Stuart Smith of Heaven & Earth – Dig

By: Robert Cavuoto

Taking up from where iconic bands like Deep Purple and Bad Company have left off, Heaven & Earth is on a mission to resurrect the sanctity of classic rock to its purest, most accessible form.

Fusing together elements of hard rock, blues and even bits of classical, Heaven & Earth create a potent blend of high-powered anthems, melodic rockers and introspective ballads that evoke the spirit of a magical era.

Tapping into the methodology and madness of old-school rock with a new-school attitude, Heaven & Earth are shaking their classic rock roots down to the very core on their newest effort, Dig, scheduled for release on April 23^rd .

If this wasn’t enough, guitarist Richie Sambora of Bon Jovi, singer and bassist Glenn Hughes of Deep Purple, and drummer Camine Appice have each contributed their extraordinary talents to the music of Heaven & Earth.

I had the chance to speak with guitarist Stuart Smith about Heaven & Earth’s, Dig,   how it got off the ground and his friendship with Richie Blackmore!

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Robert Cavuoto: I really enjoyed Dig, it’s something musically that’s been missing for a long time from the heavy metal and hard rock scene.

Stuart Smith: I’m glad you like it. That’s sort of what we’re trying to do, get rock and roll back to the forefront. I’m so sick and tired of rap and Justin Bieber and all this crap that’s out there at the moment. That’s the idea of this album; we’ve got financial backing with Quarto Valley Records to really give this a good push.

One of the things Bruce Quarto said to us for this CD, “No matter how long it takes or how much it costs, if you go in the studio and you record something and you come out the next day and think you could have done better, go in and do it again.” That’s a dangerous thing to say to musicians like us. We’re never satisfied.

Robert: I really like the “Back in Anger” and “Man and Machine”, with the heavy keyboards. Very reminiscent of Rainbow and Deep Purple, yet modern sounding.

Stuart Smith: You are the first person I’ve talked to outside the circle of the band that’s heard the CD, apart from some single young ladies that have been ‘round my house [Laughing].

Robert: Tell me a little bit about how the band was formed, and how you picked the members of the band.

Stuart Smith: I had two albums out there. The first one was more of a solo CD, as I didn’t have a band at the time. We got a deal with the second one from Frontiers Records with Kelly Keeling singing on it, but there were too many problems with him.

Then we went out with Kelly Hansen [Foreigner and XYZ], and we just started to break in the State when Kelly got the offer from Foreigner. I could never really find anyone suitable to fill his shoes.

After playing with Sweet, I got the offer from Bruce Quarto from Quarto Valley Records to do another Heaven & Earth album. I immediately brought in Ritchie Onori [drums] and Joe Retta [vocal], an amazing singer like a young Paul Rodgers. He hasn’t been around the circuit or been on every album out there. He has a very fresh voice.

Then I brought in Chuck Wright on bass. Chuck is a great writing partner. We brought in Arlen Schierbaum on keys. Arlen was on the first and second albums. He’s an amazing keyboard player. So it was pretty easy, putting the band together. The next step, of course, was writing the songs.

Robert: I don’t think you could have found anybody better for what you were trying to accomplish than with Arlen on keyboard. He was a perfect partner for your guitar playing and the style of music.

Stuart Smith: He really is amazing. Arlen adds flavors with the keyboard and has ideas as well. Between him and Chuck Wright, there were a lot of ideas coming in the actual musical sense.

Robert: Tell me about the writing process and how your ideas come to life.

Stuart Smith: Joe sold his house in Ventura [California], so he was looking for somewhere to live. I said, “Look, why not move in here because we can all live together?”

And that turned out to be a godsend. I threw riffs and titles out to Joe, and then we would develop the song. We’d come back to the house and listen to recordings. Take it back, change this, change that, until we were happy with the musical arrangement. At that point, Joe would start with the lyrics.

