Inside The True Colors Tour

This past June, I had the pleasure of landing a gig as keyboardist and musical director for the legendary Debbie Harry. Though she still performs with Blondie, Debbie took part in the True Colors Tour, performing her solo material. Though we dug back to the ’80s for some of the set, we also played new tracks from her upcoming album, Necessary Evil. I played on a relatively simple setup, which you can see in the gear diagrams on page 45. The tour also featured Erasure, the Dresden Dolls, comedian Margaret Cho, and headliner Cyndi Lauper.

At our recent show at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley, California, I sat down with Amanda Palmer of the Dresden Dolls and Lauper keyboardist Steve Gaboury to talk about the demands of playing on the road. Here’s a taste of our dinnertime conversation, Keyboard-style.

Tom Brislin If you looked at all the different keyboard rigs on this tour, they range from a minimum of gear — Vince Clarke [of Erasure] is using a MacBook Pro and a small two-octave controller to control Logic, and everything he’s got is coming through there — to a more involved traditional multi-keyboard setup, like what Steve Gaboury uses with Cyndi Lauper. I’m sort of in-between, using a computer setup for some things and triggering a variety of sounds from a controller. Amanda uses a Kurzweil PC88 for piano, which is the most straight-ahead rig.

Amanda, is your approach any different from what you would normally do on a gig where you’re headlining? Did you change anything?

Amanda Palmer No, I always bring the PC88 wherever I go, and if I backline, I backline the PC88. I’ve done a few tours where, for some reason, the PC88 wasn’t available, and I’ve yet to find a keyboard I like as much. But I own six of them, and I break them constantly.

Steve Gaboury Do you bring a spare on tour?

AP Yeah, we usually bring three, because I break the keys often enough that we’ll have two in the shop and one spare. And I like to have a practice keyboard, too. We just rotate them. It’s been strange though. We haven’t broken a single key on this whole tour. Sometimes it’ll be every night, like “There goes the F,” and “there goes the. . . .”

SG You’re playing less ferociously?

AP It has a lot to do with the stage sound. If the monitors are good and everything is well balanced, I’m probably less likely to break keys. But when we’re headlining, we play two-hour sets, and Brian [Viglione, drummer and guitarist for the Dresden Dolls] and I will do these improv space jams. You’ll see, when I play the bass, I play with the side of my hand, karate chopping on bass notes. Those are the nights [keys] break.

TB I thought it was a great idea to have one in the dressing room for warming up. I wish I did that, because there’s so much downtime on the tour. I’ve got to keep the chops happening, and it’s really great to be able to have that backstage.

AP Absolutely. I notice a huge difference, even if I play for five minutes. There’s something about visually re-familiarizing yourself so that you don’t have to spend the first five minutes of the gig going, “Great, okay, this is the piano. This is what it looks like. This is how you play it.” It’s good to just reorient yourself.

I’m usually really lazy about it. I think I’ve done it once this entire tour. And the crew hates it too, I have to really bug them, like “Guys, can you please set up?” They groan, and I’ll feel guilty because sometimes they’ll set it up and I won’t play. I’ll come up with little tricks, like I’ll rearrange papers around it to make it look like I was playing, so they don’t feel like they’ve wasted all their time, loading it in and loading it back.

TB Steve, has there been anything different for you gear-wise on this tour?

SG Yeah, I’ve changed for this tour, because I had to do some sampling for Cyndi’s new material. Traditionally, Sammy Merendino, our drummer, has done sampling. But with this stuff, the samples couldn’t be pre-programmed. They had to be on the fly, just so I could follow Cyndi and start and stop where she wanted. I’ve been waiting for a software company to make a software sampler. They keep calling themselves samplers, but they don’t sample the way a hardware sampler does. So I ended up bringing the Roland Fantom and I like it for sampling. It’s fabulous.

TB Have you been doing the sampling in the box?

SG Yeah, in the box. Not tons and tons of samples, but a few things.

TB I’m using the Fantom module for sampling as well. There were a few things from Debbie’s album that were just going to be easier to fire off as samples, as opposed to programming them as synth sounds. We cut them up into little WAV files and sent them over USB. But I didn’t have to do any mapping. It was just little blips and gnarly synth tweezes that were needed. They didn’t have any note information — just one pitch, one sound effect.

The producers sent me the files. They did the whole record in Logic for Debbie’s new material. A friend who helps me program and I were just trying to really scrutinize the sounds, isolate the tracks, and see what each sound is made of. But it still took us a long time because I think it’s all about the repetitions. If you’re experienced on one piece of gear, you get used to it. You know, like Amanda said about the Kurzweil. That’s your instrument, and you get to know it. This wasn’t my instrument yet.

SG That’s the thing, I miss my very first synthesizer. I had it for years, and I knew it inside and out. When the ’80s started coming in, I was changing synths every three years, and I would feel like “this one’s better,” and then would barely have gotten through the first one. I actually really like the Fantom. It’s been very friendly. When you multisample, you can just put it in multisample mode and it’ll automatically divide the samples up, something that would’ve taken an hour before. It’s pretty cool.

AP I need to change gear, because Kurzweils are on the way out.

TB They’re coming back; they just added me on MySpace!

AP I would love to be their friend on the internet.

TB It’s funny, we were talking about how these companies are now showing up on MySpace, and people like us can really chat about it, and I wonder what’s going to happen now that there’s more user interaction. There are more keyboard players being able to talk directly to the people who are involved with making the instruments.

AP Yeah, the companies can get a lot more feedback.

