|
Best known for his stint in Todd Rundgren's Utopia and as musical director of
Meat Loaf's band, Kasim Sulton performs in a solo setting tonight at Zig's in Alexandria, Va. |
By BRIAN TRUITT
Journal staff writer
Kasim Sulton has been the ketchup to Meat Loaf for years, as well as spicing up the songs of artists like Todd Rundgren, Joan Jett, Celine Dion and Hall & Oates. If you've listened to anything on the radio during the past three decades, you've probably heard his work.
But these days, Sulton is focusing on giving fans a dash of his individual flavor, with a new solo album of songs he's been working on in between stints as the bass player and musical director for Meat Loaf's touring ensemble and other groups in need of his instrumental expertise.
Ever since his self-titled solo foray for EMI Records in 1980, Sulton always wanted to do another one, he said by phone from his Staten Island, N.Y., studio.
``But I just never had the time to do it between working with a bunch of different artists and going on the road, just never got around to working on another record, but I had been writing material all along,'' he said.
In 1999, when he had three songs under his belt - ``Which, for me, is a fair amount,'' Sulton said - and Meat Loaf was taking a break and concentrating on his movie career, the New York native dedicated himself to recording a solo CD. The result was ``Quid Pro Quo,'' a disc of 10 tracks offering Sulton as a ``pop balladeer.''
``That's the easiest way to explain it,'' Sulton said. ``Kinda James Taylor with an edge.''
On ``Quid Pro Quo,'' Sulton slinks from slow, heart-filled reflection (``Before She Was Gone'') to an Andrew Lloyd Webber-ish ode about children (``Heaven Help the Child'') to shades of '50s-era doo-wop - ``Over For Now,'' a tune inspired by the Beatles' ``Oh! Darling'' and influenced by, of all people, Ringo Starr.
``I kind of went back to `Abbey Road' and copped what Ringo was playing on my drum track,'' Sulton said.
He sang and played all the instruments on the record, meaning he spent a lot of quality time turning knobs and manipulating gizmos in his home studio.
``It's not so much hard as time-consuming,'' Sulton said. ``You don't have the luxury of hearing everything together. Where it might be easy when you're in a band situation and you've got four guys in a room and everybody's playing the song and you can say, `You know what, you might not want to keep this here because that's not working with what I do,' when you're doing everything one thing at a time, it takes a little more forethought.''
He likened it to a chess game. For example, if Sulton did a complete bass track, the subsequent guitar tracks may not work with the bass line, and he'd have to decide which part was more important, then go back and tweak things later.
``That's why it took me 20 years to record another record,'' Sulton said with a laugh.
During tonight's gig at Zig's in Alexandria, he'll have a little bit more help with Mark Alexander, a keyboard player from Meat Loaf's band, and guitarist Doug Kennedy. Along with his own tunes, Sulton's shows include some jokes, some songs written for Meat Loaf but never recorded, and some Utopia covers, a nod to his time playing bass and sharing lead vocals in Rundgren's prog-rock band of the '70s and '80s.
Sulton still considers Rundgren the biggest influence on his songwriting.
``From the time I started working with him, I've always considered Todd one of the really, really great songwriters in this country in the past 30 years,'' said Sulton, who mentions Rundgren in the same breath as Elton John, Billy Joel and Harry Nilsson. ``Not everybody writes a great song every single time out. There are good songs, there are mediocre songs and then there are not-so-good songs. But Todd has a consistency. I haven't worked with anybody with the consistency Todd has.''
That list is pretty impressive in itself, since Sulton has toured with Patty Smyth and Cheap Trick, and has done session work - singing backup and/or playing bass - with the Indigo Girls, Rick Derringer and Bif Naked, among others. And for three years, he was also a full-time member of the Blackhearts, Joan Jett's backing band.
``She's really good at what she does,'' Sulton said. ``[But] when I play with someone like Joan, I don't really get a chance to stretch out and do a lot of stuff because the music doesn't call for it. It's meat-and-potatoes stuff: You play the root notes and eighth notes, and you're good to go.
``With Meat Loaf and Todd and a few other bands, I have more of a chance to show off my musical integrity - for lack of a better term - to make a contribution that makes a difference to the final outcome. Joan's music is all about attitude, and while that certainly has something to do with everybody's music, other music is equal parts of attitude and musicality.''
