A Conversation With Nathan East

Mike Ragogna: We’re talking with Nathan East, my final interview of the Fourplay Dynasty, nay, Empire!

Nathan East: How’s it going? It’s great to be here! You’re solar-powered, it’s unbelievable. I can feel the clean energy. This rocks!

MR: [laughs] Thank you for saying that, man. So, Tour De Four “All I Want To Do,” you co-wrote it with Tom Keane. He’s been bubbling under for so long. How did you guys get together?

NE: Well, it’s funny, we’ve known each other for years and we actually share a studio that he built a few years back. He said, “Oh, I have some space here,” so I ended up getting a little space there and then we all ended up working in the whole studio. It’s a great little writing and musical environment. When we were writing for a lot of different people, we were working on the new Anita Baker CD and some other things, so this was a perfect opportunity to just keep writing.

MR: What is your writing process like? Does it come to your head and you have to run to the computer or a piece of paper?

NE: You know, it’s all of the above. You never know when an idea is going to come down from the heavens and come into your mind. You could be asleep or you could be on the freeway, I’ve had every experience where I’ll sing an idea into my phone or call my house and leave it on my answering machine or pretty much anything. It’s hard to just sit down and say, “Okay, I’m going to write a song now.”

MR: Yeah, yeah. Now, you’ve been on so many projects, and I’m going to name a few, but the one everybody knows is the Unplugged project by Eric Clapton where you did “Tears in Heaven.”

NE: Oh yeah, yeah, that was very special and moving because it was a tribute to Conor Clapton who was in all of our lives. When you know a little four-year-old that only gets to come onto the planet for four years, it just breaks your heart. What happened was just very, very sad and you could tell the emotion in everybody’s playing.

MR: Yeah. Nathan, you got to play the Obama inaugural celebration at the Lincoln memorial.

NE: Yes, that was really exciting to be there with Bono and Stevie Wonder and James Taylor and Mary J. Blige; the whole industry was there on this very historic day. It was really amazing. The only thing is that it was only about one degree out there. It was freezing, but the occasion kept everybody warm.

MR: Hopefully, you’ll get to play again.

NE: Fingers crossed, man! I want everybody to get out and vote and we’ll see how it goes, but yeah, it would be great to have that opportunity again.

MR: I want to throw out some of the people you’ve worked with–Michael Jackson, Elton John, Stevie Wonder, Babyface, B.B. King, George Harrison, Al Jarreau, all sorts of artists. Dude, you also co-wrote “Easy Lover” for Phil Collins and Philip Bailey.

NE: You know, when you just add it all up like that it sounds like–well it is–a magical life and I’m living the dream, but for me it’s also just an honor to call all of those guys my friends. I feel very, very blessed and fortunate because that was almost just like This Is Your Life. It’s so much fun and such a joy to work with these great people who I admired long before I even met them. To get a call from these guys and say, “Hey, let’s go make music together,” you could not wish for more. George Harrison, that’s royalty.

MR: Yeah. Now with Fourplay, we have so much love here going on. I know you really care for this group, all of you do. Plus you’re a founding member of Fourplay. So just how much love do you have for this band?

NE: I have so much love for this band! It’s just immeasurable because it’s been a ticket to many, many trips around the world, to many wonderful, exotic places to play music again with guys that I used to listen to. I used to transcribe Bob James piano solos. I was in a band that played seven songs from Harvey Mason’s Funk In A Mason Jar. Lee Ritenour, I was a fan of his before meeting him. These guys were in my psyche and in my life before I had a chance to meet them, and to be in the band and go on the road and play music with them on a regular basis is just absolutely a pleasure and an honor.

MR: I hear that you’re the baby of the band by, what is it, four hours?

NE: [laughs] Yes. Chuck was born on December 7th and I was born on December 8th, both the same exact year, which is amazing.

MR: See? It was meant to be.

NE: Definitely. He is like my twin flame. We absolutely enjoy hanging together and being on tour and playing together.

MR: Awesome. Now, sir, you’ve also worked on many soundtracks. What a surprise, Dreamgirls, that’s also Harvey Mason Jr.’s project, right?

NE: Right, absolutely, right.

MR: And you’ve got Hairspray, you’ve got Tarzan, you’ve got Waiting to Exhale, Last Temptation of Christ, The Preacher’s Wife, Phenomenon, One Fine Day, Lethal Weapon 2 and 3, Rush, Escape From LA, Something to Talk About, Brewster’s Millions, Thelma & Louise and, ladies and gentlemen, drumroll please…Footloose.

NE: [laughs] Right! You know, I’d forgotten most of those.

MR: Oh, the hell you say, you’re just being modest.

