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MB meets Bob Trenchard
Bass player, songwriter, producer and boss of one of the contemporary most distinctive soul-blues label, Catfood Records, Bob Trenchard talks to Macallè Blues.
MB: Bob, I remember I first happened to stumble on your name by the end of the ‘90s at the time being you Kay Kay and the Rays’s bass player; but it seemed to me that you suddenly came out of darkness back then since I can’t recall any other musical situations you were involved in before. So, first of all I’d ask you to introduce yourself: how did you get into the music field as well as into bass playing? And have you got any other professional experience as a musician previous to the Rays?
BT: My grandmother was a violinist who went to Vienna to study when she was 19. She played with the Berlin Symphony and played concerts in Europe until 1914, the start of World War I. She then toured the U.S. and Canada for 7 years before meeting my grandfather during a visit to her parents in Nebraska. He grew up on a farm and was working as a mechanic. So, when I was 6 years old, I had to take violin lessons. After a year, my parents let me quit violin if I would take piano lessons. I took piano for 8 years. When I was 16, I was in a rock band, The Countdowns. We played mostly surf music and were not very good. The Countdowns are playing a reunion this summer, our first performance in 50 years. At 18, I went to college in San Antonio and learned that, if I spent a lot of time practicing, I would be a good bass player. I dropped out of school the next year and moved to Lincoln, Nebraska. There, I was in a jazz trio with a female vocalist for two years. We played 6 nights per week at the best clubs in Lincoln and Omaha, with a few short tours during school breaks. We were popular. All of us drove new cars and lived in good apartments. Then, I was in two different 8 piece R & B bands that toured regionally for a year. The bands in Lincoln and Omaha were integrated bands, unusual for the 1960s. I finally graduated and went to work in a factory, not telling them I had a degree. I was also playing 6 nights a week with the jazz trio again, this time with two female vocalists and driving 75 miles each way every night. After working day and night for 9 months, decided to go to law school in Austin, Texas. I played in a very good rock band in Austin for three years before getting a law degree. I took a job in West Texas, giving up hope of a music career. I soon quit the job and was struggling to pay bills with my own law practice. A drummer I knew from Austin recruited me to play in his country/rock cover band. I needed to moonlight in order to eat. After 8 years of that band, which rehearsed maybe 4 times in 8 years and played the same songs the whole time, I quit, vowing never to play again. Fifteen years later, I started playing again in Kay Kay and the Rays.
MB: If I remember well, you started your own record label Catfood Records by the beginning of the new century: what were the main reasons that induced you to take that step?
BT: Kay Kay and the Rays recorded an album which no one has probably heard in 1999. We met Johnny Rawls before then and backed him in West Texas. In 2001, he produced the Texas Justice album which was originally going to be on JSP and but ended up on his label, Deep South Soul. We had a really bad experience with his partners on Deep South Soul and so did Johnny. I now have Texas Justice on Catfood Records. In 2003 we decided to just do it on our own label. Jim Gaines produced Big Bad Girl.
MB: I guess for sure it was not that easy to find a place in the contemporary record market, especially with some well known big competitor around; but as other glorious southern labels (Hi, Malaco, Ichiban, Ecko, etc.) Catfood has a studio backing band and such a distinctive musical style too that makes the label a characteristic and recognizable one: do you think that this particular aspect, along with a great musicianship, may have helped to put Catfood Records under the right spot?
BT: The Rays, our studio band include four members of Kay Kay and the Rays; Richie Puga-drums, Dan Ferguson-keyboards, Andy Roman-sax and myself. Several years ago we added Johnny McGhee on guitar. Johnny was originally the guitarist for the Five Stairsteps as a teenager, then was an LA Motown studio musician and then the LTD guitarist. We also added Mike Middleton-trumpet, then Robert Claiborne-trombone and finally, Nick Flood-baritone sax. We have used the Iveys for several years for background vocals and sometimes have used Memphis background vocalists. We have worked together so long that we know how to get it done in the studio. Johnny Rawls or Jim Gaines produce most of the albums and they have backgrounds going back decades. Jim has Grammys with Santana, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Journey but has worked with everyone, including Tower of Power, Steve Miller, Huey Lewis and the Neville Brothers, just about everyone else. Johnny has been doing soul since he was a teenager, including 5 years as O.V. Wright's music director. Having top musicians gives us our sound and allows us to do things other labels may not be able to try. We never cut corners, always have good production values, always use real instruments, no synth horns or programmed drums.
MB: From my point of view it seems that, during the years, Catfood Records has grown up constantly and has gained a strong reputation in the music business. Today you have a good crowd of contemporary soul-blues artists under your wing, first of all Johnny Rawls that seems to play the role of label's leading figure, but also some other name such as veteran singer Barbara Carr rather than new ones just as Sandy Carroll to name a few. How does it feel like being the producer of such and even a bit different artists?
