Daryl Hall
ONE ON ONE
Daryl Hall Does It for Love
Nearly three decades after their first hit, Daryl Hall and John Oates are still going strong -- as a duo and as solo artists. Together, they've amassed six platinum albums and as many No. 1 singles, and were one of the most important pop acts of the '80s. Today, the most successful duo in rock history has taken on a new life as adult-contemporary crowd pleasers. After six years, they released their comeback disc Do It for Love in 2003. And on the heels of Oates's funk-inspired solo debut, Phunk Shui, Hall released the smooth jazz–tinged Can't Stop Dreaming. Barnes & Noble.com's Tracy E. Hopkins caught up with Hall, who chatted about his solo work, the future of Hall & Oates, and more.
Barnes & Noble.com: Can't Stop Dreaming has a smooth-jazz vibe. Did you always want to make a record in that style?
Daryl Hall: I didn't really think about it. With my solo work -- this record and the one I did before it, Soul Alone -- I try to separate myself from what I do with John. [Hall & Oates's] history is part of the Philly sound. But what we brought to the table was John's influence -- that sort of folky, acoustic thing. On my own, I think I'm a little more pure. My influences are more Philly soul and jazz. When I went into this project, I wanted to bring that out.
B&N.com: You remake "She's Gone" on this record. Did you feel like that was the perfect song to give a smooth-jazz makeover?
DH: It's such a Daryl-and-John song that when you take John out of it, you change the key and the mood of the song. That's the essence of the difference between what I would do with John and on my own.
B&N.com: You've dabbled in the Motown sound and now smooth jazz. What other musical style would you like to incorporate into your solo sound or Hall & Oates's sound?
DH: We're always evolving, but we never really stray too far from our roots. Our roots are in acoustic soul, and that's what we sort of pioneered in the early '70s. We do variations on that theme, but what we do is pretty constant.
B&N.com: I think it would be cool for Hall & Oates to do an album of standards.
DH: Well, we're actually talking about that. We want to do an album of soul standards. But they won't be the obvious ones. To me, everyone does the ones that are too well known. We want to really delve into more obscure songs from the '70s -- which I think is the golden age of soul music -- and treat them, arrangement-wise, as if we had written them. I think we'll start that project after the first of the year.
B&N.com: Every artist has career highs and lows, but Hall & Oates were huge in the '80s. Has it been hard trying to recapture that success?
DH: It's funny, but I wasn't that comfortable with being a big pop star. I don't really relate to quality in terms of quantity. In fact, I think sometimes it has an inverse ratio, whereby the more popular something is, the less quality it has. The irony is that I've never been that interested in the pop culture. My favorite music is not commercially gigantic. I tend to like people who are true to themselves -- I guess [artists] like me, who whether they're popular or not really isn't the point of it all. I find that you can do good work during various periods of time, and sometimes people notice it, and sometimes they don't. In the '80s, obviously, everybody was noticing it. Right now, people are noticing it again. It's just one of those things. I just do the work, and how people respond is outside of my sphere of influence.
B&N.com: Who are some of the artists you admire who stay true to themselves?
DH: Todd Rundgren is a perfect example. He's someone that I started with. He remains true to himself. Sometimes he's popular, and sometimes he's not as popular. There are so many people like that. Sometimes, these artists are inadvertently popular. Take a guy like Marvin Gaye. This guy was a thorn in Berry Gordy's side his entire career at Motown, but he managed to do amazing work on his own -- and he became popular by doing it. Sometimes he made commercial mistakes, but he was always true to himself. As an artist, that's what's important to me.
B&N.com: What keeps your creative juices flowing?
DH: My observations and experiences. I'll encounter an experience and respond to it -- whether it's working something out in my mind and being my own psychiatrist or seeing something happen to somebody else or in the world that makes me want to respond to it. Those are the things that make me want to write songs.
B&N.com: I interviewed John Oates when his solo album, Phunk Shui, came out. I asked him if your voice becoming synonymous with the Hall & Oates sound was ever a point of contention. Did you two ever talk about that?
DH: I don't think we had to talk about it. It's one of those things that happened naturally. I'm a stronger singer than John. It's as simple as that. John's voice is an important part of the sound of Hall & Oates. The backgrounds are intricately worked out, and they're an important part of all of our songs. But I'm the lead singer, man. That's just the way it is. I'm sure that when Keith Richards and Mick Jagger sat down, Mick became the singer because he's the [better] singer.
B&N.com: What is your favorite Hall & Oates song to perform live?
DH: Any song that I perform live is a favorite, because if I'm bored with a song, we drop it. So anything you see live is something we're feeling good about.
B&N.com: What song are you bored with?
DH: I've been singing "Every Time You Go Away" for years and years, and we don't sing it [now], 'cause I'm a little bored with it. In a year, I'll come back to it, and it will sound completely different to me. Then it will take on new life.
B&N.com: Is there a pop song you love that you wish you had written and recorded?
DH: There are so many great songs. Well, I'll go back to Todd Rundgren again 'cause he's fresh on my mind. He wrote a song called "Can We Still Be Friends" that I think is an unbelievable song. I sure would have liked to write that. We actually did a tour with him last year, and I got to sing it with him. That was fun to do.
B&N.com: What albums are you currently listening to?
DH: I'm a terrible audience. I don't listen to [new music]. A lot of times, I hear things by accident. I'll be in a shop, and I'll hear a song being played and ask, "Who's that?" I respond to it that way. But I don't tend to go out and buy music or sit around listening to other people's music. When music comes up, it's usually me making my own music.
B&N.com: Is there any new R&B or hip-hop artist who's caught your attention accidentally?
DH: I tend to like the more traditional people. I was just talking to Usher the other day. He came to one of our shows and said he was a big fan. He wants to work with me. We're going to try to figure out some way to do something on his [new] album. I love Usher. There's [also] a guy I heard recently, again by accident: Jaheim. He's like an old-school singer. He sounds like Teddy Pendergrass. I tend to like things like that. I don't like show-off singers. I like the real, emotional vocals. That's the way I sing, too.
July 29, 2003
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