Hey guys, welcome back to Good News York. We
are here at the Syracuse Winter Fair. First day
of the fair and it's already hopping. There's
people coming through here. The rides are already
going crazy. I have not yet dipped into the fair
food, which is probably for the best. I gotta
pace myself. It's a long weekend, you know. You
know, there's a nice whiskey booth over here.
You know, it's a good start to the weekend. I
usually go for the wine slushies, believe it
or not. That's my ultimate fare food, but we'll
see what we can do on that. Anyway, you might
notice this gentleman here sitting next to me
is not my co -host. We've got this incredible
guest. Sir, I'd love you to just go ahead and
introduce yourself. Sure. I'm Todd Hoban. I have
played Winterfair a few times. I did play the
first one, and it's always been a pleasure to
work with Steve Becker. I've known him for years.
I'm very, very lucky. You were telling me a little
bit beforehand that you are quite a performer.
You've played with some incredible big names
all over the world, right? Oh, indeed, yeah.
I'm very lucky. I got to tour with a lot of wonderful
people. I was on tour with the Kinks, you know,
the America Tour and the Beach Boys, all the
early rockers. Some of the later ones, you know,
Hall & Oates and... I'm a big fan of the Allman
Brothers and got to play with them. That's incredible.
And I'm just very lucky. I've had a really long
career. Lately, I've been writing film scores.
Oh, wow. And we just finished a two -year run
with a film that I do with Bill Mitch, who's
this wonderful director, producer. And he, I
lucked out. He asked me to... for that film,
which was The Artist and the Astronaut. Oh, wow.
And it's been internationally very, very successful.
We've won many awards, been to Iceland, all over
Europe, Australia, you know, and certainly a
lot of places in America, and we've done a lot
of film festivals. So that's been incredible.
And now I'm working on him with another film.
I'm just thrilled. And basically I'm a rock rocker.
I've been playing rock and roll for about 60
years. What's it like? What's the difference
between writing a film score versus maybe writing
an album or writing some songs to perform on
the road? Matt, that's a great question because
I sort of asked myself that question. He used
a couple of my songs in one of his films, right?
Gotcha. And then I got the whole score. Okay,
well I've done a few, you know, scores and a
lot of times it was more like, well we'd like
to use this piece of music or here we need 30
minutes, 30 seconds here, right? Sure. When you
score a full film, you know, you really have
to first of all really know the film, start to
finish. And then each individual scene, there's
75 different music drops. Wow. And each one is
different. because of this particular film, The
Artist and the Astronaut, very, very interesting
film. And so for me as a musician, I've always
been a musician, and I get a vibe about what
is supposed to happen. This particular film takes
place over the 60s, the 70s, the 80s, and the
90s, and right up to current times. So the music,
when you're seeing on screen something. It's
got to be even more challenging, right? Going
from all those periods in one spot? You've got
to match it up. I can't have a contemporary piece
in 1964. I just don't fly. So fortunately I lived
through all those times, so I got a pretty good
idea. And so it's really kind of a challenge,
but it's kind of a good challenge. It's a fun
challenge. And I've got a really good team. My
son, Brad Hoban's Hoban Studios, and we go in
there and just crank it out. I bring in incredible
musicians. to do the score and play the parts.
So it's kind of a fun thing to do. And now Bill
has got another film that we're filming and he's
asked me to come out and shoot it with him. So
we are shooting, we got back from Mississippi,
the Choctaw Nation, Oklahoma, filmed an Irish
band and then we've been in Ireland. We shot
Mary Robinson, the president of the country.
And I think we're going to Italy next. So it's
been a really fun thing. I like doing film touring
as opposed to rock and roll touring. When you're
touring rock and roll, it's, well, you get a
nut and then you pack up and you drive and go
to the next city. But this one is a little bit
better. That's pretty incredible. Let me take
you back to when you started. There's lots of
musicians, lots of incredibly talented folks,
but they don't always get all these opportunities
and these gigs that you're talking about here.
How did you do that in the beginning? How did
you go from an aspiring musician to, you know,
on tour with all these massive bands and everything
that you've accomplished at this point? Yeah,
you know, I'm a college professor. So I teach
20 -year -olds, 19 -year -olds. And they always
ask that question. We do this. You know, we want
to get to the next level. It's hard. Yeah. It
was hard then, it's even harder now. So back
then I was very lucky. I did get a degree in
music. So those four years away from rock and
roll, I was playing in a band, by the way, the
band that I played with in college has some really
famous people in the band. Oh really? Yeah. And
again, we weren't famous then. Sure. We were
just college kids. College kids like to play
music. Yep. Gary Hodges, conductor in New York.
