Just over two and a half decades ago a song called ‘Save Tonight’ propelled Eagle-Eye Cherry (yes that’s his real name) into the speakers, televisions and hearts of the world. This global monster came from an album that was only ever intended to be released on a small independent label in Europe. How things changed for him and how the next six years would take him around the world as a touring artist following in the steps of his father Jazz musician Don Cherry. While music hasn’t always been his soul focus it’s been an incredibly important part of his life.
Still writing and releasing music today Eagle-Eye Cherry continues to deliver albums that compliment and build on the songs that thrust him into the spotlight. His last two albums 2023’s “Back On Track” and 2000’s “Streets Of You” are incredible and worth checking out. I had the extreme pleasure to sit down and chat with Eagle Eye Cherry ahead of his Australian and New Zealand tour with UB40 this October. Make sure to catch him at these shows as they will be something special.
Andrew : Hi Eagle Eye. How are you?
Eagle Eye : Pretty good. Starting to wake up.
Andrew : Starting to wake up? Is it early where you are?
Eagle Eye : It’s early (laughs) Well, it’s not too bad now it’s ten past nine.
Andrew : Oh, that’s not too bad. Welcome to The Rockpit Australia, and again, thank you for your time today. Obviously, the reason we are here and having this chat is because you’re heading our way in October with UB40. It’s been a while since you’ve been here.
Eagle Eye : Yes. It’s been a really long time. It’s been, I can’t even, over 20 years.
Andrew : Wasn’t there a one-off show in Adelaide back in 2019, though?
Eagle Eye : There was something booked, but it didn’t happen. It seems to still be out there on the internet that I did it.
Andrew : Yeah.
Eagle Eye : Never believe what you read (laughs)
Andrew : No. That’s why you always ask the question, right? (laughs),
Eagle Eye : Or, I have some clone that’s out there and taking my gigs. I don’t know (laughs)
Andrew : We can’t have that now, can we? Going back to very early on in your life, you come from a very musical family. Your father was a well-respected touring trumpet player who played with many of the greats. You obviously learned life on the road from a fairly young age, but music wasn’t your first choice in the entertainment industry. Tell me a little bit about your youth and your growing up.
Eagle Eye : Well, my growing up, I mean, what a trip (laughs) to be born into a family where my dad was, as you said, a musician. When I was a kid, he was mostly doing his own stuff. He started out playing with, Lou Reed or John Coltrane, those kinds of people, but he was also doing his own thing. He was on the road all the time, and he’d bring the family on the road with him. So we were just out there touring, you know, packing the Volkswagen bus and driving off and playing gigs, mostly in Europe. We went to the States a bit and Japan and my mom was also working, so she was doing all the album covers. She’s an artist. She also did all the wardrobe for the stage and the set design and everything. So, we were just like kind of a traveling circus and that was the life that I knew. When I started touring on my own many years later, that was kind of like coming home. For me, the road is my second home, definitely; and the music was always there. My dad put me behind a drum set as early as I can remember in my mind, I was probably gonna play music. Then I got sidetracked and I started getting into acting. I went to drama school in New York and was still playing drums in bands and doing that. I didn’t really have a plan, but when I graduated, I got an agent and I started getting work as an actor. So that’s kind of it; it was not really that I chose it you know, it was more of a way to pay my bills and do my thing and still buy equipment and everything I needed to make music. It just kind of happened and I was doing the acting thing, but eventually the music took over. That’s it and I’m thankful for that.
Andrew : It’s funny you sort of mentioned that paying your way in New York as a working musician forming a career and obviously having stuck your finger in the pie of acting, music still came through and resonated. I think I read somewhere too, and again, I could be wrong; my research could be completely wrong, and I apologize for that (laughs).
Eagle Eye : Well, luckily, I usually know the right answers to your question, so you shoot (laughs)
Andrew : Thank you (laughs). After doing some of those acting roles, you were actually offered a job as an MTV VJ.
Eagle Eye : That’s interesting. Now let me try to remember how that worked out, because I remember I did a show in London where I was kind of interviewing and presenting on a world music show. I was standing there interviewing people and realizing that I wanted to be on the other side of the mic. I didn’t feel it was right, I wasn’t comfortable on this side of the microphone, so I have a lot of respect for people that do interviews. because It’s not easy, especially when you’re dealing with like grumpy musicians or difficult people, you know, that they can be. I think I’ve, I’ve always had an understanding, once I started working as a musician and doing interviews, I had a bit of an understanding for what the person on the other side of the mic was going through. So I was probably quite generous in that way.
