Derek Wille Interview-The Final on Vinyl Podcast

I spoke to Derek Wille about his upcoming release, Weight of the Sky.

Keith "MuzikMan" Hannaleck

Transcript

Speaker 2 0:14

Hi everybody, this is Keith MuzikMan Hannaleck with the Final on Vinyl Podcast, and today we are with Derek Wille calling in from Mexico. And um just recently listened to his upcoming release called Way to the Sky, which is due January 5th, 2026. Welcome, Derek. Good afternoon. Thanks for coming in and giving me a chance to talk to you about your new album. And um I looked at it as New Age New Age and Jazz and Contemporary Instrumental all mixed in. Um that's why I found it so interesting and I was able to feel glued to the speakers throughout the whole thing, which is uh anybody's wish if you're an artist, I would think, you know, and uh just really enjoyed it. And wondering if you had some things to talk about with that album, how this all came to be, and how you came up with the title and your process, things of that nature, and would love to hear about that.

Speaker 1:23

Excellent. Well, I'm glad I'm glad you enjoyed it, Keith. Uh the new album, The Weight of the Sky, is uh a kind of a culmination of 50 plus years of me sitting at the piano and exploring and learning and falling deeper in love with the instrument. And um, I've always been drawn to the wide world of solo piano and all the great artists who've helped shape the sound of solo piano. And uh I still remember being six years old and hearing Vince Giraldi for the first time on those Charlie Brown specials, and that spark never kind of left me. And you know, I went on to listen to Keith Jarrett, who amazed me with his fearlessness and virtuosity, and Bill Evans opened my ears to like the melody and the lyricism and the emotional depth of the piano and George Winston and the simplicity and the moods he can create. So with this album, I what I set out to do was bring all those influences together, and not by imitating the guys, but by honoring the spirit of what they inspired in me. And uh hopefully the result is a collection that's always, like you said, moving, it's always evolving, and it's designed to kind of keep the listener engaged while taking them on this musical journey through time and space with me. So uh and uh the name of the album came about from uh I live down, like you mentioned, I'm in uh Baja, California, Mexico, about uh 40 minutes south of the San Diego border. And uh I live right on the ocean, and we have an estuary right in front of our house. So uh there's this marine layer that always gathers over the estuary in the ocean, and it brings about uh uh all these changes in the the sky and the atmosphere, and it's kind of a heavy atmosphere. Uh uh we have a lot of uh clouds and fog that come over. So uh that's what inspired the the name of the album. There's actual uh a weight to the sky here where we live.

Speaker 2 3:19

So oh, interesting. Uh I'm glad you mentioned the Vince Giraldi thing because uh last light of the evening is where I actually mentioned that. That's what I heard. I heard that Vince Giraldi instrumentation and the Charlie Brown holiday cartoons I used to watch.

Speaker 3:38

Nice, yes. Yeah, and that's what I was doing. I was drawing upon upon all these, uh all my big influences in life and trying to combine them all into one album so that it's constantly evolving and it's you know uh there's uh it takes you on an emotional journey, you know, hopefully.

Speaker 2 3:57

Oh, it did me, that's for sure. I love to take it track by track like that, and and you know, get my own interpretation of you know how I'm connecting, and that little spark is lit, and then I just start writing about it, and it seems to work out well. So thank you for the inspiration. I appreciate it. Excellent, thank you. So piano is the main instrument. Uh is there anything else that you play or have played over the years on your recording?

Speaker 4:28

Actually, I'm a multi-instrumentalist. Uh I I I played guitar uh in rock bands from the the m early 80s up until the 90s, and then I switched to piano. I also played drums in some bands right now, and um uh uh played bass was one of my first instruments. Actually, I should say I played bass in a handful of rock bands also. So, and I'm uh I'm currently working on the saxophone, putting many hours into the saxophone.

Speaker 2 4:59

Wow. That's a lot to cover. All self- all self-taught, everything?

Speaker 5:04

No, no, I went to several music schools. Uh I went to the Dicks Dick Grove School of Music in Los Angeles, went to the composing arranging program there, and studied piano there, went to uh Los Angeles Valley College in California to uh to play with a big band there, to play with Woody James's big band, and that was a good experience. And I also went to and I got my degree from uh Seesaw and Cal State University, Northridge. So many musical schools and many private teachers along the way. I tried to take in as much information from anybody I could.

Speaker 2 5:43

Well, it certainly sounds like it could turn into a full-time job and then some.

Speaker 5:48

Yeah, I've been blessed that I've made music uh my my career for my entire life. So, you know, I I always always have friends that you know I I don't wish you were successful, and in my eyes, being able to do what I love my entire life is the greatest blessing that can be bestowed upon anyone.

