Rock and Roll Hall Famer, singer, guitarist and songwriter extraordinaire John Oates is out with his new single “Disconnected”, a song about never giving up despite all the challenges you face.
Oates spoke with WBGO News Director Doug Doyle about why his two latest singles have a lot in common.
"I released a song late last year, in November of '22, it was called "Pushin' A Rock" and it was about overcoming challenges. It's kind of a recurring theme with me that I've been kind of dealing with in my life, personally and professionally in certain ways, and so it's only natural as a writer that you tend to use the strong emotions and the strong circumstances that you encounter. It becomes reflected in your art or your music or your writing. I think that's what is going on. It's just been something I've been thinking about, trying to deal with ever since the pandemic when I had a chance to reflect on a lot of things. It's very introspective in a lot of ways, but at the same time I try to make something that can be universally appreciated, understood and maybe related to by a lot of people. As a songwriter, that's kind of the secret sauce, taking something that might be very personal to you emotionally, but crafting it in a way that people respond to in their own unique way. It's a little magic deep inside the craft of songwriting."
The pandemic proved to be quite productive for Oates.
"You know it was really a whole readjustment period and then I settled into it and embraced it. Now I have a chance to not only to stay home and enjoy being at home with my family, but to go back into my archives and find stuff, revisit things that I might have forgotten about. All sort of stuff began to happen and good prolific inspirational things began to happen. I began to write a lot."
Oates says he's always used GarageBand on his Mac to help him record and now write songs. He started using the digital editing software in the early 2000's when it was first invented. He says he even convinced GarageBand creators to change its format to allow for songs to be written on the same screen while recording the music. He stress "Disconnected" was an idea he had in his digital archives and he eventually took a reimagined version into Addiction Sound studios in Nashville.
“Disconnected was an idea that I had in my digital archives that I rediscovered during the pandemic...the theme felt even more timely and I produced a reimagined version at home using Garage Band on my Mac. Then took that into Addiction Sound studios in Nashville and assembled an all star rhythm section to bring the home demo to life...a lot of the original Garage Band tracks are still on the finished recording.”
Oates is also proud of the video version of "Disconnected" as he tapped Nashville visual artist Jason Lee Denton to help with the project. The video was also inspired by award-winning singer-songwriter Taylor Swift.
"Taylor Swift is a one-woman force of nature. Having worked with Nathan Chapman who also produced Taylor's early albums, we had a little big of synergy between us. I was just impressed with her. She came out with all these very creative videos and then she did the VISA credit card commercial, which everyone I'm sure has seen, where she does all multiples of her doing various things, it's very clever and funny and all that. I thought that's cool and I spoke to Jason who I've done the last couple videos with, he's a great director and I said how does she do all that stuff? I don't know how that technology works. He said we can do that. I did play a lot of the instruments on "Disconnected" and I sang all the backgrounds myself, so I said why not take a page out of the Taylor Swift book and have some fun with it."
When John Oates first met Daryl Hall at Temple University they obviously had no idea that the group Hall and Oates would become the most successful duo in music history, having sold more than 40-million albums and nine No.1 Billboard chart hits over a nearly five-decade career.
"I was aware of Daryl because he was a in a group called the Temptones, "Temp" meaning Temple University, "Temp" meaning Temptations and I had a group called The Masters. We both had recorded singles in the summer of 1967, independently of each other. we were not aware of each other. Basically, those songs were being played on local Philadelphia R&
B radio at the time. I got to see him perform at a show in Philadelphia. We were both invited to perform or lip sync our singles, which was common in those days, for a deejay at a teenage dance in West Philadelphia. A big gang fight broke out. We kind of went down a service elevator. We met, both realized we were going to Temple University. One thing led to another. My group was breaking up. His group was breaking up. He and I kind of gravitated towards each other to write some songs. We actually we were on a little bit of a hiatus between '68 and 1970 where we were doing individual things. We were friends, but not really playing together. Then I went to Europe for a few months and when I came back we both said let's try something together."
After achieving phenomenal success through the years, Oates has tried to give back as much as possible. He partnered with Movember, the leading international men’s health charity, ahead of the nonprofit’s annual fall campaign where men grow mustaches to raise awareness and funds for men’s health issues focusing on mental health, suicide prevention, and testicular and prostate cancer. And then he and his wife put on a virtual song festival that we streamed online for the benefit of Feeding America. That effort generated 450,000 meals for hungry American families.
John Oates’ Good Road Band performed at the Exit Zero Jazz Festival in Cape May in 2019. His album Arkansas originally began as a tribute to one of his idols, Mississippi John Hurt, the country blues singer and guitarist.
"I just loved him. I loved his style, his personality. After he passed away, his guitar was given to Jerry Ricks, the guy in the picture behind me. That guitar was then brought up to New York and I'm Mississippi John Hurt's guitar on the first two Hall and Oates albums."
Oates has always kept in great shape, using what he learned as a high school and college wrestler and being an avid skier through the years.
The legendary artist was born in New York City, but was raised in a suburb of Philadelphia. So, yes, he is a Philadelphia Eagles fan as that squad prepares for its Super Bowl game with Kansas City. Oates says he's a big college football fan and has been following the career of Eagles superstar quarterback Jalen Hurts who he admits is much like a musician on the field, improvising his way on a big stage.
You can watch our entire conversation here:
