Guitarist Mike Randle was talking to Whisperin' and Hollerin' from Los Angeles back in December 2002, while packing for a trip to New York the following day. With Rusty Squeezebox (guitar), Dave Chapple (bass) and Dave Green (drums), Mike is a member of long established and mild mannered BABY LEMONADE, who have a secret life as Superhero band LOVE, playing alongside ARTHUR LEE on the "Forever Changes" Tour that hit the UK in 2003. BABY LEMONADE are scheduled to be appearing as themselves in the UK through the Spring and Summer.
W&H asked the dumb questions. Mike spoke about Life, Music, the Nature of Genius and some handy hints for taking on the industry.
W&H: Can you tell us something about the early days of Baby Lemonade? We’re talking about 1992 I guess?
We actually formed Baby Lemonade in the Fall of 1992. Rusty and I, we had been friends and song writing partners since we were, like 16, we were kind of kicking around and we had a little flat in Santa Monica on the beach. And he had some songs and I had some songs and we had a little four-track recorder. He would record his songs and leave everything set up and say "Hey, go in and add a bridge or a chorus to the song". I would leave my song and add some harmonies or add a bridge. And we said "Hey, why not ...", you know. And I had played for a short spell in a band with Dave Green and it just so turned out that I left that group and he was still in it but the group had just broken up. And I said "Hey, Rusty and I want to start a new band, are you interested?" He said "Yeh". In fact, the band, called The Almighty High, had just broken up. We had a couple of auditions and we went through a couple of bozo bass players and we couldn’t find anybody.
And then Rusty and I were working at a local independent record store, very like the one in that "High Fidelity" record store and this guy came up and he’s buying like Arthur Lee CDs, he’s got “Forever Changes”, he’s got Nick Drake’s "Five Leaves Left". This is before America had heard of Nick Drake, you know. And he’s got "Never Mind the Bollocks". And then Rusty says "You don’t play bass do you?" And he says “As a matter of fact I do”. His name was Henry Lui.
And so he became a member of Baby Lemonade and we were together for maybe a few months when Rusty and I were in the same record store and another guy came in and bought a Love CD and we were professing our love for Arthur Lee and everything. And he said "It’s funny, I’m managing Arthur Lee" And we’re like, "Shit!" We gave him our demo tape and we said. "Look if you ever want a band to open up for Arthur Lee, give us a call, we’ll do it for nothing." And about a few weeks later he actually called us up and he said "Hey, an opening act backed out of the show at the Troubadour, you know, it's the second to last gig. If you want it, it's yours." And we played that show.
And then after the show we actually went up and we met Arthur and he gave me a hug and he shook my hand and he said "hey, I really liked your group. It was really great. You guys remind me of my old group." And the next day we get a call, from Arthur's manger he said "Arthur was really smitten and he wants to know if maybe you guys want to play with him,"
You see, he had been playing with pick-up groups. He wanted something a bit more solid, rather than just these groups that people throw together. So we had our own little studio. Dave had converted his garage into a studio which is where we made our first record "68% Pure Imagination" and Arthur came down and we played with him, and he loved it. And except for a couple of things where, because he had management who weren’t really that concerned with us and he had done some stuff in England and something on the east coast a few times over the years with some other groups but for the most part we’ve been his main group since that show.
W&H: So what's he like as a guy to be with then? He’s a fairly awesome figure.
Well, Arthur's like anyone else. You have to really know Arthur to really see … No, I can't say like anyone else … Let me change that. Arthur's like any musical icon that you can think of. I mean, I would think that Paul McCartney or Brian Wilson or any of these people are, in the same way, that you can know them but you won't know them at two different levels. You can only know them on one level. And there’s that one level where I was at Arthur's house last night. We were doing a rehearsal at his house and Rusty and I get there and Arthur and Dave Chapple are eating fish and chips and Arthur says "Man, I’ve toured England so many times. I’ve been all over England and the best fish and chips are here in North Hollywood. I told them that too!" And that's one part. And there's another part where he fired our tour manager right in the middle of the tour in England – the last English tour. And he was really upset with him. And you know it wasn't like he was wrong to do it. You see a business side and you see a friendship side and you really have to learn not to take the business side personally. Once you can do that then you got it, you know it's fine. Because as far as I'm concerned especially for the amount of infamy that Arthur has, the level of it in Europe, for me Arthur is very nice to his fans and very approachable to his fans.
W&H: You’re coming up for the Forever Changes Tour in the New Year. What are your expectations for that in Europe?
