Billboard's top fifty with a bullet. Does this mean that you may hold off, possibly for a year, before doing and more recording?
No, we've just recorded a live album in Chicago and Detroit, and we're doing more in Los Angeles, so we'll have a live LP out probably within six months. We also filmed the Chicago and Detroit concerts because we'll be doing a television special to coincide with the live album.

Are you planning to do more studio work with an orchestra?
I'm very proud of what we completed on our first try with an orchestra. My next symphonic piece will be different. I'll be using more orchestration, and perhaps more elaborate synthesizers, with the integration of both. That incidentally, is the concept of "A Pauper In Paradise", the four movements of integrating themes, done by both symphonic and contemporary instruments.

You have a lot of jazz influences, and on the new album, of course, classical influences, in your music. Is that what you enjoy listening to when you get the opportunity?
As a layman listener, I guess I do prefer classical, because it's so expressive, yet it's orchestrated to a tee. I'm into the compositional piece, and yet I'm into jazz.
Sometimes the composition is not that important in jazz, it's the way the emotion is expressed. In jazz that is almost unlimited, except by the artist's own experiences and capabilities. I would say that jazz and classical are fun to listen to, although rock has certainly had its great moments.

Do you think rock has gained a new future with "new wave" or punk bands?
That's something altogether different -- we're not talking about music as much as sociological. It's nothing more than 50's and early 60's rock and roll being crudely rehashed. It may lead to something more sophisticated, but as it is now in it's purely raw and crude form, it's worthless. I mean we've all passed through that stage, you know?

What is the immediate future for Gino Vannelli?
Well, I finish the tour December 14 in Los Angeles, and then I'm going back to Montreal. I've got a little cabin up north of there in the woods where I do a lot of bobsledding, skiing and ice-skating ... then I'll go back to L.A. and I'll get some work done before I come back to Indianapolis. We'll have fiftenn or twenty dates by then, so it won't be haphazard, but a full fledged tour!