Keyed Into Performers
Every month we sit down and have an informal conversation with a featured pianist. It could be a famous Jazz pianist, an innovative keyboard instructor or an up-and-coming new artist. This week at OnlyPiano.com, we have a conversation with…

David Lanz

by Gary Paul Bryant

Download David Lanz Sheet Music

David Lanz, is notably the most recognizable name in New-Age music. His gold record Cristofori's Dream became the first #1 Billboard New Age/Adult Alternative album. His album East of the Moon, was nominated for a Grammy. We spoke with David in early January of 2005.

Only Piano: Starting from the beginning, who's been your biggest impact on your decision to get into music?

David Lanz: The first impact was just my family. Both my grandmother and my mom played the piano. And, as a young lad listening to my mom play boogie woogie; it kind of got me excited about music. That's what I wanted to do but I got hustled off to a piano teacher at the age of four and started learning the usual kind of stuff that kids learn.

But by the time I was twelve, I basically fired my piano teacher because he wasn't teaching me anything about pop music. I was steeped in Ray Charles, Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra, that kind of music growing up. Not that you could really hear it in my playing now, and then later on got really more interested in classical music and Jazz. So by the time I was in my late teens after I'd already been heavily influenced by Lennon and McCartney, I started listening to like Bill Evens and Mc Coy Tyner and the music of  Coltrane, Miles Davis and those kinds of peopleÉ Art Blakely and the Jazz Messengers

But, what kind of shined through is more in the composing end of it. I think I'm more of a pop songwriter. I've just kind of infused it with my own kind of take on classical harmony. Every once in a while, I show a little more of my jazz chops but I guess on my last album you can hear that.  In the 70's, I was really enamored with Joe Sample and the Crusaders, and I loved Weather Report.

One part of me that shines through is that I'm an Anglophile, so anything that the Beatles did É and Procol Harum. In fact, I know those guys now and actually Matthew Fisher, the keyboardist of the group has worked on three of my records. He was on Cristofori’s Dream, English Garden and East of the Moon .

Only Piano: I want to talk about genre. I'm sure it's a blessing and it's a headache – is it a good thing when you get labeled as David Lanz, New-Age legend?

David Lanz: I’ve got to say it is a blessing and a curse. I use to do New-Age jokes during my shows. And for me, it was interesting because I ended up studying a ton of Eastern Philosophy and what people would consider some New Age disciplines.  I was doing Yoga in the 70's and I got a hold of some Steven Halpren tapes. Are you familiar with Steven Halpren?

Only Piano: Yes, what about him?

David Lanz: Well, his first record was considered, I think they call it the very first, or the first classic New Age record. It was basically just the Fender Rhodes and him in all of the major keys and he related it to the chakras. So then I started listening to what he was doing and I went "Wow, this is pretty cool" because I was really enjoying the atmosphere of what he was trying but there were no hooks. So, I looked at that and went "Hmmm, how can I take what he's doing and just kind of make it my own and so I started experimenting with what I called for fun, cosmic pop.

That's kind of what a lot of new age music does. It just drones in a key- which is kind of similar to some of the modal stuff that Coltrane and Miles were doing in the 60’s and the 70’s, if you think about it. So I was just kind of boiling all that stuff down in my own way. And so, like I said, I kind of understood when people said New-Age. I understood what that meant but it was very confusing because it's not a musical term.

Only Piano: Do you ever want to just burst out into a ragtime tune?

David Lanz: I do. I play a little boogie and a little stride just to kind of pull the rug out from folks when I'm doing my shows. So, in the world of music business, you know, whenever you break through it all, through any kind of pop sensibilities you're pretty blessed. Because for every person that people hear about, there are a thousand players who are suffering, wishing they could get some kind of recognition.

Only Piano: So, your first album was Heartsound , is that right?

David Lanz: Yeah.

Only Piano: Okay and that was a while ago now, you’ve been in this business for a while.

David Lanz: I recorded that in ‘83; check it out, 21 years ago. People are still calling me now to talk about music, so that's pretty cool!

Only Piano: You've seen a lot of changes in the music business. You've got a big trend toward the Indie music, you've got all this Internet stuff,  CD’s being made at home, what’s your take on it?

David Lanz: The Internet, I think is great. It's really adding a whole different spin on everything. And I think part of what we're seeing in the music business, the record industry is reaping its own karmic rewards, you know.

When I was a kid, if you could get a recording contract, and go in the studio, that meant you had beaten the odds, you know. And now, it's not that way. I mean, a CD is really only a part of your press kit. So, the good news is that everybody and his dad can make a CD now. But what happens is that it really waters it all down.

