CONRAD:
"LIVE LOVE LEAVE" features my more poetic, melancholy and mellow "Singer-Songwriter" material. It's weighted towards ballads with a strong focus on storytelling and acoustic production including string quartets, upright bass, and melodica in addition to electric instruments. "ON THE THRESHOLD" has an electric "band" sound and features my more upbeat, power-pop / rock 'n' roll material with a focus on hooky melodies and grooves.
 

RSFC... I have to say this album is more upbeat than your last one, any reason for this ?

CONRAD:
Funny, in the case of "LIVE LOVE LEAVE", so many people were shocked and concerned for my mental and emotional well-being when they heard it because the songs and subject matter were not what people expected from what they knew of my personality, it really cracked me up! The fact is, several of the songs on "ON THE THRESHOLD" were written at the same time as the songs on "LIVE LOVE LEAVE", but as the production concept for the ballads began to develop I began to focus more on them, and I decided to make two separate albums with the different styles of music as opposed to two albums each containing half of each style of material. In general everything about the production of that first album was a bit more "precious", and I particularly enjoyed writing the string quartets while on the road. I wanted to create a consistent mood piece that would take the listener on a journey without too many sharp turns. I think I succeeded in that, but in hindsight I suspect the album would have had more commercial success if I had put a handful of the more commercial songs on there. That said, my goal at the time was to expose a different side of my personality and provide myself with a unique creative outlet. I did have some small commercial successes with it though, a couple of the highlights being that "I'm Leaving" was played in an episode of the TV show "Royal Pains", and I performed "Firefly" live on the Jerry Lewis / MDA Telethon in a duet with Kristina Train (Rosanne Cash sang the duet on the album). So the concept for "ON THE THRESHOLD" started with some of those more upbeat and commercial songs from that earlier period, combined with new compositions in the same vein.

RSFC:
Where do you find your inspiration for song ideas?
 

CONRAD:
Sometimes from personal experience, sometimes from my imagination, and sometimes from other songs or even movies. Occasionally, if I'm lucky, a melody or lyric will just pop into my head and inspire and entire composition. Other times it's more of a thought process.
 

RSFC:
Do you have plans to tour to support the new album?
 

CONRAD:
Right now I'm just trying to get the word out via internet because I'm gearing up for a lot of Rod touring starting this Spring and continuing through the end of the year. It looks like we may have a couple of months off in early Fall during which time I hope to do a CD Release Party / Concert in NYC. If some of my Rod Stewart bandmates are up for it I may explore doing some live shows on days off on tour, but that can be very tricky to schedule in advance because sometimes our days off get booked with travel or other gigs. I did just have a 4 page feature in a German magazine called BassQuarterly, and we have some tour dates in Germany, so that might be a good place for me to start looking to book something.

RSFC:
Do any of the songs on the album reflect on your life?
 

CONRAD:
Yes, but not necessarily the ones you'd think. On "LIVE LOVE LEAVE", many of the most personal songs were shrouded in metaphors and told via characters, eg: "Love Story Of A Blade Of GrassAnd A Pine Tree" and "Firefly". Many of the songs sung in the first person were just stories I imagined, like "I'm Leaving" and "I'll Be Doing The Same Thing Tomorrow". The songs on "ON THE THRESHOLD" are much less autobiographical, although "I've Been" is entirely biographical and all of the things I lay out are true. Gosh, I miss that Buick! A fun fact about that song: I wrote that in Spring of 2002, half a year before I started working with Rod. If I'd written it now I'd need 100 more verses!
 

RSFC:
What excites you the most about the new album? and do you have any favourite songs on it ?
 

CONRAD:
I'm excited to finally have this other material out there in the universe to compliment and contrast with the material on my first album, and to show yet another side of my musical personality. While, of course, I like all of the songs on the album or I wouldn't have included them, I think "I'm Alive" is a pretty special and unusual song, if I may say so myself. I'm also partial to "I've Been", for obvious reasons, and I'm pleased with the jazz / bossa nova influenced writing on "Until We Meet Again", similar to the bonus track "I Quit Falling In Love" from my first album.
 

RSFC:
How would you describe yourself as a musician in one sentence ?
 

CONRAD:
I'm a musician.
 

RSFC:
Did you use the same musicians for both of your solo projects & have used any of your fellow band mates from Rod’s band?
 

CONRAD:
Everything you hear on "ON THE THRESHOLD" was performed by me (including the percussion on "Until We Meet Again", tambourine on "Earthlings", etc) except the drumset, which was performed by John Clancy.
On "LIVE LOVE LEAVE" I performed upright bass, electric bass, keyboards, guitars, melodica, percussion, programmed drum loops, and wrote the string arrangements. Additional musicians included a string quartet, a French Horn player, 2 female vocalists (Joy Askew and Rosanne Cash) and David Palmer from Rod's band and Shawn Pelton (who also played on many TV appearances with Rod and is on some of Rod's "American Songbook" recordings) on drums, and Matt Beck (who I brought into Rod's band in 2007) and Thad DeBrock on guitars.
 

RSFC:
Why is music important to you?
 

CONRAD:
It feeds my body, literally, and my soul. I'm very fortunate to have discovered and been given the opportunity to nurture my talent and turn that into my life's guiding force.
 

RSFC:
How do you get your music to your fans who can’t access it in local stores? Do you have an online channel where the music is sold, maybe via iTunes or other sources?
 

CONRAD:
Both of my albums are on iTunes and CD Baby, Just make sure if you look for my new album on iTunes you use the iTunes STORE, not the "iTunes Music" App, as my new album is not on the streaming site.
 