Yeah, I remember MTV, but that wasn’t for me. I had started realizing that what the acting gave me was a lot. I really did enjoy it, especially doing theatre, but what I was realizing, especially in those times was there was much more possibility for people of colour to get cool acting jobs. Back then it was pretty limited, I was getting different jobs that I wasn’t totally proud of. You’re a part of a big process; you know, there’s a script, there’s a director, there’s lighting, there’s wardrobe. I was starting to feel like I need to do something that I could say is me; a hundred percent me. That’s where songwriting started taking over there because I felt that I could express ideas and things. From there I knew that what I wanted to do was stand on stage if it’s an actor, but I, I could do it as a musician as well. I think eventually I just realized, you know, once I started writing songs that were coming from inside me and started telling stories about my life and me, I got such a kick out of it, you know, and it just kind of kept going. Eventually I wrote ‘Save Tonight’.
Andrew : I guess in that period of time. If my timelines are correct, it would’ve been about 1985 that you moved to New York?
Eagle Eye : I was younger than that. I think it was 1980 that I moved to New York and I started drama school at the New York High School Of Performing Arts in 1983. I went to school with Jennifer Aniston and did that whole thing. I graduated in 1987 and then I left New York around 1995 for Stockholm.
Andrew : In 1995 your father sadly passed away it had a profound effect on you.
Eagle Eye : Yeah, that’s when my dad passed. That’s what really got me to work. The thing was in New York, I was doing a lot of cool stuff, but I was partying and there are so many distractions in New York. So, when I ended up in Stockholm’s winter dark, there wasn’t much else to do, but to make music. At the same time, my dad was ill and the things were really kind of heavy and dark in more ways in one. And after he passed, I realized he was only 59 when he died. He’d done so much with his life and I kinda realized that I need to get to work, ’cause you never know. You never know what happens. Suddenly you’re, you know, you’re gone. And I had to do my thing. So it, it really was a kick in the butt to get to work. So by ‘96 I got my deal and then the album came out in 1997 in Scandinavia in 1998 globally.
Andrew : Talking about that too, when you moved back to Europe, you actually discovered and taught yourself guitar, which allowed you to begin to lay the bones for what would become “Desireless”. Who were your musical influences? Obviously, your dad played a big part in all of that; aside from your dad who were your influences when it came to writing?
Eagle Eye : Yes, he was definitely an influence. I had been writing songs when I was in New York. I came to Sweden and I borrowed an apartment. In that apartment was an acoustic guitar, and that was an instrument we never had in our house as a kid. I hadn’t really worked with guitars. I drummed, I programmed stuff, I played keyboards, but the acoustic guitar was like a key to the door. There was just something about the way my voice sounded with the guitar and I just suddenly realized, ah, this is where we’re going. I started rewriting songs that I’d written up until then. I started reworking them and putting guitars on them. I hadn’t really been listening to anything in particular. I was living in Brooklyn and at that time it was a lot of hip hop, you know, with the hip hop going on at that time A Tribe Called Quest and all that kind of crazy stuff, and the world music scene was going on. I really realized this during the pandemic because I was starting to revisit music that I listened to. The first albums that I bought were by The Ramones and The Clash. Our neighbours in New York were the Talking Heads, they shared the loft building that we were in. I would be down there watching them rehearse. It wasn’t foreign to me to go, you know, drums, bass, guitar, keyboard, you know, just the basic CBGB’s setup, you know. That was kind of the in through line, even though I think there’s a lot of Americana in some of my stuff. I think Tom Petty is someone that I think is a big inspiration for me. Neil Young, Bob Dylan, you know, and all that, just kind of the songwriting, the storytelling and all that. But sound-wise, I think it’s basically just keeping it pretty organic. That’s kind of been the main thing.
Andrew : Something I have always wondered is did you play everything on that, on that first independent version of the “Desireless”?
