John DeNicola
John DeNicola
She Said
The muse works in mysterious ways. Case in point: John DeNicola. After some five decades in the recording industry, the award-winning songwriter and producer made his first album as an artist in 2019. Fast forward—very fast—to now, for the release its follow-up, She Said. And while DeNIcola’s debut, The Why Because, had him interpreting tunes he’d originally penned for others, She Said was conceived and created for one voice, one touch, and one heart: his own.
“The groundwork laid down on The Why Because gave me the confidence to do another record right on its heels,” DeNicola explains. “I holed up in my barn studio and built these tracks from scratch, playing all different instruments from guitars to synths, sitar to congas. I’m comfortable working this way, yet it was new for me and really fun to write purely about what I wanted to say.”
The phrase, “This time it’s personal” clearly applies, from the dreamy complexities-of-love story of the title track through nods to the Sixties’ and Seventies’ soul and rock DeNicola grew up on. Somehow, though, the more intimate, the more universal the album’s appeal, whether you’re lofted by the gravity-defying harmonies of “High,” hitting the floor with the irresistibly dance-y “Breathe Deep,” or digging into the darker, guitar-driven single “Float on Hope” (and its hand-drawn animated video, which decries the destruction of the Amazon and the earth’s endangered wellbeing at large).
Universal appeal from the guy who wrote “(I Had) The Time of My Life”? Go figure! A Long Island, New York, native, DeNicola began playing in bands as a kid in the 1970s and was a member of the jazz-fusion quintet Flight, which released the acclaimed album Excursion Beyond on Motown. Yet as time went on, he found himself drawn more to a creative life behind the scenes. Collaborating with fellow tunesmith Franke Previte on those “TOML” and “Hungry Eyes,” the two mega-hits from the Dirty Dancing soundtrack — which held the #1 spot on the Billboard 200 albums chart for 18 weeks and ultimately sold more than 60 million copies worldwide — netted DeNicola an Oscar, a Golden Globe, a Grammy nomination, and ASCAP’s Songwriter of the Year award in 1988.
Such success meant freedom, and DeNicola used it to nurture new talent (discovering a little band called Kara’s Flowers, who later changed their name to Maroon 5), supply radio-ready tunes for contemporary chart-toppers while composing for an annual Shakespeare festival, and launch his boutique label, Omad Records. As he puts it: “I had the opportunity to continue in the business and build relationships with people from all aspects of the music world.” Now, a host of those relationships represent on She Said, collaborating on craft and adding some serious chops.
Patti Maloney, one of DeNicola’s favorite longtime cowriters, lent her special way with words to four of the record’s prettiest, poppiest tunes, while Procol Harum’s Keith Reid, responsible for the poetry of “A Whiter Shade of Pale,” provided lyrics for “Battered Cloth,” a bittersweet reminiscence simply conveyed with piano and acoustic guitar. For “Float on Hope” and the stripped down, somber closing track “Sky,” he turned to Jason Stutts, an Omad artist who goes by the moniker Rust Dust.
Although he does the lion’s share of playing on She Said, DeNicola did call on gifted friends to chime in at all the right places. There’s crystalline keyboards from Vinny Jessel, a spectrum of synths from Ray Weiss and ripping guitar from axeman Zonder Kennedy on the post-apocalyptic “Morning Dew,” written by Bonnie Dobson in 1961. (The record’s only other cover is Steve Winwood’s “Can’t Find My Way Home,” which has DeNicola layering on a host of instruments, including cello and tanpura, to remarkably simple effect.) She Said also features a veritable who’s who of percussionists, from DeNicola’s son Jake (drummer for Omad act Fovea) and Chris Ryan, who provided the drum programing on the shimmery “Our Day Will Come,” to alt-rock kingpin Blake Fleming and the legendary Brian Delaney, who’s hit the skins for everyone from the New York Dolls to Wu Tang Clan to Melissa Etheridge. DeNicola even tapped the talents of guys he’s known since his tweens, including guitarist Ken Favre, pianist Alan Zahn and bagpiper Brad Davidson.
