A Conversation with Anjani (continued)

PM: So when you and Leonard wrote these songs, what was the process? I mean, for instance, did you each work on the words, or did you each work on the music, or is that the dividing line? Or how did that go on?

ANJANI: The lyrics there are pretty much his. There were times, for example, "Nightingale," the verses were not in that order. So when I looked at it, I felt, one, I need a chorus, I'm making this the chorus. I just shifted the whole thing around.

PM: Oh, you construed a set of words as the chorus, I see.

ANJANI: I did. And let me tell you--I didn't think. I showed him. I said, "Oh, by the way, I'm doing this." And boy, he looked at the paper, and his face really changed. And I thought, "Oh, God, what have I done? Of course! What was I thinking?"

PM: It's like, "By the way, this is a chorus now."

[laughter]

ANJANI: I don't know what happened to me. Talk about bold. I really must have done a 180--

PM: Yeah, once you got in there, there was no stopping you.

ANJANI: Yeah, I thought, "Oh, I better take the ball and run with it."

PM: [laughs]

ANJANI: But he said, "No, you're absolutely right, that's how the thing needed to be."

PM: Wow.

ANJANI: So the writing changes were very democratic. In fact, we found out that if I took a lyric of his and there would be some point--I'd play it for him on the piano, and he'd go, "That doesn't work, musically it doesn't work." And I tried a different approach, or different changes. And if it didn't work two or three times then we knew the problem was with the lyric, and he had to rewrite the lyric.

PM: Wow!

ANJANI: So fortunately, being that he was right there, he could do it. So for "Thanks For the Dance," we ended up with verses we never used--for all of the songs, actually, most of them, we ended up with verses that we didn't use.

PM: And he wouldn't like go away and write them, he'd write them with you there, he'd write them on the spot, or try to?

ANJANI: Yeah. Well, there was one, "No One After You," I remember he wanted to change his verse about "lived in cities from Paris to L.A., I've known rags and riches"--there was a different line in--I don't know, there was a different verse there, actually. He just didn't like it. And I said, "Well, you better write something fast, because I'm going in tomorrow."

PM: "Come on, give me something."

ANJANI: And, "I'm tired of this song, and I can't--we've been over this ground a long time, so"--he says, "Okay, well, give me some chocolate."

PM: [laughs] "Give me some chocolate."

ANJANI: So I gave him a chocolate bar, and he walked around and came up with "I'm a regular cliché"--which is one of my favorite lines in that, too.

PM: That's a very good line in that song, yeah.

ANJANI: Yeah.

PM: Oh, that's really something.

PM: I thought that your music for your version of "The Mist" was very interesting, gospel like, or hymnal, but in this way that also reminded me, curiously, of Stephen Foster. I mean, does that connection play at all for you? Do you know what I'm talking about?

ANJANI: I do know Stephen Foster. In fact, Leonard happens to have a beautiful old songbook of Stephen Foster's music. And boy, what an amazing songwriter.

PM: Ah, just--talk about before your time.

ANJANI: Yeah. And it's such a tragic ending.

PM: I don't know his ending. What is it?

ANJANI: Oh, my God! He ended up completely broke on the bottle.

PM: Unbelievable!

ANJANI: He died penniless.

PM: The people that die penniless, it's just unbelievable.

ANJANI: Yeah, yeah.

PM: Lord.

ANJANI: So sure, I grew up singing all those songs. When I was a kid my mom would sing them to me. So they were engrained. It's not a music that I generally was pulled towards.

PM: Right, no, not as kids.

ANJANI: Yeah, when I became a musician. But there's something very classic about Leonard's music, and it kind of transcends time.

PM: Yeah.

ANJANI: And I think it transcends genre as well. He did a treatment of "Nightingale" on his record that starts off a capella, and it goes into kind of a bluegrass feel.

PM: Really?

ANJANI: Country bluegrass, yes.

PM: Well, I can see that with that song, for sure.

ANJANI: Yeah, and it's kind of like that guitar banjo sort of thing.

PM: Yeah. And songs about birds are popular in bluegrass. It's a good theme.

ANJANI: Right, right. So I don't know what to say about that.

PM: I'm just amazed and happy that you hear that connection, too. I mean, it seemed almost like an odd question, but it's there, right? That Stephen Foster-y hymnal thing?

ANJANI: Well, yeah. Someone said, "Man, that sounds like some old Irish folk song, like a 'Danny Boy.'" And I was scared, I thought, jeez, I hope I haven't ripped somebody off.

[laughter]

ANJANI: It really does sound like something you ought to know.

PM: And if you did, it's probably public domain.

ANJANI: Yeah, right.

[laughter]      continue

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