QLS Mini: Stanley Clarke on His New Album, Book, Electric Lady & More

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Speaker 1: The Questlove Show is a production of iHeartRadio. Hey, what's up, y'all? How you doing? Welcome back to the Questlove Show. We have an upcoming full episode with the virtuoso God himself, Stanley Clark. You'll be hearing that soon. But I also wanted to do a mini conversation to give some light to this Very heavy.

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Speaker 2: Yo, this.

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Speaker 1: What is in here?

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Speaker 2: Because this is.

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Speaker 1: I've never felt a record this heavy. This is the last train to Stan... Yeah, this is the last train to Stanley. What a point and a slip. No, the last train to sanity.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Stanley Clark. Wait, speaking of the weight of it all, this question I always wanted to know. At this stage in your life, how is... And, you know, I've spoken to Flea about this. I've spoken to Bootsy Collins, who, you know, had to put his ax up. How taxing is it to play a bass in this day and time, in this present time that we're speaking of?

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Speaker 2: You know, probably at this point for me, I notice a difference, like age playing. But it's very, very minute. I mean, I've always been an avid practicer, guy that practices the bass. And so I think as I get older, you know, I rely more on my technique, things like I'm going to jump around like I used to, but I may do one jump on the stage. Okay. But, you know, playing is pretty good. I'm actually playing better acoustic bass now than I ever did.

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Speaker 1: What's your self-care routine for your hands?

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Speaker 2: Well, yeah, I keep my hands together. The main thing is the back. I actually kind of almost lost this arm at one point. I was coming back from Russia. I landed in New Jersey, and this arm just went numb. And I didn't quite sever the nerve, but almost. And it took me about eight months to get it back together. And so now I had to reposition myself and learn the bass from a different way. I don't play it like this too much anymore. I'm up like that. When I do have to go up there, I'll bend over, but I default back to this kind of, if I'm on a stool, this L here. and it saves everything.

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Speaker 1: Wow, you're serious.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 1: So talk to me about The Last Train of Sanity. First of all, what was the title that led to this?

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Speaker 2: Well, it's a song, The Last Train of Sanity, and it just, you know, we all know I don't have to burden anybody. You know, the planet, you know, this country, you know, there's always something going on that's... doesn't sort of seem to be leading toward sanity, but I'll just put it that way.

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Speaker 1: You know what? I don't think it's leading to sanity, but I do believe it is leading to clarity.

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Speaker 2: It is.

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Speaker 1: And I'll tell you why. Because, you know, like in movies when people are having the porcelain toilet moment where they're like, God, please let me get through this. I'll never drink again if you just let me get through this night.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Sometimes in the worst of times. Like, you know, humans shouldn't have to learn when we're at rock bottom. Right. But, I mean, I will admit that the last 10 years of madness that we went through was probably the motivation for me to really step up my game.

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Speaker 2: It's totally true what you say because sometimes to have cognition or have some kind of epiphany or whatever you want to call it.

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Speaker 1: Mm-hmm.

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Speaker 2: Like, you have to see the dirt. You have to see the stuff, you know, and so you can move up. And there's all kinds of stuff out there right now. But this record, that was kind of the flow behind it, which was that. And, you know, I basically decided to put this together, fund it myself. I had my daughter, Natasha. She did this because she's a fine singer, but as well, she's a great artist. Yeah, you have to work on it, man. I've never had a, whew. Yeah, and so it's designed very well.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, talk about the packaging.

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Speaker 2: Well, the packaging, this is like an acrylic case here.

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Speaker 1: Yes, it is.

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Speaker 2: You're very hardcore. And Natasha, pretty much, she's the art director and came up with a lot of the ideas here, and she did a tremendous job. I know she's going to win a Grammy. For packaging, yes. For packaging. For packaging. And there's a book here that goes from, I think, eight years old to now. There's several books here. Yeah, yeah. This is the two discs, the pieces of vinyl. Okay, okay. You have a... God, this is like a big deal here. You have the CD right here. Okay. That's a CD. See that? Ah, man. Okay. And then you have the vinyl. And the vinyl... This kind of stuff here.

