Regarding his new studio album, Out of the Box, Quaid said, “We have been together for 20 years and we never really made a real record. I was playing golf and told my friend, T Bone Burnett, that I wanted to make a real record and he was a great facilitator. He set us up in a big room and lent us his engineer and we put 25 tracks and chose 13 songs over a six-month period, and the album was the result.”
On February 14, Dennis Quaid and The Sharks will be playing at The Paramount in Huntington, New York. “We wanted the album to be a reflection of our show and have a live feel. The album is basically our show, and we put in a few new songs as well,” he said. “We love for people to have a good time. That’s our whole aim of doing a show.”
When the band first started out in 2000, their set was 75 percent covers and 25 percent original material, and now those numbers are reversed. “We are a junkyard of American music, so I guess that is called Americana these days,” he said. “The band has such great musicians.”
Quaid listed the late “Man in Black” Johnny Cash as his dream collaboration choice in music. “Johnny Cash would have been my No. 1 choice,” he said, prior to praising country star Tanya Tucker for being an “angel” and an “enormous talent.”
For aspiring actors and singers, Quaid recommended they “do everything they can.” “Keep the fire in your belly,” he said. “You need to keep your love for it. That’s the main thing.”
The key to longevity in the entertainment business is “just being there every day, and staying in there, and don’t give up.” “You can’t win if you don’t play,” he said. “The longevity is about artists remaking themselves about every seven to 10 years. You need to keep moving and opening yourself up. You need to keep up with the trends in music. You need to stay current.”
Digital transformation of the music industry
On the impact of technology on the music business, Quaid said, “I think it’s great. For me, personally, it’s fantastic. I can hear something that I haven’t heard in a long time or something new that I haven’t heard before, and I can have it in a minute, which will lead me to something else. Technology is a great way for artists to sell the material that they have, and they can do that without a record company.”
Quaid continued, “Streaming opens up the market and it opens up the world to more opportunities for people to hear music that they’ve never heard before. These days, music is cheaper than it used to be.”
The multifaceted entertainer also noted the resurgence of vinyl in the market. “I love listening to vinyl,” he said. “My 26-year-old son got me back into vinyl. He bought me a record player a few years ago, and I still have my original Beatles and Doors albums. To put them on and play them again was like listening to them for the first time. There is something about that needle spinning inside that groove. Back then, music was intended to be on vinyl and they produced it with that in mind.”
Quaid also addressed the recent passage of the Music Modernization Act. “I am all for that,” he said. “The good people at BMI make sure that songwriters get paid just like actors get residuals.”
For more information on Dennis Quaid and The Sharks, visit his official homepage.
Read More: Digital Journal reviewed Dennis Quaid and The Sharks’ Out of the Box album.
