A Conversation with Steve Tannen (continued)

PM: So in one of the website photos, I notice you're holding two really nice axes. One is a ukulele, maybe a baritone from the '60s. Is that what it is?

ST: Good eye!

PM:  I have one just like it. It's a Harmony, right?

ST: How do you know that?

PM: Well, I may have the same one. I bought it on Ebay.

ST: Well, Deb bought it in Colorado when we were on tour--

PM: Yes, they sound so great.

ST: --in order to have a new instrument to write with. And I'm not going to go out on a limb here, but I think it was 60 bucks.

PM: Yeah. I did pay a buck-forty for mine.

ST: Exactly, exactly. And I was like nice. That is nice, baby. And it stays in tune, which for a baritone uke is like out of this world.

PM: Truly.

ST: And the other one is a 1960s Gretsch, which is great, but the neck has now been snapped off twice.

PM: Oh, jeez. Airlines, you mean?

ST: Yes, sir.

PM: Ooh. So what kind of a case was involved?

ST: I don't want to bad mouth them because it wasn't their fault.

PM: Yeah. But was it one of those Canadian cases we shall not name or--

ST: No, no, no. It was an Anvil from California.

PM: Oh, really? It was an Anvil case and it still busted?

ST: We saw it. They dropped it from the top of the plane.

PM: Those mothers.

ST: They just dropped it.

PM: From the top of the plane.

ST: You know what I mean? Because they can either carry it down and put it on the belt, or they can just toss it off. And we were getting off the plane and they just tossed. And we were like, "Oh, my God." And you just saw it go. You know what I mean? Well, nothing--what--you could drop a car and it would break a headlight.

PM: Something is going to shatter, yeah.

ST: So, yeah, but air travel fun, many stories if you want them. So anyway, that still is our main electric. I have an old Fender Strat that I use. And then I just borrow Meg's guitars.

PM: Oh, yeah, right, because she's got everything under the sun.

PM: Dude, we consider ourselves song writers and singers. Meg is a freakin' musician.

PM: Yeah, you've got to have at least one of those in your pocket.

ST: Oh, yeah, but so is Whynot. I mean, really, I feel like I'm slighting Why because he's a great player as well on electric guitar. His stuff, particularly on "I Don't Know Why" and "Lighting Candles" and "Wish I Could Forget"--

PM: Right. I mean, every one of them, just great songs. There's not a sleeper on that record.

ST: Thanks, man.

PM: Well, I'm just shocked. I make myself listen to a record at least three times before I do an interview.

ST: I hate that.

PM: But no, I've just been playing this all day because well, there's nothing else I'd rather listen to.

ST: Oh, that's so awesome. That's the one thing about jazz that I think is awesome. If I'm in the mood, I can pretty much listen to the same good jazz record over and over and over.

PM: Wow.

ST: And that, in some ways is what we both aspire to.

PM: Yeah, it's amazingly listenable.

ST: Awesome.

PM: And it's so wonder that music supervisors and those kind of people started putting you all over the TV because it's amazing when you listen and go, "Okay, I got to have that song."

ST: The first few times we were really psyched, and then it became a little bit of a mystery, because from that record we ended up with 42, 43 placements.

PM: Oh my God.

ST: Oh my God is right.

PM: Because that's a lot of dough.

ST: [laughs] Well, it varies. It varies.

PM: Of course, greatly. I mean, I remember Dan Hicks told me, "Yeah, well, I got that tune at the end of the Sopranos, it was four grand for that play, and then two grand every time it plays in syndication." And then another friend that will go unnamed got a tune on Grey's Anatomy it was $24 grand." [laughs]

ST: Yeah, we heard those second stories, mostly it's the first stories. And not only that, the fact is that a lot of times it's less, because it's--you get to know these guys and they're friends, and they're like they hooked you up for Grey's Anatomy, let's say, that has great budgets. But they're like, "Listen, I'm on this upstart show, it's a pilot, we have no money. You got to help me. Help me out, baby."

PM: "I helped you on the other one."

ST: Right, exactly. And you're like, "Yes, sir, absolutely." And we've gotten a surprising amount of grief about it.

PM: Why?

ST: Well, I don't know. I don't know.

PM: Well, is it selling out? Like hell it is.

ST: We really think it's sort of like being on the radio.

PM: Of course.

ST: People discover the music through TV and film.

PM: It's broadcast, baby.

ST: I remember hearing Rickie Lee Jones "It Must Be Love" from the Magazine CD ten years ago on a show. And I hadn't heard that Rickie Lee Jones song. And I was like, "What is that?" I had to go get the record.

PM: How many people now, after Grey's Anatomy, go right to their computers and they say, "What the hell was that song tonight?"

ST: And there are whole websites about the different shows' music. Totally. So we're on board. We think it's healthy.

PM: Big time. Besides, what are you going do? Rely on the record business? I don't think so.

ST: Ha ha ha. A whole different discussion. Not for print.

[laughter]

PM: Yeah, I slight them enough in print. We don't need to go there.

ST: Oh, man.     continue

print (pdf)     listen to clips      puremusic home