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From Point A:
Interview with Rich Lowenberg...
I make plans to meet Rich at a local café, and while he's punctual, I'm late as usual. He accepts my rushed apology graciously, although I can tell that he's very hungry and would rather look at the menu than listen to my babbling. We settle down on the plush couches and Rich starts telling me about his day. He's funny, charming, and totally relaxed, and soon I'm laughing and having a great time.
If all rock stars were like this, there would never be a bad interview.
The first time I saw Rich perform at a local bar in Toronto, I didn't quite know what to expect. He looked too preppy to be rock, too young to be folk, too unconventional to be pop. And then he stepped up on stage and sang "So I Can Leave," and I threw all my misconceptions out the window. On stage, Rich is confident, aggressive, and anguished. Off-stage, he's friendly, amicable, and dare I say, a little goofy. But his mannerisms, his tone, it's all Rich. He talks with an introspective, unpretentious air that is littered throughout of his songs. And he's got a cool English accent.
Raised in England, Rich began his foray into the music world almost unintentionally. He began guitar lessons at thirteen, but it never took off until he attended high school in Toronto. He describes his high school days at Harbord as "incredibly relaxed, like a big party," which allowed him to hone his artistic skills with other students who were also musically inclined. The music bug hit, and soon he was making his first CD, a full-length Christmas album entitled A Special Christmas With Rich Lowenberg. It was comprised of eleven songs, which were downloaded from Napster and sung over in an Elvis-style.
His first original song was called "Beer," and in a stroke of genius, the chorus went something like "Beer, beer, beer, beer." "I remember writing home and being so happy because I found a real band who learned the guitar parts," he laughs. "Of course, it was very simple back then - two chords, and it was sung in a rehearsal space."
In December of 1999, Rich, along with three other friends, formed Half Full. Soon they were performing at local venues with other bands. Before that, Rich had only performed in front of his peers. So, was he nervous? "I don't specifically remember being nervous," he recounts. "I used to get, not bad stage fright, but I used to definitely get nervous until we did one show with an audience of 10,000 and it was like a sea of heads. And ever since that show, nothing really makes me nervous."
Eventually, Rich decided to go solo, and he and Half Full parted ways. "[When I left Half Full] there was a lot of tension. I left for a number of reasons. There was an ego clash between the guy writing the songs and the girl singing them," he says, referring to himself and the lead singer of Half Full, Helen. "We were both kind of unwilling to back down on a lot of things. I didn't feel appreciated at the time. It doesn't necessarily mean that it's true that I wasn't appreciated. I think my logic was a little skewed at the time, but that was the major reason why I left." Still, he and Half Full remain great friends, and are thinking of collaborating in the near future.
He cites Jay-Jay Johanson, a Swedish singer, as one of his biggest influences. He was the first male vocalist that Rich enjoyed listening to, and after a while, he noticed that his voice had risen and become much stronger. "Before that, I had Helen on lead, and I didn't have to do anything [with my voice]." He also cites Jamiroquai as a funk influence, Prodigy as a rhythmic influence, and Ani Di Franco as a song writing influence. With a newfound confidence in his vocal skills, Rich embarked on the next natural progression of his career: the release of his first serious and career-minded CD.
[ Rich tackles Point A. Part II of the interview. ]