There are a lot of interesting facts about the band known as Occurrence. One such thing is that the duo, Ken Urban and Cat Hollyer, live in different states and trade demos via Dropbox; Ken is in Manhattan while Cat is based in Kansas. Another factoid is that Ken is a prolific playwright, and his show Nibbler runs through Mar. 18 at the Rattlestick Playwrights Theater. Cat, meanwhile, writes for Hallmark and has done voices for their greeting cards.
In support of late 2016’s The Past Will Last Forever, Occurrence will re-group for a Manhattan gig at Rockwood Music Hall on Mar. 25. Downtown spoke with both Ken and Cat via e-mail, who offered grouped-together responses to the Q&A. Occurrence can be followed via Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
Occurrence: We met our freshman year in college in 1992. We lived in the same dorm. And we got close when we did a semester abroad in London our senior year. Ken heard Cat sing in a London club and 20 years later we are in a band together.
When it came time to choose your band name, was there any fear that a lot of people wouldn’t be able to spell it correctly with ease?
Occurrence: Ken takes full responsibility for the stupid name. But Cat doesn’t think it’s stupid because she is kind.
Where was the first live gig you ever played in New York? What do you remember about it?
Occurrence: There’s only been one. Due to where we live — Cat lives in Lawrence, Kansas and Ken lives in New York City — we have mostly worked virtually. But after playing live at Rockwood last fall, we realized how much fun it is making music in the same room. So our new record, we will all be in the same room. Johnny is also joining the band as a second vocalist. And it’s all due to our first show.
Occurrence: Ken was there for the whole mixing of the album. It was great to be there in a building where [David] Bowie was recording his last records. It’s so sad that it’s gone. RIP.
Rockwood gig aside, what is coming up for Occurrence?
Occurrence: We are writing and recording new songs in Washington Heights in Ken’s studio, a.k.a. the bedroom.
When not busy with Occurrence, how do you like to spend your free time?
Occurrence: Ken is a playwright and he has a show running in New York, plus new plays next season in Boston and D.C. He is not good at free time. Cat writes for Hallmark and does voiceovers. She has two lovely kids and spends a lot of time hanging out with them.
Derek Oliver began his A&R career with Atlantic Records in the late 1980s. He became Vice President of A&R at Atco Records shortly after and then Senior Vice President of A&R at Elektra Records. His next destination was Roadrunner Records’ A&R department. Notable artists that Derek signed and/or worked with include Pantera, Dream Theater, Mötley Crüe, Metallica, AC/DC, Bad Company, The Cult, and Better Than Ezra.
After leaving Roadrunner in 2007, Derek launched his own record label, Rock Candy Records. While most labels aim to discover new talent, Derek takes a different sort of path with Rock Candy, reissuing titles from other record companies that have since gone out of print. In turn, he has released hundreds of albums, including work from Sammy Hagar, Rick Springfield, Survivor, Quiet Riot, Damn Yankees, Ratt, The Babys, and REO Speedwagon. Upcoming releases include music from Mahogany Rush, Alannah Myles, Dokken, and Bad English.
Downtown caught up with Derek to learn about his music industry journey, which included plenty of years in New York. Rock Candy Records can be visited online at www.rockcandyrecords.com and followed via Facebook.
You worked in A&R at Atco Records, a New York-based label. Is there anything you miss about living and working in New York?
DO: All I miss are my friends and colleagues. New York and London share the same manic pace so the difference is minimal.
DO: It would have to be MSG or the Beacon, of course.
Is there a signing from your Atco days that you are most proud of?
DO: All of them were very precious to me. Of the ones that hit big, I’d say Pantera and Dream Theater. Of the ones that got away, they would be the Mother Station and Jamie Kyle.
What led you to decide to move back to England? Did Rock Candy factor into that?
DO: I felt that I’d run out of track in New York City and there were mitigating circumstances personally that assisted the transition. Rock Candy was always in the back of my mind so yes, in all fairness it was a contributing factor.
What was the first album put out by Rock Candy?
DO: That would be Riot Narita — CANDY001. Oddly, nobody had reissued that record previously. It was a top seller for Rock Candy.
How many titles has Rock Candy put out at this point? Seems like there have been hundreds of releases…
DO: We’re up at about 325 with many more in the pipeline. 2017 will be a great year what with the U.S. expansion and some other projects in the pipeline.
As a reissue label, I’m assuming there’s criteria for what you put out to have had some success beyond being great music. Are there still a lot of titles left to reissue?
DO: If I live to be 150, I still won’t have enough years in me to reach the point where there is nothing left to reissue. There are so many great records in my collection that crashed and burnt and remain hidden from the masses. My mission in life is to shine a spotlight on every single one of them.
