Wayne Bethanis Interview #2 -The Final on Vinyl Podcast

Wayne Bethanis is a dynamic artist, a shining star amongst shining stars. We talked about his new single "Happy The Man" and its origin, and many other things.

Transcript

Speaker 0:00

. Hi everybody, this is Keith Muzik Man, Hannaleck with the Final Vinyl Podcast, and today we are with Wayne Bethanis. Welcome back, Wayne. It's been almost a year since we spoke.

Speaker 1 0:13

It has been almost a year. I'm really happy to be back. Thank you.

Speaker 0:17

Appreciate your time. And I had the pleasure of uh hearing Happy the Man, your new single, and uh reviewing it, and it'll be going online today, of course, with this interview. And I really liked the picture of you on the cover in the black and white. All I could think of was like a jazz trumpet player from the 30s or 40s when I looked at that picture.

Speaker 1 0:40

Oh, I'm so happy that you had a positive reaction to that picture. Um it's fascinating because that picture was actually taken outdoors. I was hiking and I had on this straw hat, and um I I was with a friend, and the friend said, Okay, you're looking awfully cute in that hat. I gotta take some pictures. So um several pictures were taken, and this was a while ago, I think this was about four months ago, and I had that big toothy smile going. If you really look at it, you know, uh I'm just gonna have this grin on my face. And so what happened was I thought, you know what? Since I'm since I'm actually releasing a cover version of Happy the Man, this was me on a very happy day because I was outside and it was beautiful. So the graphic artist just took it's mostly my head, and then there's this beautiful embedding of some piano keys in the background, and then the overlap of the keys. And you know me, you know how I love to be really creative with my album and singles covers. Yes. Last year, my yeah, last year Sonic Bloom was actually Grammy Eligible. It became Grammy eligible for um best album cover, so that was exciting. Yeah.

Speaker 1:56

Well, just so you know, when I do post, I I do have this thing that reaches back into the archives. Um, and Sonic Bloom will be part of that. You'll see it there when you go click on it today.

