‘You've Got To Hide Your Love Away’ is a fun, upbeat crowd pleaser that is sure to get any party fired up as Invisible Poet Kings demonstrate why they are truly a force to be reckoned with.

Invisible Poet King’s founder Barry Keenan has definitely lived the life that many can only dream of. His experiences on and off the stage are enough to fill books, yet he likes to keep himself grounded. The songs by the band sometimes reflect on the memories of a simpler time, in stark contrast to the sometimes hectic lifestyle that stardom can bring. Perhaps he feels most comfortable when he finds a balance between the two worlds, one where he can be funloving and energetic yet also radical and intense. Reporter Lily Clark recently interviewed him to talk about one of the wildest days he ever had when shooting a video and an unforgettable concert that required the assistance of ten bouncers for him to get safely to his dressing room - as well as new details on his upcoming album ‘Mutiny in a Dream Tent.’

LILY: What has your experience been like working with the other people on your team?
BARRY: I was fortunate enough to land a publishing deal in NY as a young kid. I had become disinterested in college and just recovered from a year and a half lay off due to knee surgery from an injury I sustained while playing college soccer. I went to NY with $40.00 in my pocket and two 7” reel to reel tapes which each had about a half a dozen songs on them. They were guitar/vocal demos of my songs which I recorded at Rik Tinory’s recording studio outside of Boston made famous by Aerosmith’s documentary, ‘The Making Of Pump’. I knew no one in NY. My plan was simple…go to Port Authority, New York’s bus terminal, go to a phone booth, thumb through the yellow pages, find the listings of all the record labels in the city and call them. That’s exactly what I did. Call after call was rejection after rejection. No one would see an unknown, unsolicited young kid with dreams of having a recording career…except one guy. His name was Bob Cobb. He ran a publishing company, Shada Music for Billy Davis, most famous for having co-written : ‘I’d Like To Teach The World To Sing’. Billy was Vice President of McCann Erickson, one of the largest advertising companies in the world. Their clients included, Coca Cola, Heinz and Miller Beer. Bob Cobb’s office was in the infamous Brill Building, famous for housing the companies of some of the greatest songwriter’s in history of modern music. When I telephoned, much to my surprise Bob Cobb answered the telephone. I explained who I was and what I was looking for…someone to listen to my songs and that I was worthy of a record deal. Synchronicity is certainly a big component for success. It just so happened, that Bob Cobb was up to the ceiling in boxes and packing up his office to move to another floor in the Brill Building. He told me that he was sick of packing up these boxes and that he needed a break and would love to listen to my songs if I would consent to coming right over. I said I will be there in the time it takes me to drive from Port Authority to the Brill Building. I had my own car. When I arrived, there were boxes upon boxes piled high to the ceiling creating little, neat paths forming a maze. I could see no one as my view was obstructed by all the boxes. I called out and yelled ‘hello’ and heard a hello back. I saw Bob Cobb pop his head out from behind a pile of boxes and he very warmly said come in. Behind a bunch of boxes there was a desk and on the desk were two Revox reel to reel tape recorders with an amplifier and a set of speakers. He said he wasn’t taking his listening station apart until he was in the other office as he wanted to be able to listen to new writers. He put the first tape on the machine and hit play. I was very, very nervous but hopeful and confident. The whole tape played. He listened to every song in its entirety, saying nothing as the songs passed by. When the first tape finished, he said, ‘Very interesting’, then he put on the second tape which he listened to in its entirety, saying nothing as he listened intently. When the second tape finished he looked at me and said, ‘This is really good music. The songs are strong and well written….AND… I hear you as a recording artist.’ Wow, was I stoked. Within the next couple of months, I had an apartment on the upper West Side, was working with Billy Davis as my producer, recording at Mayfair Recording Studio with the best musicians in NY, and co-writing with Bill Backer a co-writer of ‘I’d Like To Teach The World To Sing’, President of McCann Erikson and other staff writers in Billy’s publishing company. I’m writing this because this first experience with Bob Cobb taught me much about how to develop a team of people around myself. The bottom line lesson…that you can build a team as long as you have the material to do so…plain and simple. I knew before leaving home that I had the goods. I was a good songwriter. I’ve followed that process throughout the years. Without a good song, you’ve got nothing. With the advent of the internet, as you know, you had to be somewhat of a visionary to see the future of music. My first album was released by Cool Records which was owned by Beverly Hills attorney, Neville Johnson. Neville was hired by my band mates in their negotiations with me. After negotiations were finished, Neville said to my band mates, ok I negotiated your deal, now let me hear the music. That night I received a phone