Welcome And Guest Introduction

SPEAKER_00 0:18

Welcome back to Soul Springs where music needs meaning and every story has a rhythm. Today's guest is someone who knows how to bring both nostalgia and energy to the stage in a powerful way. Jeff Waulkner is the driving force behind Mr. Blue Sky, an incredible tribute to the legendary Electric Light Orchestra. One of the most iconic bands blending rock, pop, and orchestral sound. That's something truly un something that is truly unforgettable. I'll get it right, Jeff. With a passion for honoring the sound, the spirit, and the soul of ELO, Jeff and his band are bringing that magic back to life in a big way with an upcoming show on Friday, May 1st. Jeff, welcome to Soul Strings. I'm excited to have you on, brother. Thanks so much for having me on, Gordon. I appreciate it.

First Spark For ELO

SPEAKER_00 0:59

So take us back. What first drew you to the music of the Electric Light?

SPEAKER_01 1:03

So I started listening to ELO probably back when I was around 14 or 15 years old. The Xanadu

Building A 10-Piece ELO Sound

SPEAKER_01 1:10

soundtrack was uh the first exposure I had to them. And um, you know, just that blending of of uh orchestral music uh and and and the Beatles, you know, there's a lot of Beatle influences, uh the vocal harmonies. Uh I've just always been a sucker for harmony. Jeff Lynn, um, he loved layering vocals, you know, and um um just their their their sound just connected with me, you know, as as far back, you know, to when I was 14 or 15. Um, and uh, you know, I've just become a bigger fan as as the years have gone on.

SPEAKER_00 1:42

You know, and you say that it's so interesting. I'm with you on that as far as harmonies and the layering of of this of the vocal soundtracks. You know, they have such a unique sound. I mean, I'm telling you, brother, you're taking on a chore when you do this. It's like, how do you go about recreating that with a live experience with the authenticity?

SPEAKER_01 2:00

Well, it it it takes 10 of us to do it. Uh and uh yeah, I mean, I you know, I when I was putting it together, I I wasn't quite sure how easy it was gonna be because I knew I was gonna need a string section. Uh and I I've just always been a rock band guy and I know plenty of plenty of bass players, drummers, singers, that kind of thing. But you know, I'm I'm not affiliated with the uh orchestra scene in St. Louis at all. So I thought it was gonna take me a long time to find uh the string players that I needed, but it actually came together really quick. Um, you know, and and sometimes that's how it is with with these kinds of things. If they're meant to happen, it'll it'll it'll come together pretty quickly. And and that's that was the case with this. Um, but yeah, it takes it takes a lot of us to replicate uh the sound of ELO because my goal uh from the beginning uh has always been to get it sounding as close to as close to the record as we possibly can. Um and uh you know, we've gotten it down. We've been doing it now for six years, and we've gotten it pretty close to those records.

SPEAKER_00 2:59

So yeah, I mean, was there ever a time where you thought maybe this project's too big before

Favorite Song And Hardest Song

SPEAKER_00 3:04

you started it?

SPEAKER_01 3:05

You know, when I when we first started doing it, and you know, I first started digging into the songs and realizing just how much stuff is in there. Yeah, I mean it was it was daunting. Uh but you know yeah, and it it's it took a lot of rehearsal time. I mean, we were probably in rehearsals for seven, eight months before we did our first show. Um, but uh, you know, the more we worked on it, the more we uh the more we were able to incorporate all the elements that are that are on the record. Um and uh and now that we've been doing it, like I said, for six years now, we've we've we've really like fine-tuned things, you know. So uh but you know, even though we've been doing it for that long, you know, there's there's still every now and then some things I'll hear in those songs that I'm like, oh we're not doing that. We gotta incorporate that, you know, because we're because this is there's just so much going on that it's it's it's it's hard to hear it sometimes, you know.

SPEAKER_00 3:54

You know, has it ever been really a challenge to to do that, to replicate this on stage? I mean, what kind of challenges has that brought?