Speaker 1 2:09

Oh, thank you very much. Thank you very much. That album is that album has still got legs, it's still out there. Uh one of the songs, You know Yeah, You Know I Will Remember You, which I wrote, and that was um dedicated to the AIDS patients that I assisted when I was in college many years ago. That it wasn't even released as a single. DJs just separated it out from the album and it landed at number one on the world singles chart. And what was fascinating about that was that I always believe that whenever you produce art, just do it with your best intentions and do it with you know whatever that initial inspiration is, and then let the rest figure itself out because it will, you know, let just kind of let it play out because oftentimes, like with your interviews or with any artist who's producing anything, once you kind of release it into the world, it becomes its own entity and it attracts what it needs to on an energetic level. And all a lot of artists, and I used to be this way, we have a lot of sort of parameters for what we want to have happen with the songs that we put out. Or um, you know, say you put out a painting or you put out an interview. Um I've learned to just completely let that go and let the art itself just find its own way. So it's funny you brought up Sonic Bloom. That marks the sixth top ten hit from that album. So, and remember, it's already it's last year's. It's it was uh released, yeah. So I got I got very lucky, and it was my third big album. So um, I guess third time's a charm, you know. So I was excited. But Happy the Man is a self-standing single that I am actually dedicating to my grandmother. My grandmother, she raised me and she was devoutly spiritual, and um she lived to be 103. And oh wow, you oh yeah, she like had a good run. And before she died, she said, I really want you to do an album of spiritual songs. And so I started working on on that album, and what happened was um, you know, it was me covering a lot of songs. I am a composer, not an arranger, Keith. And one thing I want your I want your listeners to know is that arranging is actually a completely different career than being a composer. So it took me a long time to arrange the song Happy the Man, um, because it's written by the great Sebastian Temple, and he was responsible for the the Catholic folk revival of the 60s and 70s. And that was after Vatican II, which um was providing for the seeker a more informal connection, not only to religion, but to human rights and ideologies that were much more personal. And so Sebastian Temple was his song, Make Me an Instrument of Thy Peace, was actually played at Princess Diana's funeral. That's the level he was at. And so I remember singing Happy the Man when I was a little kid in a choir, and I never forgot how interesting and beautiful that song was. The melody was very simple, the poetry was very simple, but it had a streak of genius in it. And so I thought if I'm gonna do an album, I'm gonna make sure that I'm gonna lead with this song. And what happened was I I arranged the song, and it took me quite a while because I'm a composer. So I had to take someone else's material, you know, I had to buy the rights to it, I had to get everything all set up, and then I dove into it, and I realized that I realized what a genius was, okay, just by looking at Sebastian Temple and trying to arrange a piano, an epic piano journey around one of his songs. Uh, you know, I came in contact with some a real genius. Happy the man who wanders with the Lord. That simple melody was so challenging for me to deliberately arrange in the Wayne Bethana's piano style. But I ended up coming with up with something that I thought was beautiful, has a lot of continuity, a lot of climaxes. But I will tell you this, Keith, when I went into the studio, Julian Shaw Taylor over here in Pasadena at um Bird of Paradigm Studios, he records me. I went over there, I'm telling you, I laid down the the arrangement, right? I I was I was a wreck on the way home from the studio. What you hear is I think it was a it was a one-take. Coming home on the 101 freeway, driving to downtown LA, my hands were actually shaking, and I was I I felt like I had I had like come in contact with something much bigger than just the Wayne train, you know, Wayne and his beautiful piano songs, or my you know, the Wayne that people know. This was different. I was I was partnering with someone who was such a pioneer in a genre that is completely outside of you know my my normal day-to-day music world. So this is a crossover, this is a crossover song for me into the um contemporary spiritual realm. It's hitting in many different categories right now. It's in uh contemporary Christian, it's in inspirational and instrumental. Um and that that I I think that it's really fascinating that an artist like me, who has had a career completely outside of that genre, that I'm entering it as an arranger, you know, of a piece that uh would be considered like a heritage kind of piece. Anything by Sebastian Kempel, and you got all to all your listeners, you've got to Google him. He was such an interesting person. Um, he was raised in South Africa, and that's where he became sort of an acclaimed folk singer, but then he had this kind of spiritual awakening, and he became a Franciscan friar, and he wrote all these incredible spiritual folk songs. They're not necessarily denominational, they're actually quite the words of the ecumenical. The words to Happy the Man, which you I just heard from a radio station this morning, by the way, that said, we wanted to play this, but it doesn't have lyrics. Um I'm, you know, I'm doing something that's really interesting here where I'm trying to have the piano convey the energy of the song without the lyrics, and that was also really fascinating for me as well. So that's the story of Happy the Man. Um, but I did it for my grandmother, and I really have great intentions to do a whole album, but like I said, it's much easier for me to sit down and compose the Wayne Bethanis, you know, song that people know. It's much more challenging for me to take someone else's work and actually arrange it with the Wayne Bethanis style. But I did do it, and um, I am getting a lot of compliments on this song, and so that's very gratifying too.

Speaker 10:00

Well, I have to admit I had no clue the origin of the song. I was thinking of the band Happy The Man, and there's the single by Genesis, and you corrected me and said, Oh no, that's not it at all. I'm like, oh wow, I've never heard of this man that you're speaking of, so you gave me some education there, Wayne.

Speaker 1 10:18

Oh, well, it's very fascinating. I had to educate myself as well, because I mentioned to you um um off-camera, if you will, I was obsessed with Genesis when I was young. I mean, I I couldn't get enough of Genesis. Peter Gabriel, the whole thing. I mean, I had posters of Peter Gabriel, and he was such an um inspiration for me because he was very creative and artistic. I had a we had a poster of him where he was just as a giant flower. I mean, he was so cool. I was just thinking about that. Yes, he was just as a giant flower, right? Because he's so awesome. And then when, you know, my stomping days as a teenager, he came out with an album called Sew, which really truly defined a moment. I mean, that was a masterpiece. And that was a masterpiece. And Happy the Man, I knew that song from Genesis as well as from my choir boy days. I knew how and I also, like you brought up, Happy the Man was this really funky group, real band. So um there happy the man is a sort of a sort of a catchphrase that is um used in a lot of different places in songs and bands and you know and that sort of thing. And Sebastian Temple, I don't I think he predated um Genesis and Happy the Man, the guy. I think he predated that. Uh but I also think as Happy the Man may be a part of a Bible verse, I'm not sure. Um I'll have to look at that. That's interesting, isn't it?

