QLS Mini: Stanley Clarke on His New Album, Book, Electric Lady & More

On this exclusive Questlove Show mini episode, Questlove talks with bass virtuoso Stanley Clarke about Last Train To Sanity, a recent 15-track album he funded himself and is selling only through his own website, with packaging designed by his daughter Natasha and full liner notes meant as a protest against streaming. Clarke also talks about recovering from a nerve injury in his arm, recording School Days at Electric Lady Studios and meeting Joey Ramone there, why he loves playing Detroit, and his plans to write an acoustic bass concerto for schools. Stay tuned for a full Stanley Clarke x episode running very soon. See omnystudio.com/listener https://omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

• 0:00Speaker 00

  This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed Human.

• 0:05Speaker 01

  If you're a custodial supervisor at a local high school, you know that cleanliness is key and that the best place to get cleaning supplies is from Granger. Granger helps you stay fully stocked on the products you trust, from paper towels and disinfectants to floor scrubbers. Plus, you can rely on Granger for easy reordering, so you never run out of what you need. Call 1-800-GRANGER, click Granger.com, or just stop by. Granger, for the ones who get it done.

• 0:35Speaker 02

  This mood check is brought to you by State Farm. Porque tu bienestar también merece protección. Let's keep it real for a second. Honey German checking in contigo. If your animal is low, your group chat's dry, and not even your música is hitting like usual, respira profundo. You don't have to do it all today, un día a la vez, little by little. You're doing better than you think. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.

• 0:59Speaker 00

  The Questlove Show is a production of iHeart Radio.

• 1:13Speaker 00

  Hey, what's up, y'all? How you doing? Welcome back to the Questlove Show. We have an upcoming full episode with the virtuoso god himself, Stanley Clarke. You'll be hearing that soon, but I also wanted to do a mini-conversation to give some light to this very heavy. Yo, this is, what is in here? Because this is, I've never felt a record, this heavy, this is the last train to Stan, um, yeah, this is the last train to Stanley, what a Freudian slip. No, the last train to sanity, Stanley Clarke. Wait, speaking of the weight of it all, this question I always wanted to know, at this

• 1:51Speaker 00

  stage in your life, how is, and you know, I've spoken to Flea about this, I've spoken to Bootsy Collins, who, you know, had to put his acts up. How taxing is it to play a bass in this day and time, in this present time that we're speaking of?

• 2:10Speaker 03

  You know, probably at this point for me, I noticed the difference, like, age, playing, but it's very, very minute. I mean, what I, I've always been an avid practicer, guy that practices the bass. And so, I think as I get older, you know, I rely more on my technique, things, I'm gonna jump around like I used to, but, but, you know, I may do one jump on the stage.

• 2:34Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 2:34Speaker 03

  You know, but, but, you know, the playing is pretty good, you know, it's, I'm actually playing better acoustic bass now than I ever did, so.

• 2:42Speaker 00

  What's your self-care routine for your hands?

• 2:45Speaker 03

  Well, yeah, I keep my hands together, and the main thing is the back. I actually kind of almost lost this arm at one point. I was coming back from Russia, I landed in New Jersey, and this arm just went numb. And I didn't quite sever the nerve, but almost, and it took me about eight months to get it back together. And so now, I had to reposition myself and, and learn the bass from a different way. I don't play it like this too much anymore. I'm up like that, and when I do have to go up there, I'll bend over, but I, I go, I default back to this kind of, if I'm on a stool, this L here, and it saves everything.

• 3:25Speaker 00

  Wow, you're serious?

• 3:26Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 3:27Speaker 00

  So, talk to me about the last train to sanity, like, what's, first of all, what was the title that led to this?

• 3:35Speaker 03

  Well, it's song, The Last Train to Sanity, and it just, you know, you know, we all know, I don't have to burden anybody, you know, this, the planet, you know, this country, you know, it's, it's, you know, it's, there's always something going on that, that's, doesn't sort of seem to be leading toward sanity, but, I'll just put it that way.

• 3:57Speaker 00

  You know what? I don't think it's leading to sanity, but I do believe it is leading to clarity.

• 4:04Speaker 03

  It is.

• 4:04Speaker 00

  And I'll tell you why. Because, you know, like in movies, when people are having the porcelain toilet moment, where they're like, God, please let me get through this, just, I'll never drink again if you just let me get through this night. Sometimes, in the worst of times, like, you know, humans shouldn't have to learn when we're at rock bottom.

• 4:26Speaker 03

  Right.

• 4:27Speaker 00

  But, I mean, I will admit that the last 10 years of madness that we went through was probably the motivation for me to really step up my game.

• 4:40Speaker 03

  It's totally true what you say, because sometimes to have cognition, or have some kind of epiphany, or whatever you want to call it, like, you have to see the dirt, you have to see the stuff, you know, and so you can move up. And there's all kinds of stuff out there right now, but this record, that was kind of the flow behind it, which was that, and, and I, you know, I basically decided to put this together, fund it myself, I have my daughter Natasha, she did this, because she's a, a fine singer, but as what, she's a great artist. Yeah, you have to work on it, man.

• 5:15Speaker 00

  I never had a, woo.

• 5:16Speaker 03

  Yeah, and so it's, it's designed very well.

• 5:19Speaker 00

  Yeah, talk about the packaging of it all.

• 5:20Speaker 03

  The packaging, this is like an acrylic case here.

• 5:25Speaker 00

  Yes, it is.

• 5:25Speaker 03

  Yeah, very hardcore, and Natasha, pretty much, she's the art director, and came up with a lot of the ideas here, and she did a tremendous job. I know she's gonna win a Grammy.

• 5:41Speaker 00

  For packaging, yes.

• 5:42Speaker 03

  For packaging. And, and, and there's a book here that's, goes from, I think, eight years old to now, you know.

