INTERVIEW WITH JIM BRICKMAN FROM TheCelebrityCafe.com ARCHIVES

DM) Where did you learn to play piano?

JB) I don't really think it's something you learn. When you do what I do, it's who you are. And I think people point you in the right direction, and they guide you. It's part of who I am. I had music going around when I was little, and it just took shape when I had my hands on the piano, but the reality is it's me. I had a lot of guidance in the right direction, but really it's who I am.

DM) Did you grow up with music in your house a lot?

JB) No, none whatsoever. That's why destiny is such an appropriate concept for me. Beyond that, historically in my family, music is nowhere to be found. Nobody's singing or caroling, or playing a lot of records when I was younger.

DM) So what kind of reaction does your family have now?

JB) I think that they're actually more taken with the fame, like most parents are than with what it is. They think it's cool, but they still stretch their head and say, 'Okay, well I'm not exactly sure where this came from, but I'm sure guess we should just go with it.' It's sort of that kind of feeling more than, 'Wow, isn't he a great pianist?' But that's the way parents are.

DM) When did you write your first song?

JB) I started writing as a teenager. Most of it was imitation. It would be my melodies, but the words would be stolen or grabbed from somewhere else to try and formulate my idea at the time of what I thought a song was. I think that most people would tell you that to be a really good songwriter, you have to have grown a little bit more beyond your teenage years. If you're a songwriter, and you're a teenager, it tends to be more manufactured because it's not about anything. It's not from a place of reality or of experience; it's from a place of being a really good imitator.
What I got really good at was I could imitate anything that I heard. I could play an Elton John song or a Carly Simon song, or a Beatles song. So when you start to compose -- first of all, it's not a choice, it's not a decision -- what happens is you sit there and play other people's stuff and you start going, 'I wonder what would happen if I played this instead of that or this chord. I wonder why they didn't go to that note.' It's inherent. It's the same as writing. It's very similar to what you do. You learn from reading, and you learn from imitating, and you learn stylistically how to form certain structures of the way things should be. And all of a sudden your voice takes shape.

DM) Has music been your whole life or did you have another career before this?

JB) Music has been my whole life, but I was in advertising for a long time. I did advertising, creativity, TV and radio commercials, and I did a lot of lecturing and motivational speaking on creativity. I did a lot of guest lecturing and that sort of thing for a while.

DM) Was this a completely different career path or did it have something to do with what you're doing now?

JB) Well, it was music based. It was primarily jingles for radio and television commercials. It was still founded in music. It was jingles basically. Even when I was lecturing, I did it with a piano. Piano was sort of the prop I used to convey my ideas on creativity, and how people can be more creative... that sort of was a fluke, but it ended up being a three-year career of just speaking and lecturing.

DM) Who did you listen to?

JB) Basically I was always enamored with singer/songwriters. I mean, Carole King, Carly Simon, the Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel, Joni Mitchell and this kind of stuff.
And now I listen to everything. I've got everything from the Elvis Costello/Burt Bacharach thing.

DM) Do you play any other instrument besides piano?

JB) No.

DM) Have you ever tried?

JB) Well, when I was in college, you had to take violin and trumpet. I can get by if you handed me a trumpet, but I would never perform on it.

DM) When you're not touring or recording, what are you doing?

JB) Talking on the telephone (laughs).

DM) With people like me?

JB) Lately there isn't anything else. But if there were, it would be attempting to stay physically in shape enough to manage the chaos that's been going on for a couple of years. I try to work out and run and stay fit. I have an interest in flying, but I haven't been able to attend the lessons. Of course, I'm never here. So it's a commitment to start, but I've never finished.