Uncommon Musician
Q&A with Lyle Workman
Q&A with Lyle Workman
Californian musician Lyle Workman made a name for himself through his session/ touring/ recording/ collaboration work with Beck, Sting, Todd Rundgren, Norah Jones, Frank Black, Bryan Adams, Sarah McLachlan, Tony Williams and many others.
However in the 21st century Workman, who was a member of 80s alt-rock/pop outfit Bourgeois Tagg, has found great success as a film & TV composer.
Between 1996 and 2009 Lyle Workman also released three instrumental/ fusion albums; all three have critical and musical merit, not least because Workman is a highly creative musician and outstanding guitarist, as noted by the likes of Steve Vai, Steve Lukather and XTC's Dave Gregory.
While those previous solo works helped sow the seeds of latest work Uncommon Measures, the compositional structure of the album has been pulled from the depths of Lyle Workman’s subconscious in spontaneous, improvised writing sessions – or, as Workman himself states: "This record ties together all the different threads of who I am as an artist; it was four years in the making, but it’s really the culmination of a lifetime in music."
Nor is Uncommon Measures a small scale affair – this is a highly imaginative, cinematic styled instrumental album featuring a 63 piece orchestra (recorded live at Abbey Road with arrangements in collaboration with noted orchestrator John Ashton Thomas) and a dozen top-notch musicians including drummer Vinnie Colaiuta and keyboardist Jeff Babko.
Following the release of the album Lyle Workman spoke to Nelson McFarlane of FabricationsHQ for a Q&A session that detailed not just the making of Uncommon Measures but his musical background and thoughts on the changing face of the music industry.
Nelson McFarlane: First off, congratulations on the album Uncommon Measures, a work of great depth and complexity. It must have taken so long to write and organise, considering the material and personnel involved?
Lyle Workman: Oh, yeah. I worked on it in between music-scoring jobs I had for film and TV so it wasn't a situation where I just started it and kept going until I was done. This is something I have been working on for a long time; I started when I had some free time and just kept going when I could.
I had been working with an orchestrator based in London who I had worked with on several movies over the past fifteen years. He’s a very busy guy and he's done over a hundred fifty movies!
He was busy and I was busy, so we just whittled away at this project.
NMcF: Did you hear an orchestra being involved from the outset?
LW: I knew I wanted to play with an orchestra from the get-go. I mean that was the whole idea.
There's an album by John Scofield called 54; it's recorded with the Metropole Orchestra in Holland.
That was an inspiration. I really wanted to do something like that with an Orchestra – and a band and guitar, obviously.
NMcF: Did the pandemic help in any way? Were people more available because of space in their schedules?
LW: I started well before the pandemic so at that time there was there was no issue at all.
I was really just finishing it up over the period of the pandemic; people worked from their own studios but I was also at Abbey Road with the orchestra for the recording sessions.
The majority of the recording was finished before the pandemic happened.
NMcF: Do you consider Uncommon Measures as a progression from your earlier solo albums?
LW: Yeah, very much so. Since my last solo album, Harmonic Crusader in 2009, to this record, I have done a whole lot of work with orchestras – so it was the next evolution of bringing that more into my solo material. Although there's a little bit of that on Harmonic Crusader it wasn’t to the scale and scope of Uncommon Measures. So, yeah, it is definitely a natural evolution.
However in the 21st century Workman, who was a member of 80s alt-rock/pop outfit Bourgeois Tagg, has found great success as a film & TV composer.
Between 1996 and 2009 Lyle Workman also released three instrumental/ fusion albums; all three have critical and musical merit, not least because Workman is a highly creative musician and outstanding guitarist, as noted by the likes of Steve Vai, Steve Lukather and XTC's Dave Gregory.
While those previous solo works helped sow the seeds of latest work Uncommon Measures, the compositional structure of the album has been pulled from the depths of Lyle Workman’s subconscious in spontaneous, improvised writing sessions – or, as Workman himself states: "This record ties together all the different threads of who I am as an artist; it was four years in the making, but it’s really the culmination of a lifetime in music."