Speaker 2 6:09

I agree. So, what do you intend to do with this this new uh album that's coming out after the new year? Are you gonna go on tour that? Uh what are the plans?

Speaker 6:21

Yeah, I'm probably gonna do some private events or a couple shows in the California area and uh a handful down here in the Baja area because uh a lot of my fan base is right here locally, so so I'll probably put on a handful of shows of of that uh the new album, The Way to the Sky.

Speaker 2 6:40

I see. How long have you been in Baja?

Speaker 6:44

Um me and my wife actually moved here 17 years ago. We we started uh we built our dream home in San Felipe, which is on the uh Sea of Cortez, the inside of Baja, and it got to be a little too hot there for us, so my wife and I decided to relocate to the west coast uh right below San Diego.

Speaker 2 7:06

I see.

unknown 7:07

Okay.

Speaker 2 7:07

Yeah.

Speaker 7:08

That's the session of our lives.

Speaker 2 7:11

Well, that's good. That sounds like uh you're you're in a good place in your life and have been for a while. Absolutely. So you mentioned some of your influences, and I, you know, recognize all of those, especially when it comes to piano music. And um as far as growing up, uh what was it like for you at home? You know, were record spinning, and you know, if so, what was the the house listening to or did you listen to?

Speaker 7:42

Uh uh my um I grew up in uh my my father was a Baptist minister, and he he taught himself to play the piano. We had an upright piano in the house, and he taught himself to play, and he taught himself to read with without a single lesson, which I thought was pretty amazing. So he all he wanted to do was sit there and play hymns so he could play SATB, you know, the piano parts, uh soprano alter tanner bass piano parts, hymns. And that that was the extent of his musical uh depth. I kind of uh looking back, I wish that he would have exposed me to WC and Bartok and Bill Evans, and uh I had to discover all those people on and Chick Korea and Herbie Hancock and all those guys. I had to discover on my own in my twenties.

Speaker 2 8:33

I see.

Speaker 8:35

Yeah, so I wasn't blessed with hearing uh uh uh deep deep music at my house when I grew up.

Speaker 2 8:46

But do you have a vinyl collection?

Speaker 8:49

Um I'm actually a CD collector and uh DVD collector, so I actually have probably 40,000 CDs all on on uh on DVDs now, so all in MP3 form, but I I I'm a big collector of music, yes.

Speaker 2 9:10

40,000? How how can you even find anything?

Speaker 9:16

Well, that's the best part. Whenever I need to find something, I can go right there and pull it out. It's all in uh uh chronological and order and alphabetical order, I should say.

Speaker 2 9:26

Wow, that's amazing. You must have started doing that a long time ago then, right?

Speaker 9:31

Yeah, I I started collecting back in the cassette days. I would borrow all my friends' albums in the in the 70s, mid-70s when I was a teenager, and I'd borrow their, or when I was at ten years old, I'd borrow their albums and you know, get a 50 cent blank cassette and then copy it. And you know. That was in the days. Well, I started collecting back then, so I transferred. Go ahead, go ahead.

Speaker 2 10:04

Um taping songs off the radio.

Speaker 10:09

Yeah, yeah, I I I got to the point where I'd literally go to my my friend's house and say, hey, oh, I don't have that album. Let me g you know, take it home and then I copy and bring it right back to him. So I yeah. Big big c big collector. I'm a big collector for sure.

Speaker 2 10:29

Music's everything to me, and it sure sounds like it is for you, it's your life, and that passion comes out in your music, that's for sure. Um, and I think uh I think I I think about the piano and how amazing it is. I've come to the realization of that over the years and more so this year than ever. I don't know what the change was, but um I I know I've said this before in interviews, but I can't help uh reiterating. To me, a piano is like a mini orchestra. Do you look at it like that? Yeah, you look at it that way too.

Speaker 11:06

I've had I have twenty people a year ask me uh why I switched from guitar to piano, and the way I explain it to them is that guitar is great for writing songs. You can you know write you know nice songs, but on the piano you can compose for an orchestra. You have the entire orchestra at your fingertips, and it's also a percussive instrument, which a lot of people don't realize the piano falls under the percussive instrument side. And so then you you have your rhythm, you have all the tonality, the lowest notes to the highest notes, and that's why I switched, I tell all my friends, I switched from guitar to piano. It's it's the ultimate mother instrument for composers.

Speaker 2 11:54

Well, there you go. It's more diverse than any other instrument, is what you're saying.

Speaker 12:01

Absolutely, absolutely. You have the entire spectrum of music at your fingertips.

