Anthony Sonego’s three-part Something Else! Sitdown continues with a look back at CJ Vanston’s work on solo projects by Toto leader Steve Lukather, performing with Spinal Tap and collaborating with Joe Cocker:
ANTHONY SONEGO: Tell us about how you came to work with Steve Lukather on his solo albums.
CJ VANSTON: He was working on All’s Well That Ends Well and asked me to overdub some stuff. One of the many things I dig about working with Luke is he isn’t into hovering or micro-managing my parts. He just gave me a hard drive with some stems and said “play with this track, put some cool shit on it.” So I did. But I did it from top to bottom, even played with some of his guitar parts and vocals, did a ton of cool atmospheric keyboard stuff, etc. When Luke showed up to listen, it sounded like a finished record. He flipped out and said “you gotta play on all the other shit too!”
So I did, ended up overdubbing on most of the songs. Of course, I made them all sound like finished records, and made rough mixes. A couple of weeks later, we were in his car headed to the Hollywood Bowl – to hear George Benson, I believe – and he played me some mixes that his engineer had done of the songs I’d played on. The engineer had re-mic’d some of my parts through guitar amps and stuff, and I didn’t dig it. I told Luke I wasn’t into what I was hearing and asked if he still had the demo that I had done. He did have it. He put the CD in and hit play – and it exploded out of the speakers. He said, “You’re mixing my record!”
ANTHONY SONEGO: How did you go from contributing to All’s Well That Ends Well to then becoming co-producer of Transition?
CJ VANSTON: So after that experience with All’s Well That Ends Well, Luke came to me and wanted to do a record from scratch with me, from writing to demo to recording to mixing. Now that was something I could get into.
ANTHONY SONEGO: I love the Transition album for what I’m guessing it represents for Steve Lukather at the time. Tell us about that period and how you worked with Luke.
CJ VANSTON: Yeah I’m very proud of that record, to me it sounds the way Luke should sound: A rich texture of soundscapes, cool vocal production, and a ton of guitars.
ANTHONY SONEGO: I’m inclined to agree. Luke is a versatile and accomplished guitarist, but I think for the material he plays on Transition, the production is rich and really supports his style on that record.
CJ VANSTON: In terms of that period, Steve was going through some changes in his life and we used that time together to really bond and put that energy into making a great record.
ANTHONY SONEGO: That energy and creativity is clearly evident. Congrats, it’s a favorite of mine. I saw an interview for BAE Audio where you said your job is to “get rid of the hate and leave the love.” I love this quote. It’s crucial for trust and collaboration. Tell us about your journey to get to this state. Did somebody impart that mantra, or had you been working toward that since a certain period?
CJ VANSTON: That’s my line. It came from being a session musician, sometimes working with lame artists or producers and having great ideas shot down and having to play shit that you knew wasn’t right for the song. We all had to do that at some point I mean you’d fight for your “cool” part but in the end … So, I learned to embrace the magic stuff and let go of the abrasive stuff that maybe I had been trying to hide or snuggle into the track. [Late Grammy-winning Toto IV engineer Greg] Ladanyi taught me that also. He’d say “play me something I can turn up!”
ANTHONY SONEGO: Pivoting now, you’re also an accomplished film composer and musical director. Can you tell us about how you came to be the musical director for Spinal Tap and composer for Christopher Guest’s projects.
CJ VANSTON: Well, I’d been in a band with Katey Sagal from Married With Children, and the drummer was the legendary Russ Kunkel. He heard my demos, my sounds and my arrangements and said “where’d you come from?!” One day, I got a message from Russ that said: “CJ, man … I got the gig from hell!” I called him back and he made me try to guess the artist. “James [Taylor]?” “Nope. Think huge.” “Michael Jackson?!” “No man, think huge.” I told him I couldn’t think of anything bigger than MJ. Then he whispered “Spi-nal Tap!” Eureka!
[SOMETHING ELSE! INTERVIEW: In Part 1 of this interview, CJ Vanston discusses the early days, collaborations with Richard Marx and how he first connected with Toto.]
It was for a one-nighter at the 1991 NAMM Show, but I decided that no other keyboard player would ever play with this band again. I showed up at rehearsals completely prepared. I had prepared samples of a devil laugh, a huge gong – all the extra stuff they weren’t expecting. Then I doubled the guitars on some songs, etc. On the gig, I remember the guys looking back at me like “yeah!” Well I’d like to think that I had a small part in inspiring them to do some more gigs, and those led to us doing a new album, Break Like The Wind. I ended up arranging a bunch of those tunes and we planned a huge tour. That’s when they asked me to become musical director of Spinal Tap. This now marks our 30th anniversary together.
Anyway, a year or so later, Chris told me he was doing a movie and asked if I could come up with some ideas for the music. The movie was for HBO and was called Attack of the 50 Ft. Woman,” starring Daryl Hannah. Both Chris and I knew Jeff Beck, so I came up with an idea for the score-orchestra and Jeff Beck. So, I demo’d everything out, and it worked great with picture, really marvelous. But HBO rejected me as composer, didn’t have a big enough name. So another year went by and Chris called me. He felt bad about the HBO thing, and told me that he was doing another movie, one that he had control over, and would I like to do the music for that? I asked him what the movie was. He told me he didn’t have a title yet, and wasn’t completely sure what it was going to be like. It ended up being Waiting For Guffman. We’ve done eight or nine more movie and TV projects since then.
ANTHONY SONEGO: Of all the artists you have worked with, are there any memorable sessions or performances that you’d like to share? It could be where the energy was just right, or a lesson was learned, or a milestone in your career.
CJ VANSTON: Well, Joe Cocker comes to mind immediately. Joe and I had a link together that was magic. I started working with him in ’94, and the first record I did with him [Have a Little Faith] and Chris Lord Alge was a major hit in Europe. I did all the arrangements, including strings on a couple of songs, horns on a couple. Big record. I was then asked to be musical director for his world tour. So to take the stage with Joe, averaging 10,000 fans a night, and hitting the intro I’d written for a song – then hearing the crowd go crazy before he even began singing. Well, that’s magic.
For our third and final installment, CJ Vanston will take a deep dive into ‘Toto XIV.’
- Toto, “Spanish Sea” from ‘Old Is New’ (2018): Toto Tuesdays - June 15, 2021
- Toto, “Devil’s Tower” from ‘Old Is New’ (2018): Toto Tuesdays - May 11, 2021
- Toto, “Alone” from ‘Old Is New’ (2018): Toto Tuesdays - April 27, 2021
