Fabrizio Grossi & Soul Garage Experience
Counterfeited Soulstice Vol. 1
https://www.soulgarageexperience.com
Fabrizio Grossi is a unique character with a creative stream of musical consciousness that branches out into a variety of different musical projects. Aside from a back catalogue of collaborations with heavy hitters in the music world, ranging from Steve Vai to George Clinton, he has also produced numerous artists across many genres. Whilst the widely celebrated trio Supersonic Blues Machine remains a great vehicle of musical ideas, Grossi’s new project, Soul Garage Experience takes the multitalented producer and bassist to new territory by taking on the role of front-man.
His new solo project debut, titled Counterfeited Soulstice Vol. 1, is a veritable musical adventure, with a tight band unit cranking out the tunes, embellished by some highly capable musical guests. Loud Online chatted to the effusive and erudite Grossi from his studio in Los Angeles via Zoom, about all things musical, and anything else that sprang to mind, including work with Billy Gibbons.
Counterfeited Soulstice Vol. 1 is a very nice album. Did it take a lot of pre-production given the pandemic scenario?
Not really because that record, and all of the other songs that I have a aside for volume two and for volume three, some of them are older songs, like ten years or something like that, some are one that I was preparing for the new Supersonic Blues Machine that I decided not to use for that because they sounded like this record, like me, not Supersonic Blues Machine. Some stuff was written during COVID. Generally I prepare and I always document songs that I write where I put down a little mock of everything. So, it wasn’t really a long process when it comes down to that. It was probably long time because of all the dynamics in it and again, you have a family too and all of that, so it is not like you can spend the whole week or a whole month in the studio. If I do that, in a week, I’m done but unfortunately that is not the reality. There are other things too, and also phone calls and all of it. But overall no, it was probably one of the most organic things that I have ever done, even though it was done sometimes in a very unorthodox way. Not necessarily was everything done in a proper studio like my studio here in Hollywood, sometimes it was like demos. I don’t know, some weird things but in the end it all worked out. I am really happy for that.
How do line-ups work in your solo projects? You brought in Derek Day for guitar duties for the Soul Garage Experience.
The thing is, the last five or six years of my life were dedicated almost exclusively to Supersonic Blues Machine, and whenever I was recording or touring, the other time I was obviously back here, working on something else. But, all these other cats, that are around Soul Garage Experience, these are other friends that I have in this town, that we already play with each other. It is not because I am with that band specifically, that ‘Oh My God, I cannot play with anybody else because otherwise somebody gets offended,’ that is not the situation. Obviously, we all kind of like know each other and these are some the cats that I love to play with the most. We already had a few things going and it was just natural and very, very organic. The other thing too is not like this record was started with, ‘Okay, let me do the pre-production, now, I’m done with that, let’s start to either set up the thing to rehearse and we all record together or let’s prepare all the stuff and let’s start with the drums and the bass,’ and all that kind of stuff. It was not done like that. It was almost done, a song by song. Maybe I did a bunch of things together when it came down to the overdubs like maybe we did all of the harmonicas within a day or two or some stuff. But for the majority, almost like work on a song per song. I wanted to do it like that because I didn’t want to have a record that sounded like, ‘Okay, this is the drum sound, this is the drummer.’ There was a bunch of different people that play songs that they were written and they meant something specific for the specific circumstances in specific days. Even in the same environment and instrument sounds different from today to tomorrow, so, you know, I wanted to capture that and that is why, you know, the record it like that.
The instrumentation is varied and as you mentioned the harmonica, there is quite a lot which seems to follow the vocal line.
Harmonica, or harp, is a very misunderstood instrument. I love it because it could represent a lot of things. I mean, I think it is a very gutsy and bluesy instrument, and it can take you to country world but luckily for me, it does not, and it takes me to the blues end of it. For a lot of bluesmen, whether they are guitar player, drummer…like it happened to Willie ‘Big Eyes’ Smith and cats like that, they are not playing harmonica because that was what they could afford or because that was the easiest thing to carry around, but the musicality and the idea of the sound was all that. It was very, very gutsy. I love the blues harmonica because it has not only a sound but it kind of advocates a vision with that sound which automatically takes you there. I really love the sound because it is not in anybody’s range and it has got a very typical tone because whether it is copying a guitar melody or a vocal melody, you can easily distinguish both instruments and everyone has got its place. So, it is something that I really dig, that is why you hear it a lot.
The guitar solos are interesting, with particular tones and the way that even as an enhancement, have little musical stories in themselves.
