Hugh Laurie’s Blues

Published by Interrobang Staff at August 16, 2013

You know him as Dr. House on the FOX hit series “House” but Hugh Laurie also makes music. His first album, “Let Them Talk” was released in 2011 and featured collaborations with greats like Dr. John and Tom Jones. His second album, “Didn’t It Rain” is out now and also features great collaborations. He recently stopped by the SiriusXM studios in NYC to sit down with Ron Bennington and talk about the new album. Excerpts from the interview appear below, and you can hear the interview in it’s entirety exclusively on SiriusXM satellite radio.

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Ron Bennington: First of all, congratulations on this, it’s a project that has been taking you all over the world recently, right?

Hugh Laurie: It has indeed. I’ve seen parts of the world I wasn’t completely sure were real. Slovenia for example, I mean, I’d heard about it, but I wasn’t really sure that was a real country. But, it certainly is and a very pretty one, it is too. We’ve just got back from Europe. In fact, we were in Moscow, played the Kremlin Palace.

Ron Bennington: And you’re playing New Orleans music in the Kremlin, are those people familiar with this music?

Hugh Laurie: Well, hard to tell. They are pretty inscrutable, the Russians – hard to tell. But, they bluffed it well. Diplomatic, I think. But no, we got them in the end, it took some dragging, but we finally got there. The shows have been going great, actually. And have been getting better and better, which is the real thrill.

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Hugh Laurie Talks About Playing Early American Music

Ron Bennington: Now, as you travel through Europe, I know they know blues and they know jazz there. I remember Woody Allen did this a few years ago and people love the music. It’s Americans that don’t even know their own goddamn history, that drives me crazy.

Hugh Laurie: It is true – it appears to be true. That because you are so blessed with such abundant treasures right under your nose… I don’t know what it is, but maybe things get taken for granted. I think probably everyone does that in some way or another, if it’s right under your nose, you don’t see it. But, yes, I’m very aware of being a foreigner. It’s not my music, I’m a trespasser, I know that. But, I have always… this is the music I’ve loved all my life, and I approach it as respectfully as I can. Because, if you’re going to do someone else’s folk music, you better get it right. But, it’s a wonderful thing to a… well, hopefully to try and connect with an American audience who are rediscovering. We’ve actually got people in our own band, Jean McClain, who’s voice you heard there on “Wild Honey,” you know some of these songs she never heard of, she was not completely clear on Bessie Smith. “Bessie who?” And it’s fantastic to see her sort of embrace this and rediscover this music which is part of your heritage, not mine, but yours.

Ron Bennington: But, I believe it’s a shared human heritage. I really do. I think it belongs to the planet Earth, now.

Hugh Laurie: I completely agree. I think there is – when a gift becomes this great, I do think you can make a case for this being America’s greatest gift to the world, popular music all around has done more – it’s inconceivable to live without it. And, there comes a point, I think you’re right, where this belongs to the world.

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Hugh Laurie Talks About His Love of the Blues

Ron Bennington: For you, playing this music and being able to do it with the right players is the real thrill, right?

Hugh Laurie: Absolutely. I know very well, I’m very conscious of the fact that I’m the fake in the band. I’m the big faker. Everyone else is the real thing, but I suppose what I’ve tried to do is bring these elements together and produce something – well, first of all a record, and then, also a live show, that does touch people in some way. It makes them laugh, it makes them dance, it makes them cry, because all of that is in this music. This is high art – to me, this is high art and it’s no less high than some guy doing “Don Giovanni” down the road. This is absolutely astonishing music to me and I want people to hear it, and share it, and dance to it.

Ron Bennington: It struck you as a kid, too, right?

Hugh Laurie: Oh, yes, I was tiny when I first heard this and it was – I can still remember it was like an electric shock. I never really got over it. I’m still vibrating.

Ron Bennington: Do you remember who it was, who you first heard?

Hugh Laurie: I think – I was so young, I think it was Willie Dixon, but I can’t actually swear to it. That’s always stuck in my mind. I felt like that was the first name I heard, but I knew – before I was aware of names and who was involved, there was a sound. There was that space between a minor third and a major third – which I didn’t even know what that meant back then, and I’m still not completely clear, but there was that blues sound that was just like an electric shock, and I never got over it.