Nor is Uncommon Measures a small scale affair – this is a highly imaginative, cinematic styled instrumental album featuring a 63 piece orchestra (recorded live at Abbey Road with arrangements in collaboration with noted orchestrator John Ashton Thomas) and a dozen top-notch musicians including drummer Vinnie Colaiuta and keyboardist Jeff Babko.
Following the release of the album Lyle Workman spoke to Nelson McFarlane of FabricationsHQ for a Q&A session that detailed not just the making of Uncommon Measures but his musical background and thoughts on the changing face of the music industry.
Nelson McFarlane: First off, congratulations on the album Uncommon Measures, a work of great depth and complexity. It must have taken so long to write and organise, considering the material and personnel involved?
Lyle Workman: Oh, yeah. I worked on it in between music-scoring jobs I had for film and TV so it wasn't a situation where I just started it and kept going until I was done. This is something I have been working on for a long time; I started when I had some free time and just kept going when I could.
I had been working with an orchestrator based in London who I had worked with on several movies over the past fifteen years. He’s a very busy guy and he's done over a hundred fifty movies!
He was busy and I was busy, so we just whittled away at this project.
NMcF: Did you hear an orchestra being involved from the outset?
LW: I knew I wanted to play with an orchestra from the get-go. I mean that was the whole idea.
There's an album by John Scofield called 54; it's recorded with the Metropole Orchestra in Holland.
That was an inspiration. I really wanted to do something like that with an Orchestra – and a band and guitar, obviously.
NMcF: Did the pandemic help in any way? Were people more available because of space in their schedules?
LW: I started well before the pandemic so at that time there was there was no issue at all.
I was really just finishing it up over the period of the pandemic; people worked from their own studios but I was also at Abbey Road with the orchestra for the recording sessions.
The majority of the recording was finished before the pandemic happened.
NMcF: Do you consider Uncommon Measures as a progression from your earlier solo albums?
LW: Yeah, very much so. Since my last solo album, Harmonic Crusader in 2009, to this record, I have done a whole lot of work with orchestras – so it was the next evolution of bringing that more into my solo material. Although there's a little bit of that on Harmonic Crusader it wasn’t to the scale and scope of Uncommon Measures. So, yeah, it is definitely a natural evolution.
NMcF: When FabricationsHQ gave Uncommon Measures its highly favourable Featured Album review, we guessed that a few of your influences may have been Zappa and Snarky Puppy.
LW: Zappa definitely, yes. Snarky Puppy? Ah... maybe not. I mean I like them but my influences are probably more coming from the stuff I listened to when I was fifteen, like The Who or Led Zeppelin.
I didn't set out to write music of a certain style. The job that I have is a composer. In a scoring job the painting is already painted; you're collaborating and going back and forth, taking their ideas on board.
This album is almost the exact opposite of my music-scoring work as I had zero parameters within which to work. It’s not like I ever once said to myself "I'm going to write a ten-minute epic piece that has classical/ rock/ jazz/ pop content."
I would I just free my mind and play my guitar or keyboard and just let that become whatever it was going to become. I would then build on that little speck of an idea.
NMcF: Other than The Who and Zeppelin who did you listen to when you were younger and where are you originally from?
LW: I'm from Northern California. I was born in San Jose which is very close to Silicon Valley, the home of companies like Facebook and Google. San Jose is about an hour’s drive to San Francisco and when I was a kid, Bill Graham would be promoting great concerts at the Fillmore West and Winterland.
I didn’t see Hendrix but he was another one that captured my imagination – I had no idea that could be done with a guitar! Pete Townshend and Alvin Lee also made big impressions.
I remember learning Ten Years After's 'I'm Going Home' from the Woodstock film note for note – it ended up being a party piece!
Another guy who I thought of as a great guitar player was John Fogerty from Creedence Clearwater Revival.
I was also into old Genesis and Yes, then got more into the Mahavishnu Orchestra, Jan Hammer and Return to Forever. Frank Zappa was a big influence obviously but kind of everything started with the Beatles, so there's a pop sensibility in what I write.
NMcF: You recorded a lovely acoustic version of John Fogerty’s Fortunate Son. An homage?
LW: Oh, yeah, that was for the TV series Sons of Anarchy.
I was hired by the series' music supervisor; a loose collective of musicians were put together to do songs for the show; I had had the idea to do the song as a single guitar version but it became a duo (with Bob Thiele Jr).
