With obligations to the Allman Brothers Band and Dead & Company plus reunion dates with Col. Bruce Hampton & the Aquarium Rescue Unit, guest spots on albums, a variety of collaborative performances and a newborn, it’s not surprising that the next solo album by bassist extraordinaire Oteil Burbridge took awhile.
The recently released Water in the Desert began 10 years ago when Oteil started the writing process. Produced by David Ryan Harris (who also sings on the album), Burbridge is joined by his brother Kofi Burbridge on keyboards, Dave Yoke on guitar, Lil’ John Roberts and Sean O’Rourke on drums, Miguel Atwood Ferguson on strings and Alfreda Gerald and Mark Rivers on vocals.
With the songs incorporating elements of R&B, Jazz, Gospel, Funk, Blues and Rock, the album reflects his listening background and inspirations.
In the press release announcing the album Burbridge said, “They are all songs about love in some way,” he said, “finding out how to love yourself, hoping that another loved one will love you just as you are, believing in someone when they find it hard to believe in themselves, love gone wrong, or finally finding the “perfect fit.” I feel like every problem we have on earth in some way comes back to the lack of love. That’s really what this record is about.”
Burbridge hits the road for a week of dates in support of the “Water in the Desert.” Oteil & Friends includes Melvin Seals, Eric Krasno, John Kadlecik, Jay Lane, Weedie Braimah, and Alfreda Gerald. Seals will not be performing on the Nov. 6 date.
With a barely a moment to catch his breath, he reunites with the members of Dead & Company for that band’s fall tour.
JPG: You started writing the album 10 years ago. Did you consider it as a hobby of sorts, one that you would come back to when you had the chance during breaks from The Allman Brothers Band and Dead & Company?
OB: I usually just write when ideas are coming freely and I have to get them down before they disappear on me. I used to write a lot more in the winter because I was more confined to the house. I also used to write in the early mornings between 3 and 8 a.m. because I’m usually awake then.
I had a little demo studio in the basement of my old house and no children when I wrote the songs on “Water in the Desert.” Since we moved to a new house in Florida, I don’t have a studio in the house anymore and now I also have a 2 1/2 year old, so I don’t get the chance to write as much. Music and composition are so many things to me: they’re pastimes, therapy, games, meditations, lifelong practice, jobs, work, play, forms of prayer, mourning, celebrating and healthy ways of killing time, if I ever actually have time to kill anymore!
JPG: How did you come up with the theme of Water in the Desert, and all of its songs being related to love?
OB: I didn’t really set out to do an album with a theme. It’s just something that I noticed about the record when I was asked about it. I guess that’s where my head was at at the time. It still is philosophically. Look at the political, religious and economic wars being waged right now. And all of the above are simultaneously wars on the environment. It’s really sad. It also has a really negative effect on our individual and collective psyche.
JPG: Elaborate on the way the album plays out – “finding out how to love yourself, hoping that another loved one will love you just as you are, believing in someone when they find it hard to believe in themselves, love gone wrong, or finally finding the “perfect fit.“”
OB: There really is no order to it. It’s very random. The songs are more like different bodies held in orbit by the sun than a narrative with a beginning, middle and end.
JPG: In the album’s press release you say, “I feel like every problem we have on earth in some way comes back to the lack of love. That’s really what this record is about.” Do you see these songs, your upcoming tour and what you contribute as a musician in a spiritual way? In a divided, angry society how do you see such a message getting through to people who need it?
OB: The answer to the first part of your question is yes. It is my spiritual contribution. But it’s also a practical one. It’s not practical to keep killing each other and the environment. The environment will recover but we won’t. What we are doing is not only homicidal and “eco-cidal” but also suicidal. It’s insane.
But I don’t expect the message to be received or accepted by everyone. I can’t reasonably expect everyone to get it. In my opinion we are all fighting against our reptilian brain. It’s the oldest and arguably the strongest part of our brains. In my opinion it is the “Satan”, the “adversary”. It’s in us all just like peace and Love are.
Sages both ancient and modern believe that strengthening the peace and love part while starving the war and hate part can overcome it. I lose the battle every day. I’m not in my car for 5 minutes before my first fail! I get frustrated and mad at my son and he’s only two and a half. That’s how evolved I am! I’m fighting the battle every day. If I can’t accomplish it myself, even in the small things, how can I expect a nation to do it?