NE: No, again, first of all, I can’t believe I’ve been making music in the LA area for more than thirty years. I can’t even imagine it went by that quickly, but while you’re in it… Footloose for instance, we rehearsed that song every day on the road with Kenny Loggins and it was the first number one record that I had a line that I actually sang on.

MR: What was the line?

NE: It was the line, “…and put your feet on the ground,” when they do the break in the middle.

MR: I don’t believe it. Can you sing it?

NE: [singing] “And put your feet on the ground.” Kenny stops singing and goes “You’ve got to turn me around,” and then I sing, “…and put your feet on the ground” and then Steve sings the next line. I’ll never forget that. That used to come on the radio and I’d say, “Hey, be quiet everybody, it’s me!”

MR: [laughs] And then when you were done it’s like, “Okay, go back to what you were doing.”

NE: Exactly! I remember with B.B. King, we were doing the end credits on Thelma & Louise and I was thinking to myself, “You know, this is a job that I just love!”

MR: Yeah, this music business thing might just work, huh?

NE: Might just work, if we just keep at it long enough.

MR: Oh, that reply just set you up so well for my next question, young man. How about giving some advice for new artists?

NE: New artists? Get into music because you love it and not for the money, and just be passionate about it. It’s going to be a challenge these days because it’s harder and harder than it used to be. They used to give you two or three records to develop your talent and your gift, and now I think they want to see you hit a home run your first time out, you know?

MR: Yeah, there’s no development. Remember labels like A&M or Warner Bros. where they’d give you like four or five albums?

NE: Yeah, Warner Bros., where you’d have artists like Rickie Lee Jones, probably Joni Mitchell, people that are great that took one or two or three albums to build up where they finally ended up. Prince!

MR: Prince, exactly, exactly. A&R Departments weren’t always the mean, horrible, “They’re going to ruin your lives” departments with the artists. For instance, think of Warner Bros. relationship with Randy Newman. How many albums did he have?

NE: It’s unbelievable. I’ll never forget, in 1981 working on his record that had “I Love LA” on it, and I was sitting there again singing with Jeff Porcaro and Toto singing “We love it!”

MR: [laughs] That was the Trouble in Paradise album, a classic.

NE: Thank you, Trouble In Paradise, one of my favorites. I remember thinking, “This guy is amazing!”

MR: So what do we need to know about Nathan East that we don’t know yet?

NE: Wow, well there’s probably a lot.

MR: Maybe it’s something Nathan doesn’t know.

NE: Exactly. There are lots and lots of fun stories, having done George Harrison’s last tour and becoming friends with him and hanging out at his house, just was really one of the highest honors in my entire life. He became a dear friend. It was my birthday in Japan while we were there and he took me down to the Versace store and I still have this beautiful leather jacket he gave me, and the beautiful Versace shirt given to me by a Beatle. I mean, come on.

MR: Oh, so sweet! I got to hang with him in Massachusetts once. He borrowed my guitar and he gave me a pick that read “Devil’s Radio,” the single they had promoted.

NE: Wow.

MR: I have the pick in my scrapbook, I’m not going to ever use that although I gave a second one he gave me to a kid I was mentoring, hope he still has it. And that guitar I lent him–a Gibson Country Western model, 1958–went totally dead. I mistreated it over the years and it was just a dead piece of wood by the time I sold it.

NE: Aw.

MR: [laughs] But I have to confess, when I did sell it, the guy offered me a certain amount of money and then I sheepishly said, “Well, you know, George Harrison played this guitar, too,” and he upped it by like four hundred dollars. George was still alive then, so I don’t feel that bad about it.

NE: Oh, man!

MR: I wish I still had that guitar. Oy.

NE: Yeah, exactly. It’s gently weeping somewhere.

MR: Nicely played, sir! Nathan, this isn’t a lot of fun to say, but we have to wind this down. I spoke with everyone in Fourplay now, and you guys are wonderful. You’re an amazing group of people as well as musicians. And you let me ramble on about Randy Newman and my guitar, extra points for that.

NE: [laughs] Well, thank you. We appreciate it, but the thing that makes it very special is that we, after all these years now, are still able to come together, and I think the spirit of this latest CD, Esprit de Four really sums up what Fourplay’s all about and I could not be more proud and more happy with the way it came out and with everybody’s contribution, especially Chuck Loeb. The new guy has just upped the ante. It’s a total love fest and we’re having a great time.

MR: Yeah, but if only Chuck had been born five hours later.

NE: [laughs] Well, it’s really great to still have the status of the baby of the band.

MR: There you go. All right, I guess the Fourplay interviews are ending now and it’s time to go through withdrawl. Kinda sad, actually.

NE: Let’s call this “Part One, To Be Continued,” because we’re enjoying it as well.

MR: [laughs] Nathan, we’ll do this again. I really appreciate your time and energy.

NE: Absolutely! Maybe we’ll check you out when we get back your way.

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