Bee Gees

How often do you hear a new record that makes you sit back and smile…how often do you hear a new record that takes you back to the greatest moments of your past and yet is firmly rooted in the present…how often do you listen to a record that makes you feel good today and know you’re going to be playing it tomorrow and for a thousand tomorrows?

The answer is that it happens all too rarely, which is why the arrival of This Is Where I Came In is so exciting. Because the truth is, there’s nobody else on the planet doing what the Bee Gees can do…digging deep into their hearts and coming up with songs and hooks and harmonies that become instant favorites, CD tracks you can’t hear often enough.

For This Is Where I Came In, the Bee Gees have created another landmark record by focusing on what they’ve always done best, striking that perfect balance of melody and harmony and rhythm. Then, taking the road less traveled, they have somehow made a record that simultaneously both sounds like nothing else on the radio and at the same time, like music you just know is gonna fill the airwaves.

The Bee Gees have done it by stripping back the production layers from their recent acclaimed studio work (1997’s multi-platinum Still Waters Run Deep) to expose their souls…to lay bare the kind of pure rock and orchestral pop with which they first established their reputation back in 1967. Which is how the record got its name.

It’s called This Is Where I Came In because the Bee Gees latest album, their 28th studio record, is clearly a return to their earliest musical style, the “beat group” sounds that first launched them as an international sensation. But it’s not just the music that’s rootsy. The album itself is about the Bee Gees deep personal connections.

“This Is Where I Came In is really about us” Barry admits, “this is where we came in. It’s our way of saying that nothing ever really changes. That music really doesn’t ever really change. There are only so many notes on a piano. There are millions of variations of course, but, this album is, is us, it’s very honest, and it reflects our feelings about everything that’s happened to us in the past 30 years.”

As Robin Gibb reveals, “The record is kind of full circle. I like that title because it kind of speaks about our, whole career. What I also like about it is musically, it’s filed with all kind of sounds, of elements.”

“The title track” Maurice adds, “is a very Beatleish type of feeling. We actually sort of went back to the way we recorded in the late ’60s. We went back to that stage where it’s piano, bass, drums. In fact, the whole album takes me back to our Beatle period. Because it’s all acoustic. A lot of live drums on this album. Mixed together with some keyboard programming, but mostly done live. We wanted that live feel, particularly in the opening track.” Barry concurs: “It’s back to basics, it’s back to live performance. It’s back to playing music as opposed to programming music. So I’d say there’s a lot more honesty on this album.”

Unlike previous Bee Gees albums, which might have originated with the brothers spending weeks and months writing the songs as a team, This Is Where I Came In was done quite differently, almost “alone together.”

Each of the brothers went into the studio and created several tracks on his own, then they got together to finish writing and recording the songs. Robin explains how it worked. “The one thing I like about what we’ve done on the new album is that we decided to take time out and the three of us, to individually go off and do our own thing in another studio, wherever that may be, and contribute to the album in or own way. So Barry went off and did his. I went to London and did mine. Maurice went off and did his. And over a period of six or seven months, we did about three or four tracks each and then we came back together and then we did three or four tracks together, together as the Bee Gees in the studio. I loved this way of working.” So will the listener…there’s nothing studied or forced about the album, and the diverse styles give it a real freshness.

As you listen and hear songs written in different styles, Barry believes that this “variety is the key on this album. The idea of not making an album of all the same kind of songs appealed to us this time. Been much more refreshing to have a song of a certain style, like ‘Technicolor Dreams’ or ‘This Is Where I Came In.’ It’s really not like something we’ve done before.”

To Robin, this working method was so old that it was new. “What we’re doing on this album is what we used to do a long time ago. In terms that we would experiment on our own in different ways; there’s ingredients that we used to do and it’s kind of come full circle.

From a production standpoint, Barry feels “there’s a lot more real Bee Gees on this album than multi-layered, strange-sounding harmonies and all that stuff. We didn’t go that direction at all, you know. And I think we were refreshed by that. So it’s, it’s more pure.” Maurice, who is the Bee Gees’ “Mr. Gadget” was glad to see today’s studio technology take a back seat. “This time was a lot more fun.”

Maurice also believes it made sense not to rely on machines because “we just wanted to rock a bit more.” That also affected the way the group put down their vocals. They captured the original Bee Gees sound, as Maurice explains, by getting back to how they used to record. “We just wanted the three of us out there together and one microphone singing the harmony on this song. And that’s what we did. And for the whole record, on each song, it was two takes for the vocals. Okay, let’s finish, next. It was like, whoa, this is good stuff, this is great fun, you know, we were recording just like we used to do.”

