Pray For Surf Interview: Phil Miglioratti Talks With Jeff Larson
PFS>>> Jeff, please introduce yourself to Beach Boys fans who are (somehow) not aware of your career in music.
Jeff>>> Hello Phil, thanks for the questions. I myself was not a Beach Boys fan until around 1997. I have always been a solo singer songwriter and after a gig I had one night I picked up the 30th anniversary box set and dug in and discovered the genius of Brian Wilson. There’s always periods of discovery with songwriters, singers and producers, but I was late getting into this music. I am a native Californian and growing up in the bay area, the “Endless Summer” hits compilation was out when I was kid and a Beach Boys cover band, Papa Doo Run Run, played high school rallies in the area every year.
I still remember that time and admit it was infectious music but not enough to detour me from what I felt was natural to me at the time – that is me solo with an acoustic guitar. When I explored the Beach Boy’s music in full many years later, I was recording for a label based out of the Netherlands. They had released a couple projects and had me out there for 2-3 week tours over a 5 year period, but eventually they were not into where I was heading musically and lyrically. Eventually, I did demos of new songs and thought it work with a more traditional beach-pop approach with full blown harmonies.
One of those songs was “Shades” which Jeffrey Foskett and Don Zirilli (Papa Doo Run Run) had become aware of. The idea was to take a solo singer songwriter and mix it with an over the top harmony approach on the production side.
PFS>>> How would you describe the music listeners will encounter on Adobe Home, your new album?
Adobe Home was one of my outputs from the lockdown. I started writing a song a week to help keep it sane and that led to a large amount of material being worked on for years. The first set of these songs is represented in “Adobe Home”. The opening title track is inspired by the book “My California Home” by Leo Carillo whose ranch I live near. He was a film actor who settled in this area and played Pancho to the Cisco Kid in old TV serials. Other songs stem from just day to day experiences, travels, and images here. There is a Beach Boys vibe on several songs along with the obvious America connection (Gerry Beckley co-produced), but also Robert Lamm from Chicago, and my neighbor Jack Tempchin (Peaceful Easy Feeling, Already Gone) whose solo album I produced (Due June 14 on Blue Elan). There is a couple co-writes with Jack on Adobe Home. If you came across any of my work prior, Adobe Home it has all the elements from what had gone before with the time to really follow-through on the production side
PFS>>> It has been ten years since your last album. What did you experience/learn during that decade of time?
Sample Track>>>
Jeff>>> Life. Honestly, I was working several projects for others since I was burned out on doing my own thing. I was also winding up a part of my life in tech, raising kids, getting to know San Diego and other travels, writing and recording with the idea of trying to tie up some collaborations that I had started (Robert Lamm, Jeddrah, John Blakeley of The Sandals, Misc Japan label projects, etc).
The Beach Boys with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (UMG), Buddy Holly, Roy Orbison, and currently, new solo efforts by Jack Tempchin and Gerry Beckley.
PFS>>> Your musical career now includes audio production, engineering, and editing. Is this something you pursued, or did it find you?
Jeff>>>. Gerry Beckley asked me to help organize his recording output around 2015 and that led to getting into the America archives from their beginning to later unfinished tracks. I had no intention of doing this, but I was slowly building a home studio and learning the tools anyway. It was a natural step looking back since I had been recording in some fashion since I was 17. I had avoided it since my main passion was songwriting and singing and I thought it would weigh that down.
It ended up being the opposite. America has seen archive releases, a box set, and I spent six months with the multi-tracks from Warner Music working on Live from the Hollywood Bowl 1975 which has just come out on Sun Records for Record Store Day 2024 I also have worked on a handful of Gerry Beckley solo albums, co-producing, singing harmonies, with co-writes, etc. We continue to work daily on new material. I also found myself playing with America coming out of the pandemic as a sub. These are close friends at this stage so it’s more “what can be done to keep the music going” for their recorded catalog.
PFS>>> When I met Jeffrey Foskett in the late 90's I dove into his music on New Surf Limited, which introduced me to another Jeff recording for that label - you! How did the two of you team-up and make music together?
Jeff>>> I had become familiar with Jeffrey’s solo material without knowing he was even in the Beach Boys. In 1997 I found out about him through a fanzine which covered his “Thru My Window". Jeffrey heard a demo I made and invited me to a session at Gary Griffin’s home studio. We hit it off early on and soon discovered our voices worked well together and also a mutual background in the Bay Area where we both grew up. He was 5 years older, but many of the same places, amusement parks, boardwalk, old store chains, recording shops, restaurants, guitar shops, you name it. Many years later we would meet once a week at all these haunts in-between his treatments.
PFS>>> What more can you tell us about the Jeffrey Foskett Anthology?
Jeff>>> This is something I have been working on for a while now. This covers his career from The Pranks onward. We have some great guests and several very cool unreleased recordings and surprises. I think this is due to be released in September. Before he moved from the Bay Area to Texas, he gave me several boxes of his recordings to organize and take care of. I had recorded and put together his 2019 release, “Voices” on BMG, which started before his diagnosis, but that was cut-short in the end, and we had to take from other past efforts This project started as an opportunity for closure, but it became a thing of joy.
PFS NOTE: My interview with Jeffrey Foskett and other artists>>>
PFS>>> Jeff, design an "Introducing Jeff Larson" EP (4-6 songs) you would want to play for a Beach Boys fan reading this interview.
Jeff>>> Off the top of my head, there’s a full album called “Elua Aloha” that is out of print in the U.S., but Vivid Japan also did a version of. That is a good intro. As for songs:
•“You Remind me of the Sun” – There is a new release of Jeffrey singing the lead and harmonies on the upcoming release that Gerry Beckley remixed
•“Need a Little Summer” - Elua Aloha
•“Place Where I Belong” - Fragile Sunrise
•“Goodbye Ocean Street Beaches” - Close Circle
•“This Summer” - Adobe Home
•“She Comes Around” - Adobe Home
I write all types kinds of songs, but I always seem to write a summer-beach pop tune every year or so. If you are looking at my past work, you’ll have to dig through since it’s not all popsicles and sunshine. Jeffrey does make an appearance vocally on all pretty much every release I’ve done from 1998 - 2017. He was part of the “sounding board” for Adobe Home.
PFS>>> Thank you for taking time to help us get to know you and your music...and Jeffrey, a friend to so many Beach Boys fans.
Jeff>>>. Thank you Phil.
• Rare Beach Boys videos @ YouTube.com/BB45s
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• Surf's Up: A Beach Boys Podcast Safari @ Facebook.com/PodcastSafari
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