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The Art of Mindfulness 
Muirsical Conversation with Pat Travers

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Given what’s been going on in the world these last few years, and currently, it’s a pity we’ve never mastered the Art of Time Travel – but the reality is we need to make the most out of what we have in the here & now and not worry about a past we can’t return to or a future we can’t predict.

That positivity of the now is exactly what’s at the heart of the musical matter on the title track of the new studio album from Pat Travers and, perhaps more importantly, at the heart of his mindfulness; the renowned and highly respected Florida based Canadian guitar-slinger is in a far better, anxiety free place than he was back in the days of Life in London or when the Heat hit the Pat Travers Band Street.
 
PT was happy to talk to FabricationsHQ about such topics along with discussion on his latest album for Cleopatra Records, The Art of Time Travel, which is as strong as anything he has done in the 21st century.

The conversation however started with a time travelling look back to his previous two Cleopatra Records releases, the fittingly titled Retro Rocket and his covers album of big band classics, Swing!    

Ross Muir: A couple of years after the Frontiers Records release Can Do you worked again with Cleopatra Records, releasing Retro Rocket in 2015.
That album is both interesting and well named, because musically there’s a discernible and intentional retro-70s heavy rock feel to it, typified by songs such as Searching For a Clue.
​
Pat Travers: That album was a really interesting, and totally different, situation.
Most of the tracks on Retro Rocket were backing tracks that have been recorded with no vocals. It was three or four guys, who were in Las Vegas I think, who sent me those tracks over; I then, somehow or other, had to come up with the vocals and the lyrics and also put my guitar on top of it.
And I couldn’t really edit the songs, because they were otherwise complete; I had to go with what was there.
But it worked pretty well, and there were a couple of original tunes on there too, which were pretty good.

RM: I’d agree; it was an interesting and successful partnership; it’s 70s heavy rock styling also provided great tonal contrast to Can Do, which had been more about a modern, melodic heavy rock sound.

PT: Yeah, it was a challenge, but it worked out pretty well. Plus, on Retro Rocket, I pretty much exclusively used a guitar I had borrowed, which was a ’57 Gibson Les Paul Gold Top; that guitar was so vicious!
I didn’t put any effects on it, or anything else. It was pretty much a stripped down sound on the guitar, with no effects, no double tracking, or any of the stuff I would normally do.

RM: Further contrast – in fact it’s harder to think of something more contrasting in the PT catalogue – came four years later with Swing!, a collection of big-band swing standards in a rock setting with full horn backing. That’s a fun sounding album; was it as much fun to make?

PT: It was, yeah, but it was hard too; I had to really work on that one.
What had happened was my wife had SiriusXM on, playing 1940s stuff. We’re all familiar with that music because we’ve heard it in movies, on adverts, stuff like that, our whole lives; so it’s kinda familiar already.
I was listening to those great tenor sax parts and going "wow, that could be played on guitar, it’s on the same register." I thought a bit more about it and realised that could be a cool thing to do.

Shortly after that Cleopatra called me and said "Do you want to do another record? It can be anything you want." I said "Yeah! I want to do a swing album!" to which Brian Perera, the label’s founder and owner, said "OK then!" He’s great; I love Brian; he’s not afraid of trying anything.   
So we recorded some of those great tunes from the late thirties and early forties – those musicians were the equivalent of the heavy metal players of our era; they had trumpet players that were just outrageous, fabulous sax players, great drummers – these guys were the cream of the crop; they were hotshots.

I picked up on that energy for our versions and was also lucky enough to get great horn players, too.
A friend of mine, Michael Franklin, helped with all the horn arrangements; that was so cool.​

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  Retro Rocket and Swing! Two of the most contrasting and interesting releases in the Pat Travers catalogue

RM:
 I believe you would occasionally play Sing Sing Sing, as recorded for Swing!, live?

PT: We did for a while, yeah. The drummer that played on Swing!, Tommy Craig, isn’t playing with us now though, as you know; and we just never got around to rehearsing that song for live performance with our drummer Alex Petrosky – other songs we were writing took precedence and, of course, the new album.
But I did like playing Sing Sing Sing live, it was really fun!

RM: Perfect timing on your percussive mentions there because Tommy did a great job for you and Alex, to my ears, sounds like a rock solid player who knows what he’s about.

