Shane Fogerty Talks Playing With Dad And Rockin’ With Brother Tyler In Hearty Har (INTERVIEW)

In June, most of our favorite musicians begin to make the pilgrimage overseas to participate in the summer festival season in Europe. They’ve maybe had a few weeks off to vacation with family or hole up in a studio to create some new music. Both of these activities were on the agenda for Shane Fogerty, who not only plays guitar in his father John’s band but hooks up with brother Tyler for Hearty Har. And this mini hiatus was a perfect time to tweak some of the new music coming soon from the band the brothers started back in college.

Neither young man is new to the music scene. Being sons of a rock & roll legend gave them exposure to sounds, recording, instruments and touring during their childhood. But for Shane, being a musician came second to the skateboard. At least for a little while. Although his pop got him a small guitar, the fascination passed quickly; until he was a little older and he saw his brother starting to play. Then he had to play too. For his father, this has been a happy blessing as Shane now is a full-time member of his band – he’s just not the most extroverted of the three Fogerty men onstage.

So while Shane embraces being his father’s son, he also has other musical paths of his own to explore. Glide recently spoke with the young man about his projects, his beginnings, his guitars and what we can expect in the near future from him and Hearty Har.

So you’re on a little break from the tour. How are you going to occupy your time during these few weeks? Are you doing things with your band?

Yeah, actually right now my brother Tyler and I, we work together, we record everything ourselves and we have our own little studio at my parents’ house. We have a new album that we’re releasing soon and we’re working on more new stuff together. I’m also working on another project. I’m doing a little film score for my friend. So we fill our time with lots of music and stuff in between days.

This film score, what kind of movie is it and what kind of music are you putting with it?

It’s just like a little promo type movie per se, but the music is kind of a mixture of light, jazzy, kind of an ethereal thing, with strings and for strings, we’ll use like keyboards, like Mellotron to simulate an orchestra. It’s kind of fun.

Are you doing all this yourself?

Mainly me, yeah. It’s all me.

You said Hearty Har has a new record coming out

Yeah, we have a new record. We’re working with a couple of different people right now to put it out so I’m not sure when it’s going to be out but hopefully by the end of the summer or maybe fall.

Are the songs in the same vein as what you’ve done before?

Yeah, they’re in the same vein of what we have on our Spotify right now. I think they’re all better and they all sound better cause we’ve gotten better at recording ourselves and mixing and whatnot. But yeah, it’s pretty much in the same vein, like some vintage sounds but more modern take on it.

Now for our readers who are not really familiar with Hearty Har, how and when did you get this band started with you and Tyler?

Tyler and I basically started Hearty Har when we both went off to college. We were in a different band in high school and that kind of fizzled out and we realized in college, we took about a year break, and then we realized we missed playing together. So we got together with our old drummer and then we found a couple more friends and we got Hearty Har going. We didn’t record an album until 2014 and we did that through Kickstarter. But then we put that out and it kind of ended up getting rushed and we weren’t that proud of it so we took it down. So what you see up there now is the more recent stuff. Eventually, we are going to re-release the first album but right now we want people to hear the newer stuff so they know what we sound like now.

You and Tyler both do lead vocals. Who determines that?

Well, right now we kind of write our own parts for our voices. Tyler and I have just started writing and singing on each other’s songs more now so we each sing. Like on the new record, there will be songs where we both sing on the same song and I think that’s cool. I think that’s fun to kind of share a song like that. But usually we write our own parts and then we sing them.

Would you say the new songs come primarily from riffs or lyric ideas?

A lot of them come from riffs or little piano melodies but then sometimes you get the songs where you’ve written down some lyrics and it’s like, what is this going to sound like, what do I want this to be? Then you sit down somewhere and kind of bang it out (laughs).

What was the most important thing you learned from making that first record and that you’ve utilized now?