I’ll tell you. We’re all really excited about it. We’re well into rehearsals. We really want it to be an experience that no one forgets. Our goal is for this to be the show of 2003. And then to even come back later and do it better, you know. This is the first time we’re going on the road with the orchestra. That's a big deal, you know. That’s a lot of people. The orchestra are rehearsing on their own. But we've played with some of them. Arthur's manager has practically doubled the amount from the amount we had when we played in Roskilde and when we played in Sweden. It's going to be a whole production. Lighting and everything. it's a whole show you know. It's going to be really something. It's bigger than anything that any of has been involved in, including Arthur. And although we had offers to do it on the continent Arthur's management wanted to do it sort of exclusive to the UK. Because they've always felt that above and beyond what has happened, the United Kingdom and specifically England has always been behind the group and they felt we should just have this as "Forever Changes UK".
W&H: Is it going to be filmed?
Yes, it's going to be filmed I believe at the Royal Festival Hall. It's going to be recorded as well to be released on DVD. So all the nuts should come out specially!
W&H: I guess the Brian Wilson Pet Sounds thing was part of the thinking?
Interesting you should bring that up because the engineer who is doing the show, David Lief, is the same guy who did the engineering for the Brain Wilson recorded show at the Royal Festival Hall and that was definitely taken into consideration.. Forever Changes and Pet Sounds are two, maybe even more so I think than Sergeant Pepper, those two records are really inseparable from the idea of an orchestra. When you think about Sergeant Pepper you think, “OK, some great music”. And then George Martin puts some stuff in the back. When you think about Forever Changes and Pet Sounds these horns, all these things, are sort of integrated. I mean I love Sergeant Pepper, but ...
The thing with the tour is it started off with the idea. But you have to understand the cost of taking that many people on the road and keeping in mind not having exorbitant ticket prices so a lot of work. All these rehearsals. There’s the strings. There’s the things that the band are doing. There‘s the things that management are doing. There’s the artists the lighting. Everyone is taking a part in all this. The people that go to the Web site are getting excited and they’re buying tickets and they’re encouraging people to come to shows and people are arranging caravans So this is something really unique. It’s really taking everyone’s effort. And I really believe that Love have the most dedicated fans.
W&H: It was my kids who bought me the new Forever Changes CD with the extra tracks. I knew it in the 60s but they’re right into it because it sounds fresh to them.
Yeh. One time Arthur got really upset with me in the studio. I was playing a part and he stopped the band. He said “Hey! Either you play it just like the record, or you play it better than the record!”
W&H: So, where does Baby Lemonade get a look in here?
Actually, our management there in the UK, Mike Harrison, he’s negotiating with a couple of record companies that are interested in Baby Lemonade. Not only to finance new releases but also to release a Baby Lemonade retrospective. Because we never actually had an official UK release. The idea is to release a retrospective to introduce our history – a decade of what these guys have done and how they’ve evolved. A UK tour is almost booked now. Baby Lemonade is going to do about a week and a half of shows in the UK only, I think from the third week of March to mid April. And then we come back to the States. Then we’re going to do Forever Changes in the USA before going back to the Continent, including some British cities. And then we’re going to come back to the UK and maybe do a full month of Baby Lemonade at the end of the summer.
W&H: Some Festivals maybe? Leeds/Reading would be good.
Hopefully, yeh. A lot of those things are kind of political. Love would have a much easier time. When you’re just Baby Lemonade you’ve got to work your way up. We’ll make sure you guys get a few copies of the retrospective because it’s not just going to cover the main things we’ve done. It’s going to include stuff from Various Artist compilations, unreleased stuff and different versions of songs that we’ve done. It’s all in the works.
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W&H: How is guitar music these days? How is the health of it in the US generally? I’m not sure if we’re all that well over here. With the dance thing …
You know, you have the dance thing, all over. Especially in continental Europe. But guitar never really went out in the States. People love ... I would say it’s not really out of style in Europe and not out of style in England either. I think for an unknown group to try and come out and just push guitar heavy over, it’s hit or miss. But if you have some good songs and you play and you create a buzz you can really do it. I mean The White Stripes are huge in the States. And that’s just guitar and drums. They’re from Detroit. They’re huge Love fans. Meg White the drummer jumped on stage at our show there.
W&H: Do you know about the Make Up, and their “Free Arthur Lee” song?
I guess something is better than nothing. You know what I mean? Poor Arthur. A guy goes to jail and then somebody writes a song for him, you know, out of their hearts. But it did put their name on the map. No one really knew who hey were before that. When Arthur was in jail we never even broached the idea of trying to take advantage of it. We were his backing band and we could have easily done it.
W&H: I guess we’re talking about an industry where trust makes a lot of difference?
