All Photos: Alan Mercer
At the age of thirteen, Stephen Bishop found himself at a crossroads. A clarinetist with hopes of becoming a History teacher, he was forever changed after watching the Beatles one night on "The Ed Sullivan Show." His brother Denny bought Stephen an electric guitar and a "Mel Bay" chord book at the store he worked in, and turned his stereo into an amp so Stephen could play music. He began to learn to play guitar and make up chords as well, writing his first song, "Surf’s Turf.." a pathetic sounding instrumental. He formed a band called, "The Weeds" and began to play at local fraternity parties incorporating his own original songs with various songs from top 40.
The Weeds won 2nd place at the Claremont Battle of the Bands, prompting one of the judges to explain that "Stephen Bishop is going to be a big songwriter someday!" Determined to fulfill that prophesy, Stephen made the trip to Los Angeles. He walked the streets with his $12 acoustic guitar, playing songs for various publishers in Hollywood... eventually landing a publishing deal at $50 a week for E.H.Morris Publishing. One of his songs was recorded only to be followed by a long wait...many years went by. At one point, Stephen considered leaving L.A. to return home and work for his Dad’s Insurance company. Through a good friend, Art Garfunkel heard some of his new songs and recorded two of them on his Gold recording, 'Breakaway.'
He started playing around town singing his songs in person for artists like, “Barbra Streisand...Bette Midler...Diana Ross." Shortly thereafter, he was signed to ABC Records who released his first album, "Careless." His two hits from that album were, ‘Save It For a Rainy Day,’ and ‘On and On.’ Eric Clapton, Art Garfunkel and Chaka Khan all contributed their talents to the album. Soon the album went gold, as well as his next album, ‘Bish.’
He sang the hit theme, ‘It Might Be You,’ from the movie, ‘Tootsie,’ as well as writing and/or singing 13 other films including, ‘Animal House,’ and ‘Separate Lives’ from ‘White Nights.’ His songs have been performed by artists such as: Phil Collins, Eric Clapton, Barbra Streisand, Art Garfunkel, Steve Perry, Stephanie Mills, Kenny Loggins, Johnny Mathis, Phoebe Snow, David Crosby, The Four Tops, Aswad and Pavarotti.
In 1989, Stephen released the album ‘Bowling in Paris’ with Phil Collins (co-producer on some songs), Eric Clapton and Sting contributing.
He appeared as the "Charming Guitar Player" in ‘Animal House,’ wherein John Belushi slammed his guitar into smithereens in the Toga Party scene. He appeared as, ‘Blue London,’ in Henry Jaglom's, ‘Someone To Love.’ Stephen Bishop also appeared in ‘The Blues Brothers,’ as a State Trooper. He has performed at the Library of Congress and at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York for an event for the U.N.
Stephen was nominated for two Grammy’s and awarded an Oscar nomination for his song, ‘Separate Lives.’ In Eric Clapton's autobiography he mentions Stephen as one of his favorite songwriters. Stephen’s newest album is titled ‘Blueprint’ and available worldwide.
AM: Stephen your new album is so good. How did you pick a producer to work with?
SB: That’s the biggest challenge. I’ve known this guy, Jon Gilutin, for many years. We worked together twenty years ago. He’s a talented guy so I thought let’s give it a go. We ended up working together but I never knew he was as talented as he is. He did a great job on the album. There’s so much to do when making a quality album.
AM: How did you put together the songs for this album?
SB: I was laying in my man cave and decided I wanted to put out another album. We started at a relaxed pace only working on it three days a week, but we ended up working hard. So anyway, I have a ton of demos from the old days so we used the demos as a ‘Blueprint’ as where to go with the song, like making it more expansive or keeping it simple. That’s where the name of the album came from.
AM: I like the title.
SB: I had another title nobody liked. I wanted to call it ‘Work, Home, TV, Bed.’ (Laughter)
AM: What is one of your favorite songs on the new album?