Eagle Eye : Oh, no. I kind of knew what I wanted sound wise, but I, you know, I was very novice at the guitar, and that is one of the reasons that ‘Save Tonight’ only has four chords. Because those are the four chords that I figured out. That’s what I love because now I still get people coming up to me and going, oh, it was the first song I learned on the guitar. It’s like the perfect learn how to play the guitar song. You know, four chords, simple melody, good lyrics, bang, you got it. I love that because I think if I wrote that song today, there would probably be a middle eight or something else in there. The simplicity of it is, I think the beauty of that song.
The first thing I did once I got the record deal, I needed some equipment. It was an independent label, and they were like, what do you need? I said, okay, I need this and this equipment, and I need a guitar player. So they hooked me up with a guy that eventually ended up playing with me for years. He was on the road with me for about seven or eight years and that was it, you know? I got him to play what I was hearing in my head and then we added the drums and bass. I play some piano on the album and do some other small stuff, but mainly its other guys doing the stuff and me singing it of course.
Andrew : “Desireless” for me was one of those records that, that really crept on me. It wasn’t really where I was listening stylistically but ‘Save Tonight’ as a song was a very important part of my 1997, 1998 life soundtrack. It really struck a chord with me.
Eagle Eye : Or four (laughs). That’s fantastic.
Andrew : Did you imagine that it was possible to go from, you know, having this independent recording, to a major label, to being a Grammy nominated, selling four million copies of the album globally and hitting platinum in the USA?
Eagle Eye : No, of course not (laughs). That’s what you dream of, and we all do. It was like a fantastic mistake that just kind of went right. You know; I signed to this tiny label in Stockholm. My plan was to do a Scandinavian album. I definitely had dreams of traveling and playing music in more places than one. I grew up touring around, especially Europe, and I definitely wanted to do that with my own music. That was a goal, no question about it. “Desireless” is pretty lo-fi; and I think part of what I was trying to do is make an album that I could play maybe acoustically with a trio, if that’s the level that we even got to. I do remember after having laid down the tracks with ‘Save Tonight’ and going home that evening and listening to it on my headphones, and I could visualize people singing along to the chorus for ‘Save Tonight. I could see something that I ended up experiencing many times over from there on. I could see that song, so it was quite cool. Picking it as the lead single for the first album was a no brainer. You know? We knew what song to go with but to know that song would conquer the world. I just couldn’t have imagined. And it was a trip when it did. Absolutely unbelievable.
Andrew : As an artist it’s certainly impressive that you have the achievements I mentioned before, but I would think probably the greatest feeling you’d have to have as an artist would be hearing a packed arena, stadium, club or theatre, singing along, singing that back to you.
Eagle Eye : Yeah. It’s the best feeling in the world; and that’s where when I talk to colleagues that don’t like touring and I know a lot of people that love sitting in the studio, and they’d rather just do that all the time. For me, that is like, you know, everything leads up to that. In my world. It’s like, if I’m sitting here writing a song, I’m already thinking about, okay, how’s this gonna work live? Imagining the song being played live, you know? And I think partially also growing up around jazz, which is all about live. My dad, he didn’t make money off of album sales. He made money from playing gigs. For him, that was what it was all about and I’ve grown up around that, so for me that is it, that’s the moment. Getting up on stage and then getting something back, that’s when you know people have been touched by the music. It’s just that; that’s what makes it all real. Everything else is just kind of you can’t touch it.
Andrew : We move on to 2000 and, and we had the “Living In The Present Future” album and, you know, another one of my favourite songs of yours ‘Are You Still Having Fun?’.
Eagle Eye : Yeah.
Andrew : Tell me a little bit about that one. It seems a little tongue in cheek.