RSFC:
Have you got a target audience for your music?
 

CONRAD:
Yes, the deaf (ha!).
 

RSFC:
Your vocals sound great on both albums why doesn't Rod use you more for backing vocals?
 

CONRAD:
Well, thank you very much, first of all! Rod has the 3 girls up front who bring so much more to the show than just their amazing vocals. Chuck, who is stationary at the keyboards, covers a lot of the male background parts. I think Rod prefers to have us guitarists be more "mobile" rather than stuck behind a mic stand, given the choice. It's nice that he has us singing now on "You're In My Heart" and "Motown Song", though. Maybe I should lobby for him to get us those Janet Jackson style headset mics, what do you think?!?! Please say no. Besides, it's all on tape anyway…you know that, right?? JUST KIDDING..
 

RSFC:
Do you have any other projects coming up?
 

CONRAD:
Besides my freelance bass playing work, which keeps me quite busy, I'm currently producing 2 other artists in my Scrumptious Music production studio. On Rod's break in April I'm doing a bunch of dates with jazz vocal group Manhattan Transfer, including a weekend at the legendary Blue Note Jazz Club in NYC, and I have a steady Thursday gig I've been doing in Tribeca backing up a jazz pianist / singer-songwriter in a trio. I've also been doing some TV promo with a new pop artist named Shawn Hook and have been in touch with Christopher Cross about doing some more dates with him as well.
One project that I'd like to remind people of is Emily Kinney's "Blue Toothbrush" EP, which I cowrote and produced back in 2011 in between working on my own 2 albums. You might recognize her name from starring in the TV show "The Walking Dead", playing Beth Greene. I produced her album much in the same way as my albums: I played / recorded / mixed everything except the drums were played by our beloved David Palmer from Rod's band. It's available on CD Baby andiTunes

RSFC:
Can you tell us about your bass guitars, which one is your favourite to play?
 

CONRAD:
This will probably sound too technical and be boring for your readers, but I'll indulge: For many years on tour with Rod, I've been using an Alleva-Coppolo custom 4-string bass with a Hipshot D-tuner and a Lakland "Joe Osborne" 5 string bass. Both of those basses are Fender Jazz Bass style. I've been using the Lakland 5 since I joined the band, and I used to use my trusty old 1972 Fender Jazz Bass (that's the white one in the "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy" slap bass solo video on youtube), but I use it so much in the studio in NYC that I needed to have it around, and it was a hassle transporting it to/from tours or one-offs. It's also much less replaceable, as it is a vintage instrument, so I replaced that on tour with the Alleva-Coppolo. My tour upright is a "Kay" that's about 50-60 years old…a real workhorse. All of those instruments stay out with the gear, even when I go home. The electrics run through a wireless system that the production provides, then into a couple of effect pedals (Chorus and Compression) that I only use in the solo on "Sexy", into my BAE Desktop Mic Pre, then into an Empirical Labs Distressor (Compressor) and back via long cables to a tuner/mute pedal behind me onstage, then out of that pedal into a "Direct Box" which sends the signal to the monitor and front of house soundboards. Too much information?That's why we have techs!
At home I have the aforementioned Fender, a 1966 Fender Precision, a Rob Allen 5 string fretless bass, a 1960's "Conrad" bass (yes, that's really the name!), a silver sparkle Danelectro reissue circa 2000 that I use with The Faces (matching silver sparkle strap…crucial to the sound…not), Moollon 4 and 5 string basses, a 5 string Alleva-Coppolo, 2 more Laklands (4 and 5 string), another Kay upright, a Juzek upright, and an Azola electric upright, plus lots of amps and effect pedals, as you might imagine. I also have many guitars (including one of Jeff Golub's Hamers)and some keyboards for when I'm producing.
 

RSFC:
Who are your favorite artists/bands - all time and current?
 

CONRAD:
(Said in robot voice) Past = Rod Stewart, Present = Rod Stewart, Future = Rod Stewart (…job security!).
Actually, too many to list, and in too many styles of music. Remember, I also have a jazz degree, so that's a whole other animal that we haven't even touched on. I don't claim to be any kind of visionary with regards to discovering music that other people don't know about, so if you think of most of the heroes in any particular genre you'd probably end up with a lot of the people I'd mention…
 

RSFC:
Do you get to watch many live shows with your busy work schedule?
 

CONRAD:
Fortunately, since most of my friends are in the same industry, I do get to see a lot of shows. In the span of about a month this winter I saw Bruce Springsteen, Hall & Oates, and The Who all at Madison Square Garden, all with backstage passes and even had a chance to chat with Daryl Hall, Pete Townshend and others. On the road we often cross paths with friends who are in town playing shows too, so we try to invite each other whenever we can…it's a real community

RSFC:
Where's the best place people can find more information about you?
 

CONRAD:
www.conradkorsch.com is the most comprehensive. That page also links to my ScrumptiousMusic site, CD Baby, iTunes, etc.
 

RSFC:
One last question before we finish up, Would you ever consider coming over to the UK and playing for us at an RSFC Big Weekend event ?
 

CONRAD:
Yeah, that would be a blast!
 

Its been an absolute pleasure speaking with you Conrad and on behalf of everyone at the RSFC I would like to thank you for taking time to talk to us and may I wish you every success with the new album and the future.
Thank you
Helen

Conrad Korsch was interviewed  on behalf of the RSFC. March 2016

To purchase a copy go to:
http://www.scrumptiousmusic.com/signed-cds.html
Photographs by Ruth Hannuschka.