PT: He really is, yeah; great player.

RM: And on bass you have David Pastorius, who is a chip off his late uncle’s bass block. Fabulous player.

PT: And David’s getting better [laughs]! I’m serious; we had a rehearsal not long ago and I’m going "man, that sounds so frickin’ huge!" He really is getting better, but that’s all David does; he just loves to play his bass.
But then the whole Pastorius family is vert artistic – and a little quirky [laughs]

RM: To be that good at something, especially in the arts, they do say there has to be a quirkiness, or sometimes an eccentricity. And for the small percentage of the exceptionally gifted there’s usually that very fine line between genius and tipping the other way…

PT: I believe that’s true. And, unfortunately, Jaco Pastorius eventually tipped in that wrong direction.
That was so sad because he truly was a genius – just listen to his compositions!
Most people just know him as a hot bass player but the music he composed, the arrangements, and how he arranged all the horns? Oh, man. It was like "well, what am I?" you know?

RM: We recently reviewed Jeff Berlin’s new album, a tribute-homage to the similarly late and lamented Jack Bruce. Jack was known for that bluesy voice and great bass skills but, like Jaco, his compositional structures and some of his melodic structures… man, off the charts.

PT: I agree. I was so fortunate to get to rehearse with him for a couple of days in 1990 in London, with Cozy Powell. Jack, for me, was the musician’s musician. And as great as he was, he was not intimidating in any way; he was so collaborative and just loved what he was doing. It was just so much fun to be around him.

RM: A career highlight moment?

PT: It really was; it was so inspirational. And I didn’t feel star struck with him at all. I met him and we just started working together. That was so cool. I really loved Jack.

RM: Those travels back in time bring us nicely to the new album. There’s a lot going on here, from the back in the day flashback cover painting and its associated title to the broader canvas of the ten tracks within.
The title track, which opens the album, has that thick, growling guitar that hearkens back to your guitar sound on your early albums; it also has a clever lyric that’s more about the now than the past...
​PT: The Art of Time Travel was actually the very first song we worked on, and recorded; when I came up with the song I knew it was going to be a kind of template, and lead-off track, for the rest to follow.
What that song is about, for me, goes back to 2016 when I resolved to overcome my severe anxiety.
Like so many millions of people on this planet I’ve suffered my whole life with it – second guessing, indecisive, not being able to enjoy things because they’re not perfect… you know what I mean.

RM: I do indeed. I don’t think there’s many of us who at some point haven’t suffered from some form of anxiety, whether mild or severe.

PT: Yeah, and one of the things that people with anxiety do is they fantasise about a future where horrible things are going to happen to your loved ones, or yourself.
What’s the point of that? These are things that are not going to happen, so why even think about them?
So you stop doing that, but then you look to the past to think about some bonehead move you made about twenty years ago and torture yourself over that instead! [laughs].
It’s wasted energy; you should really just be thinking on where you are and what you’re doing right here, right now. That’s the whole thing behind that song.

I was also reading a lot about Mindfulness, although really it’s just about focus; that’s really what mindfulness comes down to, focussing on what you’re doing. It takes practice, but you can do that while you’re doing anything – folding towels, doing the washing up, any number of things.
If you get in to a habit of doing that then you’re not thinking about the future or the past; you’re in the here and now. It sounds simple, and it is, but it does take practice, it really does.

RM: Absolutely; be in the now; the past is just that and we can’t control an unknown future.
I should have got my wife to conduct this part of the interview because she’s a Buddhist; for her, mindfulness and being in the now, or in the moment, go hand-in-hand. She would love this conversation.

PT: That’s great. I’ve read a lot about Buddhism and grabbed so much that was practical, doable, and reasonable. Again, it’s basically simple, but everything takes practice, including breathing techniques, which is super-important. That component cannot be downplayed because it has everything to do with the state of your brain – if you don’t have your oxygen levels right then you can become edgy and nervous.
Same thing with your guts; your guts have to be in good shape too; that’s your second brain down there!

RM: All so true. I now breathe differently, or with better modulation, than I ever have. It sounds like we’re both in a better place now, in terms of mind and body.

PT: Absolutely, yeah!

