Ken Tamplin Interviewed via by Dave Attrill & Glenn Milligan, BA Hons Sent: 11th June 2003 Recieved: 12th June 2002 Ken Tamplin (Live at the Gods, Bradford - 2003) What
made you change record labels?
Joey has been playing for country artist Clint Black, Loren is a sales rep for
EAW Loudspeakers and Chuck Kings builds houses. (really nice custom homes I might
add) Yes,
Howie is my guitarist. I realize he is also now the guitarist for Jeff Scott Soto
as well. He would be an extremely difficult person to replace. (if not impossible)
It was all Howie's idea! No, just kidding, Howie did have a lot of input as well
as Mark Ashton. I threw down about 25 songs and between the 3 of us, we picked
12 to perform.
It would be great but I'm not certain we could pull enough crowds in to pay for
the tour. We'll have to wait and see how the CD does to justify that. Getting
to work with such great players is always a highlight. I also enjoyed just getting
to make a record again as I do so much orchestral film work now or music that
comes out of my computer that it's a major release to be able to do what I like
to do best and that is slammin' rock! It
was all Howie's idea! No, really, I have always been a fan of Jeff's voice and
since he and Howie were good friends, I jumped at the chance to get his wailing
voice on the CD. I love the energy he brought to the record. I
play the radio, I play soccer. No, I play bass (of course) a little piano (enough
to get myself in trouble) I'm a monster drum programmer, I play banjo, flamenco,
mandolin, a little bazoukia and mandacello. I was 6 years old and
was inspired by Allison Fonte' from the new Mickey Mouse Club. We were in the
same school together and I had to find some way to impress her, so I learned Stairway
To Heaven for the school talent show. She was a very gifted singer, pianist, gymnist
etc. I did win her over.
Have you always intended to have a religious vibe running through your music from the start? I think
when I'm writing for myself I tend to write what is in my heart. When I write
for movies or other people (take the song I wrote with Howie Simon called 'Falling
Houses' for example) I write much differently. That song is about broken homes.
Ken Tamplin and Howie Simon (Live at the Gods, Bradford - 2003)
I
think it's one in the same. I like to say things with purpose. I don't like to
babble about nothing. If you have a platform (like music or art in general) you
given a great gift of communicating to a lot of people. I believe there is a responsibility
that goes along with that. I choose to accept that responsibility and write about
things I think matters. In that context, it expresses my faith. That comes quite
naturally. I try not to impose my belief on anyone. I hope that my life is such
an example that people will know I am the real deal. That speaks louder than any
words to a song ever could. Shout
did quite well. For a young band on an independant label to sell a quarter of
a million records with little or no promotion, only live shows and a couple of
videos we made ourselves, we did ok. We
played all those huge 20,000 and 30,000 seat festivals. They were fun. But I have
to say, I still really enjoy some of the small intimate dates. I really mean that.
It would be nice to have both. On the big dates, you never get to wear your heart
on your sleeve therefore it's almost not real. Anu with more than one "emotional"
song and you lose the anthemic energy. That's kind of a drag because some of the
coolest stuff an artist has to offer is intimacy. That usually only takes place
in a smaller setting. A few years ago, we got to tour my Christmas CD called "The
Colors Of Christmas" and the shows we played were in candle lit 1,000 year
old churches. The vibe was seriously cool. How many people can say they got to
do that? I
like the guys in the group. I'm still close to all of them. So I would have to
say the friendships. The touring was fun becuase I was touring with guys I liked.
I also really enjoyed that we were getting to inspire a lot of people. That's
always a good thing. Actually Shout
started with just me and Chuck King. Loren was still in Joshua at the time. Little
by little, memebers of Joshua quit and wanted to play in Shout. We often would
joke that the band should have been called UA (United Artists) or actually Joshua
without "Josh". That
was the brainchild of my photographer Nigel Skeet. He suggested a couple of names
and once the light went on in my head, I took the ball and ran with it. The band
name Shout was actually my wife's idea. She came up with the name. It was simple,
we just lost the name. Another band beat us to registering the name. That disouragement
led to Chuck and Loren deciding to get a real job. The rest is history. Mark
Alger from Z Records encouraged us to do it. Not
at the moment, I am focussing on the new CD "Wake The Nations" . I just love to create
and perform. It's what I was made to do. Is this an epitaph?!? As someone who cared about people. As someone who inspired hope into others. As someone who represented "love" as genuine. As someone who aspired toward excellence. As somone who appreciated beauty. As someone who could be respected for his beliefs, because he lived it.
A big Thank-you to Ken Tamplin for such an immensely, brilliant Interview.
A bonus interview sent to us by No Boundz PR - Ken
Tamplin Answers the Question: I
realize it's almost throat splitting on my behalf, but timely and Mr. Tamplin, what do you think about the mp3 downloading controversy? Well, this is obviously something I am going to get flack for but here goes. Having
music as my profession, do I feel "ripped off" when someone steals my Am I guilty myself? You bet 'cha. So
what do I do with this hypocrisy and apparent conflict of interest within Let me put it this way; Since
the beginning of recorded music, music groups have been ripped off Isn't it a bit
ironic (for the most part) that these "record label thieves" In
addition, they have had a monopoly on the music industry far too long, Now
a technology comes along that they can't get their arms around and yet, For
the most part, you can find things that have been long out of print that So what do we do? Sue our fans like Metallica considered? Take college boys to jail for copyright infringement? Why
doesn't the industry embrace the technology and come up with Sure
that's it, get one of these creative thinking artists or software You see, then it's legal. Oh
Ken, you sound like you have an axe to grind. Actually, not really. I The way I see
it is this; the technology is not going away, in fact, it's If
it were me in the record company seat, I would come up with technologies So
it doesn't bother me that the technology is here. What bothers me is how |