SPEAKER_01 4:01

Uh yeah, yeah. I mean, you know, when we started out, we were we started out as an eight, and um I realized real quick that we were gonna need a second keyboard player and we were gonna need a second violin player. Um, you know, getting the the most challenging part of of of EO's music as far as trying to replicate it and get it as close to the to the uh record that we're trying to to to to get. Um the the hardest thing is getting the strings where they needed to be, as far as the fullness of those, and then and then getting the vocal right, you know, because like like we were like we were talking about, there's harmonies just all over that stuff. Um, and it took a lot of work uh as far as the vocals were concerned. It took a lot of vocal rehearsals and and and just uh getting in getting in the woodshed and working on it and and fine-tuning it, and now we've got it uh where it needs to be.

SPEAKER_00 4:54

So I'm gonna ask you two questions. What is your favorite ELO song to perform, and what is the most challenging ELO song to perform?

SPEAKER_01 5:02

My favorite is probably Mr. Blue Sky. We always close the show out with that, and um, you know, it was voted like the happiest song ever written by Rolling Stone, a bunch of other people. Oh, I didn't know that. Yeah, and and and it it it it really does make people happy, you know. The second we start playing it, you see the whole place light up, you know, smiles all over the place, you know. Uh it's just one of those songs that just makes you feel feel good, you know. Um, and as far as the the most challenging song, uh probably Fire on High would probably be um one of the more challenging ones. It's it's an instrumental, uh, and ELO has lots of instrumental. Um, and um just musically, uh it's pretty complex as far as the chord voicings are concerned, as far as the arrangement is concerned, it's it's one of the more complex arrangements that they put together.

SPEAKER_00 5:52

Out of all the musicians on in the band, who do you think has the most challenging job with this?

SPEAKER_01 5:58

Uh probably probably the string section. Uh the string section, they're um some of those string parts are are pretty difficult, you know. Uh I I would say the string players and then both of our key keyboardists. Um, everybody's job is is pretty difficult, but uh the string section and both of our keyboardists, like they're the ones who are bringing that orchestral element into it, you know, and um and they're and musically, um um, you know, that in that entails just a lot of, like I said, complex chord chord voicings and and a lot of fast uh our our our patriotic scales and all that kind of stuff, you know. So uh there's a lot riding on what those guys

Rehearsal Process Plus Visual Production

SPEAKER_01 6:44

do, you know.

SPEAKER_00 6:44

How does a band like yours prepare for a performance like this upcoming May 1st show? Tell for those, I mean, I'm sure people always, you know, as musicians and like me and you, people who've been around this business for a while, but I mean, for people who say, Wow, they I went and saw the show, I'm sure their minds are thinking, how do they prepare for this? What takes place and how how far in advance is this all taking place before you? Yeah, I know this isn't your first show, but I mean, you know, leading up to the big show, what is that like?

SPEAKER_01 7:13

Yeah, there's a couple of different elements to it. Uh, you know, now that we've been doing it a while, we've been doing it for six years, we uh we don't require as as as many rehearsals as we used to, usually just two or three rehearsals before every show, and we're we're we're fine. Um, unless we're working in like new songs, which we we incorporate new songs almost every show. Um, but uh, you know, if if we're incorporating like more than one, if we're doing like two or three new ones, then we'll add an another rehearsal onto that. Uh, but that's that's the rehearsal element. Then there's the then there's like the the lighting and visual element uh of the shows, which is like a which which is also different every time we do it. Um, and I work with a production company, local production company in town, and uh every show we get together and we and we you know we kind of make a game plan as to uh how we're gonna approach this upcoming show.

SPEAKER_00 8:10

So when's when's the giant spaceship gonna come into play? You know, that creates the whole stage. When are we gonna say that?