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Speaker 1: Don't say there's a hologram inside it.

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Speaker 2: Oh, okay.

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Speaker 1: Wow, that's amazing.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and there's two pieces here.

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Speaker 1: I love the fact that you provided the pocket for the CD.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. Some guys don't have the record player.

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Speaker 1: I was going to say, the only other album I knew that did that, at one point, Motown would put a little pouch in for songs in the Key of Life so that the 45 could fit. inside of the album, but there's also.

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Speaker 2: Well, here's the other one. This is kind of a protest part of this. The way they stream records, you don't hear anymore who played drums on this record, who played bass. Liner notes.

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Speaker 1: Liner notes are everything.

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Speaker 2: So this is full of liner notes. This is great because this has a score to The Last Train of Sanity. All those little dots mean something. And then these are the guys that are in my head.

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Speaker 1: All your collaborators?

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Speaker 2: Well, actually people I grew up, you know, McCoy, Train, all these guys.

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Speaker 1: Oh, some of your collaborators.

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Speaker 2: And this is where we recorded.

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Speaker 1: Where was this album recorded?

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Speaker 2: This was done in a studio called Mad Hatter Studio. And we had a lot of fun. And I just got all the liner notes in there, just like the old school publishing information, everything.

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Speaker 1: That's what I live for. I mean, I live for albums that give you information so you can get lost in it. It gives you a tangible thing to hold as you listen to it.

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Speaker 2: Here's little Natasha who's sitting over there right now. I see. When she was really young. Okay. We're forever young. Yeah, exactly. And yeah, it's a real fun thing.

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Speaker 1: Now, what's this book in my hands?

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Speaker 2: This is a book. This is a regular book.

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Speaker 1: Is this your memoir?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, this is called Notes from the Journey, and it has everything in here, like stuff. I got a picture in here of Thundercat when he was like eight or nine or ten or something standing next to me.

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Speaker 1: Really?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, let me see if I can find it here.

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Speaker 1: Okay.

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Speaker 2: There's a lot of great photos in here.

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Speaker 1: So in this particular book, you're just talking about your life journey through creativity?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah. Look at that right there. Oh, my God. This is before the thunder. Baby Brunner. This is way before. There was no thunder.

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Speaker 1: Okay, which. Should I put it here?

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Speaker 2: And there's Kamasi there and all those guys. Way before the thunder.

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Speaker 1: So you're sharing your life journey.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah. A lot of stuff and little lessons and things I've. come across and it's just a pretty good read there.

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Speaker 1: Why was it important for you to, because I know that for us to get this particular record, like we have to buy the album as opposed to like streaming it online. Like what was the decision to make a tangible album and not?

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Speaker 2: Well, you know, I wanted to do something just on my own, something that I could do it exactly the way I wanted to do it. There's 15 tracks and I wanted to, Just completely make it exactly the way. It's all the way down to the packaging, the music, everything, how it looked. And just it's not quite in the business. I haven't put it in the business stream at all, music business stream. But eventually it will get there. And right now I sell it on, you know, you can get the album from my website, lasttraintosanity.com. And it feels really nice. There's a nice freedom about it. Mm-hmm. You know, I mean, that's a cool picture of me and Chick right there. You guys can see this? Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Well, you know, if you're watching this on YouTube, I hope you see it at home. They're like, what the hell? You're just hearing this like flipping, flipping, flipping.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, but it took a while.

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Speaker 1: How long did the album take to record?

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Speaker 2: I started a while back. I don't know, a couple years, you know, maybe two years, something like that. And I just kept doing what come off the road, work on it, work on it. And then the book was really something, you know, like I just, this is the first book and a lot of people that, that in a lot of other bass players have written books. And I thought maybe, maybe I should do that. And I did. And cause you know, in my life, you know, I've done so many things that I forgot a lot of things, you know what I mean? And so it was nice to go back, bring these things up. And I had things to say about all these things.