Speaker 11:58

Yeah. And I I'm just curious to know uh what your plans are going forward. You usually don't put out tracks like this. Um you know, I haven't been covering you that long, Wayne, but um, you know, and you you had mentioned something about putting out another track that's jazz oriented. You're you're a very eclectic artist and you're not afraid to stretch out, and that's why I love your music so much. It's always different, always great. But um are we looking at the album filled with a lot of different types of tracks coming down the pike in the and then uh you know upcoming?

Speaker 1 12:32

I'll uh that's a great question, and thank you for that compliment. Um so you know, I'm signed with A-Train, and what happens is if I have an advanced single, they're gonna the from an album, they're gonna release that. But I also have the ability to do self-standing singles. And you're 100% correct, that has never been my style. But Happy the Man is just kind of a one-off because it's sort of pointed in the direction of me doing a gospel album or a spiritual album, but that's maybe coming down the road in in in the future, but not necessarily the immediate future. Um, and that is unlike me to put out a self-standing single. I am also releasing a jazz uh song. It's called Don't Rush Benny. It's unbelievably cool, and um that is going to be on my next album. And my next album is in the ma it's in the mastering process right now, so it's almost ready. And each one of each one of my albums has a jazz song on it. Um I had a lot of success with a song called the Bexley Bop um on my album Measures of Light, where it got viral on TikTok and there was a dance contest to it and everything. And then so then on the subsequent album, there was a song called Ten of Hearts, which won the um Jazz Crossover song on a in uh from the New Age Notes Awards, which you were did didn't you judge that? I don't remember.

Speaker 14:11

I did for last year, yeah.

Speaker 1 14:13

Yeah, so Ten of Hearts won all kinds of awards. And um it must be interesting because you interview all of us and then you are put on judging committees. That's cool. So um, and so each album of mine is gonna have an an upbeat jazz piece, and keep your fingers crossed because I might go down in the history books because I'm inventing this genre called um Baroque Boogie. And it's it's where I take a bunch of it's I take a bunch of classical elements and I turn them into a boogie. So this will be my third one like that. But that's that song's coming out, I think, at the end of June, and I'd love to talk to you about that when it's coming out. Um and but that's gonna be on the next full collection, my my next album. Happy the Man is a beautiful and stirring moment in time for me, that is sort of a self-standing single. And it's funny, you know, I do have a publicist and I do have a a manager, and uh they're they're placing the song in areas we've never really approached before, like the contemporary Christian radio stations and things like that. And so that's that's also a learning experience as well. And the song just got picked up on a playlist, it's on yours, and it just got picked up on another one where I'm actually situated with like all of these top, I guess you could call them contemporary Christian um artists, and it's a f it's something I would never have foreseen in my career.

Speaker 15:57

Well, you know, you hit on a lot of points, Wayne, and that's why uh not only did I want to put you on the the new age site, I want you on musicman.net, because it's so far-reaching and so crossover, you just sit on so many different points. I just want to make sure that everybody gets exposed to the sun because there's an audience out there that's ready for things like this. And um there's so many different elements that come into that one track. And I think what I really loved about it too was the fact that it's like at some point you're going at a slow walk and all of a sudden you're at the top of the mountain, and it reaches a crescendo, and then boom, down, back down again. And you have all these different elements come in, you're playing the piano, and then the synths come in, and the orchestrations, it it's like it's like a beautiful painting, you know, it's this great stuff.