So, I guess I must accept both. It’s like a sine wave. It oscillates equally up and down. That is life. If all life is vibration, and science tells us that it is, then it is equally up and down, positive and negative, good and bad, or good and evil. I must accept both. Maybe evil will never be defeated here on earth. Maybe it’s not supposed to be. We would have nothing to do! The Tao says, “What is a good man but a bad man’s teacher? What is a bad man but a good man’s job?”
JPG: Can you talk a bit more about the album title, Water in the Desert, because after listening to the song, I can see it fitting within the album’s central theme but it can also reference numerous things.
OB: It is the central theme of the album. Obviously, it’s a love song first but it’s also about the spiritual power of love in general. That’s what the whole album is about. It’s about what we really need to be healthy. And not just in the physical sense. It’s about being healthy emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. If all we consider important is what we learn from rationalistic materialism and we don’t give equal importance to the subjective side, then we will never get out of the morass we find ourselves in individually and as a society. No one can scientifically prove that genocide or slavery or any form of abuse is wrong but we know that it is. And let’s not forget science has given us all manner of weapons of mass destruction, nuclear waste, Monsanto, oil spills, plastic islands in the oceans, air pollution, ozone depletion, the capability to annihilate every single person on the planet, etc.
And to all those people that say that religion is the cause of most wars I would ask them a question. What would all these religious wars be without science? People throwing rocks at each other? I believe our reptilian brains can make science just as evil and deadly as religion, so both sides can share the blame. If we can seriously consider and address the spiritual deficits in our individual and corporate lives, we can have more compassion in all aspects of our society; political, economic, religious and scientific. If we let love infuse all of these facets of society, it would indeed be like water in the desert.
JPG: After three Oteil and the Peacemakers albums what led to this solo release?
OB: The Peacemakers was Mark Kimbrell on guitar, Matt Slocum on Keyboards, and Chris Fryar on drums. It’s a band. Without that exact line up, until one of them dies or wouldn’t want to do it anymore, it’s not the Peacemakers. The Allman Brothers Band would never have done a gig without me and called it the Allman Brothers Band unless I was in the hospital, quit or got fired. That’s what it means to be in a band. None of the members of the Peacemakers were on this last record, so I wouldn’t disrespect them by calling it a Peacemakers record.
You probably wouldn’t notice this but everyone in the Peacemakers lived in Birmingham, Alabama, which is where I lived when that band was together. Almost everyone on my last album lived in or was from Atlanta, Georgia, where I lived when I made that record. I always thought it was good to find people that were right around me if I could. I’m sure I could put together a monster group using only people from south Florida where I live now if I needed to.
JPG: The album moves from R&B moments to jazz ones – reminding me of Stevie Wonder’s ‘70s work as well as bands like Mahavishnu Orchestra. It’s possible I’m completely nuts in my interpretation, so I’m asking you what artists inspired you for this album, and, possibly, what songs/albums/artists were you aspiring to align with for Water in the Desert ?”
OB: You’re not completely nuts, your ears are working! I was born in ’64. You’re hearing R&B, Jazz, Fusion, Gospel, Funk, Blues, Outer Space, Rock….. There’s Isley Brothers, Stevie Wonder, Weather Report, Miles, Joni Mitchell, Earth Wind & Fire, Steely Dan, Rev. James Cleveland and Sun Ra. And plenty more! I don’t really try to align with them it just comes out that way. They are my musical parents.
JPG: I’m curious if you noticed that the vocal on “Let Somebody Love You” sounds like John Mayer (as well as the song itself). Was that written since you’ve become bandmates, and through conscious or subconscious ways he influenced it?
OB: Hahaha! You just proved a theory that I have. That was sung by David Ryan Harris who has clearly had a major influence on John Mayer! David is actually in Mayer’s band at this very moment. They’re in Brazil right now. I heard that Mayer used to stalk his solo shows. Maybe Mayer got turned onto David when he lived in Atlanta. I’ll have to ask him. David Ryan Harris is one of the most gifted singers, lyricist, guitarist, composer, and producers on earth.