It ended up that the music, and that series, got legs; it was just something I whipped up here in my studio.
LW: Zappa definitely, yes. Snarky Puppy? Ah... maybe not. I mean I like them but my influences are probably more coming from the stuff I listened to when I was fifteen, like The Who or Led Zeppelin.
I didn't set out to write music of a certain style. The job that I have is a composer. In a scoring job the painting is already painted; you're collaborating and going back and forth, taking their ideas on board.
This album is almost the exact opposite of my music-scoring work as I had zero parameters within which to work. It’s not like I ever once said to myself "I'm going to write a ten-minute epic piece that has classical/ rock/ jazz/ pop content."
I would I just free my mind and play my guitar or keyboard and just let that become whatever it was going to become. I would then build on that little speck of an idea.
NMcF: Other than The Who and Zeppelin who did you listen to when you were younger and where are you originally from?
LW: I'm from Northern California. I was born in San Jose which is very close to Silicon Valley, the home of companies like Facebook and Google. San Jose is about an hour’s drive to San Francisco and when I was a kid, Bill Graham would be promoting great concerts at the Fillmore West and Winterland.
I didn’t see Hendrix but he was another one that captured my imagination – I had no idea that could be done with a guitar! Pete Townshend and Alvin Lee also made big impressions.
I remember learning Ten Years After's 'I'm Going Home' from the Woodstock film note for note – it ended up being a party piece!
Another guy who I thought of as a great guitar player was John Fogerty from Creedence Clearwater Revival.
I was also into old Genesis and Yes, then got more into the Mahavishnu Orchestra, Jan Hammer and Return to Forever. Frank Zappa was a big influence obviously but kind of everything started with the Beatles, so there's a pop sensibility in what I write.
NMcF: You recorded a lovely acoustic version of John Fogerty’s Fortunate Son. An homage?
LW: Oh, yeah, that was for the TV series Sons of Anarchy.
I was hired by the series' music supervisor; a loose collective of musicians were put together to do songs for the show; I had had the idea to do the song as a single guitar version but it became a duo (with Bob Thiele Jr).
It ended up that the music, and that series, got legs; it was just something I whipped up here in my studio.
NMcF: How did you first get into the music industry?
LW: A lot of baby steps starting with garage bands playing in my friend's mother's living room; playing at the High School dance; those kinds of things.
After High School I was in bands that started playing clubs – I joined a band that was playing in clubs called Bourgeois Tagg. We got a record deal in the late 80s with Island and Todd Rundgren produced the second album. When the band broke up I ended up staying with Todd and recording and touring with him.
After Todd I started to get some session work and did a record with Jellyfish; that was followed by touring with Frank Black and the Pixies for about five years.
Then I started getting more session work, some of which was working with a composer that did a lot of films.
Through that connection I ended up with an executive from Universal Pictures who wanted some guitar on a personal project. By then I actually had done an independent film with a songwriter who had brought me in to help him. So I had an independent film, all this session work and had started to write music for commercials. It kind of came together through all those connections.
Universal was my introduction to Judd Apatow; he signed a deal with Universal Pictures for his first movie, 40-year-old Virgin. I provided the music and it was a successful, big movie.
After that there was the Super Bad movie, which also did very well.
So, my first two major movies were number one big hits; that cemented a career in film composing.
All those little steps kind of led to where I am now, over a long period of time.
NMcF: You’re not just a great composer but a great guitarist.
I hear fluidity in your playing that reminds me of Larry Carlton.
LW: Well I was certainly a big fan his. Room 335 for one, and other recordings.
I listened to both him and Robben Ford back in the day. I loved it. I loved the playing.
NMcF: I noticed in the Uncommon Measures song videos there are a lot of guitar changes.
Do you have a go-to guitar or choose equipment for the song?
LW: As I've written so many styles of music, it's about just trying to find the right guitar for the job.
Essentially casting the right musical instruments and sounds.
NMcF: How you describe yourself nowadays? A film and TV composer or a guitarist?
LW: A composer, as that’s my job. I have solo records and I do play guitar but composing is the bread and butter that allows me to do the solo albums.
