Keep Riding The Horse: Richard Williams Of Kansas


 

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In Part 2 of our chat with Richard Williams of Kansas, we discussed the new make up of the band, and how it made the difference their new album The Prelude Implicit. We also discussed their relationship with their label, touring, and when and if the band plans to retire at some point.

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You and Phil Erhardt have been the mainstays of the band, especially now. Did you feel like with the new guys, you needed to assume a writing leadership for The Prelude Implicit, or are those guys able to contribute equal parts?

Rich: We learned a lot when we went in and did the Native Window project, which was there is no hierarchy there. We’re all going to sit around the round table here and throw ideas out. “I like this part here. Oh, that’s cool, but what if we do this change here, drop this beat there? I’ve got this thing here”, so it’s a very organic process. Nobody is silenced. There are no bad ideas, but we try everything. If it doesn’t work out, it doesn’t work out, but you want, all these people are around us for a reason because we love what they do and what they’re bringing to the table. We want to pull that out of everyone. With every song it’s different. There’s a couple of songs where Phil just had a drumbeat he came up with, actually for the songs you have heard. Joe just had this (sings) da-da-da-da, da-da-da-da-da drumbeat. He just recorded it at home, and sent it to Zak (Risvi), said see if you can write something around this, and Zak came back with this piece of music over it. At the time, all it was just this musical pad over the drumbeat, and as we started arranging it, it was like simple. We did the break up of this, the parts of it three or four times, and there were parts that it was not. It’s the middle section, so once we got it going, I went home and wrote the middle section for it, and I wrote it. I said will I be able to work out a part for this? All of this is very organic in nature, and that song came from a drumbeat. People are just adding their two cents worth to it. We’ve run it back and forth and switched things around with this and that, and add that, just put in a guitar solo. We did the guitar solo with the same guitar pattern to just create a musical piece here instead. That’s how we approached all of this. Somebody has an idea, we tried it. It was very done by committee, but there was no overlord that was at the head of the table saying that they had a final word in any of it.

 

InsideOut is doing a great job promoting you guys. What’s on tap for touring, and what can we expect in terms of you guys getting out there globally and getting the music heard live?

Rich: We’ve got, as far as getting the album out with InsideOut, the band is distributing it. We have a network that we are very successful with, that we did with our DVD that we did, Miracles Out Of Nowhere. We have our own database that we market to. We outsold Sony when the DVD came out, far outsold them with our contact list and approach to selling than the major label did. We would do that with this project. Now, touring with the guys, the 4th of September is our last date of this particular tour. We take a week off and then we go into rehearsals. This is the 40th anniversary of Leftoverture coming out.

For the first time, we touring a record in its entirety in sequence. At the end of September, the Leftoverture tour starts. That’s obviously, the 23rd of September is when the new album comes out so well be doing Leftoverture in its entirety. That’s what we’re doing live with the new album too, we’ll do half of that. We’re also doing the stuff we haven’t played, the stuff from the first album we haven’t played in years and years. It’s going to be a long night, probably 2 hours and 15 minute long, at least. Touring with Kansas, you hear a lot of stuff. That’s going to be very exciting. That’s the next phase. This is the Leftoverture tour, the 40th anniversary tour, with the new record. Were hoping to do 16 dates, and of doing that, and it’s really caught on. We’re doing a lot more than that. Now the plan is to do next year is to take that to Europe. I know they want us to, they want to get us into Mexico, South America, Japan, Canada. We need to slow it down a bit guys. I don’t want to be away from home for a year with this, but there is definitely a plan for Europe next year, getting us over there. Basically, just starting September to the next year, we’re going to be touring the new album, and the a Leftoverture tour project that’s, we’re doing over 100 shows next year. We did 94 shows last year. We’ll probably do the same next year with the new album. When all that is said and done, we’re looking in talks with the first of 2018 to working on the next record.


Rich: I think the gist of this whole conversation is that there are guys (in other veteran bands) that are just taking one last lap around the track. With Steve’s (Walsh) retirement, this is a new band. I’m very much in the beginning for us if you ask them, in creating again and making new records, a very energized approach. To close this prelude, it’s a part of something, it’s the beginning in a musical way, and implicit, absolutely. It not only describes the album, but it describes us not just for this album, but for the future. We have a simple album plan in place in touring. These guys retired at different times because they were tired of doing it, the traveling, I’ve been doing this for 43 years now. I’m fortunate. I love this. I can’t imagine doing something else. Some guys love it for a while, then some got bored and they left. Sometimes in talking with them, we all still are close. You wonder sometimes did I do the right thing? That will never be me. I will never be at home wondering should I have stuck around? Did I make the right choice? No. I will fall over dead onstage.

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That’s been happening a little to much for my taste lately. I hope not, man.


Rich: I would rather do that than puttering around the garden. As long as I’m still on the road. I’m going to leave it all in the field. I’m going to do this until I can’t. People say, Rich, when are you going to retire? It’s like, what the fuck would I do? I’d do what? I’ve got the greatest job in the world. I retired when I joined Kansas. I retired from the work world, from where I’m from all of that. It’s funny. I’ve got friends that I’ve played in bands with in college days and stuff that went on for their straight job. A friend of mine just retired. That’s what he does now. He’s in a band. He retired so he can do what I do.


This Is too much fun. There is nothing in life that replaces this, the traveling, the camaraderie, the recording, the getting out there and playing. I played the guitar, I got in the band. I like doing that. I don’t want to be sitting looking at the albums on the wall like I’m done. I like rocking out with Kansas and I’m tired of all the guys, the legacy and all of that. You just look at that for a minute and then okay, when is the next gig? I’m so excited right now because of the works and the pickup for the guitar. I’ve been telling my wife that we’re going to work with these shows in Minnesota. Those things still excite the shit out of me!

It started as a hobby, and just something fun to do, and it turned into my entire life. I’m just going to keep riding the horse. This just seems like the right time again. The timing is good, I’m working more than I ever have with this. We’ve attracted more fans that are younger fans than we’ve ever had. We have over a million and a half Facebook fans. Things are going really well for us, and a lot of prog rock bands in general, they’ve seen a bit of a turn around. There’s more of a standard again. The timing really feels good for all of this. Records don’t sell like they used to. Everybody got records when one came out. We’re not expecting that. We’re confident that we’ve made a great record, and we’re going to have a great tour with it and got done fantastic fans that love the record. That’s what it’s all about.

The new album from Kansas, The Prelude Implicit comes this week.

KEITH CHACHKES

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