Rick Denzien
His music career began as a teen, and through college where he studied religion, philosophy, phychology & recording engineering. Rick’s proclivity for music and cars is in his DNA. Both his parents were semi pro stock car race drivers.
His dad worked the assembly line at Ford Motor in Buffalo, NY. His mom played piano and sang in the choir. Her brother, Rick’s Uncle Charles, was an insane B3 player who riffed on the organ while playing jazz trumpet and recorded his original songs at home directly to 45 rpm records with a portable suitcase and recording lathe kept in the living room.
Rick Denzien is...?
I helped engineer / mix the BloodHound Gang’s Use Your Fingers CD for Sony. Also did beats and engineering on KGR’s Half A Klip and recorded, mixed or produced about a thousand singer-songwriters / bands and artists.
Super important to find something to live for, something that gets you up in the morning or keeps you up late into the night. There are so many crazy things going on right now. I’ve always had a thing for the environment. I love the woods, hiking, creeks, mountains and always felt at home there. The “Climate Emergency” has been a long time in the making.
The industrial revolution is complete with the darkest legacy:
The death of millions of workers, men, women, children, and the destruction of the only place that gives all of us life; all the wars are an extension of that endless greed. Humanity faces a slow, lingering fate if we collectively do nothing. After all, we collectively created the emergency. The solutions are here, and everyone can and must play a part.
The Radiate CD songs, like One Day in the Rain, were made 100% with wind & solar power. In fact, the studio makes most of its own energy up on the roof. We could have recorded anywhere, but zero disastrous health and climate change emissions are what we’re after. It’s a conscious choice, in other words.
Who inspired you to make music in general?
I had a high school music teacher who was very inspiring. At the time, I didn’t pass an audition for the vocal select singer group. No plastic statue for me. But they were doing some standard jazz songs for the school recital and needed a guitar player, so I seized the opportunity.
Didn’t know how to play their jazz songs, but that’s how I got in, and I worked hard after that to keep up vocally. It really helped me. Before that, my mom too was a great inspiration. She was also a songwriter, but never let me know. She was always there to offer feedback and helped me save up to buy my first guitar.
What's the story behind your song "One Day in the Rain", what was your inspiration, respectively ?
Ever spend a day looking for the meaning of life? This song is like that. Ever talk to your lovemate and they say back just the opposite in complete argumentative misunderstanding? This song is like that. Ever think there is no point to life? (Not because of your lovemate) This song is like that too. All these situations and feelings contribute to the song. Sometimes the frustration can be overwhelming, but in the rain, there is truth, a metaphor for catharsis.
What in your opinion, the most time intensive part concerning songwriting?
Inspiration is usually not a problem for me. There is always some sort of something to write about. The usual. Occasionally, a really good idea comes out. The song is written, then the song is re-written. That is the hardest part. The moment of creation is awesome, but then, try to explain it. Just because you hear a song in your head, doesn’t mean anyone else will. We ask a lot of questions during that part of the process, hopefully, we get it more right than not. If the song is a co-write there can be complete intensity between me and the other writer(s) all vying for the best line.
But we all want the same things so together we are stronger & work hard at getting a song finished. There are exceptions. Far Below on the Radiate CD was written in one super emotionally charged, out of body writing session and is on the CD as written without any changes.
Who would you most like to collaborate with?
I have the perfect writing partner in Debra Lee from Lyra Project. She is a fantastic singer, does most of the backing vocals on the Radiate album. She is an award-winning songwriter in her own right and is relentless when it comes to writing a good song.
But I’ve also co-written with songwriters from Nashville, TN, New York, NY and Los Angeles, CA - even a 1st grader. Debra and I met at a record release event where I was the producer of the CD being released, she had a spot to sing 2 of her original songs on stage with one of the bands featured on the project. She came off stage and sat down next to me and we have been together ever since. Honestly, I don’t even remember the name of the band at all.
What are your "All time Top 3 Songs", right now, in this second?
Losing My Religion – REM
Blinding Lights - The Weeknd (Reminds me of Teasing Me by Rick Denzien)
In Your Eyes - Peter Gabriel
What's your most useful talent besides music?
I can fix a lot of things. The roof on the studio needed to be redone. So, I found a roofing material made from recycled tires and plastic bottles – EcoStar – and now have a roof that will last for over 100 years. While I was at it, I installed all the flashing & mounts needed for proper solar array installation. Now the place can run 21 hours a day off grid and has produced 41-million-watt hours of power since 2016.
The entire place is now off fossil fuel for everything including transportation. I also built EV charge stations from open-source parts and wired them directly to the solar system. Now our friends and travelers can charge up their electric vehicles for free.
What’s next for you?
I have most of the Blinded Eyes Album finished. It is a 21-song double CD project, a tip back to the Exit 21 CD that got so many great reviews.
We just took a 3 week break and drove our EV 10,000 miles, which broke the longest music tour in an EV 8,000 mile record we set back in 2019-20 – pre Covid. We did write songs but didn’t perform this time. Met many great people and saw so many great things.
We toured national parks in Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, Montana, and South Dakota - went to Crazy Horse, SD – they gave us a couple of big chunks of the mountain being carved so, we have a bit of the sacred Black Hills around our rain garden now. There are charge stations everywhere and we spent only $429 total for our “fuel” – electricity. Saved 9,500 pound of pollution. We could not have afforded the trip if it were not for the EV and low charging costs.
We worked our way up from a Nissan Leaf in 2013 to a Tesla in 2018. Maybe we can do a CD from inside the EV! After “Blinded Eyes” The next album is already in the studio called “Green Sky”.
