A "Kihn-Versation" with Greg Kihn - Page 4
gJg: What was it like listening to that material all over again?
GK: Surreal. There’s a lot of really good music in our catalog that I had totally forgotten about. When I started remastering it I was blown out by how fresh it all sounded.
In the old days, around 1976 we didn’t know what we were doing. We just went in and did it. We’d have a recording session on a Saturday and the week before I’d write a song or two and rehearse it with the band. Then we’d go in and basically record it live with minimal overdubs. We were on a shoe string budget doing it after hours and at odd ball times but God it was fun. I remember going in and being so stoked by just being in a professional recording studio.
They would let us use the old CBS studios in San Francisco. It was the size of a gymnasium. It was huge and our equipment took up just a tiny section of a corner of it.
I remember setting up our gear and thinking: “Wow, we’ve made the big time!” Here we are in the same room where Janis recorded. Simon and Garfunkel. Everyone recorded in this room.
When I listen to it now, putting it all together it really takes me back and makes me realize how special it was. All of the things that we did. We were pioneers and we didn’t even know it.
gJg: What are your plans now that the remastering is complete?
GK: We’ve just released “The Greg Kihn Band’s Best of Beserkley“. It has a few songs from each of the records that were released during that era.
The next goal is to release all of the original albums themselves individually, digitally remastered and in chronological order. It will be so great to have this music available digitally because most of it was only available on vinyl back in the day. There have been “Best Of” collections over the years but never anything done like this and I’m grateful for the opportunity.
gJg: What are your thoughts about your days with Beserkley?
GK: Beserkley was the first independent label of the modern era who took a chance on us. We didn’t have a hit record until our seventh album when “The Breakup Song” cracked the top ten. We never would have gotten the chance to make a second album in today’s world. So in a lot of ways I’ve been really lucky and it was a very fortuitous event that placed me with Beserkley records.
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