RM: From the Art of Mindfulness to the Artwork of the album cover. I mentioned earlier that the cover art carried great flashback appeal, in the shape of a painting from your filmed Rockpalast show in Germany in 1976. What inspired that particular cover choice?

PT: Well, that again, was Brian Perera. He presented that as a possible cover, which is a painting of the original photo; I also love that spiral of the old fashioned clock face in the background, it all just seemed to work with the title.
Then, later, somebody sent me the photo that is in the inside of the CD sleeve, and it looks very similar to that Rockpalast photo, but this one was taken in 2021, some forty-five years later!
There’s not much difference between the two, excepting I’m in a much better place now, as we’ve just talked about; I’m way more confident in performance, and writing music and lyrics.

RM: Given what you’ve just said, and knowing you have such a good memory, do you have fond recollections of those Rockpalast and BBC Radio One In Concert days, making your first musical inroads in the UK and Europe?

PT: To be honest with you, I mostly winged everything back then! [laughter].
Really, I showed up and just hoped for the best – and that was a source of anxiety in itself; I didn’t know what I was going to do until I got there!
I’m much more organised now. I don’t go to rehearsals or the recording studio untiI I know what I’m going to rehearse or record; but back then it was different.
I also do everything in my head; I don’t even write the lyrics down. Well, I write the lyrics down as I’m sort of coming up with them, but sometimes I don’t even do that! I just keep stuff in my head until I have to sing it; or if someone else has to sing along, or is doing backing vocals, then I’ll write it down for them.
But I try to be a lot more organised now because that’s so much better – I can drive to the studio and feel confident that I know exactly what we’re going to be doing when I get there; it's comfortable for me.

RM: Yep, always good to have a plan I feel…

PT: [laughs] Yes, exactly! There were so many times back then that I didn’t have a plan until I got there; that’s absolutely true!

RM: I want to continue on the Art of Time Travel by cherry picking out a few songs that are highlights or have some significance behind them.
One example is Ronnie, a tribute to your late friend and fabulous guitarist Ronnie Montrose.
That’s a great song, with gritty rock guitar weight to it – and the Rock Candy styled intro is a lovely touch…

PT: That was actually the genesis of that song. I was getting ready to go to bed, about 2am, and I was listening to SiriusXM. I had my Favourites screen up and I noticed that on one of the channels they were playing Rock Candy live, from the Record Plant in Sausalito.
I thought "Oh I’ve gotta hear that!" It was so good; I just loved Ronnie’s rhythm style of playing.
He was a great friend of mine and definitely an inspiration, on number of levels.
We would talk on the phone a lot and we got to play together too; I had enormous respect for Ronnie and he was just fun to hang with; we really got along.

When he passed it was very sad for me – and it still is. I still think about him but that night, playing that song, I thought "You know what, I’m going to write a song about Ronnie," and I did.
​I put most of that song together that same night. I remember I was sitting out in our back patio, in the dark;
I put my phone onto video to record what I was doing so I wouldn’t forget it, then wrote most of that song sitting right there. I love doing that song live, too; as beefy as it sounds on the album, it’s absolutely rockin’ live!

RM: Another song I want to mention is Push Yourself, which was a lead-of single.
Not only is it a great, sassy-swing number, it features your wife Monica and daughter Amanda on backing vocals. The Travers gals feature on pretty much every song but they really come into their own that one.
Monica and Amanda have great voices and they vocally complement each other.

PT: They do and I’m extremely lucky, because they are a great asset.
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PT: When I was writing the songs for this album I heard Monica and Amanda's vocals in my head, so I knew they were going to be all over this album.
I guess you could also call it a juxtaposition because you have these really sweet sounding voices an octave above this gritty guitar sound, and some of the chords are more sophisticated four-note chords.
Adding those vocals really voices them; you really do hear that change from that A Minor to the A Flat-seventh. It’s like, woah! 
If it was just on the guitar then it’s just those few notes, but adding those other notes on top fleshes it out and makes it really move.

RM: Yes, it’s that tonal texture.

PT: Right. Exactly that.

