Amid
the fickle, fragmented mosh pit of modern music, it’s rare to find someone
with the sincerity of Kyle Vincent—a guy so smitten with pop music that
he cut out of school to sneak into Karen Carpenter’s funeral.
“I
was totally raised on ‘70s pop radio—Elton John, Raspberries, Jackson 5,
and all those one-hit wonders. I never even heard a Led Zeppelin song until
I was 10 years old,” he laughs. “My record collection mostly has two sides:
sweet pop stuff and classical R&B—
O’Jays,
The Stylistics, Earth, Wind and Fire.”
With
his self-titled Hollywood Records debut, Vincent demonstrates a finely
tuned pop sensibility shaped by countless hours glued to the radio. Delve
beneath the perfect pop hooks, though, and you’ll discover well crafted,
heartfelt lyrics that reveal Vincent’s depth as a songwriter.
Opening
with the jangling “Arianne,” Kyle Vincent soars through a dozen tracks
ranging from the anthemic debut single/video “Wake Me Up (When the World’s
Worth Waking Up For),” to the ethereal balladry of “Next Time We’ll Go
Crazy.”
Recorded
in just five weeks during the fall of 1996, the album was produced and
arranged by Vincent with Gabe Veltri and L.A. pop icon Parthenon Huxley.
All songs are written or co-written by Vincent, working with Huxley and
Tommy Dunbar (of the Rubinoos) as songwriting collaborators.
Fueled
by chiming 12-string guitars, “Kyle Vincent” features a slew of vocals,
Hammond organ, piano, and real orchestral instruments, including French
horn, strings, flutes, and oboe. “I wasn’t doing it just to be Mr. Cool
Retro Guy,” Vincent admits. “There’s just so much more warmth when
you have real people playing real instruments... the way all my favorite
records were made.”
Vincent
and his co-conspirators chose to record the album in Pasadena, Ca., at
“an old, funky studio with all analog equipment and every weird kind of
instrument lying around.” The techniques employed were a bit, er, unusual.
“All the vocals were cut in the bathroom,” says Vincent. “I don’t know
why, but for some reason they just sound better. People would be waiting
impatiently outside while I was recording the vocal tracks. On “Happy Ending,”
Tommy (Dunbar) plays a bouzouki, which looks like a cross between a mandolin
and a salad bowl. I really wanted to use it because it’s used in the Monty
Python Cheese Shop sketch, so now I can laugh and say, ‘I have a bouzouki
on my record.’ And on “I Used to Love the Girl” I hit an Anvil case with
one of Parthenon’s golf clubs to get this huge booming sound.”
“Young
Again” opens with an early, lo-fi recording of Vincent at age three-and-a-half
singing “The Ballad of Jesse James” accompanied by his mother on piano.
“I sound just like Alfalfa from ‘The Little Rascals.’ Alfalfa was a major
vocal influence on me,” Vincent laughs. “He still is. But seriously,
that song is inspired by New England. We moved to western Massachusetts
for several years when I was a kid, and it made such a huge impact on my
life. They were really happy years, and I’d love to go back there to live
some day. I’ve lived every song on this record,” he nods, jokingly adding
“nobody has loved and lost like I have.”
The
youngest of four kids, Vincent was born and raised in the cultural melting
pot of Berkeley, Ca. He began playing jazz saxophone at age eight; by his
teens he was the bassist in a punk band.
“One
day a friend phoned me and said, “Move down here to L.A. and join our band
we’re h u g e.’
When
I got there, I realized he had pulled a scam—the band hadn’t even rehearse
yet.”
The
band eventually did start rehearsing, and for the next four years, Vincent
sang and played rhythm guitar with the star-crossed L.A. power pop combo
Candy. Signed to a record deal, the group’s strong local following never
translated into album sales, so Vincent’s songcraft has remained a secret
virtually unknown beyond Candy’s cult following...until now. Outside of
his passion for pop, he’s an admitted “baseball fanatic” who pitched for
his high school team. A die-hard San Francisco Giants fan, Vincent sang
the national anthem at a game at Candlestick Park. “It was pouring rain,”
he recalls, “and there I am standing on the pitcher’s mound waiting to
get hit by lightning in front of 20,000 people. The whole thing was surrealistic.”
A dedicated animal lover and longtime vegetarian, Vincent holds strong
views on environmental issues. But, regardless of his other interests,
Vincent’s life invariably focuses on one issue: music.
“I
know I’m not the hippest guy,” he smiles and shrugs, “and I’ve never tried
to be. These pop songs aren’t meant to change the world. I just want the
listener to feel the same emotions I felt when I wrote the song. I don’t
think I’ll ever get tired of hearing a good pop song, and I think there
are other people out there who feel the same way .”