call from Neville saying how much he like the album and that he would like to release it. The result was as I explained earlier on one of the other questions..KROQ, The Roxy, The Whiskey etc. When the internet arrived, I knew that the dynamic of releasing recorded music was going to change. The word ‘independent’ was everywhere. I knew the only way to make my career continue was to build a team of people. And the only way to build a team was to create songs that would pull people together, to want to work together, and to make the music happen commercially. Having learned from experience of watching other people put together teams on my behalf, and knowing as a kid going into NY with my songs to make that happen, I knew that I had to adhere to that same process in order to develop an ‘independent team’ in the new millennia. Neville Johnson and I decided that the only way to promote and sell music in the future would be to set up an internet presence. We teamed up with Jeff Hirschtick and formed the company, Cool Music Group LLC dba East Of Sideways Music. Neville is one of the top entertainment lawyers in Los Angeles. He has been voted in the ‘Top 100 Lawyers’ by the Hollywood Reporter seven years in a row. Just recently, he was the lead, featured article on the front page of the LA Times Business Section discussing both his law practice and musical endeavors. Jeff Hirschtick was a college roommate of Neville’s and hadn’t been in touch with Neville for 20 years. However, Neville invited Jeff to a recording session which I was engineering. Jeff said the moment he walked in and saw me behind the console, he knew we were going to be friends for life, and we are. Jeff became very interested in my songs and decided he wanted to help. We set up distribution with The Orchard and publishing administration with The Royalty network, both with their main offices in NY. We signed other writers to publishing deals as well as signing other recording artists to record deals. The philosophy being, there is strength in numbers. Also, I knew that because I don’t fit the demographic of what the major labels are looking for, I would have to carve my own trail. I became the staff producer and recorded in my home studio putting out product. This was the first step in developing a team. Now I had to focus on my personal team since the label and distribution were in place. I became friends with Colorado music publisher Rob Case. I had recorded about 14 songs of guitar/vocal, piano/vocal demos of new material following much the same procedure as when I was a kid leaving Boston for NY. Rob listened and suggested that I bring various business people into my studio to listen to the new songs. I was apprehensive because I thought that these music executives would not come out to my studio to listen to songs. Rob Case was right, I was wrong. They did come and listened and have become part of the team. At this point I do not want to divulge their names or to have their names put into print but I would be happy to do so in private. I was asked by team member, Dan Warren from Warren Media & Marketing who also is one of the principle administrators of the Hot Zone at the Namm Show if I’d be interested in working with him on setting up a panel. The Hot Zone brings in guest speakers to discuss the music business. For example Ken Scott, Beatles engineer comes to mind and gave a presentation. Stuart Copeland, drummer for the Police gave a presentation. There are many others with similar reputations that are brought in each year to speak. One of them is Matt Forger, who worked in the studio with Michael Jackson and Quincy Jones for fifteen years starting with Thriller, and one of the most important people on my team. The best way to describe my team members is by the Namm panel I was asked to speak on two years ago. The panel’s focus was ‘making it as an independent artist in the new millennia’. When I was asked the question by an audience member, how does an independent artist go about being successful in the new age, my response was as follows: ‘The way you do this is to bring together people around your music who have strengths in areas that you are not strong in, areas in which they compliment the other in their own particular strengths and weaknesses. No one can do it all. You have to build a team. As I sit here on this panel, on one side of me is my partner in my record label/publishing company. On the other side of me is my producer. The moderator of the panel is from a legendary rock band who sits in on piano and does cameo appearances at my live shows. The guy who put on this Namm event handles my PR & promotion. At the far end of the panel is a music publisher from Colorado who gives me business advice. Next to him is an ex record label president responsible for some of the best music in history. Sitting in front of me in the audience is my art director, my web designer, my webmaster, my videographer, my drummer, my bass player & my guitar player. Why are they here? Because they are all part of the team that has come together around my music, all contributing strengths that neither of us have on our own, working together to make this music happen.’ Everybody to date on ‘my team’ is dedicated to making this happen. They are all great people and have all become very good friends. I consider it a blessing to have all these people in my life. I am very thankful. Each of us is committed to success, each of us believers in the songs.

