9/12/2016 Sully, The Sting Variations, and More: A Conversation With Tierney Sutton | Huffington Post http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/57c98a6ce4b07addc4122651?timestamp=1473430482961 1/10 INFORM • INSPIRE • ENTERTAIN • EMPOWER EDITION / US NEWS POLITICS ENTERTAINMENT WELLNESS WHAT’S WORKING VOICES VIDEO ALL SECTIONS ' CONTRIBUTOR Sully, The Sting Variations, and More: A Conversation With Tierney Sutton 09/09/2016 10:14 am ET | Updated 2 days ago Mike Ragogna Trafficbeat Entertainment, Music Biz Vet ( TIERNEY SUTTON BAND’S THE STING VARIATIONS ARTWORK Tierney Sutton Band / The Sting Variations Like 52 Sully, The Sting Variations, and More: A Conversation With Tierney … (
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9/12/2016 Sully, The Sting Variations, and More: A Conversation With Tierney Sutton | Huffington Post
Mike Ragogna: Tierney, let’s start with a little bit of your history. Youcollaborated with Clint Eastwood on Sully, you’ve recorded a Joni Mitchellproject, and now The Tierney Sutton Band today has released The StingVariations. What do you think you brought out of Sting’s works that mighteven surprise their composer?
Tierney Sutton: I would have to leave that up to him. When you composesomething, I would imagine you’re inside it in a way that the listeners aren’t. Ithink, in a strange way, when something becomes iconic or a big hit like somany of Sting’s songs have become, we have a specific association with thesong. I think the best example on The Sting Variations record that I can pointto is our cover of “Every Breath You Take.” Over the years, people have saidto me, “I love that song, but it kind of gives me the creeps,” because theperspective is kind of like a stalker. It might surprise him because we kind ofturned it around and made it a lullaby where a mother is singing to a child. Inmy mind, and actually in the mind of the producer Trey Henry, we werethinking about our children who are leaving the nest now, children who are intheir late teens and early twenties and going off to live their lives. With therelationship that you have as a parent, the lyrics work. “Every breath youtake, I’ll be watching you. Can’t you see you belong to me?” This is what youfeel as a parent, but I’m sure that wasn’t Sting’s perspective when he wrotethis song. So that’s one that I think might even surprise him.
MR: What did you discover as you researched Sting’s solo and Policerecordings?
TS: There were a couple of things. One was that my entrée into being a realSting fanatic is strange, in the same way that my entrée into becoming a realJoni fanatic was strange, because I became a Joni fanatic because of heralbum in 2000, Both Sides Now, which is mostly standards that she recordedwith an orchestra. I’m such a jazz head that it turned me into a Joni fan andthen I went back and listened to her whole catalog—hits and obscure stuff.Other than the big hits, I then educated myself about her deeper catalog.With Sting it was similar. The turning point was the score that he wrote for theBroadway show The Last Ship. I fell in love with that music. I thought it wasliterary. It was beautiful, it was evocative, it was so complete that I justlistened to it obsessively. Right as the Joni record was being completed, I fellin love with that recording. I listened to it a ton and had a conversation withour drummer Ray Brinker and asked him, “Who else is a ‘pop’ artist who hasdeep jazz roots,” that we might look at after Joni. He said, “What aboutSting?” I said, “Well I’ve been obsessed with The Last Ship, and he said, “Metoo.” I think I had the most shallow knowledge of Sting’s music out of anyonein the band. Of course, I knew all the hits. But then I went back, as I did withJoni, and spent a whole bunch of time with Sting’s work beyond The Policeand really fell in love with a lot of things. One thing that didn’t make it ontothe record but that I absolutely love is the Songs From the Labyrinth albumthat he did with John Dowland and this archaic British classical guitar stuff.He’s a really, really deep experimental artist.
T R E N D I N G
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9/12/2016 Sully, The Sting Variations, and More: A Conversation With Tierney Sutton | Huffington Post
MR: You were connected to Clint Eastwood’s film Sully, which ChristianJacob scored as well.
TS: We did it as a band and Christian did too. The credit for this thing is“Christian Jacob & The Tierney Sutton Band.” Clint first approached me as afan of the band and asked me and Christian to come see some of the waysthat he had used tracks from our CDs in the rough cut of the film. We didn’tknow what he was asking at first. We just thought he wanted to maybelicense the music or re-record a few things, but we rapidly came to realizethat he wanted to try having the band score the film. I think he kind of lucked-out because neither he nor the producers knew that Christian is a brilliantorchestral arranger and writer as well. So we went into the studio with theband with literally forty eight hours’ notice in real time with the film, Clintdirecting us, and our twenty-five years of experience collaborating together.� Sully, The Sting Variations, and More: A Conversation With Tierney … � � � � (
9/12/2016 Sully, The Sting Variations, and More: A Conversation With Tierney Sutton | Huffington Post
York―they would’ve been poached by every great jazz musician known toman and they would have never been available to me. But they were heredoing things in the studios and doing projects for TV, movies, and differentpeople in L.A. That gave me a chance to deepen the relationship with them.
Then I signed with Telarc in ‘96 or ‘97 and we did our first CD. At that time,the great jazz pianist Oscar Peterson and the great jazz bassist Ray Brownwere both Telarc artists and they listened to the first record I made with theband. They said to Telarc, “Let her record with her band. They’re a greatband.” When Oscar Peterson and Ray Brown say, “This is a great band,” therecord label says, “Okay, we’ll do that.” We were able to make seven recordsover the next ten years as a band. That’s kind of the dream that everybodywants, but if you don’t have the opportunity to start a process and do it, youcan’t keep a band together. By 2004, we were getting quite busy, so wedecided to incorporate. This was also the moment when Kevin Axt joined theband—Trey just had too much going on in LA to tour much so we needed twobassists. I also decided it was smart to make them my partners. I was alreadydoing the business that way, but I thought, “I should really make this officialand invest them as full partners in this process,” because I felt they deservedit, and it just made sense. Since that time, The Tierney Sutton Band has doneeverything as a collaboration. We’ve made our business decisions and ourmusical decisions in consultation and with this kind of process. I think that’skept us together.
MR: And also I imagine success helped. Your music was featured in The
Cooler.
TS: Yeah, but that was just me. Members of the band have played on a billiondifferent soundtracks over the years.
MR: People might be surprised to find out you’ve already headlined TheHollywood Bowl, Carnegie Hall, The Kennedy Center and Lincoln Center.What’s left? What are you wanting to do creatively that you still haven’t doneyet?
TS: I’m very, very grateful that I’ve been able to do the things I have. I’m reallyexcited about having had this opportunity with Clint. He mentioned to me atthe beginning of this process that Steven Spielberg listens to my stuff. Thatwas kind of exciting, so I’d say the next one is Spielberg. Come on Steven,make an intimate film where you need some intimate vocals, man, and I’mthere. Or any film. I’ll “Ooh” in the background. I’m here for you.
MR: What advice do you have for new artists?
TS: Wow...
MR: Not easy, is it!
TS: In a way, it’s really easy. I’ve been reading a book that a lot of peoplemight know about called The War Of Art, by Steven Pressfield. It’s a greatbook, and he talks about the difference between being an amateur and being� Sully, The Sting Variations, and More: A Conversation With Tierney … � � � � (
9/12/2016 Sully, The Sting Variations, and More: A Conversation With Tierney Sutton | Huffington Post