Jim Brickman
ISN'T IT ROMANTIC? Keyboard Heartthrob Jim Brickman Finds Something to Sing About
Sensitive, sexy, and single, Jim Brickman is surely one of pop music's most eligible bachelors. But sorry, would-be suitors -- the title of the piano man's latest, My Romance, alludes to Brickman's first love: music. A classically trained pianist, Brickman paid his dues writing jingles, and his memorable, melodic, and million-selling albums -- No Words, By Heart, Picture This, and Destiny -- offer a fine synthesis of pop appeal and romantic vision. Now, after his 1999 holiday TV special -- which was filmed on an Arctic ice floe -- Brickman warms up to the mike and makes his singing debut on My Romance, a live concert program for PBS. The busy Brickman took time between meetings with television program directors to talk with new age editor Carol Wright about his consuming passion.
Barnes & Noble.com: You have quite an impressive array of guest artists on your My Romance concert -- Donny Osmond, Olivia Newton-John, Anne Cochran, sax player Dave Koz, and violinist Tracy Silverman -- and they all look like they're having a great time.
Jim Brickman: One of the things I'm proud of is that everyone was excited about being there. The performances are very honest, and it was a real team effort. Everything had a wonderful aura about it. I didn't choose anybody for their marquee value, though they all do have that. I thought, Who are my friends and who would make the most sense to sing my songs, to convey who I am and what I do to people who don't know me?
One thing about artists at this level of talent is that they can communicate without words. Dave Koz can't talk because he's got that sax in his mouth. So there's a lot of signaling with eyebrows and winking. This unsaid communication is deep inside when you are a professional.
B&N.com: Your Winter Solstice special was filmed on the Arctic ice packs in minus-25-degree weather. How did you get talked into that?
JB: The opportunities that come up for me are so incredible. I said, "That sounds like a real adventure. Count me in." To film Winter Solstice we took an icebreaker -- not a luxury liner -- through the frozen sea in the middle of the night. It was so surreal, almost like it was a dream. You're stuck together in the middle of nowhere, work hard, do your best, and get no sleep. The bond we all developed was quite strong, and I've even used the same director for My Romance.
B&N.com: You've starting singing now. Do you enjoy this new dimension of performing?
JB: Oh, my God, it seems so unbelievable -- but I like it. It's true to the concept of the lyrics, and I am getting to be more comfortable with it.
B&N.com: What music has been in your CD player lately?
JB: Because I'm an instrumentalist, for pleasure I listen to really great singers. So a couple of country people: Jo Dee Messina, and Tracks by Collin Raye; Kenny Loggins's new lullaby CD, More Songs from Pooh Corner; Oops...I Did It Again by Britney Spears, so I can hear what the 17-year-olds like; a Burt Bacharach/Elvis Costello album called The Sweetest Punch; and It's No Secret Anymore by Linda Eder, a standards singer. I appreciate people who have great vocal instruments.
B&N.com: Who do you most admire as a songwriter?
JB: Burt Bacharach took many chances, musically speaking -- he took pop music to new places. He used time signatures and chord structures that were unique to him, yet his music is so accessible.
B&N.com: What makes a great love song?
JB: Honesty. You have to make an emotional connection. A good love song breaks the comfort factor that takes it from being just a song on the radio and makes it something you connect with internally. The song says, "That's me" or "That's who I want to be" or "I wish my lover sang to me that way." I hope to say things that people want to say to each other, but can't express directly. Things like, "I am so glad you found me, and all I want to do is put my arms around you" [from "Love of My Life" on Destiny].
B&N.com: What music would you put on for a romantic evening?
JB: Probably Tony Bennett, Rosemary Clooney, Frank Sinatra, or Mel Tormé -- that era of music.
B&N.com: Now that you're the official poster boy for romance, do you get marriage proposals?
JB: I do, but in a fairly respectful way. People seem to think that anybody who writes songs like these must be so sensitive; they think I'm somebody they would want to get to know. But although I meet so many great people, this career requires so much of my emotional energy and attention. Right now, I feel my responsibility is to honor the commitment that I've made to my career and to my art. I'm never even at my house, as I play 100 to 150 concerts a year.
B&N.com: When you perform, it looks like you're really lost in the music, even going into an altered state. What would be your ultimate "performance high"?
JB: There are many moments onstage when I forget that I'm there and get lost in the music. You have to let yourself do that to make the music real. I'm beginning to perform with orchestras, and the other night I played with the Pittsburgh Symphony. It was a performance high because it dawned on me that some of the best musicians on earth are playing my music and bringing it to life, translating it heart and soul. It was surreal. It was high. It was spiritual. It was all of those things.
B&N.com: Many performers get high performing, but often their lives fail to match.
JB: I can relate to VH1's Behind the Music. No conventional person can deal with this level of adulation, the extremes, the stimulation. When the performer goes back to real life, the brakes have to be put on. I try to keep centered, but it's really challenging.
B&N.com: Do you ever feel like you're pushing yourself to do too much? Maybe you could have yourself cloned to take on some of the work!
JB: [Laughs] I think I would find my own clone impossible to live with because I have such high expectations! I believe in the work ethic, and this can get on people's nerves. Even my family says, "Let's just have some fun. Can't we go out to dinner without listening to every radio station and talking about work?" I'm a workaholic -- morning, noon, and night, that is where my focus is. I could justify it to you by saying these musical opportunities are happening just now, so I'll take advantage of them. But I was like this when I wrote advertising jingles, too.
But there's hope. I look to someone like Olivia [Newton-John], who is so balanced and aware of her life and her career. She prioritizes the things that are important to her: raising her child and contributing to causes she believes in.
This period of my life will have a beginning, a middle, and an end. I hope that when I'm 60, the Pittsburgh Symphony still wants me to play. But that same night, I'd want to fly home to my family and not to yet another city to perform the next day, and so on all week and all month. However, for now, I feel I'm very blessed to have these opportunities. I'm very fortunate.
July 20, 2000
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