Speaker 2 12:07

How does that work for you when you're recording? I know that you know you're using both hands and one's doing one thing and one does the other. Does that ever like stop for you when you're recording? Like, oh, I I missed it. I I missed that note. You have to do a lot of takes to get it right. I mean, what's that process like for you?

Speaker 12:29

That's exactly what I'll do, is if I I'll I'll play it the best I can, I'll go back, listen to see what's wrong, and then play it another 30 times until I get it exactly the way I want it.

Speaker 2 12:43

You don't mind that? You don't mind the repetitive nature of it?

Speaker 12:49

No, because each time I I play something, I try to change something a little different, and sometimes through those 20 takes, something better happens. I come up with a new, you know, uh uh improvement on the melody, a new melody, a new motif for the left hand. So that's the joy of discovering the song. I'm kind of discovering my own song as I play along.

Speaker 2 13:15

I see. Yeah, I've heard this before. Very interesting. I don't understand it, but I think it's cool.

Speaker 13:24

Do you edit? Do you edit your stuff when you're playing or do you just go for another day?

Speaker 2 13:31

I am not a musician, at least not yet. I have a I have a guitar that was left behind from my brother who passed away years ago, and uh I still have yet to pick it up and learn it, because I know it's not easy to learn how to play guitar or an instrument, really.

Speaker 13:47

Oh, oh, oh, okay. I'm sorry, for some reason, Keith, I assumed you were a piano player.

Speaker 2 13:51

I d I just I uh from your knowledge of it, so No, it's just uh you know, listening you know, since I was a little boy and uh just writing about it and learning about it and you know getting my education that way. And um it's just I I I feel like I've been gifted with something and I just need to share it, you know, and help people out like you. That's the way I look at it.

Speaker 1 14:21

Excellent, excellent.

Speaker 2 14:24

So how long was your process in putting this together? Did it take you six months, a year, longer?

Speaker 14:30

Well, technically it's taken me I I've been playing piano for almost fifty-three years, so it's taken fifty-three years to get to this point. But uh actually all of those songs, all 14 songs on the way to the Sky album, I usually write in a half hour a song. And I'll have the whole I'll have the whole song written out in my mind, you know, the the intro section, the what's gonna happen at the bridge in the middle and how I'm gonna end it and tie it all in together. And then I'll spend 20 minutes playing it, like I said, ten times until I get it right. So each song technically takes the way that I like to create music is about an hour from start to finish so that it just flows right from my fingers and the and the music comes comes in without the paralysis from analysis. And that's a Quincy Jones quote. Yes. If you sit down and you start your you'll your your self-criticism will come in and destroy the original original intention of the song. So that's with every song I create, whether it's a jazz fusion for a you know 10-piece band song, uh composition, I always uh try to make sure that it it comes out quickly and flows naturally.

Speaker 2 16:00

So start to finish, what was it, a few months and you had it done?

Speaker 1 16:06

Uh I actually wrote all 14 songs in probably ten days.

Speaker 16:11

Wow. That's quick. Yeah, I and it might have been 18 songs eighteen songs in in ten days, and then I just throw away a handful that just aren't feeling right for me at the time. I might come back to come back to them later, but uh I all 14 of those songs were written in a 10-day spurt of energy and creativity.

Speaker 2 16:38

So do you plan on releasing one or two tracks off of it to give people a taste before the whole album is released in January or no?

Speaker 16:47

Uh I'm I need to talk to I have I'm working with uh Michael Whalen, the fantastic, amazing Michael Whalen at Artist Uh Expansion. And uh I'm gonna talk to him a little bit more about that, but I think possibly we're gonna put out a couple teaser singles to get everybody's interest sparked before January.

Speaker 2 17:08

Good idea. Yeah.

unknown 17:09

Yeah.

Speaker 2 17:10

Good idea. Especially during the holidays, too, uh, when people are actually hanging around the house, you know, checking out movies and listening to music. They have that time to do that more than usual, you know. So it's always a good time to get the word out there and people can discover you.

Speaker 17:31

Yeah, I'm gonna I I'm gonna talk to Michael about that one there for sure.

Speaker 2 17:36

Well, Derek, it's been a pleasure to speak to you, sir, and I appreciate your time and your music, and certainly look forward to getting the review out there. Um whenever you're ready for me to release that, you let me know. Or we can just wait for the release date so I can also add the Spotify um embed code, whatever works for you. And um I wish you and your your loved ones happy holiday season.

Speaker 18:05

Thank you for your time, Keith. I appreciate it. And I'll get back to you about that and when I talk to Michael about that one.

Speaker 2 18:10

All right, you take care.

Speaker 18:13

Thank you, Keith. Have a wonderful day. Bye bye. You too, bye bye.