An interview by Richard Ouzounian - printed in Odeum Magazine, March 2011

“It’s going to be the same, only different.”


Those are the words Gino Vannelli uses to describe his March 11 concert at The Rose Theatre and they should come as a relief to his long-time fans, but also as a welcome bit of excitement to concert-goers who might not yet have sampled the Vannelli magic, but are always eager to try something new.

The 58 year-old, Montreal-born artist has been a major player on the pop music scene for 38 years, but he’s not content to simply rest on his laurels and show up singing the tunes like “I Just Wanna Stop” and “Wheels of Life” that made him famous decades ago.

“Look, I’ll level with you,” Vannelli says on the phone from his studio in between recording sessions, “I know that recording artists have to live or die on the hits that put them where they are now. And over the years, when I’d get tired of singing certain songs, people would give me hell for it.

“So what was I going to do? I had to be true to myself, but I didn’t want to disappoint my fans.”

And Vannelli came up with a novel solution that seems designed to make everyone happy.

“I sat back and took stock of everything I’d done over the years and asked myself how I would sing these songs now if I were recording them for the first time.”

In some cases, that meant Vannelli was going way back into the 1970s and that created a whole new technological playing field for him.

“Every time I’d hear a recording of mine from the early days, I’d think ‘Damn, we could make it sound so much better if we recorded it today!’ and I don’t mean just cleaning up the tracks or sweetening the accompaniment.

“No, I’m talking about using the recording technology of 2011 from the very start. Making a whole new record, a whole new sound.”

And once Vannelli opened up that door, he found that he wanted to reinvestigate the very songs themselves.

“I sat down at the piano and man, I tore those songs apart. The melody, the chords, even some of the lyrics. I revaluated the textures of the numbers, looked at the particular mind-set that had created them, everything.”

The end result, The Best and Beyond, was released last October to positive response and Vannelli has been pleased the way it’s been working out on many levels.

“It’s really working for everybody,” he enthuses. “The people who hear the songs are glad to be hearing them again, but with something new added. My musicians are excited because they’re all part of a sound that they helped create. Let’s be honest; you can’t get a great band to just imitate the riffs of 35 years ago and I don’t want to tour with anything less than a great band.

“But most importantly, I’m feeling more fulfilled as well. When I was asked to write some new liner notes, I found myself opening up and tapping into feelings I had either never known or never acknowledged. I wound up writing a whole biographical riff called Stardust in the Sand that tells a lot about me.”

Vannelli tries to explain the whole process of change that occurred in his music by looking at one of his biggest hits, “The Wheels of Life”.

“You know, I first started writing that song when I was 18 years old. Man, I blush at that now. I didn’t know what life was back then, or what kind of wheels I was going to start turning around in. But I learned pretty soon.

“And when I recorded the version that everyone knows, I was 26.

When Vannelli sat down with the song a few years ago to re-examine it, “I tried it as a folk number, an R&B tune, everything. Then I just asked myself ‘What is this about, Gino?’ And I got the answer. It’s about the fleetingness of everything in life, the sensation of things running away.”

There seems to be a bit of sadness in Vannelli as he speaks, but he explains it.

“Yeah, I’m a romantic and there’s a pain to romanticism, but there’s a welcome pain because it stirs your soul.

“It helps you feel things and without feelings, believe me, life means nothing.”