Chatting with Todd Mosby about ‘American Heartland’

Welcome to the latest episode of Harmonious World, where I interview musicians about how their music helps make the world more harmonious.

I first spoke to Todd Mosby in April 2021 and I was delighted to hear his latest album - American Heartland when it was released a few weeks ago.

Thanks to Todd for allowing me to play extracts from American Heartland alongside our conversation.

Thank you for listening to Harmonious World. Please rate, review and share: click on the link and subscribe to support the show.

Don't forget the Quincy Jones quote that sums up why I do this: "Imagine what a harmonious world it would be if every single person, both young and old, shared a little of what he is good at doing."

Transcript

Hilary 0:48

Hello, and welcome to the latest episode of Harmonious World. My name is Hilary Seabrook. And for this episode, I'm absolutely delighted to be joined by Todd Mosby, who I actually interviewed five years ago. April 2021. So Todd's got a new album out, it's called American Heartland, and what you're listening to now is Clouds Above Golden Fields. This is gorgeous. And I'm really looking forward to talking to Todd about this new album. So welcome to Harmonious World. Todd Moseb. This is the second time we've had a conversation, and I'm absolutely delighted to be talking about American Heartland, which came out a few weeks ago. And it's a very, very interesting sound you've got and the people you've got on it and everything. So there's lots to talk about.

Todd Mosby 1:55

Absolutely. Thanks for having me, Hilary. I really appreciate it and I appreciate your support.

Hilary 2:01

No problem. So, first of all, let's start by so we had a little chat before, and I said that it was very difficult to put you in a box in terms of your music. So it's contemporary, but that doesn't make it pop. It's it's got all sorts of jazz and I I mean it's pop in the broadest sense of the word, and it's it's popular music. Yeah, where does that come from?

Todd Mosby 2:27

Um I think it's probably because I don't have any um kind of uh a record company kind of saying you have to do this in this way. Yeah, let me put it this way. I've I've kind of got my own free reign in what I do. You know, I'm totally self-supported, self-suffunding. So with that comes, you know, a lot of freedom, but you know, it's a little bit harder financially, but still I I can kind of stick to my own way of doing things, my own way of hearing things without having to answer to anybody else. Um I don't really write for an audience. If it what what happens is if it sounds good to me and I'm enjoying writing it, then hopefully that will transfer over into others. And my background is pretty broad at this point in my life.

Hilary 3:18

Yeah, and it's it's sort of it's guitar-based, isn't it?

Todd Mosby 3:23

Yep.

Hilary 3:24

But you've got so much else going on.

Todd Mosby 3:27

I've got well, uh part of my train early training was yeah, Berkeley College of Music, and I wound up studying arranging there, and then later on, around 2013, I wound up doing some more uh studying and getting a master's in composition. So I was able, you know, I can handle the instrumentation and the instruments. I can handle just about any w style and way of recording as well. This particular album required me to chart out all the uh instruments, um, all the arrangements, yeah, write the music and do the arrangements on it so I could hand the parts out to the studio musicians, which uh is actually a world-class set of musicians I have on here.

Hilary 4:10

Oh, it certainly is. I mean, you've got some really, you know, they've all worked with everybody who's anybody, haven't they?

Todd Mosby 4:18

They have. That's part of uh Jeffrey Weber, who's the producer, one of the producer roles is actually to for me is a big thing is song selection because by the time you get done recording an album, it's uh going to have to go through numerous listens. I mean thousands. And you better not be bored with it. So uh usually, you know, if it excites me and excites the producer, you know, the tune, and then when I hit the arrangement, you know, if it still carries through there, then hopefully that'll carry through to the musicians. The musicians on this were uh uh Vinny Calliudi, Tom Scott, Leland Sklar, Michael Manring, uh Dappo Tormino on piano, Luis uh Conte on percussion, first time I worked with him, amazing, amazing person and percussionist. Um these are all Lola Christine on vocals, Laura Vall on vocals. I had a three-horn section going on um with Nick Lane. He's actually I think he's with Chicago right now, touring one of the trombone players, got sick, so uh he's out with them. Um who else? Uh Dan Ferrente, amazing trumpet player. Um and then uh I had French Horn on there, John Dixon, and uh Tom Scott was on Sacks. Yeah, yeah. And Tom actu He actually did one of the arrangements, I which was I'm very, very happy and pleased with.

Hilary 5:49

Wow. I mean Tom Scott's a big name, isn't he?

Todd Mosby 5:51

So Tom Scott's a very big name. He's been around uh I mean I think he's done more movie scores than he has on credits to tell you the truth.

Hilary 6:00

Yeah.

Todd Mosby 6:00

He even did Roger Rabbit, if you I don't know if you remember that movie.