Assembling such a stellar cast might be daunting at any time; DeNicola managed it during the grip of a global pandemic. “I’d send a cowriter a basic track with a definite melody, possibly a few chorus lyrics, and hope that it painted a picture of what I was going for,” he says of the long-distance dynamic. “For the musicians, it was largely the same, except the tracks were more fleshed out.”
Beyond the logistics of lockdown, the crises of 2020 lit a fire in DeNicola, as they surely did for so many artists in that unprecedented year. “It’s hard to explain why and how adversity or turmoil can be fertile ground for creativity,” he says. “These songs came together organically and rather easily, revealing themselves on an unconscious level, yet were nonetheless written in the midst of a pandemic, a challenge to our democracy, and some stark realizations about race relations—an overriding disappointment in the way Americans see each other.”
So while in no way planned as a “concept” project, the song sequence of She Said does have a story to tell. “There’s a narrative arc that begins with loving someone and loving each other as humans, countered by a warning of what’s happening to our planet and in our country, that winds up with at least the possibility of redemption,” says DeNicola, who delivers each song in his gently endearing, honest and uncontrived voice. “Rather than a string of singles, I’m hoping that this comes off as a full album that takes the listener on a bit of a journey.”
Pack a full heart, an open mind and a pair of eager ears—and come along to hear everything She Said.
She Said - John DeNicola - Official Video Release
Video from the sophomore release of the album also titled "She Said" by John DeNicola . Video written and directed by Anima Works.
"a surreal image driven short film using various frames within frames as composition"
https://www.omadrecords.com/store/v2p...
--- Cast ---
Wanderer - Debra DeNicola
Cowboy - Jake Zinkevich
Priest - Zonder Kennedy
Prairie Woman - Lauren Stander
--- Crew ---
Directed by : Anima Works LLC
Directors of Photography : Jake DeNicola and Hil Steadman
Editors : Jake DeNicola, Hil Steadman and Bennett Torres
Colorist : Dante Pasquinelli
Color Producer: Sam Cesan
VFX: Dylan Calder Stein
Production Design : Pablo Tamarin
Set Builder : Pete Powers
Still Painting : Sophia Baraschi
Gaffer : John Izarpate
Key Grip/Electric : Sean Dolnick
AC/Loader : Andre Fernandez
PA : Henry Dolan
Drone Photography : Jessica Vecchione
Title Design : Harrison Lipton
Color processing and scanning : Metropolis Post
Special thanks to : David and Lisa Frame, Caily Herbert, Tim from down the hollow for the cool truck, Fanny and Eugene.
---Music---
(John DeNicola/Patti Maloney)
Synths, Strings, Vocoder, Bass, Electric Guitar, Vocals - John DeNicola
Electric Guitar - Ray Weiss
Drums - Brian Delaney
Hungry Eyes - John DeNicola
Synths, Guitars, Bass, Vocals - John DeNicola
Fender Rhodes - Max Weigel Drums - Jake DeNicola
Background Vocals - Arwen Lewis, Cassidy Ladden
Written by John DeNicola and Franke Previte
Mixed by Ed Stasium
Main Cinematography - Jake DeNicola
Individual Face mask shots - Everyone that's in it on their Smartphone
Video edited by David Frame
Thanks to all the friends, brave healthcare workers and family with face masks. Helping people stay safe.
John DeNicola - The Why Because Debut Album
The term tunesmith can be bandied about rather indiscriminately. But when your best known work is beloved by billions and your lesser known stuff is as indie as it gets, the title is earned, your name is John DeNicola—and your retrospective record has arrived. Interestingly in DeNicola’s case, that retrospective record is also his solo debut. “I always wrote for bands I was in, even sang some lead vocals here and there, but I never aspired to be a singular artist,” says the industry icon, an award-winning songwriter and producer. “Until this unfolded...”
This is The Why Because, a collection comprised largely of DeNicola originals—including a little number called “(I’ve Had) the Time of My Life.” A subtle yet deceptively complex album of simply beautiful songs, The Why Because has been brought to fruition by DeNicola’s exacting ears, light touch, superb musicianship and gently endearing voice. There’s the bouncy pop gem “Everything You;” “All in the Hands of Grace,” a remembrance rendered in delicate guitar and pattered percussion; and the dark, driven “Brand New Day.” There’s also that aforementioned “little number,” “TOML” as you’ve never heard it before, stripped down and pure as possible, the true test of a great song.