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Speaker 1: And, uh, Of your travels, of the places that you've played around the world, what would you say is the one destination point that is the most consistent as far as you enjoying coming there every time to play?

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Speaker 2: I don't know why, but I really love playing in Detroit. Really? Seriously. Yeah, yeah. I've been playing there for... for a long time since the- Is that an Elvin thing? Well, you know, the fans there, for some reason, I don't know, man. It's just a connection error.

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Speaker 1: Detroit is a jazz town.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah. That much I do know. But those people there understood a lot of the, like when we got into what they called jazz rock music, and then they changed it to jazz fusion, and they liked all that stuff. You could swing, then you could go play some hardcore funk music. then you could do this and you could play some really intricate stuff. And they were all there. And I've, I played the Detroit jazz festival many times. Matter of fact, the last time I was there, I did, I brought in an orchestra and did a live performance, uh, boys in the hood. I took nine scenes from boys in the hood, put it up on a screen and conducted the orchestra. And that was fantastic. And they came out and was like people, you know, it's so nice to come out and say, man, you don't know, uh, what that movie meant to me. I remember as a judge came out and said that to me. He says like, when I was younger, that movie really meant a lot to me so people could understand what was happening in the hood. Because Detroit is similar in many ways to Philly. So it's a very potent hood. It is.

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Speaker 1: It is. I have a theory. There's a gentleman from Detroit. His name is the Electrifying Mojo. And I won't say that he's a rogue figure in radio, but Electrifying Mojo was pretty much allowed to play whatever he wanted. It was almost like he was the black character in Robin Williams' Good Morning Vietnam.

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Speaker 2: Right.

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Speaker 1: Even though this is black radio, he's really big on Afrofuturism. He was big on fusion. He was big on experimental music. So, I mean, at one point, I mean, he will mix in Prince, Olivia Newton-John, and then he will play fusion. It's almost like he raised his entire audience's palate.

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Speaker 2: Exactly.

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Speaker 1: To expand further than what the boundaries of terrestrial radio is. Was this all recorded at the same studio?

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Speaker 2: Pretty much so there. And then a lot of it was done at my house. And it's mainly just those two places.

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Speaker 1: You and I shared recording at Electric Lady Studios in New York.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 1: What was it like recording there in the 70s? My period there was like in the 2000s with D'Angelo.

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Speaker 2: No, it was great. Electric Lady. I actually recorded there recently. I did some recording. Someone called me to play there, but I had a lot of fun. It was funny when I walked in the studio, I went right to the spot that I recorded School Days. And I remember when I was there.

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Speaker 1: Wait, School Days was recorded at Electric Lady? Of course. I did not know that.

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Speaker 2: Where else could it be recorded?

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Speaker 1: You're right.

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Speaker 2: Electric Lady, man. But I remember, this is an interesting thing. I was doing School Days there. I think it was School Days or maybe the album before. And I come outside where they have that round sofa. I used to sit. And I'm sitting there. I'm eating a sandwich and there was this guy next to me and we were talking for a long time. This guy kind of looked kind of, he had his long hair, really skinny guy, tall guy. And it was, this guy was Joey Ramone from the Ramones. And I didn't know much about the band. He invited me downtown when they were just playing. And I went in there, they were throwing stuff off the stage and people spitting and all that kind of stuff.

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Speaker 1: You saw an authentic Ramone show?

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Speaker 2: Absolutely. That's the cool thing. Back in those days, man, it was like, you're just a musician. The type of music that you played was secondary. We were musicians. You're out there trying to make, and I'd say, yeah, I'm back there. I play. Matter of fact, I told him, he asked me, what kind of music do you do? And I said, I don't know what it is, but I'm a jazz musician and I like this and I like that. And he didn't really define his music either to me. He just says, Yeah, we do some stuff, you know, and that was it.

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Speaker 1: So you two just bonded socially really without knowing the pedigree and the.

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Speaker 2: Because it didn't exist. Because I think when you look back retrospectively at stuff that happens in art, that's when you put a name to it. If you really want to get real specific about this, if you look at the classical composers, I promise you they were not calling their music classical music.