Yes, I mean that is if you work with a great guitar player, that is the way that it should be. On this record there are a lot of great guitar players but I think you are more referring to the work of Derek Day. He is, ha-ha, just stupid good, that is all I can say, I’ve know the kid since he was sixteen and my daughter actually said, ‘Hey Dad, you need to come and see this guy,’ when we were in Santa Monica and he was playing on the promenade. He had this little amplifier, you know, a little PA and has was playing Guns ‘N Roses and he was playing Slash licks like Steve Vai would play them and he was singing Axl Rose vocals like Robert Plant would, and whilst jumping, and you know, crazy, like he was playing in front of ten thousand people. So I went and introduced myself and we kept in touch, during the years we always kept bumping into each other to the point where we had to start to jam and we really liked each other so, the thing is, the particularity about this band is that everybody is a very positive person, everybody brings in a lot of energy at a specific wavelength and Derek, I will say, is the most energetic of them all. I mean, it is insane. I like his approach because even though it is very flashy, he could be particular. He has the sensibility and passion of a lot of big time blues players but also, he has the technique and the flashiness of Steve Vai. He has the groove and the funk of like, Vernon Reid, and it is all combined. I am not saying they’re out there or they’re not great guitar player among young people, there are and actually probably are even too good for their own good but this kid learned how to play that because of playing and not because he became like a bedroom hero. I do not know anybody like Derek who plays maybe three hundred or four hundred gigs a year as sometimes it is a double or triple gig. These days it is impossible. He does it, you know, he never turns down any opportunities to play any shows and he likes it. The reason why we get along so well is because I am coming from this more, not traditional, but more I have my own thing in terms of like freedom, I always think, first the groove and all of it. I always let all of the other guys there, coming in, when we are working on a song, to bring their own because at the end of the day it is their name that is on it and if they just have to play something that I write, yeah well, I will say, I write something for them but I want them, for those to be, you know, the notes, kind of like, okay, ‘Take it from there, I’m giving you the script now you direct the movie,’ get on to that kind of vibe.
There’s great variety in the production side, with a Jimi Hendrix styled fuzz tone on Soul Intervention, slide on I Never Thought That You Loved Me. Also, Shit Load of Sugar is off the charts with funky feel.
Thank you. That’s again, I’ve been producing records for like, twenty years, more actually, almost thirty at this point and that is my daily job and I like that. I like to screw around with guitar tones and all of that. So, even with Derek and even though he has all of his sounds and everything, sometimes we talk and he lets me bring in some of my pedals and all that kind of stuff so I am glad that noticed that. And, just like with my bass, it is never straight, especially when we play live, I always like to have things in there. I think that is the kind of spice that makes the chicken interesting, you know, otherwise it would be just chicken. I am vegetarian too so even thinking that would make it double boring. I think, you know, getting those kind of sounds, you know, it is a cool thing to go by during a song.
Pills, Lies & Thunderstorms is very much a Texas blues with different changes which again goes back to the production, but does that open, sparse intro and verse section give you opportunity to play with the rhythm section sound?
No, the thing is that song is actually started off from the main riff [sings it], that my friend Simone [Sello – guitarist] wrote. We were in a room together and he kept playing this thing on a loop and I said, ‘Why don’t you just try to do this and let’s add that?’ because I was thing of a couple of things and how the song would come together. However, I had this idea for the lyrics about this…the whole record is very political but in a metaphorical way. Sometimes, things are direct, sometimes with things like Pills, Lies & Thunderstorms, it is not direct. Who wants to understand, can understand but not necessarily everybody will understand what I am saying there. It is very reflective of what is going on today in the United States, actually this is a song that was written almost two years ago, a year and a half ago, so you know where I am going with this and I am not saying that I am fine with what is going on today, I am just saying, that song was written two years ago so it was a different set of issues or problems and I wanted to have the difference that this major clash between the verses and the song itself we could almost be like a Texas Red Dirt style but tamed, stoned and moonshined where though you can easily understand what I am talking about because it is clear, there is more room. But, it is done in a way that because of that particular sound, will engage people to listen to what I am saying that otherwise wouldn’t if the music was a little bit more different but kind of like, almost that music that blues band there, it is a bait for an invitation to listen to what I have to say that isn’t exactly politically correct. The payoff is the chorus but we wanted to create that and actually when Simone and I were talking about the song, we are big Beatles fans and one of the songs that I always loved of The Beatles was A Day in the Life and they, themselves and George Martin, they were talking about how that was basically two songs that came together. I was telling Simone that and I was saying, ‘Hey, how about we go somewhere else?’ because see it was easy to go from this, where we have the verses and the choruses and all that just to go to like a little bit more of a groovy part or shuffle, whatever you want to call it, and go into solos and instrumental but that is a regular blues song. ‘How about we got completely somewhere else?’ and he was like, ‘What do you mean somewhere else? I mean, the riff is almost like Buddy Guy.’ So I said, ‘Cool, let’s go to Steve Powers,’ and I don’t know why I said that and all of a sudden we went, ‘Yes, sixties!’ you know, B-52s, it was kind of like a super, groovy England beat, kind of like London, underground, bell- button and all that kind of stuff and that is why it switches there but the message continues. But then again, I would say is another bait to invite people to listen to what otherwise could be a Bob Dylan song played with acoustic guitar that you really need to be into Dylan to be able to deal with all that to get that message. Unfortunately I do not have that kind of fans yet that will dedicate that much attention to what I am doing so I have to get, kind of like, trade things to catch them up.