LILY: Did you come from a musical background? Are there other musicians in your family?
BARRY: We had a piano in our house all the time I was growing up. We also had an accordion that was passed down from my Grandfather. My dad used to sit at the piano and sing ‘Baby Face.’ It was about the only song I think he knew. My mom was musically trained and had sheet music in the piano bench but oddly enough, I don’t ever remember her playing the piano. But the piano was a player piano. We had rolls and rolls of popular songs that you put into the piano mechanism. I would sit at the piano for hours pumping the foot pedals as the piano rolls played. The piano was played by pumping the foot pedals, producing air that went through the holes in the piano roll made of paper which made the piano keys play. Not only did the keys move, but the lyric scrolled on the roll as I pumped the pedals. I was able to read the lyrics and sing the songs for each of the hundred or so songs that we had in our piano roll library. This gave me an understanding at a very early age of how the pop song was constructed and started me on my singing career. It was kind of a piano roll karaoke.

LILY: What do you find most rewarding about being an artist? What do you find most challenging?
BARRY: The most rewarding thing about being an artist is self expression, not following anybody else’s rules and making your own identity regardless of what others think or how you are perceived by popular culture or the establishment for that matter. The most challenging thing is trying to make that expression accessible to others in a marketing world that does not like to deviate from its current norm, where the cover is more important than the content That being said however, we would not have had Dylan or Joni had somebody not recognized that they were different from the norm at the time.

LILY: Who are your role models in music?
BARRY: The number one role model for me of course is The Beatles, but not only in their song writing, arranging, singing and performing which I was completely enraptured by as a kid, but also George Martin’s production, bringing in classical music to pop culture as well as Norman’ Smith’s and Geoff Emerick’s engineering techniques. I would then add all those other bands that became known at the time like The Rolling Stones, The Kinks, The Searchers, The Yardbirds, Cream, The Hollies, Herman’s Hermits, The Dave Clark Five and on to The Monkees to Queen, to Radiohead, to Muse. Bob Dylan was a major influence lyrically and certainly his musical stylings were an influence as well. Cat Steven’s songs had a tremendous impact on me because of his spiritual nature, his social commentary and inner journey reflected in his songs. James Taylor’s acoustic guitar style and his melancholy nature had a great impact as well as Hendrix’s aggressive, wild nature and guitar playing. Joni Mitchell’s piano playing with her descriptive lyrical content was a guiding force as well.

LILY: Describe your best or most memorable performance.
BARRY: My very last performance at the Brothers Four in Nashua New Hampshire has to be one of the greatest thrills of my life. I had been traveling from Los Angeles to The Brothers Four in Nashua and Cape Cod, Falmouth to be more specific, Cape Code in the summer, Nashua in the winter. I had built up quite a following and fan base in New England. One of my songs was being played on one of Boston’s premier radio stations. I was adored by the fans. There were many nights that I left the stage and went to my dressing room and I would hear the crowd chanting out my name so that I would return for an encore. I just remember strumming my last chord on my last performance and everybody in the place knew I was leaving for good. The reason being is that one of the brothers was opening a club in San Francisco and he was building that club entirely around me. I was offered a partnership as the entertainer for the club which I accepted. So I strummed my last chord, as I was trying to leave the stage, a line of about ten bouncers made a barricade between me and the audience so I could safely get back to the dressing room. There was always this type of frenzy and it was dubbed ‘Barrymania’ at the club. But this night was out control. When I made it back to the dressing room, I remember sitting and listening to the people chanting, ‘Barry, Barry Barry.’ They were stomping so hard on the floor that the building was actually shaking I couldn’t believe that I was so well liked by this audience and it was the most gratifying feeling I’ve ever had on a stage.