Hilary 6:04

Yeah, of course.

Todd Mosby 6:05

I mean that I mean he wrote the theme to Star Ski and Hutch. I mean uh he did all of uh you know Steely Dan's Asia horn parts, he did Joni Mitchell's uh, you know, um Court and Spark album, The Horns and the Flutes on there, I think. Uh anyway, so he he's very huge and I felt personally, you know, if it because he was on my last project as well, the same crew was as well, uh bass drama. Well, I had a different blaze player, but um pretty much the same crew. And again, produced by Jeff Weber, he's got a list of credits. So but Tom, I asked him to uh I told Jeff I said, look, as long as we've got Tom on this project, we might as well. I said, wouldn't it be awesome if he could like write an arrangement and you know just to have that in my catalog at Tom Scott arrangements?

Hilary 6:58

Oh absolutely.

Todd Mosby 6:59

And uh Tom said, Yeah. So and he actually had fun with it. Um we got the arrangement about, you know, actually as soon as it hit the studio, maybe a day before, but um so we were all able to work up the parts in the studio and it was it was a lot of fun and um you know it he's so great. He did the arrangement on Land of Green and he has actually paid tribute. Can I give you a backstory on that? Please, yeah. And then I'll I'll stop and let you talk some more. Um he did the he uh started writing the horn parts. I go, Tom, that sounds like you know, Oliver Nelson, you know. Uh on on the background lines on uh uh Land of Green, and he goes, Yeah, Oliver Nelson was my favorite, one of my heroes. I knew him, blah, blah, blah. Well, Oliver was from St. Louis, and I used to play with his niece, who's a bass player in town. She probably still plays, I haven't seen her in a long time. But um, anyway, so I just thought that that whole thing was just such a beautiful uh you know tribute to Land of Green, which is what I call Missouri in the summertime. It's it is so green here. You would I hope if you have allergies, this is probably not the place to be, but it is like one of the most greenest places I've ever seen in full variety of greens, too.

Hilary 8:18

At this point, I'm gonna play a clip from that because it's such a great, it's a lovely track. So when did you write these pieces? I mean, how how long do they go back?

Todd Mosby 9:54

I I usually it usually takes me about three years to complete a project. Uh I got done with the last albums project in about 23. So it was about 25 I reached out to Jeff again. Twenty-four I reached out to him about another project. And usually I acquire about anywhere from a hundred to five hundred snippets of ideas that I, you know, just put on my little tape cassette, uh my little digital tape recorder, just a handheld. And I'll I'll just write sketch ideas. Sometimes they're full idea finished ideas, but long story short, I would say uh it takes me about once I get together with Jeff, I'll present him with about 30 ideas that I want to work on, and then we hone it down to maybe t 12 or so, and then from there uh I start um writing. Sometimes it requires writing new music, uh, you know, at that time. Well, we need something to fill out this kind of set on the album. But uh by that time I have the album concept together and I definitely work in concepts. I like when I do an album, I like having a central theme going through. Because then I can tie the titles and everything else in. So uh it probably takes the writing process is actually very quick, the song. So sometimes I can f finish it in a thought, sometimes it requires a little bit more time you know, to sketch out and work, hammer out like melodic ideas that make sense to me. But um so I would say, you know, pretty quickly, then the arrangements come, you know, I think I did the arrangements in about two months. Um and then I wrote the parts, which is another part of the arrangement process, and you correct things and you know, hammer things out more than and you know, and it's uh that's a process, but I would say all in all, maybe about a year um from from getting together with Jeff, getting the songs together, writing them, arranging them, and then uh we the next year we present in the studio. So for this particular one, I got together with him in May of 25. We did the studio date in August. So actually that process went a little bit quicker. And then we have another year of promotions.

Hilary 12:18

Yeah. It's really interesting because it does feel like a collection of tunes that belong together. Sometimes I uh you know, I talk to artists about albums where they kind of go, Oh yeah, I wrote one ten years ago and one came like which is which is fine because it shows a different it's a different process, but this very much feels like a collection that that sits together really nicely.

Todd Mosby 12:44

Yes, and I also did two uh cover tunes, if you want to call it that, but my arrangements of them, which was uh Wichita Linemen and Um Both Sides Now, Wichita Linemen by Jimmy Webb, Both Sides Now by uh Joni Mitchell. And to me, uh growing up in Missouri, these were very characteristic of uh an era and a time that I grew up, you know, half my life was kind of spent on a farm because my parent my dad had a working farm, you know, out in the rural areas, horses, cattle, you name it, chickens, and um but then I I went to school in St. Louis.

Hilary 13:28

Right. Right. So what about performing this album? Are you taking it out on the road?