SPEAKER_01 8:17

I would I would love to do that. Uh I'm not sure uh I'm not sure where I would rent one of those uh in St. Louis, but uh but yeah, Elo did a whole tour where they came out the whole the whole stage was a UFO and the thing would open up and they would they would perform like on the on the UFO, you know. Uh apparently they you know it's funny, I I've read articles about that tour where they used that and they they had all kinds of mechanical issues with that thing. Um, and you know, when you read the article about it and you read uh how many problems they had with it, it almost sounds like Spinal Tap a little bit, you know, like all the all the crazy things they had to deal with that thing. You know, there were times when there were times when it wouldn't open up, so like you know, the music would they'd start playing, but the thing would still be closed, and you know, you you gotta think that Spinal Tap kind of took oh yeah some of that stuff from from that, you

Show Count And The Big Free Arena

SPEAKER_01 9:09

know.

SPEAKER_00 9:09

So what what number show is this for Mr. Blue Sky?

SPEAKER_01 9:13

Oh uh that's a good question. This is probably right around our 20th. Okay. We're in that 20 to 25 range, you know. We we we we try to keep it. I try to keep it uh three to four shows a year uh in town. And um most most years we'll do a couple, you know, maybe two or three out of town as well.

SPEAKER_00 9:34

What is this upcoming show? What makes it special or different from the other ones you've done?

SPEAKER_01 9:38

Uh so this is by far the biggest show we've ever done uh to date. Uh family arena. Um, 10. I mean the thing holds 10,000 people, you know. Um, so that's uh it's as far as the size of the venue, and as far as as um what the crowd could potentially be, uh it it it it's by far the biggest show that we've done to date.

SPEAKER_00 10:02

Um is this the biggest show that you've done personally?

SPEAKER_01 10:05

Not the biggest show I've done personally, but uh it would probably run a it would probably run second, second biggest. Um uh but um the the the great thing about this show too is that it's free, you know, it's it's a free show. Um you know, we uh we kind of look at it as a way to kind of pay back the people that have been coming to see us the last six years. Um, you know, just a way to say thank you to them. Um, we're gonna do a huge show and it's gonna be free and we want everybody to go, you know.

SPEAKER_00 10:36

Oh, that's great.

Tribute Work And Getting In Character

SPEAKER_00 10:37

Well, let's talk about you a little bit. So this isn't the only type of tribute show that you do. Give me some of the others and tell our audience some of the other shows that you do.

SPEAKER_01 10:46

So uh well, right now, uh currently it is the only tribute that I'm doing.

SPEAKER_00 10:51

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 10:51

Uh but I've I've been involved in in some other ones, you know. I I was doing uh I did a cold play tribute for a few years. Um, it was a lot of fun. And uh, you know, that uh that cold play one was really the only one that the only other one I've done. Um, but uh but I've you know I'm I'm still involved in like four different musical projects that I that I currently do as well.

SPEAKER_00 11:15

So when you put on that Jeff Len wig and you get out there, what how do you get into character? How do you get into the persona of Jeff Len before a show?

SPEAKER_01 11:25

You know, it's it's one of the uh weird things about doing uh the the Elo tribute is is wearing the wig and the and the glasses, you know. But it's it's one of those things where it's like if you're gonna do an ELO tribute, you gotta do that, you know?

SPEAKER_00 11:38

It's someone I'm all about trying to make it look as as authentic as possible, you know.

SPEAKER_01 11:44

Yeah, whoever's uh taking on the Jeff Lynn role has has got to at least attempt the look, you know. But uh but it you're right though. I mean, when I when I when I put that stuff on, it does help you get into the character a little, you know. And and Jeff Lynn, like, you know, he wasn't uh he wasn't a very flamboyant guy as far as his stage presence was concerned. Uh but I don't know, man. Like when you're when you're when you're when you're putting on when you put on certain clothes, you put on certain costuming, it just it just helps you get more in more more into what you're doing, you know.

Best Gig And Nightmare Road Story

SPEAKER_00 12:17

So give me some all right, I always love to ask performing artists this. Give me your give me one of your best experiences you've ever had on stage.