I would love to play live but it's a little tough right now – and, obviously, this music leans so much on the orchestra for a lot of the songs that it'd be hard to pull off.
I haven’t played any smaller format tours in a while as I have been composing so much – unfortunately, due to scheduling, I was unable to take part in the Todd Rundgren Virtual tour.
Touring used to be my life; I toured with a lot of bands back in the day including Beck, Todd Rundgren and Frank Black and the Pixies. I don’t miss the traveling and the hotels and all that, but having a day off in a beautiful country is fantastic!
NMcF: Both film and music industries have changed almost beyond recognition in recent years.
Where do you think the future lies?
LW: I don't know where to start, although definitely with the advent of Napster and all of what fell out of that, with record companies not getting on board with the technology.
A young guy said "listen, people are going to use their computers to get their music" but the companies wouldn’t discuss the way it was going to go.
By the time they figured it out it was a too late and artists got the short end of the stick.
As an example, the evidence of Peter Frampton's ‘Show me the Way’ getting 55 million streams and he gets $1700 or something ridiculous like that? It’s just very difficult for bands who used have multi-platinum records and would sell twenty, thirty million records back in the day.
Now if someone sells a million, that's a miracle, you know? Now it's all about touring and merch.
With Uncommon Measures I basically said "well, that's money I'm spending and I'm not going to get back."
I never had a financial goal to even reach a recoup. I did this record to express myself as a writer/ composer and put it out in the world. I have to say if it wasn't for my film job, I wouldn't have this opportunity.
I've done well enough in my career that I could take a portion of some cash and put it into my music.
I mean I am a composer but I'm not an Oscar winning composer. It’s difficult to get traction but it definitely afforded me opportunities to work with orchestras.
I wouldn't have been able to make Uncommon Measures without my experiences as a composer over the last fifteen years, particularly in in working with great orchestrators and arrangers – I would not have been here but for those people and those experiences.
I guess if I could get paid well enough for doing stuff like my record, that would be a no-brainer.
I would spend all my time doing that but the reality is it doesn't really pay the bills!
Technology has changed as well. I have been here in my home studio talking to the conductor, the sound engineer and the musicians in real time in Budapest as I listen to the music being performed there!
NMcF: Given what you have just said, how do you promote the album?
LW: I went with a distribution deal with a company based in Nevada. I had some offers from labels but they wanted to own the master and I had put too much money in it, so it was kind of more of a matter of principle over what they were offering. I didn’t want to lose that kind of ownership as it didn't make sense.
I think also I can have the same effect, organising promotion and reaching the same amount of people.
I have publicists in Europe and in USA and radio promo here and there; I have distribution through Burning Shed in the UK so it will be easier for people in Europe to buy the record.
The recent mass of reviews has been really great, too. I have to say the response I have had to this record has been phenomenal across the boards from the get-off. I just want to get it out there.
NMcF: Speaking genuinely the record is one that bears repeated listens and offers something new each time. I will personally remember where I was when I listen to it.
LW: Awesome. That’s great. Music that really sticks with you are the albums that you had to kind of discover. You had to take a little bit more time with them and they kind of unfold and blossom.
I think it creates this interaction that you wouldn't have with something that sort of hits you all at once.
NMcF: I know this is like asking you who's your favourite kid, but what's your favourite track on ‘Uncommon ‘Measures’?
LW: North Star is kinda like the album’s greatest hits so that springs to mind…
LW: A lot of baby steps starting with garage bands playing in my friend's mother's living room; playing at the High School dance; those kinds of things.
After High School I was in bands that started playing clubs – I joined a band that was playing in clubs called Bourgeois Tagg. We got a record deal in the late 80s with Island and Todd Rundgren produced the second album. When the band broke up I ended up staying with Todd and recording and touring with him.
After Todd I started to get some session work and did a record with Jellyfish; that was followed by touring with Frank Black and the Pixies for about five years.
Then I started getting more session work, some of which was working with a composer that did a lot of films.
Through that connection I ended up with an executive from Universal Pictures who wanted some guitar on a personal project. By then I actually had done an independent film with a songwriter who had brought me in to help him. So I had an independent film, all this session work and had started to write music for commercials. It kind of came together through all those connections.