Sulton has made his biggest sonic mark commercially by manning the low tones for Meat Loaf, who Sulton first worked with on the beefy rocker's 1977 debut ``Bat Out of Hell,'' the classic teen rock opera that has sold 48 million copies globally and is one of the best-selling rock albums in history.
``There's so much bass stuff going on in that record, I can't believe how many notes I played,'' Sulton said. ``And I remember doing that record and thinking to myself, `Well, I'm just going to keep playing till somebody tells me to stop. If somebody tells me I'm playing too much, I'll pull back.' But nobody ever said that to me, so I kept going.''
Having been a sound engineer since the tender age of 13, the studio was nothing new to the then-20-year-old bassist. But what was mind-blowing was the talent he rehearsed with during the three weeks before The Loaf popped in for the first time: two members of Bruce Springsteen's band, drummer Max Weinberg and keyboard player Roy Bittan, and Rundgren, who played guitar and produced ``Bat Out of Hell.''
It was Rundgren who recruited Sulton for the gig, when Sulton was living in Utopia's home base in Woodstock, N.Y.
``I said, `Sure, no problem. I got some time between tours, between records. What's the artist's name?''' Sulton remembered. ``And he said, `It's a guy named Meat Loaf.' And I said, `Alright, now stop fooling around. Tell me what the guy's name is and I'll be there.' And he says, `Just come to the studio.'''
Once the band finally got to meet the plump, long-haired singer from Texas and equally coiffed songwriter/classical pianist Jim Steinman, everybody just laughed, Sulton said.
``It wasn't so much a joke as just this is pretty funny, this is pretty interesting that these two guys are gonna do a record and that the record is part Broadway, part serious, part rock,'' Sulton said.
And it's a marriage that continues to this day. Sulton currently is finishing work on the new Meat Loaf record, ``Testify,'' which is scheduled to be released late this year or in early 2003. And after this mini solo jaunt, Sulton will join back up with Meat Loaf for a brand-new tour.
``Most of my year next year will be Meat Loaf-oriented,'' he said.
Sounds tasty.
Kasim Sulton appears at 10 p.m. tonight at Zig's Bar & Grill, 4531 Duke St., Alexandria, Va. Tickets are $20. Call Tickets.com at (800) 955-5566 or (703) 218-6500, or visit www.tickets.com.
For information on Sulton, visit his Web site at www.kasimsulton.com.
But these days, Sulton is focusing on giving fans a dash of his individual flavor, with a new solo album of songs he's been working on in between stints as the bass player and musical director for Meat Loaf's touring ensemble and other groups in need of his instrumental expertise.
Ever since his self-titled solo foray for EMI Records in 1980, Sulton always wanted to do another one, he said by phone from his Staten Island, N.Y., studio.
``But I just never had the time to do it between working with a bunch of different artists and going on the road, just never got around to working on another record, but I had been writing material all along,'' he said.
In 1999, when he had three songs under his belt - ``Which, for me, is a fair amount,'' Sulton said - and Meat Loaf was taking a break and concentrating on his movie career, the New York native dedicated himself to recording a solo CD. The result was ``Quid Pro Quo,'' a disc of 10 tracks offering Sulton as a ``pop balladeer.''
``That's the easiest way to explain it,'' Sulton said. ``Kinda James Taylor with an edge.''
On ``Quid Pro Quo,'' Sulton slinks from slow, heart-filled reflection (``Before She Was Gone'') to an Andrew Lloyd Webber-ish ode about children (``Heaven Help the Child'') to shades of '50s-era doo-wop - ``Over For Now,'' a tune inspired by the Beatles' ``Oh! Darling'' and influenced by, of all people, Ringo Starr.
``I kind of went back to `Abbey Road' and copped what Ringo was playing on my drum track,'' Sulton said.
He sang and played all the instruments on the record, meaning he spent a lot of quality time turning knobs and manipulating gizmos in his home studio.
``It's not so much hard as time-consuming,'' Sulton said. ``You don't have the luxury of hearing everything together. Where it might be easy when you're in a band situation and you've got four guys in a room and everybody's playing the song and you can say, `You know what, you might not want to keep this here because that's not working with what I do,' when you're doing everything one thing at a time, it takes a little more forethought.''