RM: This also dovetails with what we said earlier about you now being a man with a plan – you’re hearing in your head what this is going to sound like even before you have it down and recorded.
I also have to say that I now can’t conceive of a Pat Travers studio album without what I describe as The Traverettes on backing vocals…

PT: No, me neither! [laughs] Actually they could have been on even more songs, because I was very prolific when I was preparing to do this album – in fact I actually started to write too many!
I think I ended up with sixteen when I really needed only ten. I could have added more, but at some point you have to stop rehearsing and get the songs recorded, so I made an executive decision to choose ten out of those sixteen.
I’ve still got those other tracks in various states of completion though. I might not have all the lyrics written, or all the vocals down yet, but there’s some great tracks there.
I haven’t heard them in a while but it certainly wouldn’t take much to complete them.

RM: I want to mention two other tracks, because it wouldn’t be a PT album without an instrumental or two.
Natalie, written by David Pastorius for his wife, is a lovely piece that features you and David dovetailing beautifully. And as I said in review, Alex isn‘t so much supplying the simple beat as the heart beat…

PT: Yeah. When David started playing that, and Alex and I started playing along, it just drew us in like a beautiful summer’s day, or a quiet day out in the country; it's kinda hypnotic.
The actual recording just came out beautifully. We had a friend of ours put some keyboard pads on it and David played something that’s not quite in the foreground but it’s always there; I then tried to do this simple, very sparse jangly chord to answer David’s melody.
I think I ripped off a pretty good guitar solo on that tune too; it then goes back to the melody and, at the end, as it fades out, you just go… "aah, that was nice!" [laughs]

RM: That’s a great summation because it is an aah moment; just such a lovely piece.
The other instrumental is your own composition, the funky Full Spectrum.
That tune, to me, sounds like the slower-tempo grandson of Off Beat Ride; it has the same sort of vibe, and feel.

PT: I thought you might mention Off Beat Ride because you did in review – but, honestly, I didn’t make that connection until you mentioned it!
But yeah, it has that funky guitar, which is definitely the dominant part and, of course, it has that great sax like Off Beat Ride.

RM: I love to hear a well-played saxophone utilised in rock or funk…

PT: Yeah I love that too; that was Charlie DeChant, who plays with Hall and Oates, on Full Spectrum.                                                           In the camera (fish)eye - David Pastorius, Alex Petrosky, PT


RM: To wrap up, and given it’s been so long since we’ve seen you here in the UK, I have to ask, on behalf of all your British fans, do you think we’ll see you back in the UK?
Or, given the current logistical and financial climate, along with other issues for many an International or overseas club level act, is that highly unlikely?

PT: Well, I would be willing to come over if, say, I had something like ten shows consecutively; then I could probably not lose money [laughs].
That would actually be worth it, to me, because as you know the UK is still my second home; so much of my development, my history, my attitudes, even my humour, comes from the UK.
I’ve made so many deep friendships with people over in the UK that I would do it, if I thought I wouldn’t lose money.

RM: Looks like I need to start talking to some promoters! [laughter]
Actually I could, seriously, get you a whole raft of venues but what I can’t guarantee is the ticket sales.
The problem here right now – at club venue level, the big ticket Arena events still sell like hot cakes – is pre-sale tickets are way down; we’re seeing, generally, a marked drop off in those sales and around 25% reduction in audience numbers.

PT: Yeah and that’s the problem because venue owners don’t want to take a chance if they don’t have a certain number of pre-sales; they’ve got to have those pre-sales.
So I understand what you’re saying, but it would still be something I’d be willing to do, just to get back over and see all my old friends and my British fans.

RM: Well I could set up a Scottish tour leg and guarantee a Macallan at the end of each gig?

PT: [laughs] That would be great!

RM: Until that occurs, it only remains for me to say thanks so much for your time, Pat; it's always a pleasure.
Long may your career continue, whatever side of the pond you may find yourself playing in the future.

PT: Thank you Ross. I always love talking to you and thank you so much for your awesome support; it’s greatly appreciated. Cheers!

Ross Muir          
Muirsical Conversation with Pat Travers
October 2022



Photo credits: PT photo and band photo from official website media
Pat Travers official website: 
http://www.pattravers.com/
Pat Travers Merchandise: https://rockpapermerch.com/collections/pat-travers
​The Art of Time Travel cover painting by Javier Carmona
https://www.hireanillustrator.com/i/portfolio/javier-carmona/

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