I guess at one level, the things that are still good end up standing out. You know cream rises and water seeks its own level and all that, but it just makes it harder to get through the noise.

I was just talking to a kid yesterday on the phone, I try to chat with young piano players when I can Éthey have a lot of questions and he's saying "Hey, should I get signed?" I said, you know, you can't even get arrested anymore by the labels.

Only Piano: When I was doing my research for this interview, it didn't take me long to see that other musicians had a lot of respect for you. And from the comments on see on other musician’s web sites, you seem to do a lot of mentoring. What's that all about?

David Lanz: Well I guess I'm just a nice guy I guess I never really grew up so I have this perspective that’s kind of the innocent.

If I was a kid and I was meeting someone, like a musical hero, if they'd have been like an asshole or if they kind of sluffed me off, you know, that would really have had an impact on me. So, I've just kind of kept that in mind and realized we're all in this life together, everybody on this planet is just trying to do the best we can. And some of us may look like we're doing better than others, but we all have our challenges no matter who we are.

I wanted to be, my whole life as a kid, I want to be one of the Beatles. I wanted to be on the radio. That was my first dream. I wanted to hear one of my songs on the radio. And then, I wanted to be on stage, I wanted to be a performer. So, now I've had the opportunity to do all those things and kind of live that kind of dream out.

But then the thing that really snuck up on me that freaked me out and continues to do that, is that my music has been published by Hal Leonard. I've got about ten or twelve songbooks out now. Everywhere I perform, I meet teachers and their flocks of students who are studying my music. And they’re having all these recitals and all these kids are playing Cristofori's Dream and playing all these other songs of mine.

But, I feel it's kind of a responsibility to be a positive role model, the music that I've been blessed enough to create, has worked it's way into all these young piano players consciousness and people are holding it up and going, "Okay, this is what we want to do". And I meet all these kids who are listening to my music, they send me all their original CD's constantly and you can tell, they're kind of, they're imitating me, you know. At least their imitating whatever I was imitating when I came up with whatever I came up with. So, and that's pretty cool.

So, I'm doing more and more workshops. I'll come into a town and do a concert and while I am there I'll either work with a piano teacher that I know in the area or because I’m a Yamaha artist ,I'll go to the Yamaha piano store for my workshop. Most of those stores sell my sheet music. You know sometimes they’re free or they’re real affordable. Teachers will come in with their kids and I answer a lot of questions and try to talk a little bit about composing and a bit about theory and tell the students about my background, everybody wants to hear the story of where the songs come from, you know, especially when you hear instrumental music with no words. So, all of that is kind of exciting for me to be able to pass the torch.

Only Piano: So, what are we up to now?

David Lanz: Well, right now, The Good Life is my latest album. We've had a couple singles off the record. I think there's four or five more radio tracks on The Good Life . So, I'm not interested in going in and making another record just yet. I want to kind of take a break from recording and just kind of keep releasing singles off The Good Life and playing the radio game.

Only Piano: You learn piano. You think you're a piano player and as time evolves, not only do you need to know about the internet and MP3 files and what not, everything is software. Everything their doing is pretty much high tech.

David Lanz: In some ways it'd be nice to know all that stuff and sit around and create on my own with all the latest technology, but learning the instrument is enough for me. I've actually put out two solo piano records in the last couple of years just on my website. And they've done really well.

Only Piano: And the names of those are?

David Lanz: Cup of Moonlight, then I put out a Christmas record this year called Angel in my Stocking .

I remember when I did this record; Skyline Firedance which was my big dream. I went to Europe and I had an eighty piece orchestra and it was just this huge production. It freaked the record company out and they went, "Yeah, this is really cool but man, I don't know" because it came on the heels of Cristofori's Dream, which was very understated. So the president had this idea which was a really good call. He said, "Just go back in the studio and record all the same music just on piano" So it came out as a double CD. One CD was the piano and orchestra, the full boat, you know, and the second CD was the same music just done on solo piano. Whenever I talk to folks about my work in the past, they bring that record up. I go, "Well, which CD do you listen to?" "Oh, we just listen to the solo piano one." And, you know, you do all that, you go crazy and spend $25,000 a day in the studio for an eighty piece orchestra and they just want to hear the piano. So, I guess that's who I really am.

People just want the essence. It's really pretty simple. It's one on one, you know. I think eventually I'm going to end up getting away from some of the technology and it's just so much easier to put up a couple mikes. You know what I'm saying?

Only Piano: I know exactly what you're saying.

David Lanz: Obviously you do because you've got a whole website delegated to the piano and God bless you for that, it's great.

Download David Lanz Sheet Music