Additionally, on the lead vocals, the style is very much in tune with classic Bee Gees records. Maurice points out how the brothers returned to traditional lead vocal exchanges “which was always a mixture of the two of them. For example, on ‘Wedding Day,’ Barry sings the verse, Robin sings the chorus, and it’s taken from one person to the other. And this is something that’s not very done often, often these days, with people in groups. ” Similarly, as Maurice notes, “on ‘The Extra Mile’ there’s Barry doing the verses and stuff and on the chorus, it’s once again Robin with that incredible voice of his,” that unique, instantly identifiable sound that is filled with pathos and power.

In the past, the Bee Gees had co-produced many of their most successful albums in the 1960s and 1970s (including the mega platinum Spirits Having Flown). But on recent records, they worked with some of the most successful producers in the world. Barry explains that those collaborations were “a great benefit to us. It widened our spectrum. We learned things about ourselves musically that we didn’t know. After all this time, you wouldn’t think that’s really that possible, but it certainly is. And we learned that we still have more to learn. So, I think it was a fantastic thing to do. I came out of it realizing that it was important that we did it. It was important to find out how other producers felt, and that really counted at that point in time.”

But for this record, the Bee Gees decided to return to the controls. Again, Barry. “Now we’re using that knowledge. We’re using that experience of working with all those people [on other records] for this album.”

Of course, there would be no canvas to paint on…no music on which to use their production expertise…if the brothers Gibb hadn’t also somehow managed to write yet another collection of memorable songs, songs that tell stories drawn from their own intensely personal experiences, as men, lovers, fathers, entertainers, song with melodies and lyrics that provoke the spirit, touch, the heart, and move your feet.

Barry, who rarely talks of the inspiration for his music, confides that “all my love songs are based fundamentally on my relationship with Linda [Barry’s wife of 30 years]. That is life. That’s where you draw from. You draw on those emotions.” Barry also believes that “‘Technicolor Dreams’ speaks volumes. “But it’s very subjective. It could be about anything. Some people dream in color. Some people dream in black and white. I happen to dream in color. It’s just the nature of my brain. But I very rarely meet people who do dream in color, so I find that unusual. And that’s where the idea came from. But it’s also a love story. I think that’s a really good song. I’m proud of that song.”

One of the most emotionally compelling songs on the album is “The Extra Mile.” Ironically, this song wasn’t originally written for this album; the brothers composed it for the Sydney Olympic Games. Even though the song was created as an inspirational tribute to the athletes of the Olympiad, Maurice acknowledges how “it’s funny how you can write things and not even know that you’re singing about yourself sometimes.” Barry adds, “‘The Extra Mile’ is as an introspective song. It’s always about us in some way, in one way or another, you know?

Robin feels the song applies to the Bee Gees determination to always do better, “going the extra mile is to keep the enthusiasm about what you do going. It’s the key to any kind of, and I know it’s a horrible word, longevity, or any kind of sustained success in your career. But we just love what we do and what we’ve been doing and, we can’t do anything else and I think that’s the bottom line.” With a sly smile, Robin adds, “I’ve tried doing plumbing, I’ve tried sewage works and gynecology.”

After the comic relief, Robin continues, dead serious. “I’ve tried everything, but this is what I come back to, this is what I love doing. If you’re enthusiastic about it, if you have that sense of wonder about it and we’ve always loved what we’ve done, then you just keep going.”

There’s no question that their passion for music-making is still very strong. You hear and feel that love in their still-magical vocals. Defying all logic, the Bee Gees today sing as well if not better than ever, and on the new CD, each brother take his turn in the vocal spotlight. Throughout, the trio’s harmonies are as “spot on” perfect as ever.

Great songs, retro-cool production, amazing vocals—the Bee Gees have once again delivered the musical goods. Now, it’s up to us…the listeners to complete the cycle.

The group’s senior advisor, Left Bank’s Allen Kovac, thinks the record is perfect for today because “it’s exactly what isn’t happening in music. It’s real instruments, real voices, real musicians and it’s great lyrics and melodies that I think are going to catch people emotionally in a way that music used to.”

For nearly a decade, it’s been up to Kovac and his Left Bank marketing team to get the Bee Gees music heard. Kovac thinks that this time out, the challenge will not only be met but will be the Bee Gees unprecedented 5th decade of success as trend-setting, chart-busting artists. “With this new music,” Kovac believes, “the Bee Gees are going to set another trend. It will give a lot of ideas to a lot of artists. They’ll hear the Bee Gees satisfying the audience in a different way than the processed music that they’re used to hearing today. And it will also give the audience an opportunity to hear real instruments, real voices, real performances by musicians. I believe the Bee Gees do it better than anyone.”

That’s a belief shared by millions all over the planet, millions who have been anxiously awaiting the latest tales from the brothers Gibb. So here it is…at last…This Is Where I Came In. And whether you’re a lifelong Bee Gees fan or hearing them for the first time, for all of us, this album is “where we all came in.”