Speaker 1 16:50

I really appreciate that you you uh interpreted the song that way because that's exactly how I wanted to portray it. And you know, the lyrics, the actual lyrics of the song are happy the man who wanders with the Lord, and it's all about a journey. It's all about you know the the paradox that we live in, the duality. You have very high highs and low lows, and um, if you can translate that into something beautiful and artistic, like a song, then you can sort of experience that journey in a way that's beautiful, and it can remind you that even if you're even if you're confused, 10 minutes later you could be on top of the world. And I think that um more to the point of what you're saying about the diversification, you know, I I host and produce the number one New Age instrumental show on Nixcloud, the Piano Garden. And what I would want to say to all the artists who listen to um this this and um is it musicman.com? What what did you call it? Music, the other one you're gonna put it on?

Speaker 17:59

Um NewAge Music Reviews.net and uh musicman.net.

Speaker 1 18:06

Yeah, musicman.net. You know, you get you know, you've had two million listeners. What I would say to artists is that honestly, uh to the point that you were making just a few minutes ago, truly the DJs and the reviewers all they really want is something that they can present to their audiences. And as an artist myself, I've always kept that in mind. I've always thought, well, you know, I do have a penchant for being a pop star, a pop artist, and I am a talking head on my radio show, I'm a personality as well. And since I work both sides of the industry where I'm actually a recording artist, but I'm in contact with recording artists all the time, um, I know that reviewers and critics and DJs, all you have to really do is create a product that they can use for their audience. So know your work really well, and then seek out the people who are going to interface with your audience. I tend to be very like right, and and the point you were making though is that I can be just multi-genre. I mean, if you listen to one of my albums, like I said, there's gonna be an upbeat jazz song, there's gonna be a true new age sort of epic song. There's gonna be basically sort of a a quiet storm song that can be played on Sirius XM Spa. Um, and so I've that's just my personality. I have just many different facets of it. So I understand how each piece is gonna find its people. And that was a very astute thing you said because, and like I was telling you pre-interview, you know, we all think of Keith as just someone who's very objective, and you've had so many years of experience, and you've been so successful at reviewing all kinds of genres of music. And so I think that's why I've always been a good fit for you. You know, I can talk about Peter Gabriel, and I can also talk about Sebastian Temple in the same interview. And so all of the artists who are listening, just do your thing, and you will find the per you will find that person who's ready to receive your stuff because they're clicked into your audience and just let it let it play, and it will. Um and that I always like to encourage anyone, and you know, it's a very interesting time in music. AI is trying to encroach upon a lot of different things, and um, you know, uh I can't even begin to approach that topic. I mean, everything that I record and compose is very organic, and I don't use AI for anything. I've I've had AI touch up some of my photographs, but um it never touches my music. And I'm a Grammy voting member, you know, I'm a Grammy voting member, and they're starting to ask if you're using AI in images and things like that. So it is, you know, the industry is is catching on. Diane Garris from New Age Notes Radio, she's very selective about um pr perceiving AI in music. How do you feel about it?

Speaker 21:35

Well, I feel uh the same way you do and the way Diane feels. Um however, it's been a great tool for me. Um it actually helped me redesign my sites with the code, because I'm not a coder. And I know a lot of people don't like it, but um I've created graphics with it as well that have served my purpose. And it's it's a tool. And it's like, you know, when the internet first came around and computers first came around. It's a tool and it can be used for a lot of good things, but it also could be used for a lot of bad things, negative things. So I just tried to put a positive spin on it and use it as a tool that's going to help me and help me do what I do best. And um, you know, um I'm not a rich man by any stretch of the imagination. I mean I can't hire somebody to create a a website that's gonna cost 20 grand. I've always been on my own with this and created it from scratch. So for me to be able to get that kind of help and do what I did with these sites, I thought it was just amazing. And it's a huge improvement from what I had. So that's my take on it. But as far as music goes, it's yeah, no, not not AI.