The most important thing we learned was that if we’re going to have other people involved in the recording and producing, it’s not going to turn out the way we kind of envisioned it in our heads. And it hurt to realize that at first, cause we were like, dang, this isn’t going to sound like what we really, really want it to sound like. We can’t make it sound that way cause we don’t know how and these people we are working with aren’t really capable of getting that sound. So for our next record, and new music that we’re going to make after that, we were like, we’re going to try to do it ourselves. It might take a while to learn everything and get it sounding good, and it did take several years of starting in a studio and figuring out how the tape machines and analog compressors and all that stuff works. But we’re pretty happy that we have it now cause we can just go in there any day and record a song and have a finished product in one day. But it was a long road to get there but it was very satisfying. That was a big lesson from the first record, just putting the control into our own hands.

Does that spark any interest in you producing other people?

Yeah, totally, I’m open to it. I haven’t had the opportunity yet but I’m definitely into producing other people. We get people out to our studio and record friends’ bands and stuff but nothing serious.

You’ve been around a studio probably all your life

It’s pretty fair to say that (laughs)

What did you like to twiddle around the most on in the studio?

(laughs) I didn’t really like to twiddle around with anything but we would go in and listen to my dad, his songs he was working on, and I have a very good memory running around the couch. I think he had brought his mixes home actually and we were running around our couch to “Hot Rod Heart.” We love that song off Blue Moon Swamp and we were just like going crazy over it and we were like six or seven years old and it was awesome (laughs).

That’s not putting any hands on any nobs, that’s just having fun

(laughs) Yeah, we kind of postponed the music. We wanted to be skateboarders (laughs)

Ah yes, I think I heard about that

Yeah, we got into skateboarding and then eventually we got into the music in the skateboarding videos and I eventually got turned onto playing music and then more skateboarding (laughs).

Did the psychedelic-type music you seem to gravitate to, did that come from that or from discovering some old records or songs on the radio?

I’d say that didn’t really come from my dad cause he’s not too into the psychedelic thing; he thinks it was kind of a phase that was kind of cheesy (laughs). I see that side of it too but I also like Pink Floyd and some of The Beatles stuff. To us, that was like groundbreaking and just somewhere where you wanted to explore more, some of that using more exotic instruments and changing up song forms and doing things kind of different and recording them at half-speeds so they come out an octave higher when you play them at normal speeds. Stuff like that, that’s a lot of fun.

It’s a very visual type of music too and you get a feeling from it – although most people were high when they were doing it and listening to it

But that’s the thing, you would hope that the music is transcended enough on it’s own. It’s supposed to make you move, it’s supposed to make you feel and a good psychedelic song, you don’t necessarily need to be under the influence of anything, you just feel the music and it’s a good experience and it takes you somewhere.

Like the old San Francisco days with Owsley and you had the music with the visuals

And that’s an important part. Like in LA, we do local shows and we have these guys come out and they have old projectors and they do these oil liquid digitals in the background and it looks awesome. It’s like what they did in the sixties with the oils and the water. I think that just improves the show for everyone.

You went to USC in music but why would you think that would make you a better musician going to college when you had a treasure trove at home? Was it an expansion?

Yeah, I mean my dad, he is a great musician and he has a natural gift for it, but he never learned any formal training or how to write or read music or charts. He had a very basic understanding and could have been some of why he was so great. He pushed himself and made his own little thing out of it. But I wanted to go to school and I wanted to learn how to do theory and mainly improve my ear because a big part about music and being a good musician is having a good ear and being able to sing it; when you hear a note you can sing it back and hopefully relate that to other notes and figure out harmony in your head. To be able to do that on the spot takes years of practice. Some people get that naturally but for me, it took years of practice (laughs). There was a bunch of ear training and theory classes, I took a drumming proficiency class and Pro Tools and learning how to do all the computer editing and recording and whatnot. I thought it was a good all-around experience. There were certain things that might have been unnecessary but most of it was, I believe, very good for me as a musician.

Did they have music business classes for you too?