SPEAKER_01 12:25

Best one of the best experiences probably would have to be uh my original band. I did all original music for 13, 14 years before I ever started doing cover tunes and tribute bands. But uh one of my original bands was called Soul Kiss. And uh we played at Point Fest 7 uh on the main stage at Riverport. Um, and it'll always be Riverport to me.

SPEAKER_00 12:46

But uh I was just talking to somebody else about that. I said Riverport.

SPEAKER_01 12:50

Yeah, that was around 1997. Um and uh yeah, I mean we got to play on the main stage out there in front of 15,000 people, and um, you know, that that was pro that was by far the the most memorable thing I've done live music-wise.

SPEAKER_00 13:07

All right, now we're gonna reverse it. Give me your the give me a great nightmare story that you had.

SPEAKER_01 13:14

Great nightmare story. Uh well I've had I've had a lot of those, so I don't it's hard to narrow it down to just one, you know. But uh, you know, I remember, you know, back in my original music days, you know, we would do we'd like we would do a lot of trade-off shows uh with bands out of town. Like they would come here, play a show with us, and then we would go to Chicago and play a show with with the band that came here from Chicago. Uh and one time we did that with a band from Wichita, um, and they came here and played with us at Mississippi Night in front of like 700 people. Uh or no, it was more than that, it was like a thousand people. Uh, and then we went to Wichita like a couple of weeks later and played with them at a place that we played in front of like five people, you know, and we made we made zero money. Uh slept on the floor of of one of the fans that was there, their their apartment. Um, and then uh and then we then we dined and dashed at Denny's and left, you know.

SPEAKER_00 14:10

They're still looking for you. Yeah, right. All right.

Band Lineup And Opening Act

SPEAKER_00 14:15

So um, how many people in the band? You have 10 members in the band, right?

SPEAKER_01 14:19

We have 10, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:21

So who's all in the band?

SPEAKER_01 14:22

So we got Ben Moyer on bass, and then uh Steve Bonk on drum, uh Susie Eisenbeis, uh, who sings back background and she plays guitar as well. Um Abby Salchmidt on violin, um, Jake Brookman on cello, Jesse Youngblood on violin, uh Steven Winter on keyboards, Charlie Brown on keyboards, um Dave Watkins on guitar, and I think that's everybody. And then and then me, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:51

Uh how long is the show?

SPEAKER_01 14:53

Uh all of our shows are usually around two hours. Right around. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:58

You have anybody opening up for you?

SPEAKER_01 14:59

So we have the a band called The Breakdowns opening up at uh Family Arena, and uh uh a bunch of young kids and they uh they write and record their own music and uh really, really good, a lot of energy. Uh and uh it'll it'll be fun, a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_00 15:16

You know, so that's great. You say they're a young band that that does it on how like what is their age group?

SPEAKER_01 15:22

So they're all like I I want to say in that like 21 to 23 kind of age

Why Young Bands Feel Rarer Now

SPEAKER_01 15:28

group. That's crazy.

SPEAKER_00 15:29

You know, I just I had it, I just had an interview with Dave Glover with his band that's coming out. Oh, yeah. And and we were just talking about that. We were talking about we really don't see any bands. I mean, when me and you were growing up, I mean, I was playing stages, it was there was hundreds of bands that were our age, young, 19, 20 year olds, and we were all playing music, you know. That was the thing to do in the 80s. And now you just don't see live performances by a lot of young bands, you know. All of us guys that are older now, we're still playing. You know, it's still all of us old guys, but that yeah, that's that's great to hear.

SPEAKER_01 16:04

It is it is a weird thing, you're right. I mean, back in the day, and every you know, there were so many bands, you know. Uh a lot of a lot of young musicians nowadays, it's uh it it it seems to it doesn't seem to be as much, you know. Um right, but uh you know, it I don't know if uh if young kids are are as into the whole like rock and roll thing uh as we were, you know. Um their their music interests are kind of more EDM kind of based. Um, you know, you don't see a lot of young kids going out going out to nightclubs watching cover band. You know?

