Interview with Howard Leese (Part One)
My fourth major feature interview for We Will Rock You is with guitarist and multi-instrumentalist Howard Leese. Best known for his 25 years in Heart, Leese has played with Paul Rodgers for a number of years and is currently playing with the re-formed Bad Company.
Howard Leese has just released his very first solo album, entitled Secret Weapon. I find the title ironic because while almost anyone on Earth who has an interest in rock music probably hears Howard’s playing every day on classic rock radio, comparatively few could name him individually. In fact the first time I interviewed Howard was for a book entitled Unsung Heroes of Rock Guitar. So in many ways Howard Leese really is a “secret weapon” in the arsenal of the artists he has worked with, quietly providing the instrumental framework within which some of rock’s greatest vocalists can do their best work.
Instead of being a predictable ego diversion from an instrumentalist eager to show off his chops, Secret Weapon is a song-oriented record with superb vocals, great instrumental content, top-notch production . . . this is a record that is comparable to the best of anything else in its genre.
I spoke to Howard Leese on July 16, 2009 by phone from his house in California. He was exactly as I remembered him; insightful about music, surprisingly soft-spoken for a rock star, and polite. Though Leese has had decades of success at some of the highest levels of the music business, he retains the inherent self-effacing humility of the studio musician he originally set out to be. Howard does not carry the obvious self-aggrandizement present in many of my interviews.
In this segment we discuss the recent Bad Company tour; why Leese has waited so long to do a solo album; the timeline of the album; approach to promoting an indy release; new business model vs. the old music business model; tracking process for the record; guests on the record, why Howard is a “singer’s guitar player”; and working with singers using the “Ann Wilson Principle”.
Thanks to Howard Leese for this interview! Stay tuned for Part Two, which I will post Tuesday.