Rock Candy has released vinyl titles for the band Angel, but I’m not aware of Rock Candy putting out too many other vinyl releases. What is it about the band Angel that drew you to them?
DO: Angel were a unique band with a brilliant catalogue. They should have been massively-popular but they never broke through despite having everything in place, including an amazing look. Truly one of the greatest loses to mankind as far as I’m concerned.
Rock Candy started up a North American operation back in October. Does that mean that there’s an office in New York? Or you just have a distributor here?
DO: No office. I have consultants and the distributor RED handles all the nuts and bolts. Staying lean and mean is very much the way forward in this day and age.
What’s coming up for Rock Candy in the coming months? Any new releases or merchandise you can talk about?
DO: Well, we are scheduling releases from a number of class acts including Mahogany Rush, Warrant, 707, Creed, Valentine, D’Molls, Alannah Myles, Malice, Shaw Blades, Dokken, REX, Bad English, Bang Tango, King Kobra and a host of others.
When not busy with music, how do you like to spend your free time?
DO: I don’t have any free time. Rock Candy is my life. Building the brand is my main concern. I have no other interests.
Rock Candy aside, do you have a favorite new release of 2016?
DO: New music is pretty much a waste of space. The frontline business, as I knew it, is over — anyone can record in their bedroom and release the tracks online. The majesty and mystery of creating and unleashing new music has been drained to the point where anything that is good is hailed by internet trolls as the second coming. I have no interest in joining in with the great unwashed.
Frankly, I grew up listening to some of the greatest rock music of all time — Little Feat, Steely Dan, Kansas…even the hair-metal was incredible. Early Mötley Crüe, Dokken, Scorpions, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest. They were artists to celebrate. It was a time when great music rose to the top by virtue of originality rather than through digital marketing campaigns.
Finally, Derek, any last words for the kids?
DO: Make every day count and listen to every piece of pre-internet age music you can possible find.
Photo Marti Griffin. L to R is Richard Williams, Billy Greer, David Ragsdale, Ronnie Platt, Phil Ehart, and David Manion
As I write this article, I am almost certain that “Carry On My Wayward Son” is playing on the radio somewhere in the world. Simultaneously, “Dust In The Wind” must also be playing somewhere in the world. And those two songs — featured on 1976’s Leftoverure and 1977’s Point Of Know Return, respectively — are only two of the dozens of hit singles that Kansas has brought unto the world since signing their first record deal in 1973.
Earlier this year, Kansas released their first-ever documentary, Miracles Out Of Nowhere. Miracles — which featured Garth Brooks, Queen’s Brian May, Pearl Jam producer Brendan O’Brien and Rolling Stone‘s David Wild talking about the band’s influence on them — told the little-known story of how a six musicians from small-town Kansas grew from a struggling local band into international superstars. But unlike most rock documentaries, Miracles ends with the group at their peak, never delving into the changes that occurred for Kansas in the 1980s.
As set up with J.R. Rees from Kansas’ management team, I had the opportunity to talk with Kansas guitarist Richard Williams, one of two band members to appear on all of the band’s albums. Richard — who directly answered my call with “this is Rich” — and the rest of Kansas will be making two appearances with the New York metropolitan area this month: October 9th at Westchester’s Tarrytown Music Hall and October 10th at Long Island’s Patchogue Theater.
For those unable to make it to those gigs, Kansas is also scheduled to perform locally in 2016. Already confirmed are gigs at Staten Island’s St. George Theater on April 9th and New Jersey’s Bergen Performing Arts Center on April 30th. After getting Rich’s “last words” during our chat, I asked about the likelihood of a proper New York City gig — the most recent Manhattan appearance was last April at the Concert Hall at the Ethical Cultural Center — which he did his best to answer.
Photo by Mark Schierholz
I really enjoyed the Miracles Out Of Nowhere documentary.Something that I enjoyed about it was that it defied most rock documentary story arcs, where they go from the highs to the lows to the highs to the legacy and so forth. Was this the intention of the band to do a documentary that had a different sort of arc to it?
Richard Williams: Well, yes, for many reasons. With a bunch of guys in bands, “they do bad things, they do stupid stuff, insert band name and it happened.” How many times do we have to hear the same story over and over again? Naughty boys doing naughty things, it’s kind of boring. And it really doesn’t have anything to do with our band — a band makes music, it was about the music of Kansas and how all that happened. Not about everybody just being naughty. And then part two of that was, some of the guys haven’t been in the band for 30 years, they have other lives. They really weren’t interested in airing all of their indiscretions for the world to see, they have families and children. We weren’t interested unless everyone was on-board and it wasn’t going to be a Behind The Music exposé of all our shortcomings…So we’ve always been about the music, and the other stuff has just been background noise and a distraction to that. Once it was understood by all that this is going to be our goals, an inspirational story of us coming from the Midwest.