The instrumentation side of it is interesting. Is that something that you pick up or develop from working with Billy Gibbons?
Ah, whether that song or the whole album, the thing is that every one of the people that I’ve worked with has given me something, whether they are a famous star or an independent kid. I don’t mean they physically gave me a gift, I mean that I learned something from them because everyone has got their own way of doing things and that becomes part of your vocabulary or bag of tricks, if you want. Obviously, I wouldn’t be giving them justice if I didn’t credit the Reverend [Billy Gibbons] for a lot of the things that I know that I do. And with Billy, even though everybody would expect, ‘Oh, you learned how to set up guitar like that because of Billy.’ No, actually, with Billy it is more on a personal level because the kind of blues wisdom or Southern gentleman proper manner to get to the point is a very self-motivated type of thing and that, I think, is the biggest lesson from Billy because, believe it or not, a lot of the stuff that he does with his instrument, is something that I do as well. That is why we get together along very well. Don’t get me wrong he has some things up his sleeves that I do not know how he does it because he always sounds like Billy. He gave me an envelope filter, the one that I am using on my pedal board and it is a Jim Dunlop and he told me, ‘This is not a regular one, I am trying to give you my best Gibbons, I got this one tweaked a bit because there is a frequency that you need.’ Okay, cool, and he’s right because as soon as you put it in, it just comes out with EQ in a different way. So, those kind of weird things, yes, but in terms of instrumentation of what to choose and not, I think that is probably more like me trying to be as diverse as I could since most of the bands that I love are very eclectic from Sly and the Family Stone to Queen, Toto, The Beatles, that never really found themselves in a format of necessarily what it is. The song that you are talking about, for example, in Pills, Lies & Thunderstorms, there is a lap steel, a harmonica, acoustic guitar and there are two different electric guitars during the verse. Then in the chorus there is a major, big fuzz guitar and a bass, that’s it, there is nothing else. However, the fuzz is so intense that it just covers the whole spectrum. But, that’s me. That’s all the production stuff that I can afford and I like to play with that, and even maybe sometimes you have a drum track throughout the song but you’ll turn off the rooms in the verse because it gets a little bit more intimate. Those are all the things that I guess comes with my daily job of being a producer.
Of all the tracks on the album, is there one that you’re most proud of currently?
You know, songs on a record and like your kids. There is no daughter or a son that you love the most or more than the other ones. There’s probably the one that you get along with the best but in terms of love and affection, it is all pretty much an equal thing because they are all kids of yours. However, I will say there is a song that I am very attached to, not because, again, it is better than the others, but it is because it is a COVID song that was actually the first that ended up in changing how this project was going to be because I wanted to have a singer, you know, a full singer, not me taking over the vocal duties because I am not a singer, I don’t, I just some demos for Supersonic and I do BVs and all of that but I have a condition since I was a teenager that I cannot really try to develop my voice or anything like that. So, that song, for some reason, I ended up doing a more defined work on the demo of the lead vocals, again, looking to show it to whoever was going to be playing this song, and then I ended up playing it for my wife, who is an excellent singer and a vocal coach too, and stuff, and then again Gibbons and some other friends were telling me, ‘Why don’t you sing that?’ I said, ‘No, this is just a demo stuff, ‘But dude, it sounds good. But I’m not a good singer. It doesn’t matter, this is all a vibe with this song. It’s the vibe, you know, and you get into the vibe because you are singing your story.’ Everybody told me the same thing too and like, “Okay, cool. So let’s do it like that.’ So, I ended up singing a bunch of stuff and that’s where it is and that song is Right Down Below. But then again, I love it and all of it and it also represents a lot of influences on this record. There is the rock element, there is the soul element, there is the funk element and most certainly there is the reggae element but it is just for this reason, not because I love this song more than anything else, it is just that kind of like I would say, the opener that ushered in this new thing that I would say is Soul Garage Experience.