Oh yeah, it was 360 degrees of music. You had business, how to get in films, music that has been in music and TV, pretty much anything you could imagine. Like, I took a Beatles class one semester. We learned their history, from start to finish. We dissected every little song. An interesting moment, one class we spent on “Strawberry Fields Forever.” It was thirty-seven different takes and which takes they pieced together and at which point in the song it changes take and you can hear it slow down and speed up. It was a lot of fun and just all kinds of music stuff going on there. It was great.

In your dad’s book [Fortunate Son], he said he didn’t help you a lot with learning guitar, you were kind of on your own. So what is your earliest memory of a guitar?

My earliest memory is us being in Guitar Center, me and my brother and my dad and probably mom, and we saw these mini guitars. I think they were Kay guitars and they looked like Les Pauls but they were mini-sized for like little kids. We ran over and were like, “We want these! We want to learn!” And he was like, “You got to practice. If I get you these, you’ve got to actually do it. I’ll get you an amp and you’ve got to take lessons.” And we were, “Yeah, Yeah!” (laughs). We were like seven years old. We took it home, I think we plunked on it for like an hour and then put it down and I didn’t pick it up for another like six years (laughs).

So when you got back into guitar, was it just a normal teenage boy thing?

Yeah, my little brother Tyler had gotten one first and he was kind of the trendsetter in our childhood. So he got a guitar and then his friend got a guitar, and he got a Stratocaster, and I’m like, “Ooh, I like that guitar. I’m getting one of those.” (laughs) So I got a Stratocaster and we were all into skate music so I started learning like Green Day and punk music, stuff like that.

What is so attractive about a guitar?

The look is a lot. When you first see it and then when you play it and the sound is good, then you got a good thing going on. But it’ll feel right in your hands. Some guitars when they are brand new they feel a little stiff and you’ve got to wear them in a little. So when you buy a new guitar, it’s like your duty, you’ve got to wear that in, put some hours on there.

When you first started playing seriously, what was the hardest thing for you to get the hang of?

Ooh, let’s see, I’d say probably scales cause I hated learning scales. So I didn’t want to practice my scales. But over time you play guitar enough, you kind of memorize the fretboard and it makes it a lot easier. But at first, yeah, it didn’t make any sense, all the positions and different positions of scales. I just hated learning that (laughs).

Are you a gadget guy?

Yeah, we mess around with pedals. We have pedals for guitars and Tyler and I also have pedals for vocals so we can get vocal effects when we do live shows.

Do your guitars change when you go from playing with your dad to doing Hearty Har? Like are you prone to use this guitar with your dad and you change to different ones for your band.

When I’m with my dad, I could be on pretty much one guitar the whole time if I wanted. But since we have guitar techs and he’s really very peculiar about getting the right guitar for the right sound on the right song, I’ll go from a Les Paul for something to like a Rickenbacker for more of a brighter, janglier part. With Hearty Har, I usually just stick to my Strat or my Rickenbacker the whole time cause it’s a shorter set and I don’t have a guitar tech to change guitars and make sure they’re in tune and do all that. It’s just easier to stay with one.

So what is your main favorite guitar?

My main guitar with Hearty Har right now is this yellow, we call it the banana Strat. It’s a 1966 Stratocaster and it is bright yellow. The color is awful (laughs) but it’s an awesome guitar. It sounds amazing. Like, I don’t even see the color cause it sounds too good.

Where did you get it? Don’t tell me you went and hocked it out of your dad’s office.

Oh trust me, I did (laughs). I did hock this one off my dad, cause he had a whole bunch of them. I wanted to use a Strat for the tour and was like, “Can I use one of yours?” And he picked one out and I’m like, “Oh, that’s not the banana one.” And he’s like, “No, I didn’t like the way that one sounded.” And I was like, “You didn’t? Can I borrow it? If you don’t need it I can just hold on to it.” (laughs) So he gave me permission to hold onto it. He’s got too many anyway and it’ll never see the light of day. You’ve got to play some of these guitars, you’ve got to respect them.

Onstage your dad is still this young kid getting a kick out of playing. That must be so much fun to feed off of when you’re playing with him.

