Hazelrigg Brothers
DTC- Interesting in-depth bio and experiences. How did you decide to base yourself in Doylestown?
George and Geoff - We lived in the DC metro area for many years, but had been working with artists in Philadelphia for a while and decided to find a home base near there. Doylestown is a good central location for us. It’s only a couple hours drive to many of the major cities we visit yearly.
DTC - Do you do public appearances and, when you do, where and what kind of venues do you do?
George and Geoff - We’re currently working on booking jazz clubs and festivals across the US. Our record has received significant national radio coverage.
DTC- Is “Songs We Like” your first for the trio?
George and Geoff - Songs We Like is our first album with John as our drummer. We’ve recorded a number of projects over the past 20 years with different instrumentation/players, but this is our first album where felt like we achieved what we wanted.
DTC - There is a very obvious simpatico between you guys. I enjoy the ‘less is more’ approach to your arrangements. How did you come across Mr. O’Reilly (drummer, who in my opinion has the perfect touch for what you do)?
George and Geoff - We met John at the Sunday night jam session at the Penn Taproom. He’s an in-demand session drummer who moved to Doylestown to raise his kids. We hired him on short notice for a gig and knew immediately that he was a good fit for us.
DTC- For me, one of the most recognizable musician you've work with is Kim Waters, a Smooth Jazz icon. How did that come about?
George and Geoff -We got involved in the DC/Baltimore scene in the mid 1990s and wound up collaborating with the Grainger brothers (Gary and Greg, who are currently playing with Acoustic Alchemy). Through them we have worked with Kim Waters, Maysa Leak, and Slim Man. We also wrote and produced two records for trumpeter Jimmy Wilson, and subsequently worked with a lot of heavy players from down there like Dennis Chambers, Chester Thompson, Scott Ambush (from Spyro Gyra), and Gary Thomas.
DTC- Taking Pop songs and putting them in to a jazz format is not a new concept. What makes your arrangements different?
George and Geoff - We never set out to specifically play rock tunes. We just play repertoire that we like, (rock, classical, or anything) for whatever reason that it might resonate with us. Our goal is to perfect a group aesthetic.
DTC- Where do you want to take your music and do you foresee any variation in its style?
George and Geoff - We’re constantly expanding our repertoire. We don’t limit ourselves to any particular genre when choosing material. We play pieces that are hundreds of years old, and we play pieces that were never intended to be played with our instrumentation. We don’t find a great difference in any of it.
DTC- Your recording of Songs We Like is an audio accomplishment, as crisp as if the listener is right in the room. How did you decide to record this way and who is your engineer?
George and Geoff - The engineering method is something we’ve developed over the course of our 20 years of doing production and engineering. We do all the engineering ourselves, though for Songs We Like, we got a couple of friends involved. We tracked the album ourselves in our home studio and got Jon Castelli to mix it and Dale Becker to master it. Jon is an up-and-coming engineer/producer in LA. He’s mixed some huge hits, like Ke$ha’s Praying and the latest Macklemore record.
We also got into building our own audio equipment, which is how we ultimately ended up owning D.W. Fearn. Most musicians don’t realize the importance of signal path when recording – that it can make the difference between a recording that people will or will not enjoy listening to. If your album doesn’t sound good, no one will listen to it no matter how good the material or performances are.
DTC- How will you approach your next album?
George and Geoff - We’ve actually recorded a couple of things since releasing Songs We Like. We have a 4 song EP, which is available exclusively on Blue Coast Music. It’s similar material, recorded in the same way. We’ve already begun working on our next album, which we hope to have out by the end of this year. In the past when we’ve decided to make a new record, we have dedicated a lot of energy to improving the things that we felt could make our sound better. Songs We Like got so many overwhelmingly positive reviews about the sound quality that we decided not to change anything for this next record.
DTC - If you could work with any name artist who would you want to work with most?
George and Geoff - Sting.
DTC - Hey Thanx guy’s for a very interesting conversation, The Drivetime Chronicles wishes you much success.
For more info and links to The Hazelrigg Bros http://hazelriggbrothers.com/wp/