Universal was my introduction to Judd Apatow; he signed a deal with Universal Pictures for his first movie, 40-year-old Virgin. I provided the music and it was a successful, big movie.
After that there was the Super Bad movie, which also did very well.
So, my first two major movies were number one big hits; that cemented a career in film composing.
All those little steps kind of led to where I am now, over a long period of time.
NMcF: You’re not just a great composer but a great guitarist.
I hear fluidity in your playing that reminds me of Larry Carlton.
LW: Well I was certainly a big fan his. Room 335 for one, and other recordings.
I listened to both him and Robben Ford back in the day. I loved it. I loved the playing.
NMcF: I noticed in the Uncommon Measures song videos there are a lot of guitar changes.
Do you have a go-to guitar or choose equipment for the song?
LW: As I've written so many styles of music, it's about just trying to find the right guitar for the job.
Essentially casting the right musical instruments and sounds.
NMcF: How you describe yourself nowadays? A film and TV composer or a guitarist?
LW: A composer, as that’s my job. I have solo records and I do play guitar but composing is the bread and butter that allows me to do the solo albums.
I would love to play live but it's a little tough right now – and, obviously, this music leans so much on the orchestra for a lot of the songs that it'd be hard to pull off.
I haven’t played any smaller format tours in a while as I have been composing so much – unfortunately, due to scheduling, I was unable to take part in the Todd Rundgren Virtual tour.
Touring used to be my life; I toured with a lot of bands back in the day including Beck, Todd Rundgren and Frank Black and the Pixies. I don’t miss the traveling and the hotels and all that, but having a day off in a beautiful country is fantastic!
NMcF: Both film and music industries have changed almost beyond recognition in recent years.
Where do you think the future lies?
LW: I don't know where to start, although definitely with the advent of Napster and all of what fell out of that, with record companies not getting on board with the technology.
A young guy said "listen, people are going to use their computers to get their music" but the companies wouldn’t discuss the way it was going to go.
By the time they figured it out it was a too late and artists got the short end of the stick.
As an example, the evidence of Peter Frampton's ‘Show me the Way’ getting 55 million streams and he gets $1700 or something ridiculous like that? It’s just very difficult for bands who used have multi-platinum records and would sell twenty, thirty million records back in the day.
Now if someone sells a million, that's a miracle, you know? Now it's all about touring and merch.
With Uncommon Measures I basically said "well, that's money I'm spending and I'm not going to get back."
I never had a financial goal to even reach a recoup. I did this record to express myself as a writer/ composer and put it out in the world. I have to say if it wasn't for my film job, I wouldn't have this opportunity.
I've done well enough in my career that I could take a portion of some cash and put it into my music.
I mean I am a composer but I'm not an Oscar winning composer. It’s difficult to get traction but it definitely afforded me opportunities to work with orchestras.
I wouldn't have been able to make Uncommon Measures without my experiences as a composer over the last fifteen years, particularly in in working with great orchestrators and arrangers – I would not have been here but for those people and those experiences.
I guess if I could get paid well enough for doing stuff like my record, that would be a no-brainer.
I would spend all my time doing that but the reality is it doesn't really pay the bills!
Technology has changed as well. I have been here in my home studio talking to the conductor, the sound engineer and the musicians in real time in Budapest as I listen to the music being performed there!
NMcF: Given what you have just said, how do you promote the album?
LW: I went with a distribution deal with a company based in Nevada. I had some offers from labels but they wanted to own the master and I had put too much money in it, so it was kind of more of a matter of principle over what they were offering. I didn’t want to lose that kind of ownership as it didn't make sense.
I think also I can have the same effect, organising promotion and reaching the same amount of people.
I have publicists in Europe and in USA and radio promo here and there; I have distribution through Burning Shed in the UK so it will be easier for people in Europe to buy the record.
The recent mass of reviews has been really great, too. I have to say the response I have had to this record has been phenomenal across the boards from the get-off. I just want to get it out there.
NMcF: Speaking genuinely the record is one that bears repeated listens and offers something new each time. I will personally remember where I was when I listen to it.
LW: Awesome. That’s great. Music that really sticks with you are the albums that you had to kind of discover. You had to take a little bit more time with them and they kind of unfold and blossom.
