As nomadic a life as he’s led thus far, Rich Price is finally grounded – in a way. The world has stayed static just long enough to allow him to set up a home in Alexandria, VA, where he is planning his upcoming wedding. He’s hanging out in the backyard of his fiancée’s house, enjoying the warm spring sun that’s finally found its way to his current hemisphere. His pending nuptials are just one of a number of changes Price has gone through in the past several years, but he can’t hide his excitement about this one. “My one responsibility is to pick the band,” he says about the big event, with an agreeable smile in his voice. “I’d like to play a few songs, but I’d like to enjoy it.”
It would seem now, at least in the traditional sense, that Rich Price might be settling down. But things in his life have never been traditional, just has his path to music has had its unique stretches. His English mother and American father met in Nigeria, and they raised their family in a sort of continental hopscotch – Rich has lived everywhere from Hong Kong to England to the Ivory Coast. That global roaming taught him to be aware of his surroundings and appreciate change in his life, as well as to grow closer to those around him.
”My sister lives in the Middle East,” he says. “And I just read a letter from her where she says something to the effect of ‘Our bond is strong, and it’s been forged in the white heat of motion.’ I just thought that was a great way to put it. Our perspectives have been shaped in that ‘white heat of motion’. Somehow, life on the road as a traveling musician seems a fitting way to continue that.”
‘White Heat of Motion’. I tell Price there is a great song lyric in there somewhere. “I told my fiancée that I’m stealing that one,” he replies. The phrase seems to match his sound, too. Often described as literate folk rock, Price’s songs are set to a pensive simmer. He makes his points in hushed tones, the personification of the self-penned lyric “calm, cool, and full of steam.” His voice is like chilled water on hot coals, his words rising up and disappearing just when you thought you might have figured out where they came from. Proud of his whispered delivery, he thinks of it as central to his music—but is glad to have his band, The Foundation, behind him. “I refer to the ballads as my home base,” he says. “But I’ve got this kick-ass rock band behind me. So, we do the ballads and they play them beautifully, but then we do sort of the E Street rock and roll thing.” The rock and roll thing is an evolutionary change for Price, who started with pretty much just his words and his guitar.
After graduating from Vermont’s Middlebury College, Price spent the more recent portion of his itinerant life wanting to play music. He honed his craft playing where he could, and even tried out the archetypal musician’s proving ground – busking in the New York City subway. “I was living in Queens. My landlord lived above me, and he was giving me a hard time about playing my guitar. The times I knew he was there, I would take my guitar down to the subways. I had a few experiences where I did that, and then I was scared away by a pretty imposing guy on the Upper West Side who said I was infringing on his turf. I didn’t go back after that.”
Just as he was beginning to build up some momentum in music (territorial buskers notwithstanding), a letter arrived in the mail – telling him that he was accepted into the master’s program at Oxford. “My dad was a Rhoades scholar at Oxford,” he says. “I had heard about his time there, and on a lark, applied. I had kind of forgotten about it.” After spending a good portion of time here in the States, he was hopping the pond again to study history. “It was right at the time when I was thinking ‘Music is really what I want to do’, but I couldn’t turn down the opportunity. And I’m so glad I went. It was one of those experiences in my life where I was surrounded by people infinitely smarter than myself. I was just trying to be a sponge. People didn’t talk about Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but whether the American Revolution was an avoidable conflict.”
But the music would only wait for so long. The thirst for erudition temporarily quenched, he returned from Oxford and set back to his musical plans. Luckily enough, he had help from some of his friends. Price’s undergraduate roommate at Middlebury was none other than Dispatch’s Pete Francis, and other songwriters like Laura Thomas and Greg Naughton are also friendly Middlebury alums. “We call it the Middlebury Mafia. We all have fun with it. Pete was instrumental in setting up the recording session that turned into Night Opens. He put the musicians together; he introduced me to Jack Gauthier who produced that record. Pete really gave me my start in music.”
And music brought Rich back to a familiar concept – movement. He’s toured the country, bringing his intimate collection of songs with him. As much of the world as he’s seen thus far, Price loves the access touring gives him to corners of the U.S. he has yet to see. “It’s been an incredible opportunity to get to know the country. We put 80,000 miles on the van this year. Now I can tell you where Iowa is. I couldn’t have told you that before.” And sometimes, those countless shows peddling your talents and CDs pays off when one of your fans ends up being Huey Lewis. “I’ve actually gotten to know Huey a little bit. He sat in with us in December, and it was a huge thrill for me. We were playing at the Sweetwater [a bar north of San Francisco], and he came down. He and I traded verses on ‘Feelin’ Alright’. I couldn’t believe it.”
Night Opens, Price’s first record and a result of that first recording session with Pete Francis, caught the attention of major labels and Price’s budding career was ready to bloom. Or was it? He did a development deal with RCA, and Price admits that this emboldened him and gave him some reason to pursue music with more confidence. “It was sort of a sense of ‘People might like my music.’” But Price’s fate was fickle, and the company president’s departure from RCA left him without an advocate there and so, without a record.
With very little time to sulk in the shadows, Price was approached shortly thereafter by Geffen Records. They signed him, and he set to forming a band around the release of his second record, Miles from Anywhere. But even that was not to be. For what Price dubs as “a variety of reasons” Miles from Anywhere was summarily dropped from the label. The rug seemed destined to be perpetually pulled out from under Price’s record plans. Despite these setbacks, Price shies away from griping about it. “I’ve been really fortunate that even though both my experiences with major labels haven’t turned out as I’d hoped, I was involved with really great people. Bob Jamison [former president of RCA] continues to be a friend and advisor to me. A&R; people from Geffen, even Jordan Schur [President of Geffen]… they all treated me very well.” Schur in particular went out of his way to help Price. “[Schur] was very fair to me. He called me up and said ‘I promised you your shot, and I can’t give you your shot, so I want you to walk with your masters.’ That was no small thing for him to do that, and for me to be able to own my masters.” No matter how munificent its execs, however, Price is not blind to the hazards and haze of the corporate music business. “I was exposed to the typical record business bullshit,” he says. “There’s a lot of blowing sunshine up your ass. I think the mistake some people make is to believe in it. As long as you are kind of amused by it, it can help you weather the ups and downs.”
Undaunted by stops and starts in a life that’s had its share, Price continues to tour and is putting the final touches on yet another album, All These Roads. Once the record is completed, Price hopes that there might be interest from other labels, and at that point he will have three records –Night Opens, Miles from Anywhere, and the imminent Roads—to give to them. He comes across as fairly confident that his music will finally make it to the masses. Although the airwaves have been mobbed with singer-songwriters the last few years, Price thinks that the best of the genre has staying power. “I hear that the age of singer-songwriters is sort of fading away. I don’t necessarily think that’s true. Major labels were so quick to jump to have their own John Mayer or their own David Gray, I think there’s a lot of average music out there. But I think people like Patty Griffin, Jeff Tweedy, Adam Duritz… are making really relevant, important music.”
Price seeks to deliver his own important music, and counts on the third time being the much-sought major label charm. Throughout, he continues to sing his songs and take them on tour, basking in the glow of his precious and comfortable mobility. As much as he loves music, though, he never gets too far ahead of himself. From day one, he says he’s thought of his future music career in terms of months, not years. “I think 6 to 12 months in advance, and I can’t really see beyond that. As long as I am having fun, I am going to continue doing it. And I am.”