Todd Mosby 13:35

Um, I would love to. Right now I do love performing, and I'm actually gonna be doing a performance May 29th of this album. We're starting to rehearse it now, and I'm starting I've been writing charts in the uh zone, you know, that would fit for a quartet. Because, you know, you write for studio band, this is for live performance, a little bit different animal, yeah. So and a little bit different, you know, bass instrumentation, rhythm section's still there, but I can't travel with the horn section, although I'd love to.

Hilary 14:05

Yeah.

Todd Mosby 14:05

But um, yeah.

Hilary 14:07

But I I quite like that anyway, because I I uh the there's something a little disappointing, I think, if you go to a gig and it's exactly the same as the album, and it's a bit like, well, I could have stayed at home and listened to the album, you know, if there's nothing different, it's nothing new. So I quite like when it's a completely different uh uh orchestration. Um, and usually, I mean that's a it's a financial consideration, obviously, but and logistical, because it's about traveling around with 12 people or something is very difficult. But I I th I still think it it allows the songs to develop in a different way.

Todd Mosby 14:45

Hilary, that's absolutely correct. Um, and and that's how you know when I write, that's you know, I write for recordings and then I write for live performance because it is so different. Um, what that means is a recorded piece of music, this is just my concept, and I think a few a few others as well, you know, once it's embedded in uh a medium, it just it stays there, it never changes, it's just keeps going back and forth, you know, over and over again. So the information has to be something that you know a listener can actually listen to over a numerous times and still get some depth out of it. Again, that's where a really good producer will come in handy.

Hilary 15:26

Right.

Todd Mosby 15:27

Um uh also a producer will give you, you know, I ha you have access to a stable of musicians. But when you start writing, then when you start performing live, okay, so now all of a sudden it doesn't have to be like three and a half minutes or you can act you can actually crack open the song and really like show an audience, hey man, this is like really cool. Like check out this rhythm, you know, on this piece right here. And then uh because that's where you really show the audience what what you really want to show them in a tune and and get down to the hardcore nuts and bolts of what the music really is. Um, and that's something you'll never get from uh you know a recording. And you should, you know, it's a whole like I said, it's a whole different animal. But then also a live performance has a certain arc to it, so you can really engage an audience. Um, you know, it can't be that you know, if you go to, you know, it's not like the same tempo all the way through. You know, you have moments, and and when I put together a live show, actually I I I work a lot of like special moments in. So I take a listener and an audience through a whole arc. Um, I I got training with uh Tom Jackson out of Nashville, and I I used to run a lot of my live performances through him, and I still do, you know, every now and then, especially like my solo stuff, I'll run through him and we'll put together a beautiful site. The guy's a master, he's a mu live music producer, and he's a master at putting concerts on together for you, you know, breaking open tunes, even showing you know audience participation stuff, you know, it's it's really a lot of fun.

Hilary 17:04

Yeah, there's I think I think there are I I as I say, I review a lot of albums, I review a lot of gigs, I play a lot of stuff, and you know, there's nothing worse when than going to a gig and everything's up at this level, everything's up here and it stays up here all the time. And even when they do a ballad, they're still up here. You know, it's like take it down and then bring it back up again, you know.

Todd Mosby 17:29

Absolutely. Well, you know, and especially for a new audience, there's kind of like a system, you know. Essentially, first two tunes are intro tunes, and yeah, it's like you go into a restaurant or something, you know. You you don't want the same thing. First, you have the first meal, you know, it's like a appetizer, then maybe a salad of drinks, you know. It kinda so yeah, there's different moods, and again, it's a musical arc. So uh, you know, there's a very high-level moment that you know hits maybe around song six or so. Um and then you just drop it down to a really nice uh pin drop moment where you know you bring the audience in. I usually I'll do like a solo guitar piece or break down the instrumentation for just uh guitar and and piano or something like that. Um and then then you build it back up, you know, for the like the closer of that set, or you know, if it's like a 90-minute set or a 45-minute set. Usually I do a 90-minute concert. So so it's built around that and each song, you know, engages at a different level, the different tempo. Like the first two would be like kind of you know, mid-drive, mid-level tunes, you know, you're introducing yourself. Third tune would be like a radio hit tune, fourth and fifth tune would be like, you know, you can stretch those out a little bit, you can really like crack open, let the drummer go wild, or you know, or have a really like meditative section, you know. Sixth tune, really up, you know, kind of audience participation thing, seventh to eighth tune, you drop it for the pin drop. Nine is like the closer, ten would be like an encore, and the closer generally starts very long, you know, slow and then builds out to really big end, and then you have an encore, you know. Yeah, you're trying to sell merge.

Hilary 19:16

Yeah, no, absolutely.