And for the record, that song was written about 10 years before I ever met Mayer and I didn’t own any of his records. I certainly haven’t listened to any radio since the late 70’s!! Maybe it was influenced by David Harris and I didn’t realize it. I could never sing that song as well as David did. I’m eternally grateful that he did.
JPG: In the music world there are numerous brother combinations that are usually known for creativity marked with hostility – i.e. The Kinks, The Black Crowes, Oasis, The Jesus and Mary Chain – what is your relationship like with Kofi when it comes to making music? Is there a “shorthand” when working together that you don’t have with others?
OB: I guess I was always into the brothers that got along like the Isley Brothers, Bootsy and Catfish Collins, Verdine and Maurice White of Earth, Wind & Fire, Carlton and Aston “Family Mon” Barrett of The Wailers, The Brothers Johnson, The Heath Brothers, The Jackson 5, The Neville Brothers. And let’s not forget about the Allman Brothers.
Kofi and I get along great. There’s something far more wondrous than shorthand going on. It’s pure mysticism. I would love to have a stage at a festival that is all brothers. Burbridge brothers, Evans brothers, Trucks brothers, Wood brothers, Coomes brothers (Lettuce), the McCoury brothers (Del McCoury) and any other brothers and sisters we could come up with!
JPG: Choosing the Friends (musicians) for your upcoming tour. What are you looking for from them that they can add to the studio versions of the music?
OB: Actually, I wasn’t looking for them to add anything to the studio versions of these songs because I’m not really focusing on the record for the live shows. We would need weeks to rehearse that music and that just was not possible this time around. I’m doing a couple of my originals, and at least one from Krasno, John K. and hopefully from Weedie and Melvin, too. The rest are old tunes that I love or ABB, Col. Bruce or Grateful Dead/Jerry Garcia Band related.
JPG: Do you have particular aims for this album versus aims for the tour?
The album writing is a snapshot of where my head was back then. The tour is a celebration of past and present with some really great musicians and friends.
JPG: Are your goals and intentions the same when you’re playing as a member of a band versus leading a band?
OB: I think so. We’re all just making grooves, melodies and harmonies put to stories we want to tell. The only difference is that whoever is the bandleader or wrote the song is the one that is translating to the rest of us what he or she originally heard in their head.
JPG: You’ve worked with a number of iconic figures in the music world – Col. Bruce Hampton, Gregg Allman and Bob Weir, Bill Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart. What have you learned from those experiences that you bring to those situations as well as back to your own music and performance leading a band? Feel free to add any others who inspired you to be the best Oteil you can be.
OB: Wow, that would take so long to answer and I’ve already been long-winded enough in this interview. First, I see why Col. Bruce avoided fame at all costs. There’s a really big price to pay for it. And it seems like the earlier in life it happens the bigger the price. Look at Michael Jackson. My life has changed a lot since joining Dead & Company and even more since I started singing. People look at me like I’m an extra terrestrial sometimes. It really is a strange feeling. It’s kind of new to me, so I’m just now getting used to it but I sure am glad that I’ll never have to deal with that Garcia-level of idol worship. It’s not good for anyone as far as I can see. Success can be a lot more dangerous than failure. It has killed many before their time.
But specifically, from those particular men, I think the biggest thing I learned is to keep going. And go for as long as you can. So many of my heroes played right up to the very end. Life is motion, doing. Doing is life giving. Just like a sine wave rocking back and forth. We’ll be playing a stadium and Kreutzmann will look at me and say, “Wow! isn’t this unbelievable?” I think, “Man, you’ve been playing stadiums since I was like 7 years old! And you’re still knocked out by it?” There’s certainly a number of lessons to be learned just right there.
JPG: It looked as if you were shedding a few tears when Dead & Company took its bow at the end of the second Wrigley Field show, which signified the end of 2017 summer tour. What was going through your mind at that time and what went through your mind when fall dates were announced?
OB: If I looked sad it’s because I was worried about Kofi making a full recovery. I’m never truly sad when a tour is over, just glad that it happened. Especially this year. And I’m always psyched when a new one is announced. It’s win/win on both counts. Fall tour is another chance to do it better than last time. And I know a lot more songs now whether we get to them this fall or not. I’m just getting started!