I think it creates this interaction that you wouldn't have with something that sort of hits you all at once.
NMcF: I know this is like asking you who's your favourite kid, but what's your favourite track on ‘Uncommon ‘Measures’?
LW: North Star is kinda like the album’s greatest hits so that springs to mind…
NMcF: The conclusion of North Star reminded me a little of Tubular Bells.
LW: Yeah, somebody else mentioned that. It’s interesting because my only experience of Tubular Bells was through the part used for used for The Exorcist!
I like what I’ve heard of Mike Oldfield but I didn't delve too heavily into his music, but that's great to hear.
NMcF: Recording a solo album with a 63-piece orchestra at Abbey Road is hard to beat, but what other career highlights have you had?
LW: Well, certainly being in a band that got their first record deal. I still remember getting the call from one of the co-founders of the band to say we had been signed by Island records and we were going to make records! I still remember that phone call; I was so excited!
I think, also, having Todd Rundgren produce the band and then being in his group for a few years; playing big venues with Todd was memorable as well. Playing with Beck was huge because I was a big fan of his music.
Playing in a three-piece band with Sting, playing Police covers is another highlight – I was nineteen years old and played in his band for a couple of years.
The number one movies were huge moments in my career as well.
NMcF: What else are you involved with at the moment?
LW: I've had this side job for the past five years creating what's called library music.
It's just basically music anyone, for example Facebook, can search through a database for by mood/tempo.
I had built up a large body of work and some compilation albums have been released recently – there’s about a hundred and sixty songs available that we have been allowed to distribute; they are now all available on iTunes, Spotify, Distrokid, etcetera. They were never originally intended for release, but the music is good.
NMcF: Lyle, thank you for your time and the very best of luck with Uncommon Measures – it deserves a wide and large audience.
LW: Thank you so much – it’s really appreciated!
Nelson McFarlane
Q&A with Lyle Workman
March 2021
Uncommon Measures is out now on Blue Canoe Records
Photo Credits: Promotional images 2021
Connect with Lyle Workman at:
https://www.instagram.com/lyle.workman/?hl=en
https://www.facebook.com/lyleworkman.musician/
https://twitter.com/Lyle_Workman
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7S6h0KMlH1lsaA7ORmnVLw
LW: Yeah, somebody else mentioned that. It’s interesting because my only experience of Tubular Bells was through the part used for used for The Exorcist!
I like what I’ve heard of Mike Oldfield but I didn't delve too heavily into his music, but that's great to hear.
NMcF: Recording a solo album with a 63-piece orchestra at Abbey Road is hard to beat, but what other career highlights have you had?
LW: Well, certainly being in a band that got their first record deal. I still remember getting the call from one of the co-founders of the band to say we had been signed by Island records and we were going to make records! I still remember that phone call; I was so excited!
I think, also, having Todd Rundgren produce the band and then being in his group for a few years; playing big venues with Todd was memorable as well. Playing with Beck was huge because I was a big fan of his music.
Playing in a three-piece band with Sting, playing Police covers is another highlight – I was nineteen years old and played in his band for a couple of years.
The number one movies were huge moments in my career as well.
NMcF: What else are you involved with at the moment?
LW: I've had this side job for the past five years creating what's called library music.
It's just basically music anyone, for example Facebook, can search through a database for by mood/tempo.
I had built up a large body of work and some compilation albums have been released recently – there’s about a hundred and sixty songs available that we have been allowed to distribute; they are now all available on iTunes, Spotify, Distrokid, etcetera. They were never originally intended for release, but the music is good.
NMcF: Lyle, thank you for your time and the very best of luck with Uncommon Measures – it deserves a wide and large audience.
LW: Thank you so much – it’s really appreciated!
Nelson McFarlane
Q&A with Lyle Workman
March 2021
Uncommon Measures is out now on Blue Canoe Records
Photo Credits: Promotional images 2021
Connect with Lyle Workman at:
https://www.instagram.com/lyle.workman/?hl=en
https://www.facebook.com/lyleworkman.musician/
https://twitter.com/Lyle_Workman
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7S6h0KMlH1lsaA7ORmnVLw