SB: I really like ‘Before Night Falls’ which is about mental illness. That is about a friend of mine who was suicidal.
AM: I like ‘Ultra Love.’
SB: That is a song like the old Stylistics songs.
AM: ‘She’s Not Mine’ is wonderful.
SB: That song was written right after my divorce. That’s a heavy song.
AM: You are such a fun person!
SB: I like to have fun.
AM: Yet in your song writing, you come off as a serious person.
SB: Very serious, yes. Everybody has different dimensions to their personality right?
AM: (Laughter) Maybe not everybody, but creative people do.
SB: I remember going to my high school reunion and there was a girl I hadn’t seen in twenty years. She used to flirt with me and give me the hardest time. I was kind of a dweeb in high school. Well she flirted with me at the reunion and we got biblical later. Then she was so disappointed, she said, “You know what? You’re not like your album.” (Laughter) “I thought you were your album.”
AM: That is crazy.
SB: It’s weird isn’t it? I’m not a heavy guy who goes around thinking the world is in trouble. The song ‘Blue Window’ lets out my real, true feelings.
AM: You come across as a very passionate and committed person who is intelligent.
SB: Thank you, I try.
AM: You wouldn’t be able to write like you do if you weren’t smart. I love your sarcasm too.
SB: I use tons of sarcasm. I have two sides to my writing. I have my serious side and my funny, eclectic, weird side. I’ve been putting them on albums for years. On my second album, ‘Bish’ I have a song called ‘What Love Can Do’ where I have all the guys who sound like the guards in ‘The Wizard of Oz.’ I’ve been doing things like that for a long time. I like having funny and weird songs.
AM: You have a long history of working with some of the biggest superstars in the business.
SB: That makes me sound so good.
AM: You are in the best company all the time. How did you end up working with Chaka Khan on your first album ‘Careless?’
SB: I ran around with her because I was friends with her boyfriend at the time, Richard Holland. He’s still a good buddy of mine. He wound up marrying Chaka, who I just worked with again last year.
AM: Art Garfunkel played an important part in your career too didn’t he?
SB: He sang a couple of my songs on his ‘Breakaway’ album. He has recorded seven of my songs now.
AM: Everybody has recorded your songs.
SB: I have had a lot of covers from big stars but they were never a single. I was lucky with Beyonce because she sampled ‘On & On’ in her song ‘Ring Off.’ That was supposed to be a single but it was all about her parents breaking up and then her mother got remarried so the single was off.
AM: Well the list of names who have recorded your songs is long and full of the biggest stars.
SB: I am grateful but as they say, “You can’t rest on your laurels.”
AM: Your new album proves that you are not close to that. You like to re-imagine your songs like on your Brazilian album.
SB: Wow you have that album? You are a real fan. That’s one of my best albums. Nobody ever heard about it. It was for sale in Target. We worked hard and are very proud of it. It’s out there somewhere.
AM: It’s a really great album.
SB: Do you know how long I’ve been writing songs?
AM: A long time.
SB: I started writing songs when I was thirteen. By the time I was fifteen and a half I’d written 200 songs.
AM: That’s because you are a real songwriter. Does it bother you that the term is a lot looser now?
SB: I do hear songs on the radio and I wonder will anyone remember this? I am so fortunate that my songs still get airplay. I listen to everything so I can stay hip to it all.
AM: Not only do people still play your music but they have emotions attached to the songs.
SB: They do. When I do shows and meet & greets it can be really heavy. People get emotional and tell me they got married to my song.
AM: Do you like hearing these stories?
SB: It’s funny how it works. I remember seeing Donald Fagen in a restaurant and I told him how impressed I was with Steely Dan. I was in awe and he looked at me and went very nonchalantly, “Uh Thanks.” Then I think of myself when people tell me how much my music means to them and I go, ‘Thanks.” Then I feel like I should show more appreciation. It’s hard to appreciate yourself. It takes work to accept appreciation of yourself.
To learn more about Stephen Bishop visit his web site http://stephenbishop.com/