Guitar Noise

LL: It sounds like you deal with the same thing that a lot of us women in predominantly male oriented professions deal with. It seems like one of the things you find is that you almost have to be better than them.

Kelly: You do.

LL: To be accepted into that world. It appears you’ve had the same experience.

Kelly: Yes.

LL: Which is a shame.

Kelly: You at least have to be unique. And being a women, it’s a blessing and a curse. It’s “Hey, let’s go see the Girl play.” There’s probably only one girl playing in town tonight, so they may come out and give you a shot just because you’re a novelty. But it’s up to you to make sure that they come back.

LL: It sounds like you’ve hooked up with a great producer and that your career is moving forward.

Kelly: It is moving forward.

LL: In the way you’d like?

Kelly: Yes. I really so love working with John Snyder. He’s a great producer. He just for some reason understood what I was trying to do. We had good fights. And the best of me won.

LL: That’s super.

Kelly: I’ve got good people managing me now. And there’s a girl that books and manages me now that’s just great. I’m in very capable hands.

LL: Sweet Lucy’s working out for you?

Kelly: Yes, that’s my own label. We started that ourselves in 1996 and got national distribution in 1996 or 1997. I’ve been making albums since ‘94. With the release of my third CD, I thought, I’m going to form a record label and get this out there and do it myself. It’s been a dream of mine, to have my own record label, and to have good people that I trust working with me. And that dream is coming true. Am I ritzing in a limo? No. But I’m well taken care of and I…

LL: You make enough to be able to do what you want to do.

Kelly: I do exactly what I want to do and I just love that.

LL: Well there aren’t a lot of people who can say that, so that’s a pretty cool thing.

Kelly: It’s a blessing and a curse.

LL: It also means you have to push yourself when you want something done.

Kelly: I’m insanely driven, so really, other people kind of have to try to hold me back.What everyone says is “Oh God, what has Kelly gotten us into now?”

LL: That’s cool though. That’s how you get things done. I don’t think that’s a bad thing. I think it’s a trait that’s necessary if you’re going to succeed.

Kelly: That you develop for survival.

LL: Yeah, if you aren’t that way to start with, you either get that way, or you end up out of it.

Kelly: Right.

LL: Do you find many women on the technical side of the field? Producing, sound, stuff like that?

Kelly: Not a lot, but quite a few.

LL: But people are out there?

Kelly: They really are out there, and it’s cool. It’s not such a big deal anymore.

LL: That’s really good to hear. We (Guitarnoise) get emails from young women who say, “I’m not so good at this, this, and this, but I’d be interested in mixing or engineering. So do girls do that?” I always say “Yes!” I did that in college and I’m 40 something.

Kelly: There are schools that will teach you that. And if you want to go to one of those, go early. Nothing beats experience.

LL: How do you feel about the Internet either helping or hurting your career?

Kelly: I think it’s great. I think that it’s very important to find someone to help you build a good website. Hopefully you can barter, and if not, you can get a nice website designed for a reasonable amount of money. That’s so important because you never have a second chance to make a first impression. The World is looking at you through the Internet. I do all of our Internet stuff. There’s this graphics designer who does our CD covers. She designed the pages, and I have a tech out here in town who makes sure that it functions and loads up properly. He trained me to use the DreamWeaver program.

LL: Good program.

Kelly: I do 80 % of it myself. It’s worth taking a couple of classes. Whatever you have to do, it’s very important. And you should get links with everybody that you can exchange links with. I spend a couple of hours a day on it. I’ll go out and do word searches and check out sites and drop em a letter and say “Hey, I’d like to let you know about this artist and project.”

LL: Guitarnoise is strictly web based, and your name has popped up as a screaming wailing female guitarist. I checked out your site and that’s how we ended up setting up an interview. I also notice that you get a lot of hits checking out your music.

Kelly: Yes we really do. I was just looking at our web site and we normally get between 70-90 and we had 200 tonight. It’s just incredible.

LL: Do you think that translates into album sales?

Kelly: Ever since the Blues Review magazine review came out, we’ve been getting a steady stream of orders.

LL: Do you think your link to MP3’s translates into sales?

Kelly: A lot of people discover us on MP3s. A lot discover us on CD Baby. Those are two good places for anybody who’s serious about doing music. Those are great places to be associated with.

