Glenn Hughes of California Breed – Loving life and Living in the Moment

By: Robert Cavuoto

California Breed is a new band soaring like a phoenix, up from the ashes of the disbanded super group, Black Country Communion.

This new trio is made up of legendary vocalist/bassist Glenn Hughes of Deep Purple fame, Jason Bonham, son of Zeppelin’s John Bonham, on drums and 23 year old guitarist and newcomer, Andrew Watt.

Together they are developing an exciting new breed of music with lighter vibe and a fresh outlook designed to inspire a generation!

When Black Country Communion [BCC] disbanded Glenn and Jason wanted to continue playing together. Their only challenge was finding a new guitarist.

Where one door closes a new one always opens and a flourish of new upbeat music pours in like standout tracks “Midnight Oil” with it’s deep grooves and heavy hitting funk. The flip side is a beautiful and soulful ballad with tremendous harmonies; “All Fall Down”.

With producer Dave Cobb, the band decided to recorded the CD live in a studio to craft that unique and magical vibe.

I had an opportunity to speak with Glenn about this fresh new sounding trio and their musical direction.

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Robert Cavuoto: The songs have a great Zeppelin vibe with a modern groove, tell me about the writing for this new CD and if the entire band collaborated or perhaps these songs were stockpiled riffs from BCC?

Glenn Hughes: Let me tell you that every song was written with this new band in mind. There was nothing written before we got together and it was written for a trio. We knew from the very first day with Andrew that we were going to be a trio.

There was never a question that there was going to be keyboard player. That is something that Jason and I wanted to do. I have been trying to get back into a trio for a long time! The things about trios for non-musicians, is that when one person over plays, the other two people have to under play and when two people over play, the other person has to under play. This environment is really hard work.

With BBC, I went back to the Hammond organ like in Deep Purple and that’s great, but for me, rock ‘n roll music for me has always been about guitar, bass, and drums.

This is where I found who I am as a musician. When I start adding people on my albums or in my band it tends to go in a different musical direction. I don’t want to sound like Deep Purple. I was in Deep Purple 40 years ago. With California Breed I didn’t want keyboards.

Robert: Andrew Watt, your new guitarist, is a tremendous talent, where did you meet him and what is his musical background?

Glenn Hughes: I was out in L.A. last year and my dear friend Julian Lennon was having a Grammy party.  I was on my way out the door when Julian said, “Wait, before you go, I want you to meet this guitarist.”

Andrew and I spoke for about a half an hour. He sounded interesting and I asked him to send me some of his music. A few days later he sent me three songs and they were really well written and played. He’s a good singer too. I asked him to come to my home as he was from New York. So, in one afternoon we wrote “Chemical Rain” and “Solo”. The next day we went into the studio with Jason and recorded them.

Robert:  I understand that in the studio you recorded the vocals live, as a band, something that you weren’t accustom too?

Glenn Hughes: Dave Cobb is the greatest rock producer on the planet.  Not just for what he has done for us but with other artists. I had never recorded the vocal as a live band in the studio before, so I said, “I’ll give it a shot.’

We recorded each song twice and when we were done recording I said to Dave “Okay, let me sing the real vocal tracks.”

He said, “You’ve already sung the vocal!” He cut and spliced the best takes together so what you are hearing is the first live Glenn Hughes performance. I’ve always been a big believer of the live song, like when we did the BBC DVD, I love singing live.

Some of the words were in the songs are inaudible, because I couldn’t read the lyric sheets [Laughing]. I knew I was being recorded, but didn’t spend too much time thinking about it at the time. Normally I spend two days in the studio recording vocals a CD. This one took maybe two hours with the band.

Robert:  Tell me about the differences between California Breed and BBC?

Glenn Hughes: The reason I didn’t want keyboards in this band was to be completely different from BCC.

Joe Bonamassa and Andrew are completely different players.  Andrew is has more a psychedelic Angus Young type of player, while Joe is Joe.

I didn’t want anybody to sound like Joe. That would have been ridiculous. Remember now, BCC looked good on paper. We have the two CDs and the DVD; so now where is the tour?

The tour never came about except for those nine shows in America and 33 in Europe. Because Joe didn’t want to tour and that’s okay. That’s was a long time ago. When I started forming California Breed, I set out with the intention of have a guitar player who wanted to go on tour!

Robert:  You and Joe had some words through the press, have you patched things up?

Glenn Hughes: Joe and I never had words, the press was handling it like we anger at one another. I think he was upset with me that I was upset that we weren’t going to tour.

I was hurt that we didn’t tour. The last 15 months of BBC there was no talking at all. I didnt speak to Joe again until the band had broken up. I have nothing but love to say about BBC.

We made wonderful CDs. There is no resentment; it was just the way it was: Joe didn’t want to be in the band and I didn’t want to replace him. So how do we come up with a band that sounds different than BBC; remove the keyboards, find a guitarist that doesn’t sound like Joe, and use a different producer.

Robert:  Speaking of touring, what are your plans?

Glenn Hughes: We have a show in L.A. on May 28^th and in NYC at Gramercy Theater on May 31^st. The prognosis is the CD is being released on May 20^th in the U.S. and then a tour in September.

Robert:  Tell be about the CD cover art.

Glenn Hughes: The cover design is from an amazing painting. It has our logo is in the eye with the black palm trees and the pupil is the sun. Where BBC was very dark and industrial, California Breed is palm trees, magentas, oranges, purples and white. It’s a different smelling and tasting look than BCC. I’m fiercely proud and protective of what I did in BCC. I’ve always committed to never making the same album twice. California Breed is a very “now moment”. I live in the now.

Robert:  You have been in so many big bands in your career, what are some of the key elements for success when working in them?

Glenn Hughes: I’ll tell you right now, I have a really good description for that.

I have been doing this for 45 years, sometimes very successfully and sometimes not. Sometimes drunk, sometimes high, and sometimes sober [Laughing]. What I have learned from every group up to this point in my life is to learn from my mistakes, my expectations, my fears, and my love.

I try to be careful of the seven deadly sins, I don’t want to live a life of fear and have no expectations. I live in the moment! I shoot to midnight. I have a great manager, a great promotional team, and great people that I work with. The rest is history.

I really and truly don’t live in nostalgia of what I sold or didn’t sell. I’m talking to you right now and I don’t know what is going to happen 5 minutes, hopefully everything is going to be okay. I’m a very in the moment person, entertainer, performer, and singer