Todd Mosby 19:19

Hopefully they'll have a by that time, you know, they'll have a very nice uh you'll you'll have taken them through a very nice arc. Um, so it's not the same all the time.

Hilary 19:27

No, absolutely. Well, when we spoke originally, it was the beginning of 2021 when we were well, we thought we were coming out of the pandemic and then we went back in and all sorts of things. But uh I can remember us having a conversation about you know coming to the UK and obviously, I mean that was a million miles away. But how how is that looking now? Do you think you're gonna bring your band or even a quartet or something over to the UK?

Todd Mosby 19:53

Um, that that requires uh having um an infrastructure um in place, which at this moment and time is just not there. Uh I I was working performing art centers, uh, my agent retired. Um, but honestly, I'm focusing now on recording. I've got um but I well I've got like three recording, two recording projects in the irons right now for this year, and then possibly a third one. Uh then the next major recording I have will be in about two years with Jeff again out in Los Angeles. But uh I'm working with a Hammer Dulcimer player out of Tucson and then a uh a classical North Indian singer, uh actually out of St. Louis.

Hilary 20:38

Oh wow.

Todd Mosby 20:39

Um and we're up I'm working with them producing an album or creating works for albums for them. So I'll be clo collaborating with them and then I'll have my own project out next year. But I would I love I love touring. I mean I love performance. That's like even if it's just uh to me, the ultimate performance is solo guitar.

Hilary 20:58

Yeah.

Todd Mosby 20:59

And the reason that is it's just me and my instrument. You know, you want to find out what a musician can do, sit down, you know, don't don't play a record for me, sit down and play for me. And uh Imrak Khan told me that once. He was my uh guru G. And he said, Todd, you know, I people come and leave me all their records and stuff and to listen to. I said, I don't want to listen to those, I just want to hear them play. Sit down and play for me, then tell me, you know, then I'll you know, like that.

Hilary 21:28

Yeah.

Todd Mosby 21:28

Um and and honestly, there's a lot there because you know, now you're communicating one-on-one with an audience. And uh I love performing solo acoustic.

Hilary 21:37

Yeah.

Todd Mosby 21:38

But anyway, and solo Indian on my in Imrat guitar.

Hilary 21:41

Right.

Todd Mosby 21:42

Uh I would love to. Yeah. You know, h hook me up, man. Oh absolutely. I've got a band in St. Louis I could take 'em. We're we're uh we're rehearsing right now. I'm getting a nice set together you of this album and then uh some new ones I wrote. Um it's a lot of fun.

Hilary 21:57

Right. Well, I'll make sure that people get to listen to this. And you know, I'll point them to your music and then we'll see what happens. Who knows?

Todd Mosby 22:05

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That sounds good.

Hilary 22:07

Yeah.

Todd Mosby 22:07

Yeah. There's a wh actually there's a lot of work help out there, AI help and a lot of help now that I just came across recently. So maybe um, you know, I'll I'll find some locations because I'm I'm just now s I I'm so busy with this other stuff, but you know, that's definitely like on the immediate back burner to get into Yeah, there are some great venues in the UK.

Hilary 22:30

Honestly, there are some brilliant venues.

Todd Mosby 22:32

So, you know, when you like around you, yeah.

Hilary 22:36

Yeah, sort of in the in the sort of Cambridge Lond between London and Cambridge and then across both sides of the motorways that run north-south, and you know, there's there's loads, so you can do quite a lot, you know. So even if it was just you with a song with a guitar, that would be amazing.

Todd Mosby 22:55

Okay. Well, I'll I'll look into it. My wife grew up in England for at least about five years of her life, you know. Very impressionable. She loves London and and that area, and uh she w maybe I could uh last how her into booking me some gigs there. Yeah.

Hilary 23:10

Well, the thing to do is to look at my so I do I review gigs, so on my website you can see the venues that I've been to. So that all she needs to do is look at those venues and uh check them out.

Todd Mosby 23:22

Awesome, awesome. Yeah. Okay, that sounds great. That sounds well thank you. Okay, I'll definitely follow that.

Hilary 23:27

Brilliant. Well, hopefully we'll meet in person at some point, one side of the pond or the other.

Todd Mosby 23:33

That'd be awesome.

Hilary 24:03

So, thank you for joining me for that episode of Harmonious World. It was such a joy to speak to Todd again. And what you're listening to now is all the stars tonight. He's a it's really interesting hearing him talk about the process he goes through in terms of having ideas and then developing them once he's got rid of the ones that aren't gonna work. So, I hope you enjoyed listening to my conversation with Todd Mosby and and I really hope you have a very, very good week. Thanks for joining me once more on Harmonious World.