Ritchie, Chuck, and Arlen each had a things going on while were doing this. One would be there but we would be missing the other. So, Joe and I sat down and said, “Look, we’ve really got to write this ourselves.”

At that point we did, coming up with most of the songs. Once we got into the studio with the guys, everyone would help refine it.

When we were writing in the studio I’d throw out the riff and everyone would join in. We’d start jamming on that riff, then slowly people would wander off in another direction and we’d all follow it. Eventually, the song would take shape that way.

Robert: There’s a lot of raw emotion on this CD.

Stuart Smith: During the time that Joe moved in I’d just been through a hellish breakup. I was angry, pissed off, and depressed. He comes into the house and I said, “Here’s the first song. It’s called “’Back in Anger.’” He said, “I’m not angry.” I said, “I don’t care, just look at this on the news.

Here’s Wall Street getting away with this and that … aren’t you angry? Kids starving and these people paying lawyers to get them off of the charges?” He said, “Yeah, I am angry.”

Howard Leese is a great friend and was a guest on the album. He did the sequencing for us. He said we should just lay it out on the album the way it was written because it’s very uplifting that way. He starts off with “Victorious,” which is all about fighting. Then “No Money, No Love,” “I Don’t Know What Love Is.” Then “House of Blues,” “Waiting for the End of the World”.

Halfway through writing the album, music heals you. I said to Joe, on our hikes in the morning, “We should have a song like ‘Long Live Rock and Roll,’” A song where society hasn’t saved you, your church hasn’t saved you, but rock and roll did. That was the point where the album turns, and we had the other songs like “A Day Like Today” “Good Times” “Rock and Roll Does” and all that kind of thing.

Robert: Where do you pull your inspiration from?

Stuart Smith: Generally I just sit on my couch with the television on and the sound off. I just put my own soundtrack to the movie. If there’s a horserace, a car chase, I’m playing something fast. If there’s a sad scene, I’m playing something bluesy. It’s just really letting my mind wander.

You just let it wander and see where it goes and what comes out. Generally, I just play until what comes out makes me say, “I like that.” Then he’d put down a drumbeat. I’d play along with it and put bass on it. Joe would start building it from there. Then we’d throw it at the band and see what they came up with.

Robert: What I enjoyed the most about the CD was its diversity.

Stuart Smith: That’s the main thing about us. We’ve always been known for this diversity. Pat Reagan produced the first album, he said, “No one is going to buy this; it’s too diverse.”

And the press said, “We love it. It’s so diverse,” which for me is what it’s all about.

It’s how I grew up. You’d have bands like Deep Purple or Led Zepplin and they’ve got a country and western song or a blues song. Zeppelin would put on a reggae song, a Jamaican feel, an acoustic-flavored song. That was important to me.

I’ve always grown up with that. Nearly every album I hear today, it seems like the same song but in a different key – one pace, one dynamic. I love the diversity.

Robert: The song that’s stuck in my head is, “No Money, No Love.”

Stuart Smith: That was our first single and video. The manager on the team took it to the person who has to sell the video. She said, “I can’t do a thing with this. In all my years of doing video, I’ve never seen anything as racy and sexual.

We go the extra mile on the David Lynch take. We’re going to put it out on YouTube anyway. It could go viral because that sort of thing is banned from television already. So, we’re going to do a softer version.

Robert: Tell me about the friendship between you and your mentor Ritchie Blackmore.

Stuart Smith: Deep Purple was what turned me onto rock and roll. I’d be at every Deep Purple concert there ever was. The first time I met Richie was at a party that was held for the band at someone’s house.

I met Ritchie there and we got on very well. We were both into classical music and javelin sports and shared an interest in ghost hunting and psychic things. So, we sort of made friends and when he came over to England on tour in 1983, England was into dark music period. England is so small that if you don’t play the sort of music that’s in fashion, you starve.