He likened it to a chess game. For example, if Sulton did a complete bass track, the subsequent guitar tracks may not work with the bass line, and he'd have to decide which part was more important, then go back and tweak things later.
``That's why it took me 20 years to record another record,'' Sulton said with a laugh.
During tonight's gig at Zig's in Alexandria, he'll have a little bit more help with Mark Alexander, a keyboard player from Meat Loaf's band, and guitarist Doug Kennedy. Along with his own tunes, Sulton's shows include some jokes, some songs written for Meat Loaf but never recorded, and some Utopia covers, a nod to his time playing bass and sharing lead vocals in Rundgren's prog-rock band of the '70s and '80s.
Sulton still considers Rundgren the biggest influence on his songwriting.
``From the time I started working with him, I've always considered Todd one of the really, really great songwriters in this country in the past 30 years,'' said Sulton, who mentions Rundgren in the same breath as Elton John, Billy Joel and Harry Nilsson. ``Not everybody writes a great song every single time out. There are good songs, there are mediocre songs and then there are not-so-good songs. But Todd has a consistency. I haven't worked with anybody with the consistency Todd has.''
That list is pretty impressive in itself, since Sulton has toured with Patty Smyth and Cheap Trick, and has done session work - singing backup and/or playing bass - with the Indigo Girls, Rick Derringer and Bif Naked, among others. And for three years, he was also a full-time member of the Blackhearts, Joan Jett's backing band.
``She's really good at what she does,'' Sulton said. ``[But] when I play with someone like Joan, I don't really get a chance to stretch out and do a lot of stuff because the music doesn't call for it. It's meat-and-potatoes stuff: You play the root notes and eighth notes, and you're good to go.
``With Meat Loaf and Todd and a few other bands, I have more of a chance to show off my musical integrity - for lack of a better term - to make a contribution that makes a difference to the final outcome. Joan's music is all about attitude, and while that certainly has something to do with everybody's music, other music is equal parts of attitude and musicality.''
Sulton has made his biggest sonic mark commercially by manning the low tones for Meat Loaf, who Sulton first worked with on the beefy rocker's 1977 debut ``Bat Out of Hell,'' the classic teen rock opera that has sold 48 million copies globally and is one of the best-selling rock albums in history.
``There's so much bass stuff going on in that record, I can't believe how many notes I played,'' Sulton said. ``And I remember doing that record and thinking to myself, `Well, I'm just going to keep playing till somebody tells me to stop. If somebody tells me I'm playing too much, I'll pull back.' But nobody ever said that to me, so I kept going.''
Having been a sound engineer since the tender age of 13, the studio was nothing new to the then-20-year-old bassist. But what was mind-blowing was the talent he rehearsed with during the three weeks before The Loaf popped in for the first time: two members of Bruce Springsteen's band, drummer Max Weinberg and keyboard player Roy Bittan, and Rundgren, who played guitar and produced ``Bat Out of Hell.''
It was Rundgren who recruited Sulton for the gig, when Sulton was living in Utopia's home base in Woodstock, N.Y.
``I said, `Sure, no problem. I got some time between tours, between records. What's the artist's name?''' Sulton remembered. ``And he said, `It's a guy named Meat Loaf.' And I said, `Alright, now stop fooling around. Tell me what the guy's name is and I'll be there.' And he says, `Just come to the studio.'''
Once the band finally got to meet the plump, long-haired singer from Texas and equally coiffed songwriter/classical pianist Jim Steinman, everybody just laughed, Sulton said.
``It wasn't so much a joke as just this is pretty funny, this is pretty interesting that these two guys are gonna do a record and that the record is part Broadway, part serious, part rock,'' Sulton said.
And it's a marriage that continues to this day. Sulton currently is finishing work on the new Meat Loaf record, ``Testify,'' which is scheduled to be released late this year or in early 2003. And after this mini solo jaunt, Sulton will join back up with Meat Loaf for a brand-new tour.
``Most of my year next year will be Meat Loaf-oriented,'' he said.
Sounds tasty.
Kasim Sulton appears at 10 p.m. tonight at Zig's Bar & Grill, 4531 Duke St., Alexandria, Va. Tickets are $20. Call Tickets.com at (800) 955-5566 or (703) 218-6500, or visit www.tickets.com.
For information on Sulton, visit his Web site at www.kasimsulton.com.