Speaker 1 22:49

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I I know it's just the way the world is now. If you if you engage with something with good intentions, um, you know, hopefully you get that mirrored back to you, and it goes for AI as well. Yeah, I agree with you there. I agree with you there. But I'm glad that you like my song because this one is so deeply personal to me, because not only is it kind of dedicated to my grandmother, but um there's a simplicity to Happy the Man. It's such simple words and such a simple melody. And I had Jared Kraft who orchestrated, and Jared does a lot of uh orchestrations for Netflix series, and um, he's also a deeply spiritual person, so there was great spiritual combustion on this song, and I'm hoping that when people listen to it, they're going to just engage with it on whatever terms um speak to them. And and I'm hoping that they'll have the same kind of spiritual journey that I did when I created the piano part and when Jared and I worked out that beautiful sort of um pastel orchestration that leads into some very climactic places. Um the song is a very special uh piece for me within my body of work, and again, I I didn't and I still don't really have any um how can I say this, like any expectations. It just was sitting in my catalog for three years and it had to be released. And um when I heard it again uh right before its release this time, I heard it in a new way, and I thought, this is really something special, and I don't know where it's gonna go, but um I think anyone who's listened to it has been very uh moved by it, and like you're saying, by the different chapters of the song, yet retaining the same melody in each one. Um and a lot of people can relate to their growing up years, you know, and whether they went to church or to a synagogue, whatever, or whether they grew up with no religion at all, there's always that special little voice in your head when you're growing up that's guiding you. And um I think that that kind of innocent quality is very, very um relevant and it imbues the work of Sebastian Temple, and I tried to keep that in this song. It's funny because, Keith, this one song feels like a whole album for me, and it's only because of the sort of intense and magnified spiritual connection that I have to the song in that time of my life. I was a 12-year-old boy who played piano in church. I I made $35 an hour back then playing piano in church, and um I knew all of this repertoire of songs, and my bloodline, my mother is Jewish and Italian, and my father is Greek, but I was raised by my father's mother, and she was a devout Christian, and so she she had the biggest influence on me growing up, but it was never mandating me to choose a religion or choose a morality or choose an ethical stance on anything. More than anything, she just taught me to, you know, that God made us all beautiful and that we're gonna learn our lessons in our own time and not to be judgmental in any way. And so that part of my life growing up is sort of inflated in my mind. We always have these chapters in life that seem larger than life. For some people, it's their college years. For some people, it's a big, voluminous relationship they had. When you scan your memory of your life, especially when you get over, say, 35 and you start to look back a little bit, when you scan the memory of your life, there's always those pockets of time. You know, maybe it was that incredible summer you had or something like that. And Happy the Man for me encapsulates that very early period of my life when, like many artists, I got my start in church, even though at home I was exposed to many different religions. You know, we had a menorah on the you ready for this, the console stereo. I mean, our living room looked like something from the Brady Bunch. And then we also and we had then there and we had a big, beautiful hands-on picture of a rabbi on the wall that I'll never forget. And then we also had a picture of Jesus when you walk into the house. Like, you know, I I grew up exposed to everything. And so Sebastian Temple, I think, is very influential in the bringing together of people in his music because he took the the church and brought it right down to human terms and and said, Here's my guitar, here are my folk songs, and it just pervaded the mass, as in the the Eucharist, the Mass, um for for decades. Um and that he brought a human element to it. And so in a musicological, um, from a musicological place, he's a fascinating character. And then you've got Genesis with Happy the Man, and the and the I I guess are they progressive? Are they prog rock? The other band, Happy the Man. Yes. You've you've got really you've got a really fascinating hook-on, hook-ons with the term itself, but I think they all originated from the song by Sebastian Temple.

Speaker 28:46

Well, there you go. Yes.

Speaker 1 28:48

Yeah.

Speaker 28:48

Well, Wayne, it's been wonderful speaking with you once again. I hope we could do it. I wish you the very best and you know, stay in touch. I'm always ready to help move your music music along and get the word out.

Speaker 1 29:02

I really appreciate that. So the song is available on all platforms. As we speak, my webmaster is is putting up a beautiful page about it with the story of it at WayneBefanus.com. And uh it's also on Contemporary Christian and Gospel Playlist, which is new territory for me. So I hope you check it out and I hope you enjoy it.

Speaker 29:23

Thank you, A.

Speaker 1 29:24

Take care. You're very welcome. Thank you. Bye. Bye bye.