I lived in Chicago for a while. I had fun. It's a great town, but its rhythms clashed with my own like sonic atonals. I needed the wide-open context of cosmopolitan availability, the never-ending chorus of the streets playing off the shifting lights from below to high above that asphalt. I needed the instant challenge to dream magnificently larger than myself.
NYC is a city pressurized by proximity and contradiction, by constant change and streams of exertion supported by beds of ability. It breeds confidence and risk, bravado and girded resolve which it's skyline so perfectly symbolizes every moment of every day. The shock of September 11th left me in much a need of a jolt to re-start my relatively stagnant surroundings.
Adversity is the clearest mirror to show us who we are, and honesty is what keeps the glass clear. Honesty is also what I believe lends the greatest substance to artistic expression, and our interpretations of art give further reflections of our inner selves. That's why music is so important to us now and how it helped me rise back to a place where the curtains of my future are lit and primed to reveal the fantastic play to which we can all contribute.
Art is in everything, and everything is in art. NYC musician Paul Ruderman embodies this ideal, an artist who creates heartfelt folk rock, unleashing frustration while completely lacking bitterness. He has helped me, just as the words of lyricist Tim Rice have:
"Let us strive to find a way to make all hatred cease
There's a man over there what's his color I don't care
He's my brother let us live in peace
He's my brother let us live in peace
He's my brother let us live in peace."
The following interview with Paul Ruderman was conducted in a different world. Let us be as mindful of what came before us as we are of the now and of what's to come.
LOVE TIME EFFORT EVOLUTION
A 33-year-old guitarist and Manhattanite, Paul Ruderman has been at it for over ten years, performing before loyal audiences who have come to know him through his heartfelt songs. Ruderman takes the beauty and peace of fireside acoustic guitar and infuses it with the furious energy of a stage rock performer. By no means abrasive, he doesn't shy away from confrontational themes, and he keeps his live shows fresh, improvising with his band.
Ruderman’s art channels feelings, and he uses no filter to dilute the honest expression of his heart and mind. From piano lessons that started in the third grade to guitar and some violin, he opened up through the music of Paul Simon, Bob Dylan, James Taylor, Billy Joel, the Rolling Stones, the Who and Kiss.
UH: What was the first album you ever bought?
PR: I believe, as far as I can remember, it was Kiss’ Alive II, a live Kiss double album from the late 70s. But that's just off the top of my head. I think that's the first one I ever bought.
UH: What's the first song you ever learned to play?
PR: The first song I learned to play was "Sunshine on My Shoulders" by John Denver. I can't say I'm a huge John Denver fan, but I do love a bunch of his songs. I'm not going to deny that. Good songwriter, good melody maker, granted, I haven't listened to him in 20 years. But when it's on the radio, one of his better songs, "Rocky Mountain High" or something, I'll keep listening.
UH: What was the first song you wrote, and where did it come from?
PR: The first real song I wrote was called "Tufts or Bust." And I wrote it, in lieu of my college essay, to get into Tufts U when I was a senior in high school. I decided to kinda try and be creative and I wrote this very funny diddy.
UH: What other instruments do you play besides guitar?
PR: I dabble, and I will definitely use the word dabble, on piano. And dabble on percussion, and I like to think that my voice is certainly an instrument.
UH: What one non-family member has influenced you most, and why?
PR: Bob Dylan, without question. The first time I heard "It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)," I had already been a huge fan of his, but the moment I heard that song it catapulted me to a space, almost a metaphysical space I never knew existed. Within the confines of how I could live my life, I don't know if you know that song. It's off Bringing it All Back Home , 1965.
UH: Strictly speaking lyrically, who's influenced you the most?
PR: I think I've answered that, Bob Dylan. But, beyond him I could say James Taylor. Without question, I would say Paul Simon. I would say Billy Joel, no question about it. Mick Jagger, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, without question, the whole CSN thing. I'm into all of them individually and collectively. Pete Townshend I think is just a phenomenal lyricist. I'm not sure how much Roger helped him write those lyrics, but I'm pretty sure most of them are Pete.
UH: Do you sit down and try to write songs, or wait until the moment strikes you?
PR: The answer is unquestionably the latter, I never ever try to sit down and try to write a song, ever in the history of my writing, and I won't because, well, I have tried and I can count the instances on one hand and they've been failures. I'm not the kind of songwriter... I was watching the biography of Stephen King last month and he was saying how he writes every day from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., and that's what he does. I'm completely not like that. I could go four weeks and not write a song, and I could go six weeks and write constantly, every single day.
UH: What do you do when you hit a creative roadblock?
PR: When I hit a creative roadblock, I put down my guitar and I go hang out with friends, Jacquie, my dog, I go away I go eat, I do anything but try to create.
UH: What are some ideal listening conditions you'd recommend for Wish?
PR: Take a hit, close your eyes put on some headphones, lie down on the couch and listen to it top to bottom with the lyrics in front of you in case you want to refer to any kind of lyric. That's the ideal listening condition. Yes, people use it as background music, I don't consider it background music, it's very... it involves the listener. I think I'm the kind of artist that doesn't, y'know, there's a difference between entertaining and being an artist. And while I think I am an entertainer, I think I'm first and foremost an artist, and that means bringing people into your world. When you entertain, you put out a show and people could just be laid back and you just give them the fun, the laughs, the song, and they enjoy it. When you're an artist and you really believe in yourself, you bring people into an original world, your world. That's what I tried to do with Wish. If people listen to Wish from top to bottom, it's a pretty heavy deep album that has a lot of things going on in there. I want people to really listen to it and get involved.
UH: What are you planning for your next album?
PR: My ideal thing would be to bring the new band I have playing live now forth, and really play with them for a good year and work on a ton of songs I have ready for the new album. But I probably won't go in the studio for another eight to twelve months, minimum. I would like to do it with my same producer, Ed Tuton. He is the reason why this record came out as good as it did. Together, he and I are the reasons, we're the engines and we did it all and I'd love to work with him again. I'd like to do it for Q Records, and I'm hoping that this record is so successful that I'm able to do it the way I wanna do it — which is preferably not in NYC. I would like to go out to a huge house somewhere out in the hills, somewhere not in New York, and have my band there for two, three four months whatever and bring studio equipment out on location, and just kinda do it there. And when we're inspired go in and play and when we're not, don't play.
[ UH ]