SPEAKER_00 16:39

Yeah, that's so true.

SPEAKER_01 16:41

They're they they go to a lot of like the EDM shows. Some of them, a lot of them don't even go to shows, you know. Um it it's it's it's it's it's a weird thing.

Offstage Life Food And Travel

SPEAKER_01 16:49

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:49

Tell tell uh tell us what is something that most people don't know about Jeff Faulkner that you can share with us today.

SPEAKER_01 16:58

Well, most people don't know. Uh, you know, when I'm uh when I'm not working, uh, you know, I just um uh I just appreciate my downtime, try to find uh um just as as as much of a peaceful atmosphere as I possibly can. You know, uh I'm pretty shy uh when I'm not you know in the music world at at a gig or whatever. Um, you know, I I like I keep things pretty simple, you know. Um I I love going to see music when I can, but I I work so much that it's hard to do that, you know. Um so uh I'm I'm I'm a big foodie, so I I eat out a maybe way more than I should, you know. Uh but uh other other other than that, you know, uh I love I I love to travel too. I I try to get at least a couple long trips in uh a year. Uh just went just got back from Hawaii about a month ago. So um um yeah, those that you know traveling is probably my most favorite thing to do uh in the world.

SPEAKER_00 17:59

So what's your go-to food? It's like you've just gotta have. You gotta have what's your food.

SPEAKER_01 18:05

My go-to food, you know. I love uh I you know I I I try to eat as healthy as I can, but when I'm when I'm cheating, you know, pizza is probably is probably what I'll go get, you know.

SPEAKER_00 18:16

And which and uh whose pizza are we getting?

SPEAKER_01 18:18

So thin crust, there's a place called Shotzi that's out in out near Ronnie Plaza in South County. Oh, okay. To me, they they have the best thin crust in town, and then thick crust would probably be Blackthorn, which is in the city.

SPEAKER_00 18:33

Uh you give me some new ones here.

SPEAKER_01 18:36

Yeah, black black thorn, it it's it's down in the south grand area, but uh it's as close to real Chicago style deep dish um in St. Louis that I've had, you know.

SPEAKER_00 18:47

Black Thorn, I never heard of that. Shotzi's I've heard of, I've never been there, but we're gonna have to try it.

SPEAKER_01 18:52

Me and Kelly love pizza too, and it's like we're gonna turn on the so Shotzi's is just this little hole in the wall, little little bar. Like I said, it's it's it's it's right down the road from Ronnie's Plaza. Um, but I mean, un just unbelievable thin crust pizza. So good.

SPEAKER_00 19:08

That's awesome. All right, let's have a little fun here. Favorite ELO song of all time.

SPEAKER_01 19:12

My favorite ELO song of all time is probably Showdown.

SPEAKER_00 19:16

Showdown. Yeah, vinyl or vinyl or streaming?

SPEAKER_01 19:19

Streaming.

SPEAKER_00 19:20

Streaming. Why streaming over vinyl? I've I would I was thinking you were gonna be a vinyl guy.

SPEAKER_01 19:24

The reason uh for me, I mean vinyl sounds better. Uh analog is always gonna sound better, but uh you know, most of the most of the time I'm listening to music, I'm I'm out and about. Um, so it I I just love being able to have my entire music collection in my in my phone, I can take with me. You know, are you a morning person or a night out? Uh uh I'm kind of in between um you know, I'm

Quickfire Influences And Dream Questions

SPEAKER_01 19:50

I'm I'm usually up by like 8 30, you know. So I'm not I'm I'm not sleeping in real late, you know.

SPEAKER_00 19:55

Now have you ever met Jeff Lynn?

SPEAKER_01 19:56

Uh no, no.

SPEAKER_00 19:58

And if you could, what would you ask him?

SPEAKER_01 20:00

Oh man. Uh there would be probably I would probably ask him about working with the Beatles on the Antholicord.