He’d just had a hit with “I Surrender,” and said to me, “Come over to the States. It’s so big that even if you’re not in fashion, there are still plenty of places to play.” So I packed up my stuff and moved to Long Island, got my own place out there and put a band together. Ritchie would help out; he’d come and play with us.

We’d work out four, five, six songs with Ritchie and we’d sell out thousand-seaters with him as our guest. It was a great way to get the band started out.

When I moved to Los Angeles, every Christmas I would fly back and stay with Ritchie. We’d play Christmas carols together, which is incredibly hard because you’re changing chords with every syllable. It sounds easy, but it really is not. He actually played the lead and the bass line, he’s finger picking.

We’d do this every year. A lot of what he told me was more his approach to the guitar, his mentality behind it. There’s so much he gave me in that sense. I consider him one of the best friends of my life.

Robert: You had a great guitar tone on the album. How much comes from touch and how much comes from your instruments and your amps?

Stuart Smith: That’s a hard question to answer. I used various, different amps on this record. I think it would sound the same on anything.

I remembered the solo at the end of “I Surrender.” It really sounded like the guitar was just singing. I said to Ritchie, “Is there a Phase or Chorus on this?” He said, “No, that’s coming from inside the player.” When he said that, it suddenly all made sense to me. It’s everything you’ve experienced.

Dave Jenkins, our producer, was instrumental in getting the tones. I’ve got an old Marshall Major of Ritchie’s, a 200 watt which was souped up. It’s lethal.

I’ve got a Lee Jackson modified Marshall 50 watt, which I bought from Howard Leese [Heart]. And my regular Marshall, a Kasha, and a Albion which is Ritchie Onori’s company. I bought one of the brand new AC30s with the Alnico speakers for this album.

We actually used it in the studio on “No Money, No Love.” It’s such a great sound. I used it in conjunction with other amps, depending on the song and the placement of the frequencies, they would have me use a combination of, the Marshall Major and the Lee Jackson modified Marshall or the Marshall Major with the Albion.

The only amp that was used exclusively on one track is “House of Blues,” which was the AC30. I would just plug straight into that with maximum overdrive. I just cranked it, and that’s how we got the sound. Every other sound on the album is mainly a mixture of two amps miked up together, two amps to get the sound.

Most of my guitar solos; I’ve done on the Marshall Major. It has so much bottom end. It has 600 volts across the grid that really kicks the speakers hard. I use that in conjunction with the 50 watt, Lee Jackson modified Marshall. That gives a very strong sustain.

You mix them together and put them in the mix wherever … you don’t pan them from side to side because one side will sound real bassy and clear and the other side will sound thin and sustaining. Wherever I am in the mix, you put them together on the solos. Generally, those are the amps I use.

Robert: What guitars did you use?

Stuart Smith: My ’78 Strat and a Les Paul. I have a Telecaster for the rhythm. Normally I use a Strat for the whole album, so it’s the first time I’ve used other guitars.

All my solos were on the Strat, except “A Day Like Today,” which I used a Les Paul.

Robert: When can we see you guys on tour?

Stuart Smith: At the moment there are a couple of possibilities. We start rehearsal on the 18^th of February. I know we’re planning a showcase, probably at the Key Club, for the agents. The record company may just buy us onto a tour. You can make any crap famous or successful if you put enough money behind it. It’s not like Nicki Minaj gets there on her stunning talent!

I get disappointed because the bigger bands just throw songs together, sort of like fulfilling a contract. But they really don’t take the time to craft the song. So it doesn’t really matter how well they play guitar. It’s down to the singer and the song. If you’ve got a good singer and a good song, you’ve got a better chance.

We really have the time to concentrate on nothing but crafting the song. We all owe that to Bruce Quarto. He was just amazing. He really 100% believed in the project.

We were lucky enough to have him, to just take our time and put everything under a magnifying glass, and say, “Is this what we want to say?”

There is something, a track on the album, that everyone can relate to.