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Hugh Laurie Talks About Growing Different, Musically

Ron Bennington: Now when you were listening to this music when you were a kid, were your friends listening to the same music, or were you off on your own with this?

Hugh Laurie: No, no, I had no friends. I was a friendless child. But no, they weren’t actually, they had gone down this sort of pop road, which was not something that particularly grabbed me. I don’t know why, I had nothing against it, I have nothing against it now, it’s just not what I put on to listen to. Whereas, when I was twelve – thirteen, Muddy Waters was just “it.” And I couldn’t really understand why he wasn’t “it” for everyone else around me. But, you know they had to do their David Bowie thing.

Ron Bennington: Well, but you know Bowie used to listen to that, so that helps out.

Hugh Laurie: Right, of course he did. Yeah, absolutely.

Ron Bennington: Bowie probably loves this music just every bit as much as you do.

Hugh Laurie: It is all just one big river.

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Hugh Laurie Talks About Listening Without Visuals

Ron Bennington: I also think there is something said that you didn’t have a visual attached to it. There is something about that music that meant stuff to me because I had no idea who some of these people were.

Hugh Laurie: That’s a very good point, a very good point. I was actually thinking, on the way here, about radio… I was coming in with someone who said that it’s actually been shown that people pay more attention and listen better, more accurately, when they can’t see who is speaking. So, actually people are absorbing more from your words than they are from a TV guy’s words. I think that may be true with music, too. Not having a visual reference or not knowing much about the physical setting this music is coming from, maybe that does make your ear sort of sharper in a way, that you listen more carefully.

Ron Bennington: Well, I also think, once we have a visual, we get lazy about everything else. So, I do think the fact – there is something about even the fact that the way that music was recorded that would have crackles and pops, that would force you to lean in a little more, and do some work to pull it off.

Hugh Laurie: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And it’s part of it’s character and part of its history, that it comes from a place – you can hear the room. Consciously or not, you’re sort of aware that when you hear ten guys playing together, it’s ten guys playing together. They didn’t arrive on ten different days and lay something down on Pro Tools and then have it all mashed up. You’re hearing ten people communing and actually exchanging things, and it’s a group experience. That’s getting more and more precious these days.

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Hugh Laurie Talks About His Love Acting Versus His Passion For Music.

Ron Bennington: Now, you’ve done so much with acting and all, but is music the place to get that real buzz for you?

Didn't It Rain Album Cover Hugh Laurie: It is for me, honestly. I love acting, I’m fascinated by it. It’s always a fascinating thing; a problem to solve. But, we all know that at the end of a hard day, nobody goes home and relaxes with a spot of acting. Let’s do some “Troilus and Cressida”, nobody does that. But what everybody does, is to put on music. They either play it or listen to it, and it’s because it touches parts of the soul that other things don’t get to. Other things can be intellectually fascinating, to try to solve a problem, but music is operating on a deeper level.

Ron Bennington: And I also think it’s one thing to play on your own, or even to be in the studio with great players, but then adding people changes that, as well. Adding people as fans to come in and out. And I’m always curious about, what is the mathematical makeup to make that really great night? If you took out a certain amount of people and moved in other people, would it suddenly be the right – It’s almost like throwing a great party, who knows…

Hugh Laurie: Yeah, what is the thing that kicks it all off? Do you need that girl in the yellow shirt to stand up in the middle of the third song and go crazy, or… I got a theory, we were half way through Europe, I think we were in the Ukraine or somewhere and for some reason, we had to start a show – oh, Poland, we were in Poland, and we had to start a show late, I can’t remember why…there was some technical reason. They couldn’t get the audience in on time or something. We started the show twenty minutes late and they went crazy, absolutely crazy. So, the next night I said, “why don’t we try starting twenty minutes late? Maybe that’s what it is.” Of course, the next night the people were just tapping their watches going, “you’re late, you’re twenty minutes late.” Ok, so that’s not it. Who knows, it’s a magical thing trying to work out – the truth is, you never will work it out, and thank God.

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Ron Bennington: Here’s what I love about it: A – you’re playing with the right players and B – the sound on this album is fantastic.

Hugh Laurie: It is, it is absolutely amazing.

Ron Bennington: Thanks so much for stopping in dude, I really had a good time.

Hugh Laurie: Oh, it’s been great. Thank you for having me.

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