LILY: What advice would you give to young, aspiring artists out there who are unsure and need guidance?
BARRY: Only you know. You know the extent of your belief in yourself and your abilities. I am not on top of the world and never have reached my goal. However, I am still trying. Why? Because I believe in myself and my talent. There is no talent on planet earth like me and Invisible Poet Kings. Although I always listen to and take criticism, I only use it to my advantage in order to make myself better. I never allow the criticisms or the people who don’t like me or don’t respond to me to detour me from my goal. The rejections are all subjective for a whole host of reasons which you can never second guess or you will go crazy. Nobody in this business has all the insight to the golden ticket. Build a good reputation. Gain the respect of others. Never doubt if you truly believe. Be prepared to sacrifice much of what normal people in ‘normal lifestyles’ attain in day to day living. Be prepared to do without. There’s an old cliché: ‘You’ve got to suffer if you want to sing the blues.’ Be prepared to suffer. Be prepared to not be treated equally when it comes to banks, insurance, renting apartments, buying cars and the like. Be prepared to go without money. Be prepared to have no financial security. Be prepared to be disliked. Be prepared to be loved. Be confident as to who you are. Do not be like everybody else or anybody else. Be your own person, your own artist regardless of comparisons. People always compare. We are all influenced by someone or something. Focus on your goal and do not veer from it. Know your positioning in relationship to where the world’s psyche is. Are you in stride with the general populace’s thinking or out of stride? If out of stride, be prepared for rejection or submit to them for the sake of survival but be prepared to surrender your convictions. I can’t do that, never could. Then when all is said and done, you need to have good luck. Good luck comes from building good relationships with others, finding like minded individuals who see the same journey towards success. Never give up. You can never fail as long as you continue to try. You fail when you stop trying. Never stop trying if this is truly what you want in life. It is a tough, difficult, and many times, a thankless existence. Is it worth it to you? It is to me.

LILY: What's next for you as an artist? Is there a new single in the works? If so, what can you tell us about it?
BARRY: I have been working in the studio with Matt Forger now for almost two years. Besides working in the studio with Michael Jackson and Quincy Jones for 15 years, Matt has a very impressive resume working with many of the best artists and film makers. Matt and I mapped out a plan and a procedure at which we focused our goal at success. This entailed recording a new album titled, ‘Mutiny in the Dream Tent.’ We decide that we did not want to follow the old format of recording a whole album and then releasing it and trying to promote it. Rather we made the decision to record one song at a time with video, each song to be included in the final album. These singles would be released as a collection of songs when we had approximately 14 songs/videos finished. Our thinking is that by releasing one song/video at a time, we can build a fan base that will embrace the release of the whole album. This coincides with the fact that we are in a singles market, however, we feel that the song writing and artistic talent from Invisible Poet Kings is so strong in its depth and accessibility that it will deliver a totally coherent and cohesive album even though the songs are from different genres. The Beatles had a tremendous amount of success with this concept. For example, there may be a folk type of song mixed with a rock type song, mixed with a vaudeville type song yet produced in such a way that all the songs work together as a whole and sonically sound similar causing variety in one album not sameness as has been the practice for years. This we believe allows us to offer more to the listener in an album that what has been displayed in music over the course of the last couple of decades. This we believe will build a following and a fan base in order to prepare the way for the album’s release. Needless to say, this plan is taking time. We have recorded approximately eight or nine songs so far. Four are finished. Three are nearly finished. Two have finished videos and three have videos in the works. Our schedule is to try to release one song and video about every three to four months until the album is finished.

LILY: Thank you Barry for taking the time to discuss your amazing musical career and life experiences! You are a very talented artist and we are eagerly looking forward to your next big hit!

http://www.invisiblepoetkings.com