September 2002
Wayne Gratz has been one of my favorite composers since I discovered his music around 1989. We did a couple of interviews in the early '90’s, and then lost touch for awhile, so doing this interview was kind of a reunion, which was fun! Like his music, Wayne is soft-spoken and thoughtful, and is very down-to-earth. He recently completed his seventh album on the Narada label, “A Place Without Noise,” and has also been doing albums for a series put out by Hallmark. Based in central Florida, Wayne also plays in a band called Paradise that performs for conventions and large social gatherings. We did a phone interview in 8/02, and here are some of the things we talked about:
KP: What’s been happening the past several years?
Gratz: Well, I’ve been doing a lot of the same things as far as writing, and I’ve put out a lot of albums over the years. I just did another Hallmark album that was finished in January. I haven’t done anything since. I have entirely too much free time right now. I’m going to get my piano tuned next week and I’m going to try to start writing again. I’ve hit kind of a brick wall, but that happens from time to time. I have a studio in my house now, and I have a really nice (Yamaha) C7 piano so I’m able to record everything here at home. The great thing about having a piano here is that I can sit down and do an improvisation, and it’s a master - I don’t have to re-record it. I have a good recording console and really good mics and the MIDI stuff - although I’m not doing much MIDI anymore. On the last album, “A Place Without Noise,” the synths are really light and in the background. We had cello and some synth beds - I used MIDI for those, but as far as the piano, that’s all audio. I try not to do any punches. Everything is pretty much front to back. I don’t edit things much - I think I edited one thing on that whole album. If there’s a little timing inconsistency or something in the middle but the rest of the song is good, I feel like it’s fine.
KP: Just call it “rubato”.
Gratz: Right! [laughs] As long as the feel of the song is there. That’s what I like about doing improvisations.
KP: I remember your saying awhile ago that you often sit down and improvise through the night. Have you found that your playing style has changed a bit since your divorce? Are you a little more like Rachmaninoff now?
Gratz: I wish! My playing style has become more free-form, I think. When I look back to the first album, everything was a lot more structured. I would play songs exactly the same way, except for the solos - I would always improv those, but I otherwise, I played them the same way. Now, I have to go back and learn the stuff that I’ve recorded. I did a concert a few weeks ago, and I had to learn the music from “A Place Without Noise”. On all of that album, I started with a theme, and the rest of the album was off the top of my head, so going back and learning it all was not easy to do. I guarantee that I never play any of those songs the same way twice. It’s in the back of your mind that you know that you’ve played a song, and parts of it feel familiar, but getting all the melodies to stay in your head is tricky. It’s a matter of listening to the music a lot. If you listen to it a lot, you know you can do it by ear.
KP: You’re pretty-much the last of the original pianists on Narada.
Gratz: Yeah, everyone else is gone. I was supposed to do six albums with them, but “A Place Without Noise” is number seven. The label has really changed a lot. The music is much different now. They’re putting out more world and folk music, and they have the smooth jazz label now, too. I guess they’re selling records, though. New Age music has taken kind of a tumble, I think. The sections in the record stores are really tiny now, and a lot of the retail record places are going out of business. The internet is killing everybody, I think. Plus, it’s so easy to make copies of stuff.
KP: It will be interesting to see how it all evolves. There are so many independent artists in the contemporary instrumental/new age genre, and the internet is about the only way they can get their music out there. No one else will carry them.
Gratz: If you can sell on the internet, that’s great. Amazon’s real good and has everything stocked, but you can download from MP3. I guess people pay a fee when they download, but I don’t recall seeing any royalties from it yet.
KP: There are just so many royalties rolling in, right?
Gratz: Yeah, right! Digital cable plays our stuff a lot, and every time it gets played, I make maybe a quarter of a penny.
KP: Gee, that adds up fast!
Gratz: Yeah, before you know it, you’ve got fifteen cents!