BT: I am really just the executive producer most of the time. The producers are Jim Gaines and Johnny Rawls. I coordinate everything for the album and have input on the songs we record but they run things in the studio. I typically produce only the horn sessions and the percussion session. Another reason for our reputation is that we have very good artists. Johnny Rawls, Otis Clay, James Armstrong, Barbara Carr and Sandy Carroll. Jim records Sandy at his studio in Tennessee. I have done demos there and write with Sandy but they create her albums. Barbara Carr is a real pro, easy to work with. We are going to record an album with her and Johnny later this year. I feel very lucky to have met and worked with all the talented people.
MB: Bass player, producer, but also skilled songwriter in the soul-blues vein: talking about this last aspect, when did you start writing and discover this talent? Was that something that started with your label, being organic to it, or something previous to that?
BT: I actually wrote and recorded songs in the high school surf band. Instrumentals that were not very good. I continued to write and had notebooks full of songs after that but the San Antonio band and the Lincoln/Omaha bands did not do original songs. In Austin, our band mostly performed original songs and I wrote several. I was the main songwriter in Kay Kay and the Rays. We broke up in 2004. By then, we were touring nationally a few times a year and had just returned from the East Coast Blues and Roots Festival in Australia. My wife was diagnosed with breast cancer three days after we returned and died 6 weeks later. Kay Kay had lost her mother and her best friend, who traveled with us and sold our merchandise, a few months before. So the band just ended. The following year, Johnny persuaded me to let him do an album of songs I had written, trying to help me go forward. That was No Boundaries and, from there, the label just grew.
MB: How many songs do you think you have written and were those songs recorded just by Catfood recording artists or by some other artist outside Catfood too?
BT: I have written about 70 recorded songs. Some have been recorded by more than one artist. Memphis Still Got Soul was nominated for Blues Song of the Year at the BMAs. The song did not win and have not had any that will allow me to retire on the royalties.
MB: Legendary stars producer Jim Gaines also joined Catfood Records to produce some CD such as Johnny Rawls’s last one “Tiger In A Cage”. How did it happen to engage him and how is sharing the production part with the one who produced artists like Santana, Miles Davis, Stevie Ray Vaugahn like?
BT: Jim Gaines agreed to produce Big Bad Girl in late 2002 after hearing a demo. We recorded at Willie Nelson's studio west of Austin. We have become really close friends after that. I am in awe of Jim and have learned much from him. I do not share producing with Jim. I just listen and do what he suggests. He has great ears and good ideas.
MB: As runner of a recording label, how do you see the music market today? Only things left are love and passion around recording music or is it still possible to make a profit out of it with a traditional mean like a cd before so-called “liquid music”, live streaming and internet downloading would change it in such an irreversible way?
BT: I am not sure any record company can make a profit now that streaming music has taken over. CDs have gone the way of the 8 track. Young people don't own CD players unless there is one in their car and soon cars will not have them. People still buy then off the stage but hard to find CDs in stores. Download sales are decreasing, down 30% in 2014 and I suspect much more in 2015. When you get 1/10 of a cent per stream, they are stealing the music and it is impossible to make a profit.
MB: Catfood Records has had several Blues Music Awards nominations as some of its artists as well: in a market crowded with artists and labels, that seems to be a recognition you can be proud of, isn't it?
BT: Yes, we are all proud of the BMA nominations (I think maybe 16 but only 1 win so far), the Living Blues Awards, Blues Blast Awards and the Downbeat Best of the Year lists we have made.
MB: In 2014 Catfood Records issued “Soul Brothers”, a wonderful critical acclaimed album recorded by the original duo made up of Johnny Rawls and the late and great soul singer Otis Clay. Clay just passed in January so I take this opportunity to ask you a personal memory of the man and if there is something particular about that recording session you remember and why?
BT: Otis Clay was a wonderful man. He stayed at our house both recording sessions, Soul Brothers as well as the earlier Remembering O.V session. Great singer, unique voice, full of passion. He is like Johnny Rawls, they know every word to every song including songs most of us have never even heard of. He enjoyed my wife's cooking and always told her so. She loved seeing Otis and having him around. He was very gracious, very humble. He and Johnny Rawls would tell stories about musicians they knew for hours on end. Listening to them was entertainment and education.
MB: Now, how about upcoming projects? Is there someone you plan to record in the next future?
BT: Johnny Rawls and Johnny McGhee were in El Paso last month to work on demos for an upcoming LTD project. LTD is the 80s funk group who had gold records as well as a platinum record. Johnny McGhee is the guitarist and they still play 4 or 5 dates a year. They live on both coasts and Johnny lives in Minneapolis so not easy to get together. We hope to record them maybe this summer. When the two Johnnys were here, we went out to Sonic Ranch Studios because Otis had recorded a Gospel song, Mississippi Poor Boy, that we never finished during the Soul Brothers sessions. We put guitar, bass, drums and background vocals on it. A Neo-Soul singer, Janelle Thompson was in the studio and we got her to sing the backgrounds with Johnny Rawls. It is being sent to Jim Gaines today to be mixed. We hope to release the single in 3 weeks. It is a funky, blues style, Gospel song so we will promote it on both Gospel and blues radio. Finally, we have several songs ready to record for Johnny Rawls and Barbara Carr. Hope get to the studio in the fall for that session.