LL: Do they charge you for that?

Kelly: CD baby has a $35 stocking fee for each CD title. And I forget how much we make off our CD, but it’s fair. Very fair. And they are very honest and very thorough and totally on top of things. And MP3, you just have to be there, because everyone’s there. You’re the Gap, you’re in the mall. It’s one of the things you do.

LL: It’s part of the business. It’s like owning an amp.

Kelly: Yeah, people go there to seek out new music and so….

LL: It’s being in the mall. The Virtual Mall. You’ve shared a lot of wonderful stuff. I don’t know if you have any other basic advice for budding guitarist. I love what you’ve said about being passionate.

Kelly: You know, look for somebody like me that’s in your community that plays a lot. Offer to go roadie for them. Offer to help them at a music festival or in bars. Go see what it takes to pull off a show. See what it is that you’re getting into. You’re not going to learn about the music business in school. The biggest advice that I can give anyone is to keep your head on straight. And don’t be a fool. You’re going to start playing in bars. That’s a great place to get lost. And to end up throwing away many years. Be smarter than that. If you want to party, that’s one thing. But if you want to work, be there to work. No one that works for me, there’s no drugs, no alcohol. That’s the policy of the band. We never drink or party when we play. Dammit, we don’t do that.

LL: If you want to enjoy yourselves after the gig is over, that’s one thing.

Kelly: We don’t even do that.

LL: You’re usually too tired?

Kelly: When we’re working, we’ve got a 10 hour drive to get to the next show. And we don’t want anyone saying Kelly then got drunk and crashed after the show.

LL: You don’t need to be that kind of headline.

Kelly: We want to stand out as people that come in here, hopefully do a great job, say thank you, and go home.

LL: It’s amazing when you read about bands like Aerosmith, I read their biography because I love their music.

Kelly: I do too.

LL: I can’t believe they are still alive!

Kelly: I know, I’m lucky to be still alive.

LL: I can’t believe that Keith Richards is still alive. I’m amazed that they can play so well. You know they must really be unconscious with the guitar playing. ‘Cause the drinking and drugging will chew up young kids and spit them right out.

Kelly: Just don’t do that. Whatever you do, don’t do that. Have fun at home on a Sunday afternoon. Don’t mix it with your art. You don’t need it.

LL: Don’t mix the priorities up.

Kelly: Yeah. You know, recreation’s one thing. If your partying is truly recreational, great. Once it gets out of that space…

LL: Most of the rest of us wouldn’t ever consider drinking on the job.

Kelly: You get fired!

LL: Yes, exactly. And if you drug, usually they fire you too. And this is your job.

Kelly: This is one career where there are no rules.

LL: The excuse I always hear is that “I’m really nervous” and whatever the substance is “loosens me up”.

Kelly: Get in front of a mirror and practice.

LL: You can have a really good time, totally straight.

Kelly: I had to totally relearn how to play and perform sober. I had a lot of people come up to me in those couple of years and say “Man, you’ve really gotten a lot better!” I say, “No, I haven’t gotten better, I’ve just gotten sober.”

LL: Well, we had seen Aerosmith in their worst years, at the Greek Theatre in LA in the 80’s. And I almost walked out of that concert. Luckily they were free tickets! Steven Tyler couldn’t remember the words to the songs and couldn’t stay upright.

Kelly: And I loved them.

LL: Then we saw them at Lake Compounce in Bristol, CT, during the Pump tour. One of the BEST concerts I have ever seen. They were straight, they were sober, they were hot!

Kelly: They were having fun.

LL: They were having a ball and the audience was having a ball. That’s what it’s about. It makes me crazy when people feel they can’t play sober. Young players, they’re in bars they’re thinking they want to be grown up or whatever.

Kelly: No, that’s not grown up. You want to be grown up, say NO.

LL: Exactly. Unfortunately sometimes that’s a life lesson. It takes a while for people to learn.

Kelly: It is. It is.

LL: Well, this has been terrific. I want to thank you for your time.

Kelly: Oh, you’re more than welcome! It was a pleasure.

To hear Kelly live, check her calendar to see when she’s playing in your neighborhood. Or you can check out her CD’s through her website: Kelly Richey.