Dave Maswick is playing with a real good country
band now. And then of course Chuck Lorre, he's
probably one of the most famous people in film
and television for sure. Chuck Lorre, he and
I were writing songs back in the early 70s. He
calls it, it was my learning curve on how to
write. comedies, you know, the Big Bang Theory
or whatever. That's funny. I know. It's crazy.
So I was just lucky, right? But I think what
sort of happened was having really great players
around me. The people that I played with were
unbelievably great. Doug Macri, unbelievable
talent, right? I always had good management.
And that's the other thing. There used to be
some really good managers out there. Not so much
anymore. You know, the big agencies. And, you
know, working for the big agencies, that's how
I got the tours. You know, it's hard to get in.
It's a hard business to break. Sure. I should
ask you, what instruments do you play? Or have
you played different parts of these different
bands? Interesting. In college, I was a composition
major. Part of the curriculum was, well, you
better learn how to play every instrument if
you're going to write for them. So I do play
all the instruments. Mainly guitar, mainly keyboards.
Even my guitar students, I say, okay, we're gonna
sit down and learn how to play piano. That's
pretty neat actually. It's important. You gotta
be an expert. And the other thing is you gotta
work at it. It's like the guys that are still
in the business still doing it, we actually practice
every day. That's how you get to Carnegie Hall,
right? Isn't that what they say? That's what
they say, 100 % true. Oh, man. Todd, what else
is going on? You're talking about, it sounds
like you're going on tour. You're doing some
more things, recording and things like that.
But anything else that we should talk to people
about that you got coming up and they should
be on the lookout for you here? I think, you
know, I always try to have my hands in a lot
of different things. One of my college buddies,
a roommate, is a very famous composer. His name
is Bob Christiansen. and I put him together with
one of my other wonderfully famous great buddies,
Bruce Colville, who's the great author, and the
three of us writing a new rock opera. And I think
that's what Steve was talking about. We were
scheduled to go to Abbey Road to record part
of this rock opera. We're still going to be doing
that, assuming that doesn't get any worse than
it is. But I love working with Bob Christensen.
I love working with Bruce Coville and we're writing
and Bruce and I are writing some new songs. I
think you have to constantly create in this business.
It's a passion. You can't do anything else but
create. And that's a project that I think has
been really wonderful. We're sitting in central
New York, right? Yeah. Bob is New York City Central,
as my career mostly has been New York City, but
I live in upstate New York, not far from here
where we are right now. And we recorded the whole
opera here, the rock opera, here in Syracuse
a few months ago. I used all local artists and
they were spectacular. Oh, wow, that's awesome.
As good as you can get. And frankly, here we
are sitting at, you know, Winterfair and some
of the artists that are going to be playing here.
Sydney Irving is going to be here tomorrow. Up
and coming. Remember that name. She's going to
be huge. You get to see her here. Steve's been
telling me about her. She's unreal, right? Playing
with Joe. Just Joe. Again, local guy. You're
not going to find anybody better. Yeah, we love
Joe. Right? He's incredible. We're talking about
some of the greatest talent on earth. They live
here. I remember my business manager when I was
in New York, and I was thinking about moving
to Long Island. He said, why do you want to do
that? So I can be closer to the office. He says,
how long does it take to get into the office
from Central New York? I take the train, about
three and a half, four hours. He says, how long
do you think you're going to be parked on Long
Island Expressway getting in, right? It's a great
place to live. We're centrally located. I do
shows. I might be in Toronto. One of my keyboard
players, Lucia, is from Toronto. And we can play
in Cleveland, Pittsburgh. You can get there pretty
quickly. We're in the center of the world, man.
That's what I've always thought. So it's great
to hear I'm not the only one. You're not. No,
this is great. Todd, this has been awesome. I
would love to talk to you more and more and especially
as these other things happen. So, I'd love you
to come check us out. We're a podcast that talks
exclusively about good things. And we're based
here right in Syracuse. It's a daily show, so
we've got no shortage of time to talk. So, I'd
love to have you back. I feel like we can talk
forever. Our co -host, Mike, who is not here,
he'll be in tomorrow. He is a musician and he
will... I don't know, maybe it's better that
Mike's not here. You would never be able to leave
until 4 a .m. But Todd, this has been great.
Thank you so much for joining us on the show
and come back anytime. I certainly would love
to. Thank you, sir. Thanks.