BIO - Information on Now Peter Framptons latest album:
"This is a very selfish album," says Peter Frampton. "It's me, doing what I want to do, for the first time in nine years."
Sometimes we benefit from selfishness, and so it is with NOW. The title as well as the substance of this new album, scheduled for release August 26 on Framptone Records/33rd Street Records,
proves that an artist who has already touched the sky can climb higher still when given the controls.
When we spoke with the guitarist/singer/songwriter, he was deep into this latest journey. Several tracks had just been finished. Each of these is, in its own way, a glorious premonition: From the
delicate intimacy of "Not Forgotten" through the raw and vivid imagery of "Hour of Need" and on to the album's single cover, a soaring flight through "While My Guitar Gently Weeps," NOW
emerges as a supreme fusion of technique and emotion. Like the best of Framptonand the best is as good as it getsNOW is music for the ages, and for this very moment as well.
The key, Frampton insists, lies in his decision to set the bar higher than he ever has before. Speaking from his home in Cincinnati, with rough mixes of upcoming tracks wailing in the background,
he describes the difference between NOW and the best of his previous projects: "It's all about the material, about choosing the stuff that feels like me. As a writer, a player, and a singer, I can fit
like a glove into everything on NOW. I feel very close to them in every way."
This was the challenge when he began conceiving NOW some two years ago. Realizing that he needed total command of the album from day one, Frampton began by assembling the elements
of a new home studio in Nashville shortly before he and his family relocated to Cincinnati. Once they settled into their new place, he stepped up the process until a state-of-the-art facility was
ready to roll in his basement.
"For the first time in my life, I was completely self-contained," he says. "I've had my own studios before, but never one that I could use for everything, from writing to mixing. It was obviously a
major outlay, but I knew it was something I had to do, so that I could be in charge of making a record how and whenever I want."
The next step was to get the songs together. Though a few date back as far as four years, most were written with this album in mind. Working alone or with Gordon Kennedy, Wayne Kirkpatrick, his
longtime keyboardist Bob Mayo, and other collaborators, Frampton put together a long list of material -- and then began paring it down to the best of the best.
How did the final songs make the cut? "It's very difficult for me to explain," he admits. "For every song, it takes a while to get it to sound how you want. But with some of them, you can almost feel
them take off as you're writing. In the past it was always, 'Okay, I've got eleven songs. Let's cut them all and use ten.' That wasn't the case with NOW; I was much more careful about what I decided
to use. It took two albums worth of songs to get to where we are."
The patience behind this process paid off. Each title on NOW emits a unique light: "Love Stands Alone," which Frampton, Kirkpatrick, and Mayo conceived as the last hammers struck and the last
screws were tightened on the eve of the studio's operation; "Hour of Need," written from a single enigmatic line -- "rider and horse drown in the sea" -- for the soundtrack to Cameron Crowe's
Oscar-winning, semi-autobiographical Almost Famous; "Not Forgotten," a reflection on love and loss that eerily forecast the traumas of 911; "Flying Without Wings," a classic and clever shuffle
that shows off Frampton's virtuosity on guitar and Ebow; "Greens," a searing instrumental born over just a few inspired minutes with Jed Leiber; and "While My Guitar Gently Weeps," an essential
addition since he performed it in Cincinnati days after the death of his friend George Harrison.
"It was our last number," Frampton remembers. "The song seemed to play itself. It was almost an out-of-body experience, I guess because of the audience, who obviously loved George as much
as we did. I don't think there was a dry eye in the house, in the crowd or onstage. And as we came off, I said to my band, 'I know we weren't planning on doing a cover, but we've got to do this one
for the record.'"
And here the band played its role. Each member has long ties to Frampton: Bob Mayo has been his right-hand man since 1974. ("He's the Bob Mayo, who played keyboards on 'Do You Feel,'"
Frampton laughs.) Bassist John Regan joined the group in 1979, and Chad Cromwell, top studio drummer in Nashville, has been on board since 1997. Their intuitive interactions were essential
in allowing Frampton blend into his material; through one marathon string of sessions in Cincinnati, followed by shorter meetings to overdub and mix between gigs, they conjured the live,
real-time support that brings out the best in any great player.
"Yes, I'm a solo artist, but I don't go anywhere without my band," Frampton declares. "If one of them is unavailable, we don't play; it's that simple. It's all of us, or none of us."
The history they shared opened everyone on NOW to something beyond the music. "As we were making this album, each of us experienced a trauma in our life. Two of us lost parents. There
were illnesses, both among us and our families.
In the time it took to make NOW, all hell broke loose in our lives. No one was untouched. And that became part of this project too. What we survive in life just makes us stronger, and that alone
makes this a special album for me. We're closer than we've ever been, to the point that I just can't imagine not playing with these guys."
There is more, of course, to the Frampton story -- a spectacular career marked by his role as co-founder of the incendiary band Humble Pie with Steve Marriott, the unprecedented success of his
live solo milestone Frampton Comes Alive, guest appearances on albums by David Bowie, Ringo Starr, Harry Nilsson, and the George Harrison masterpiece All Things Must Pass, countless
sold-out concerts around the world
More recently, his rendering of "Off the Hook" earned a "Best Rock Instrumental Performance" Grammy nomination for his Live In Detroit CD, the companion
to the first DVD recorded in both high-definition TV format and 5.1 surround sound. He's even broken into the manufacturing side of the industry through Framptone, whose products are now used
by Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters), Richie Samboura (Bon Jovi), Art Alexakis (Everclear), Nine Inch Nails, Joe Walsh, Third Eye Blind, and other headliners.
And yet, as the rough mix of "Verge of a Thing" blared over his studio speakers, this multitalented artist was focused totally on NOW. "I'm literally working all hours down here," he reports. "It's all
going fantastically, but it's not the easiest thing to juggle family responsibilities and make an album in the same house. Even when I'm working out, I'll be in the middle of an exercise, and my
trainer will say, 'Okay, what track are we working on now?' This just happened yesterday: I laughed and said, 'How did you know?' He said, 'It's written all over your face.' So I told him what song it
was, where the fader positions were
Yeah, it's all encompassing, but at least when I want to get away from it, I just keep myself from going downstairs."
Luckily, these subterranean visits are over for now. That thing that was living in that basement, that this remarkable artist has brought to life, is ready to escape. Just remember, for all that you
know about Peter Frampton, there's so much more to come
The future is, in fact, NOW.