You said earlier that Kansas has always been all about the music. Was that always the intention, where the band members didn’t wan’t a lot known about their personalities and such?
R: It wasn’t a conscious effort, it was just kind of the way we are. I don’t walk in and go, “Richard Williams from Kansas is here.” Fame was never a goal and was probably the least comfortable part of doing what we do. I’m just a guitar player, I love to play with these guys, I get to travel and play music, it’s fun. That’s just kind of an unfortunate consequence.
So there’s nothing that you wish more people knew about you, like your favorite football team or band?
R: No, not really. I’m just not…I just get up and go about my day. I don’t feel misunderstood…To be put on a pedestal in any way, some people really thrive on that…
Was there a person or band that especially inspired you to not be about the fame?
R: No, living with Midwestern values, I’m loyal to what I do. It’s more of my upbringing than anything, I think. My dad went to work for a company, went to war, came back from the war, went back to work for the company, retired from the company, [he was] married to one woman, even in his retirement he’d been loyal to the company he’d been with for all those years. This is what I do, and so I just go do it. I guess it’s a different mindset, the grass has never been greener for me anywhere else. I’ve found my profession, I enjoy in what I do and I understand how lucky I am to get to do this, and I’m grateful for it. It’s not about me…The examples you’re looking for in a band, it didn’t really come from that, it came from where I grew up.
That makes sense. So if it’s not about the fame and it’s about the music, does Kansas not being in the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame ever bother you?
R: Every year it comes around [and the list of inductees comes out], it’s like, “Wow, really? Seriously?” It’s not so much for that we’re not in it but for some of the choices they do make a lot of times. It’d be great, I’d be honored, but we’re in really good company. Deep Purple’s not in the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, I mean, are you kidding me? That makes no sense to me.
Sure, there’s a long list. Cheap Trick…
R: Oh yeah, we’re in very good company. For my children, for the fans, for our legacy, for my daughter who one day takes her unborn child and shows what their grandfather did, that means something to me. I would be honored…but I don’t require it, it’s not something I’d need to feel better about myself. We’ve done this for 43 years now, I’m quite aware and grateful that our foot’s in the door and we’ve made a mark. I’m good with that.
Looking ahead, I hear that Kansas will have a new album out in 2016…
R: We start recording in January and February.
So the plan is to have it released before the end of 2016?
R: A Fall [2016] release.
I know you haven’t recorded it yet, but is it intended to be more of a classic sound? Or are you trying to go in a different direction in any way?
R: No, we are what we are. We’d be foolish to try and be something other than that.
Although you are who you are, are there any artists today who might have inspired Kansas?
R: In listening, we just become influenced by different production ideas and different approaches to things, you just kind of by osmosis absorb some of these things. But at the end of the day, I play the way I play.
Given all of the changes there have been in the music business over the years, if someone in your family wanted to pursue a career in music, is that something that you would encourage?
R: Well, sure. It can keep you out of trouble, it can get you into a lot of trouble, too. It occupies a lot of time. You can’t just buy a guitar and be a guitar player, you have to dedicate a lot of time and energy into doing that. It’s good for the soul in every way. You learn how to be part of a team and you learn how to work together with people and you get to travel. People need to see beyond their own boundaries. You see people from a little town that never leave it, and the world is very small to them. Travel is good, it makes you more well-rounded and appreciate the differences in people and places. I have nothing but good things to say about playing music and being in a band. Of course you have to watch out for a lot of pitfalls. I’ve been around the block, and I’d tried to drink every town I’ve been in dry until that didn’t work for me anymore. But I learned a lot in the process about me, about life, and about other things. At this stage in my life and in our career, I can just look at where I stand today and look back at this trail and a lot of debris and it makes sense. I’m very happy with where I’m at now, and it needed all of that to get me here.
So looking back at the tough times you had, including the bad contract with Don Kirshner, it was all worth it to get here?
R: Absolutely.
I’m glad to hear you say that. So finally, Rich, any last words for the kids?
R: Don’t be a jerk. If you want to be in a band, leave your attitude at the door, leave your ego behind. Make music with your friends, surround yourself with people like that and you will have a tremendous experience. You might get lucky and actually make a living at it, but if you don’t, you will have had experience that will last a lifetime…The odds are that this isn’t going to work out for you, a lot of luck got me here, but I’m a firm believer that you make your own luck, too. Determined to do what we do, you take the next step and the next step and the next step. Suddenly it’s 43 years later and you look behind and go, “Wow, this been a long ride.” You keep moving forward.
Hopefully we’ll see a New York City gig from Kansas soon. Any idea when there will be one?
R: I’m leaving tomorrow for Panama City, Florida and that’s about as far ahead as we look. (laughs)