Yeh. I mean he offered to come down and do something on one of our records. And we said "No. If you wanna come down or it works out, fine." But we don't ever want to take advantage of our relationship with Arthur Lee. But if the tune seemed right, and he dug it, then i would more than expect him on the New Baby Lemonade record. You never know, Arthur may even co-write a song or two with us.
W&H: You’re a busy man. Are you doing more solo projects as well?
I’ve actually finished writing a solo record. And I am in the process of feeling out a couple of companies in Japan and Europe. I’m completely avoiding the American market for the moment, as is Baby Lemonade. Simply because we feel like … well, firstly because America is just such a big place. In order to tour America you really have to have a lot of stuff behind you … money, the label that’s got money, a booking agent. You’ve got to do all the stuff. Baby Lemonade has a booking agent in England, Second Wave Promotion. So we have that covered. We can get a label in England. For my solo stuff getting a label isn’t going to be a problem. So I’m just looking at it, negotiating it, seeing what’s what. Getting a label in Japan isn’t a problem. So we’re sort of OK and it’s just working with our manager to get the right decisions. But it all takes time. But I’m going to do another solo album. I’m probably going to record it in the Spring. I have it written already. But I am so busy, because I have Baby Lemonade and I have Arthur Lee.
W&H: Would you like to have someone like Geffen or Sony doing it all for you?
I’ll tell you. I personally prefer using smaller people. We toured Arthur in the States and we’re part of the Agency Group which is a world wide booking agency and one of the biggest booking agencies around. And they’re great. But, you know, when you need to get to the top it’s time consuming when you need to ask the smallest thing. I’m not dissing them. They’re actually really good. I have friends on major labels: but Baby Lemonade were signed to Mercury Records for about three months before everyone got fired and they gave us our masters back. And that experience really soured me. This is just my opinion. Honestly, if you’re an unknown band and a major label comes along and offers you a bunch of money, you should take it. You’d be foolish not to. If you’re a big name person, you don’t need a major label. Because you would make more money and maybe control your career better if you’ve got a fan base. Arthur Lee has been offered record contracts, and it’s up to him whether he takes then or not. But he doesn’t really need them though. I’ve told him, several people have said, “Look we can start our own label.” You can control it, you know, we might just do that. But it’s also nice to have a promotional machine that can actually turn your career round like Santana.
W&H: I guess it’s not the dollars, it’s the audience?
At the end of the day I always felt that it’s only the people that you have to worry about. And you really have to be careful in the company you keep. Including the record company understanding how you feel about your fans. And they have to reflect that. Their promotion has to reflect that. The company you keep is a reflection of your music and everything: including the record company and the production and your management and everything.
With today’s technology anyone can take a couple a hundred bucks and download the digital stuff on the computer. Work on a couple of instruments on your own and you can make a whole record. The sky really is the limit. Today, musicians control their own destinies more than any other type of artist in any other industry whether its film or painting because musicians have the ability to connect immediately one on one with music lovers. I think people really shouldn’t underestimate that.
W&H: You’ve had connections with the Doors as well as Love haven’t you?
We actually know Robbie Krieger and John Densmore and Robbie Krieger has jammed with us a couple of times. But I actually know John Densmore better because he lives near me. They’re great guys.
W&H: Another name that I was thinking about when you were talking about the Companies was Frank Zappa. Did you ever meet Frank?
Yes Arthur likes his stuff and has nothing but good things to say about Frank Zappa. I never met him. He got famous among people my age with that song “Valley Girl”. He lived in Tarzana and I had a friend dating someone who lived round the corner from him. He was a community sort of person. It was no big deal. He didn’t act like he was better than anyone else. Both he and Captain Beefheart grew up in the Mojave Desert in Antelope Valley where my Dad had a kind of farm. And I’ll tell you, In the summer when it’s windy that area is nothing but dust. Dust everywhere. It’s as if you were in the Sudan or somewhere. You just can’t imagine that anything good could come out of that area. But it produced two geniuses.
The last time I spoke to John Densmore he was working on a book about that period in music, the LA scene from 1966 to 1970. That’s what he was working on.
But there's a lesson people can learn from then, even Arthur's learned it just as much as anyone else, although Arthur has never taken his fans for granted. But it's kind of odd to go and see some bands. Rusty and I went to see a VERY FAMOUS group about eight years ago and they basically insulted the audience the whole night. The singer said, you people over here are cool but people over here can just go fuck yourselves or something like that. And that was their whole attitude. Then when their record sales plunged, last time they were over here they were kissin' ass , on their hands and knees being so polite and so nice. It just goes to show the people you see on your way up and the same ones you meet on the way down. It just made no sense that they should just come out and try to insult people.
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