It’s incredible. It’s like he flips a switch when he gets onstage and just goes mad man. He’s running around and going crazy. It’s so much fun to play with him and watch him just get a kick out of it. It’s so great and you can tell he just loves it.

You’re not that active onstage

(laughs) No, I’m not the wild one. I’m the more calm and collected guy, I like to think (laughs)

Tyler seems kind of wild

Yeah, he’s the wild one. He goes mad. During the Hearty Har shows, you should see him, he goes pretty crazy (laughs)

What about Kenny Aronoff? Kenny is back there, he’s a monster on drums. How much does he push the band?

Kenny is great. Ever since I started playing with him, and it’s been almost ten years, it makes me try to be a better musician just to keep up with him. He’s so professional and he hits those drums so hard and he’s pretty perfect on his timing and everything. It’s great to play with that and have to keep up my game because everyone else on that stage is really killing it.

You took drums in college, you said earlier

Yeah, during one semester we had a drum course, which was a lot of fun. I’m not the best drummer, though (laughs)

Does it make you respect drummers a little bit more?

Yes! Definitely! Drumming is hard; it’s keeping it up for a two hour show and towards the end of it I’d be so tired.

Did you have as much fun at Jazz Fest this year as all of us who were watching?

It was incredible. New Orleans has always kind of been a special place in my family’s heart. I’ve been going there since I was a little kid. My dad’s been going to Jazz Fest since the eighties, I guess … And I actually proposed while we were in New Orleans. I had been planning that a while. I knew I wanted to do it in New Orleans because it was a special city for me and Lacee. We’ve been together ten years, since high school.

When was the first time you played in front of a big audience with your dad?

Let’s see, the first time probably would have been in Los Angeles at the Nokia Theatre. I think that was like 2007 or so, I was like fourteen maybe. Tyler and I came on and we only played like two songs. I did the riff for “Up Around The Bend” and I was very nervous. I was extremely nervous. And I had to use the in-ear monitor pack for the first time so that was weird getting used to, cause you hear everything in the little earphones instead of around you. So yeah, that was probably the first time. Then I started doing that more that summer and throughout the year and I think 2011 was the first year I started playing the whole set with my dad. I was in college then.

So tell us what your year is looking like?

It’s mostly touring. We’re pretty busy through the summer till probably October. After that, I think we’re going back to Vegas and we’ll be doing the Woodstock show there too.

Is the Woodstock show still on?

Well, one of them is for sure. On the Saturday of that weekend of the Woodstock weekend we’re playing at Bethel, which was the actual site of the original Woodstock, but that’s not the Woodstock Festival that is up in the air right now. Nobody knows what’s going to happen. Nobody has pulled out yet so we’re not going to pull out but yeah, it’s very weird. I don’t know if it’s going to happen.

How has Shane Fogerty changed as a musician, as an artist, so far since you decided this was what you wanted to do with your life?

Oh wow, I mean, this may not sound like much but it’s a big deal to me but I think just being able to, like this last week I was in the studio with my dad and just being able to go in there with him and two other great session musicians and just being able to keep up with everybody and play in there and hold my own and at the end of it have my dad come up to me and give me a hug and be nice and say, “You did great.” It’s great that after all these years I finally can sit with the big dogs and get in there and just feel comfortable and have fun rather than just feel nervous or feel like I’m not up to par. So yeah, that was a big change, just feeling comfortable being around everybody and playing my best.

Did you ever want to be anything else but a musician?

Yeah, I mean, I’m still open to other paths that my life might take but music was definitely, and IS the biggest passion of mine. I love cooking, I love gardening, I have a nice garden out in the back of our house. I don’t have any other like business ventures at the moment but I’ve got a lot of little hobbies. But music was the number one for me always.

 

Live photographs by Leslie Michele Derrough; Hearty Har photo courtesy of Shane Fogerty

Related Content

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recent Posts

New to Glide

Keep up-to-date with Glide

Twitter