EEC : Yeah. ‘Are You Still Having Fun?’. It’s funny because when I listen to the recorded version, the arrangement is not right; and that I’m still frustrated by that because when I play it live we have like kind of a B chorus that happens twice, instead it should be like a middle eight and that’s how I do it live now. We go straight into the second verse and it makes a song much more direct. But that song is three chords. I was looking through the dictaphone I had my ideas on at the time while I was working with my guitar player and I was looking for something working on another song, and I was kind of scrolling, then that guitar riff came up and he went, whoa, whoa, what was that? And I was like, oh, it’s just something I was messing around with, and he goes, that is good. You should do something with that and that’s the miracle of songwriting. If I wouldn’t have ended up on that thing when I was scrolling, that song might have never happened. It’s a lot of what was happening in New York. It’s a lot of like I mentioned before, there was a lot of partying in New York back in the day and I had unfortunate friends that went too far down that road. You’re watching them from the outside and it’s all this party, but are you really happy? Are you really in a good place right now? Are you still having fun? I think part of my leaving New York was that I kind of was feeling like I wanted more outta life than just have a good time all the time or think I’m having a good time. I started questioning things and, and it kind of made me choose to get out of New York and start over again and get focused. That song is kind of a reaction to all that madness that was going on at that time. But the funny thing with the song, it’s same thing with ‘Save Tonight’. There’s that kind of melancholy happiness, lyrically it’s kind of a sad story, but the song in the end is a big party. Still having fun is like that too. I mean it’s a party song, but lyrically its a bit heavy.
Andrew : Absolutely. Then in 2003, “Sub Rosa” was released ‘Don’t Give Up” gets picked up by Disney and is featured in the movie “Holes”. The album is considered a return the first album. Looking back on those first six years; how tough was that on you physically, mentally and spiritually? How demanding was life was it? Was that what led to an eight-year hiatus?
Eagle Eye : Yeah (laughs). I was gonna say that it’s like, if you look at my album history, it’s like three albums and then there’s a big gap. I did like six or seven years of touring and recording and it was fantastic. Burn out is one of the things that happens when you hit it on that level; I was luckily not really young when I had my break, because I think if I would’ve been 18 or 19 years old it would’ve gone really dark. I still was very focused on doing what I had to do and having a very good time. But there was such an intense schedule and so much traveling and the girlfriend that I had at the time that got me to move to Stockholm in the first place, she was gone after a couple years. I came home and her closet was empty and my friend stopped calling because I was never home. I started in 2003 or 04 and I just said, man, I gotta take a break. I gotta just kind of rebuild my, my real life and get that back up and running and then and then I can get back to work. Once that started and anonymity started kicking in and I was like, oh, this is nice. Eventually the break ended up a lot longer. My mom died during this period of time and I became a father and just different things came along. I was still making music and I was occasionally going out on the road and, but I wasn’t making albums. I was writing, but not recording. And then eventually I was like, maybe I’m not gonna be an artist. Maybe I’ll just kind of work behind the scenes somehow. Then I started missing touring and I suddenly realized I gotta get back on the road again. The minute I hit the stage, I was like, what the fuck was I thinking, man (laughs).
Andrew : It’s now 2012 “Can’t Get Enough” is released. It unfortunately flew under my radar and I wasn’t even aware of it until recently. I don’t think that was an intentional thing, it was just a, I think a thing at the time.
Eagle Eye : Yeah, I think it flew under a lot of people’s radar. Well, that album was kind of not a hundred percent going all in. I needed to move on. I had a bunch of songs that had been kind of just been sitting there during this period of time, and I needed to get them out there and then figure out what the hell. That’s kind of what that album was for me.
Then “Streets of You” was really like for me, like, this is an album. I think it’s a great album, and I want to hit the road and I started again in 2020.
Andrew : I was just about to say about “Streets of You” arrives in 2020. This is where you gain your musical independence. You start your own label Papa Cherry Records, you’re in control of your career and write this incredible album. You touched on it and mentioned it before and it’s back to your roots. I don’t think there’s an album that’s more obviously but “Streets of You” has that very big Americana feel to it. It’s still all you, your voice is yours but the difference in the texture, in the way that you wrote on that is great.