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Speaker 1: We called it.

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Speaker 2: The word didn't exist back then. They were just... You know, like Mozart was like Prince. You know, he was a wild dude, you know, and yeah. But anyway, Electric Ladyland is special, and I love playing it.

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Speaker 1: Did you choose it because of the kinship of Hendrix building the spot?

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Speaker 2: Absolutely.

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Speaker 1: Absolutely.

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Speaker 2: And then also, it had a great sound. Because I recorded there, it was a song I did there with Chick and John McLaughlin, too. Song to John was the name of the tune. And I have a great picture in the house of that. Yeah, it was great. It was a great time. And the room sounded good. You know, I loved it.

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Speaker 1: Are you a sentimental collector? Like, this album is in the packaging of it all. It's like right up my alley.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah.

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Speaker 1: I'm big on collecting artifacts. What's the wildest thing that a fan has ever shown you of your own memorabilia?

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Speaker 2: Well, there was a guy a long time ago. His name escapes me, but he was a really famous jeweler at that time. And he came backstage and gave me a bass, an Olympic bass with diamonds on it. And he hands it to me. And I take it and left it in a hotel.

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Speaker 1: No, man, no. You serious?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I forgot just... I was a bit of a scatterbrain back then, you know, but that was wild.

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Speaker 1: Did he ever come back to you and be like, where is it?

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Speaker 2: I never saw the guy, but I saw his company. It was one of these guys out there. I think it still exists. And it was beautifully done. Like, the detail was amazing. And I know somebody picked that up, Sid. God. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: How do you, like, how do you, because I've heard many nightmare stories about bass traveling in my own band. Mm-hmm. getting your acts on board with you and not in pet i have a.

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Speaker 2: Guy with me that's a very as an engineer he mixes a sound for some reason whenever he's carrying the electric bass nobody says anything to him and he's one of these guys you know real stoic looking dude yeah like that when i carry the thing i'm much taller than him you know hold on.

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Speaker 1: And you gotta negotiate to this day To this day, man. You can't even be like, I'm Stanley Clark.

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Speaker 2: I mean, I'll even have a guy carry it on, then bring it to me again, and I'll put it up in the, you know. But just walking on, I don't know, for some reason, it stands out.

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Speaker 1: As far as I know, is there any level of creative benchmark that you have yet to, let me re-ask it, are you satisfied?

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Speaker 2: You know, I'm definitely satisfied with my life and musically what I've done, but there are still some things that I want to do. I want to write an acoustic bass concerto that I've started, you know, something I would go in schools, education. It's pretty good, too. And then a couple orchestral things. And then, you know, I used to enjoy producing singers. I produced a record for Natalie Cole. I produced a few other things with Howard Hewitt, different things. I would really like to produce... for some singers, you know?

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Speaker 1: Is there a hidden talent that you have that is non-musical? Like, are you a good cook? Do you like archery?

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Speaker 2: That's your best question.

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Speaker 1: No, but I want to know. I asked you 100% music questions.

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Speaker 2: I would have to.

00:18:51
Speaker 1: I'd.

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Speaker 2: Have to ask my kids and.

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Speaker 1: Well, if you weren't doing music, what else... do you like doing? Like just driving or?

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Speaker 2: Well, you know, I do like fast cars.

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Speaker 1: Okay. Are you a car collector?

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Speaker 2: I did have a lot of cars at one point.

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Speaker 1: What was the highest number?

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Speaker 2: At one point I had about four, five cars, which isn't a lot, but. That's a lot. That's a lot. I have three and it's hard to maintain. Now I have, I have like one, two, three, four, four. Now, yeah, it's still, yeah. But I love fast cars.

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Speaker 1: Well, again, this is the last train to sanity. Awesome, awesome packaging. This will fit nice at home with my other artifacts. And again, stay tuned for our full episode where we go kind of from soup to nuts to his life's journey. And I hope... you guys stick in with us. All right. It's Questlove Show Mini. Gorslup Shows, a production of iHeartRadio.