Why? Because great songs are DeNicola’s bottom line. The Long Island, New York, native started playing in bands as a kid in the 1970s; by 1980, as bassist in jazz-fusion quintet Flight, he’d signed to Motown, which released the acclaimed album Excursion Beyond. Yet as time went on, he was drawn more to a creative life behind the scenes. “As I moved increasingly into producing and building tracks, I found myself writing with other vocalists in mind,” he explains.
Then a friend introduced DeNicola to fellow artist-turned-songwriter Franke Previte, and musical magic happened. Together they wrote “Hungry Eyes” and “TOML,” both selected for the 1987 movie Dirty Dancing and its soundtrack, which held the #1 spot on the Billboard 200 albums chart for 18 weeks and ultimately sold more than 60 million copies worldwide. “TOML” netted DeNicola both an Oscar and a Golden Globe, as well as a Grammy nomination; in 1988 he was named the ASCAP Songwriter of the Year. “It was obviously a turning point in my career as a songwriter,” he says of “TOML.” “It helped build relationships with people from all aspects of the music world and allowed me the opportunity to continue in the business.”
Yet that continuation was by no means a straight and narrow path. On one hand, DeNicola was discovering and producing new bands, like Kara’s Flowers—who later changed their name to Maroon 5. On the other, he was composing for an annual Shakespeare program at the West Kortright Centre (an arts and community center in the Catskills). He wrote radio-ready tunes for chart-toppers and founded Omad Records, his decidedly “alternative” boutique label, producing the likes of Fovea (his son Jake’s genre-defying band), power popsters The Sighs and legendary Moby Grape founding member Peter Lewis.
With that kind of career, it’s understandable that it took awhile for DeNicola to even consider making a record of his own. In fact, that it happened at all is kind of a fluke. Having recently built a recording studio in an upstate New York barn, he wanted to test out the “big room” acoustics in regard to drums. “So we mic’ed up the kit a la early Beatles, laid down the tracks for the Moby Grape song ‘I Am Not Willing,’ and just for fun I gave it a shot singing,” he recalls.
Next, he decided to demo his own composition, “You’re The Only One,” which Steve Holy recorded for the Avenging Angelo soundtrack. “I heard it in my head like a Glen Campbell/Jimmy Webb song and wondered, ‘Who can I get to sing it?’” DeNicola says. When the answer was “me...?” he finally got the notion to be the voice of other songs he’d written.
And so The Why Because includes the folk-inflected “In God’s Shadow” (which John Waite gave a slick shine to on his 1995 album Temple Bar), the winsome “Wait” and “Butterfly,” an offbeat instrumental on which DeNicola explores some favorite Eastern instruments. There’s his synth-tinged version of “Hungry Eyes” (Eric Carmen’s Dirty Dancing hit) and his bare-bones “TOML,” with jazzy acoustic guitar and beautiful, nuanced brass. Plus, a dreamy cover of the R&B classic “People Make the World Go Round,” its horns and strings period perfect, and a soaring rendition of that Peter Lewis piece, as close to flawless as a rock song can get.
No surprise, the record features a remarkable roster: Waite, Lewis as well as his singer-songwriter daughter Arwen Lewis, Mickey Madden (Maroon 5), Glen Burtnick (Styx), bluesman Zonder Kennedy and Brian Delaney (drummer with everyone from the New York Dolls to the Wu Tang Clan). “I enjoyed recording and producing this record more than anything I’ve ever done,” DeNicola says. “It started as a whim but as it took shape it became clear that I do have a perspective that’s different from others who’ve done my songs. I was lucky enough to enlist some incredibly talented friends yet also play most of the instruments—which was a ton of fun, locking myself in my studio with guitars, keyboards, drums, sitar, marimba. Most of all it was great to ‘find my voice’ as an artist after years of getting into other artists’ heads.”
Now, with The Why Because, it’s your turn to find the voice of the man whose music you already know so well...or think you do.