Eagle Eye : I agree. I think songwriting on that album was kind of me finding my way back, the inspiration and remembering what it’s about, that was Nashville and I did a lot of that stuff in Nashville. I needed to get outta here in Stockholm and I started going to New York and LA and the places out there but it wasn’t giving me much. When I got to Nashville and I hadn’t really been these before, I’d been there, obviously gigging and stuff, but I hadn’t spent time there. And that was it. Partially, I’m writing with people down there, but the main thing was going out at night, checking out music and hearing the bands and, and just that thing of, you know, ’cause nowadays it’s not only country music in Nashville, but that thing of people that really, you know, play their instruments and then it’s all live and real. It just made me go, yes, this is what it’s about. It’s a community in Nashville and it reminds me a bit of Stockholm where like all the musicians, everybody knows each other and everyone kind of happy for each other when things work out, when they get breaks and things happen for you. That I think is in there as well and just kind of completing. I’ve always been kind of wanting to keep it organic and I think I really made sure the songs were a hundred percent and that the arrangement is right where it should be. Like I mentioned before ‘Are You Still Having Fun?’ wouldn’t happen the way it did today. You know, back then I was kind of like, ah whatever, keep going. You know? Rick Rubin who produced ‘Are You Still Having Fun’ was asking me all the time, like, do you think this is this right? Are you done with this? You know he was one of the first producers that I worked with that kind of started questioning me and making me go back and really make sure it’s right. “Streets Of You” I think is that album like my first really, where I feel like everything is exactly the way I want to be.
Andrew : Now we have 2023’s “Back On Track”. Which for me is a more matured, travelled and experienced extension of “Desireless” for me. It’s got some clever little flavour thrown in there and some fresh influences and ideas. For me, I find ‘Desireless” and “Back On Track” to be the two go to albums of yours for me. They compliment each other so well.
Eagle Eye : Oh yeah. I it took me 25 years to mature (laughs) but there we go. “Back On Track” for me is great because the way it was made. After “Streets Of You”. We hit the road, we did one year of touring. I did about 60, 70 gigs and we were hot, the band was cooking. I had been writing songs and I just wanted to go into the studio right away and capture that energy that we had live and that’s what we did. A lot of those songs that I wrote were like the songs that were missing in our set list. ‘I Like It’ is one of those songs that’s was like I need this song in the set list. We recorded it, we got everything tracked, and then covid came and I was planning on getting that album out quickly, and then it and just everything stopped. Obviously it was a very hard time for everybody, but in my world it was just like, ah, come on (laughs). I took a long break. I’m finally up and running, I’m ready to hit the road again, and I want this album to come out and I have to wait and wait and wait. Yeah. That was tough.
Andrew : The live show that we’ll see out here next month, will it be career encompassing?
Eagle Eye : Yeah. I mean, I’ll mix it up. I even though, yeah, maybe I haven’t made as many albums as a lot of people have done in 25 years; there’s still a lot of songs and it’s always a challenge to pick the songs. There are always some fans that are frustrated because they didn’t get to hear their favourite songs. But I find it a luxury now because I remember so well, and people ask me is it frustrating that the first album got so big so quickly? The part that was frustrating was when I was on tour with my first album, we only had 11 songs. That was all I had then you had to do a cover or something to extend the set, but now I have a great body of work to choose from and I can try to build the perfect set list. I’m gonna be doing that next week. I need to get it together and just make sure I got the right songs to bring down under. I can assure you there’ll be a few songs from all my albums.
Andrew : Perfect.
Eagle Eye : Unfortunately, I’m not playing the longest set on this tour. So, we’re gonna have to really keep it nice and simple and focused (laughs).
Andrew : Perfect. We could talk forever I’m sure, but I want to thank you so much for your time and for your insight and for telling your story in an abbreviated version. I’m super excited to check you out on this tour.
Eagle Eye : I’m looking forward to coming there. It’s been too long; and we’re doing New Zealand and I’ve never been there. It’s on my bucket list, so it’s gonna be really, really exciting to come down and play some music and I had such a good time last time I was there, so I’m sure it’s gonna be good.
I’m very curious about your vinyl collection back there. I’m sure there is some good stuff in there.
Andrew : There’s a bit of everything in there, as they say flavour is a spice of life. There is a lot of it’s original stuff from my childhood and there, as well as some new stuff. This is office set up, nearly all of my CDs are actually in storage still. I have tubs and tubs of them.
Eagle Eye : Yeah, mine too. You can’t throw ’em out.
Andrew : No, you can’t. I certainly can’t.
EEC : I’ll resurrect them eventually.
Andrew : I hope too as well.
EEC : Thanks for having me.
Andrew : Thank you so much for your time and we will see you out here in Australia.
EEC : Yeah. See you soon.
Andrew : Travel safe.
EEC : Thanks. Bye.
A huge thank you to Mennard PR, Eagle-Eye Cherry and TEG [MJR] for making this happen.
