How to know Richard Riley

How to know Richard Riley in five minutes.

Where were you born and where do you live?

Swindon, UK. Date and time withheld for security. Sometime in the early sixties. Live in Bath

Family?

Married to Jo, no Kids one Dog.
What do you do?

I’m a singing guitar player, arranger and producer.

Claims to fame?

I’m the hardest working man in showbiz. Full time guitar player from 1980 to 1989, then producer of other peoples music, then writer (started two music business magazines and have eight MI books published). Full time contributor to every major guitar mag. Now devoting time to my own music for a change.

Biography

Left shool early to pursue guitar playing career. Picked up by Laurel Aitken and gigged round Midlands before moving to London for job in a guitar shop then meeting and joining Marc Almond (of Soft Cell). Stayed for four or five years before tiring of touring and recording. Moved to Bath and started to produce bands and artists while also joining and retiring from numerous guitar playing seats. Started own band The Jazz Fools and
toured colleges and universities playing original pop rock then Dollhouse, an art rock band. Found writing almost as much fun as performing so helped start a couple of Music Tech magazines (Total Guitar, Future Music) and began a successful career as a freelance writer and reviewer.

Spent the first years of the millennium playing pubs and social clubs to get out and about before committing to Not If But When in February of 2006.

Discography
Nothing special. Hear myself on the radio very occasionally.

Awards and other honours
None

Bands;
Laurel Aitken (ska), Marc Almond (alternative), Zeke Manyika (pop), Arkane (electronic), Rhythm Sisters (pop, rock), Human Nature, Cactus Rain, Karel Fialka, Jazz Fools, (dance), Dollhouse, (rock), Remix (electronic pop), Boogie St (soul, r&b), etc. etc.

What about Not If But When?
After fifteen years or more of working on other peoples records and music I’ve simply arrived at thepoint where I needed to develop me instead of other people. It seems strange but although you can play guitar for 20 years, you work all the time for other bands and artists and your own projects get left behind. In February of 2006 I put all other projects aside and concentrated with no distractions on this one project. In four or five weeks I had the bones of around 20 songs which I boiled down to 13. I then developed these with the help of as many other musicians as I could gather. I firmly believe that music is made stronger when others are involved. In April I rented some studio time and we recorded the backbone for half of the songs. We then came back to my garage (which I’d been developing since February) and added other parts. For some parts such as strings, it was necessary to use a larger room so we’d take kit
out. I joined a men’s choir to train my voice and took vocal lessons so that I could approach some of the more difficult songs such as ‘You’re the Difference’ (CD only). The album has 16 contributors, not all of them musicians. I wanted some of the songs to be illustrated with spoken word so I hired actors and voice over artists from the UK and US. There are also
numerous foley (special) effects, some found sounds and some genuine sputnik noises in there too! One important point. I really wanted this album to be as special and non-repeatable as possible. When a record or song is created in a computer it’s easy to call it up, months later, and change it or reproduce it. I wanted NIBW to be a moment in time so concentrated very hard on using sounds and techniques that I couldn’t save on a PC.
The album was mixed by hand using analogue equipment and analogue processors without automation. It’s now impossible to get any of the tracks back exactly as they were when they were mixed in November. And that’s the way I wanted it. Not If But When is a real moment in time.