SPEAKER_00 20:07

Um yeah, great.

SPEAKER_01 20:09

I would probably pick his brain on that. Because not many producers other than George Martin have gotten to record the Beatles, you know.

SPEAKER_00 20:16

Yeah, that's a great question. You know, I've always thought about how cool it would be when they ask you those questions. If you could go back in time, what would you do? One of them would be go back in Jesus' time, and I would always like to do that. But if we're talking just regular people, I would say the night that the Beatles and Elvis Presley hung out at Elvis's house, that would always been a cool, cool time to just hang there with them in that basement and listen to what they had to say.

SPEAKER_01 20:41

That that would have been really cool, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:44

So who outside of ELO, who's your big biggest musical influence?

SPEAKER_01 20:48

The Beatles. The Beatles, the Beatles, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:51

Let's go there. Favorite Beatles song.

SPEAKER_01 20:53

Uh, favorite Beatles song is probably A Day in a Life.

SPEAKER_00 20:57

That's a great song.

SPEAKER_01 20:57

I put it, you know. My favorite my favorite Beatles song changes every week, you know. Every week?

SPEAKER_00 21:03

Yeah, that that's that that that is a great song. Yeah. All right. Dream venue to perform at.

SPEAKER_01 21:12

I've I've I've had the pleasure of seeing a couple shows there. I saw ELO there actually. Uh um, and uh it's it's a special place to to see a show, you know, and it's it's just uh the atmosphere's just different, you know.

SPEAKER_00 21:26

Yeah, well, you know what? I just Jeff, it's been awesome talking to you. I always love talking to you. I always love it when you have a new show coming out and we can promote it for you. Um, you know, your love for music is you can just see it, it pours out of you. Uh I remember going to a concert and you were sitting right in front of me. I forgot who who were we seeing. Was it Toto? I think maybe.

SPEAKER_01 21:46

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. It was Toto. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:49

Yeah. Yeah. Oh my gosh.

Free Tickets Where To Get Them

SPEAKER_00 21:51

That was an amazing. Oh my gosh, yeah. That was great.

SPEAKER_01 21:54

Yeah, that was like the third, third time I I've seen Toto. It's they're just unbelievable every time.

SPEAKER_00 21:59

Well If you love great music and you love ELO, I want everyone to go out and see Mr. Blue Sky live Friday on May 1st. Jeff Walker, thanks for joining us on SoulStrings. Appreciate you, man.

SPEAKER_01 22:10

And I I would mention, Gordon, real quick, that we have free tickets all over town for this show. And all you gotta do is go to our website, MrBluesky Music.com, and there's a link on our website to every location where you can pick up tickets.

SPEAKER_00 22:25

Now if they can't find those locations, oh it's a link to your website?

SPEAKER_01 22:28

Well, they go to our website and there's a link on our website for all the locations. Or they can also go to our they can also go to our Facebook page, Mr. Blue Sky Attribute to ELO, and we've got the links posted there too. And they there's a link on our website and on our Facebook page too where they can download free tickets to the remote to their to their phone. So perfect, perfect.

SPEAKER_00 22:49

And if they're if they're those special kind of people that just can't seem to find it, can they show up at the venue and still get in?

SPEAKER_01 22:56

Uh you will you will need to have a ticket before you get to the venue. But like I said, if you can't go to one of those locations to get an actual ticket, you can download it onto your phone with that other link. So that's that's it's really, really convenient. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:11

I'll make sure they're on the screen for everyone to see. Awesome.

SPEAKER_01 23:14

Great.

SPEAKER_00 23:15

You bet, brother. Appreciate you, man. Thanks for your time today. And uh hopefully we'll get to make it out to the show. We'd love to see it.

SPEAKER_01 23:21

Absolutely. Thank you. All right, brother. Have a good day. Me too. It's a damn thing.

SPEAKER_00 23:31

It's a terrible thing to lose.