How would you compare doing your own vocals when you work with other well-known singers such as Graham Bonnet, Tina Arena and Tony Harnell? What is the approach?
Oh it is simple. They are singers and I am not so I don’t deal with myself like I am a singer. The moment that I start to think that I am a singer is the moment that I am really going to get screwed. Those people spent years on their instrument, they are trained and they know what the hell they are doing. So, it is just me trying to get them to do, not even better, just to make sure that what they are delivering is properly documented and that is it probably the best that they can do in that moment. But with people like that it is easy because, I mean, you mentioned Tony Harnell. What am I going to tell Tony Harnell about a song or how he should sing a song? He knows okay, I just want to say, ‘Oh maybe just hold back a little more here or maybe here, go in a little bit more or why don’t we try this harmony here and there.’ But again, just for this part, ‘Do this and this and this,’ and then ‘Now, you do it.’ You cannot. I ended up also working with fantastic…all the people that you mentioned are all fantastic singers, and another one is Glenn Hughes. What am I going to tell them? However, these guys that you are talking about are probably the most humble and the easiest of the cast to work with because they have got such a good control of their instrument that they are glad to hear sometimes, a different thing or say, ‘Okay’ but then they will know immediately if it works for them or not because sometimes it doesn’t work. But, when it works, somebody is giving them an input to kind of like steer their vehicle into that direction that maybe wasn’t the thing that they were thinking originally and sometimes, the results are fantastic. With me, I am very limited in my choices because I guess that I am not really a singer I am just telling a story and I am making my way through it and, you know, it just comes out like that. For me, as long as the vibe is there, the energy is there and the writing attention is there, and what I am saying sounds honest, that is the best that I can get out of myself. I am not expecting to sing a record like Andrea Bocelli or anybody like that.
Finally, what is your favourite bass guitar these days?
I have a favourite bass which is the one that I play with the most and this is my bass that I go to, it is an Ibanez SR2600 Prestige series. I am an Ibanez man and have been with the company for the last two years, I’ve got several different versions of their instruments. I use a lot of instruments, based upon what I need to do and everybody has got a character but this guy can cover them all. That is why I kind of like, tend to use this and also, this beast is the easiest thing to play ever. I mean, I’ve never owned a bass that plays itself, basically. So I am a big lover of this series that Ibanez makes. But, again I have several different basses by the Italian custom boutique Manne and we have a model that we did together fifteen years ago, and it was called Malibu. It is like a modern J [Fender Jazz] bass, with 24 frets, one of those instruments that looks vintage and all that, it is fantastic. I did a lot of recordings with that and I still do, however, the Ibanez is a little bit more modern, even though that it can kind of go easily from P [Fender Precision] bass to a Music Man, it has got a sound that it very well levelled and it allows me to play more freely, with that way that I play. Even with bass playing too, I have my own way and I know that might be unorthodox for a lot of people but that’s me, so…and I think it is a little bit too late for me to change that.
Seems we’ve run out of time but thanks for having a chat.
My pleasure and please check out FabrizioGrossi.com or SoulGarageExperience.com, it is that hub that will take everybody to our YouTube channel, subscribe and like, comment and also Instagram Spotify and all of that. We have discovered that we have a lot of fans in Australia, obviously with Supersonic Blues Machine, because this is a new project but I am seeing a lot of messages and emails from fans over there asking about the record and if we are going to be able to play in Australia. I love that but I have the same message as for everybody, only when promoters will notice that. We have our great agent in the UK who will promote us and so on, so the more you guys can make noise, the more people can listen to it, you don’t have to buy the record if you don’t want to, stream it, see if you like it and then if you really like it, you can buy it, you can download it and all of that but let it circulate and let it play, so, you know, promoters can notice and we can come there with the whole crazy circus and play some songs for you. That’s all, thank you.
Sure, we’ll get you an opening slot with Iron Maiden.
Ha, absolutely dude, I love Iron Maiden, that was one major influence of mine and is still there, absolutely, you know.