TB I think we’re all really spoiled; there’s so much good technology out there with the ability to give any sound you want. But you have to go looking and really try to find what your instrument is, and what feels right for you. A couple weeks ago, Amanda, I asked you if you’ve ever used a piano live, and you said that now, this is your instrument, because you’re in the front, you’re singing, and you don’t want to be blocked by a behemoth. You’re interacting with Brian on drums.

AP And I like facing the audience. The last time I did an interview for Keyboard magazine, I was still on the fence: “I don’t know, I might switch to piano.” I put out this open call for a piano designer who could build a piano where the soundboard and the strings were at least two feet below my fingers. Sort of the opposite of an upright piano; a downright piano. It never ceases to amaze me that more people don’t ask me that. I rarely hear people say, “Why don’t you play piano?” No one thinks about it. They see the PC88 as a totally legitimate instrument.

SG Did you guys ever do it that way? Did you start out that way?

AP No. We would go down to New York and play Tonic, and they had a really nicely miked piano. We would use it, and after a certain point I realized we were getting to gigs and I was like, “Set up the keyboard.” The piano might work, but it might not. The keyboard will always work. Let’s use it.

SG And it’s in tune.

AP It’s in tune. We don’t have to find a way to orient on stage where we can see each other, where Brian can see my hands. I don’t think about it anymore.

SG This is my first tour without a piano with me in four years.

AP What do you usually have?

SG A grand piano, and one keyboard on top of it. For our set, this works out fine. There were more songs when we played our full show that was more piano oriented — ballads and stuff.

AP All these bands using controllers in wooden piano cases? Discuss. Is it lying?

TB I’m guilty. I’m a recovering member of that offenders’ club. I toured with Meat Loaf for three years. It was all about the stage show. But I was the new kid in the band, and I didn’t really have the leverage to lobby for a real piano. As a matter of fact, we did VH1’s Storytellers. They had a Yamaha MIDI grand that was fantastic, but they made me MIDI it out to an old Korg SG1 because they didn’t want the mics to bleed from the drums, and I’m going, “Oh no, you’ve got this beautiful piano here!” But the sound and television considerations superseded my need for satisfaction from playing the piano. I guess all is fair. It’s the circus that is arena touring, or any sort of touring.

AP When I started doing more solo shows a year or two ago, I assumed I would get really excited about being able to play on a piano. I was booking these great shows, and doing Joe’s Pub [in New York City], and these museum shows — really cool venues that had grand pianos — but I don’t think I like it as much. I like being square-on to the audience. I find that I have arm issues, and I find that I suffer much more when I play an acoustic piano. I really get tight. It’s just that much more effort.

TB From your experience on this tour and other tours, what would you say would be the biggest thing you need to address as a musician when you go from playing in small venues to these shed tours or larger scale venues?

AP I probably go out of my way to be a little more expressive, so that it translates to 50 yards away. But I find that I really don’t change very much at all. I think I perform the same if I’m in a 200-person club or in an arena.

SG I stand up. If I’m in a small club I sit down. I’m more intimate. I try to encompass the back row to the front row, and be conscious of it. You guys are both on monitors, right? On wedges?

AP No, I have these great new in-ears from Sensaphonics that have mikes on them. So I’m actually getting a great audio picture. I have a wedge on either side, and I have low end pumping through those. And it’s also nice that if something happens to the in-ears, I just wave and have them bring up the wedges.

SG How much audience can you hear when you’re playing?

AP A good amount. It’s pretty good.

SG When I’m singing and they turn on the vocal mic, I’m like “Whoa!” when I start hearing stage ambience. It’s weird — it’s its own little world, even though you’re playing with a crowd and wearing in-ears. But I really like it with keyboards because I can mix. I’m totally mixing and blending with knobs and foot pedals, fading in and out. In-ears are so much better. With acoustic piano, way, way better, because when you eliminate the wedge, and that’s major feedback that’s coming back through the piano.

TB I’m on in-ears too. The whole band is. We had the option of mixing in some of the audience. I get what’s necessary. I listen back to show recordings and think it’s really bold-sounding and full. There are some compromises, but I think the clarity it gives you is nice.

AP When I play solo, I prefer wedges, but I can’t with the drums. It destroys me.

TB Steve, do you re-create any of the original sounds from the Cyndi Lauper material from the ’80s, like the solo in “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun”?

SG We switched that to distorted Wurlitzer piano. We do the song, but the solo is not that sound at all. I can do whatever I want.

TB I think that within the fraternity of keyboard players, everyone’s trying to keep their eyes and ears open for something that’s going to make the gig easier. When it comes down to it, we’re still trying to simulate something. Even though guitar players can geek out on gear as much as we can, there’s still that pursuit of. . . .

AP Authenticity.

TB Right, trying to find something that’s going to connect with you as a player, and with the audience, that really works, and five years down the road doesn’t sound dated.

What is True Colors?

The True Colors Tour (www.truecolorstour.com) was conceived of by Cyndi Lauper both to make a statement against discrimination and to raise public awareness of issues facing the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender community. Partial proceeds from the ticket sales benefited the Human Rights Campaign (www.hrc.org), and the tour also partnered with such GLBT organizations as Logo (www.logoonline) and the Matthew Shepard Foundation (www.matthewshepard.org).

For more on the True Colors tour, visit www.truecolorstour.com. To find out more about the performers featured in this article, check out these webpages:

Debbie Harry: www.deborahharry.com
Tom Brislin: www.spiraling.net
Steve Gaboury: www.livewirenyc.com
Cyndi Lauper: www.cyndilauper.com
Amanda Palmer: www.dresdendolls.com