• 5:50Speaker 00

  There's several books here.

• 5:51Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah. This is the two discs, the pieces of vinyl. Okay, okay, you have a, God, this is like a big deal here, you have the CD right here.

• 6:03Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 6:04Speaker 03

  That's a CD.

• 6:05Speaker 00

  Ah, man, okay.

• 6:07Speaker 03

  And then, you have the vinyl, and the vinyl is this kind of stuff here.

• 6:17Speaker 00

  Don't say there's a hologram inside it. Okay, wow, that's amazing.

• 6:20Speaker 03

  Yeah, and there's two pieces here, and it's, it's, uh.

• 6:25Speaker 00

  I love the fact that you provided the pocket for the CD, simply because.

• 6:30Speaker 03

  Yeah, some guys don't have the, the record player.

• 6:32Speaker 00

  I was gonna say, the only other album I knew that did that, at one point, Motown would put a little pouch in for Songs in the Key of Life, so that the 45 could fit inside of the album, but there's also.

• 6:45Speaker 03

  Well, here's, here's the other one. This is a kind of a protest part of this, you know, the way they stream records, you don't hear anymore, like, who played drums on this record, who played bass?

• 6:54Speaker 00

  Liner notes, liner notes are everything.

• 6:55Speaker 03

  So this is full liner notes, this is, this is great, because it, you know, this has a score to The Last Train to Sanity, all those little dots mean something. And then these are the guys that are in my head, various.

• 7:11Speaker 00

  All your collaborators?

• 7:12Speaker 03

  Well, actually, people I grew up, you know, McCoy, Train, all these guys.

• 7:18Speaker 00

  Well, some of your collaborators are there.

• 7:20Speaker 03

  And, um, this is where we recorded.

• 7:24Speaker 00

  Where was this album recorded?

• 7:25Speaker 03

  This was done in a studio called Mad Hatter Studio, and, um, we had a lot of fun, and I just got all the liner notes in there, just like the old school publishing information, everything.

• 7:38Speaker 00

  That's what I live for. I mean, I live for albums that, you know, that give you information so you can get lost in it, it gives you a tangible thing to hold as you listen to it.

• 7:48Speaker 03

  Here's, uh, here's a little Natasha, who's sitting over there right now.

• 7:52Speaker 00

  I see.

• 7:53Speaker 03

  When she was really young.

• 7:54Speaker 00

  Okay. We're all, we're forever young.

• 7:57Speaker 03

  Yeah, exactly. And yeah, it's, it's a real fun thing, here's.

• 8:01Speaker 00

  Now, what's this book in my hands? Is this?

• 8:04Speaker 03

  This is a book.

• 8:05Speaker 00

  More?

• 8:05Speaker 03

  This is a regular book.

• 8:06Speaker 00

  Is this your memoir?

• 8:08Speaker 03

  Yeah, this is called Notes from the Journey, and it has like, it has everything in here, like, stuff, I got a picture in here of Thundercat, when he was like, eight or nine or 10 or something, standing next to me.

• 8:19Speaker 00

  Really?

• 8:20Speaker 03

  Yeah, let me see if I can find it here.

• 8:22Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 8:22Speaker 03

  There's a lot of great photos in here.

• 8:25Speaker 00

  So, in this particular book, you're just talking about your life journey through creativity?

• 8:28Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah, everything, look at that right there.

• 8:31Speaker 00

  Oh, my God.

• 8:32Speaker 03

  This is before the thunder.

• 8:33Speaker 00

  Baby Brunner.

• 8:33Speaker 03

  This is way before, there was no thunder.

• 8:36Speaker 00

  Okay, which, should I, should I put it here?

• 8:42Speaker 03

  And there's Kamasi there and all those guys way before the thunder.

• 8:49Speaker 00

  So what you're you're sharing your your life journey.

• 8:52Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah, a lot of stuff and little lessons and things I've come across and it's a pretty good read there.

• 8:59Speaker 00

  Why was it important for you to because I know that for us to get this particular record like we have to buy.

• 9:06Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 9:07Speaker 00

  The album as opposed to like streaming it online. Like what was the decision to make a tangible album and not?

• 9:15Speaker 03

  Well, you know, I wanted to do something just on my own, something that I could do it exactly the way I wanted to do it. There's 15 tracks and I wanted to just completely make it exactly the way it's all the way down to the the packaging, the music, everything, how it looked and and just it's not quite in the business. I haven't put it in the business stream at all, uh, music business stream, but eventually it will get there. And right now I sell it on, uh, you know, you you can get the album on from my website, lasttrainthesanity.com. And it feels really nice. There's a nice freedom about it.

• 9:56Speaker 03

  You know, I mean, um, there's a cool picture of me and Chick right there.

• 10:03Speaker 00

  You guys can see this?

• 10:05Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 10:05Speaker 00

  Well, I, you know, if you're watching this on YouTube, I hope you see it at home. They're like, what the hell? You're just hearing it's like flipping, flipping, flipping.

• 10:13Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah, but it took a while.

• 10:15Speaker 00

  How long, how long did the album take to record?

• 10:18Speaker 03

  I started a while back. I don't know, a couple of years, you know, maybe two years, something like that. And I just kept doing what come off the road, work on it, work on it. And then the book was really something, you know, like I just, this is the first book. And a lot of people that that a lot of other bass players have written books and I thought, maybe I should do that. And I did, and cause you know, in my life, you know, I've done so many things that I forgot a lot of things. You know what I mean? And so it was nice to go back, bring these things up and I had things to say about all these things and, uh.

• 10:54Speaker 00

  Of your travels of the places that you've played around the world, what would you say is the one destination point that is the most consistent as far as you enjoying coming there every time to play?

• 11:09Speaker 03

  I don't know why, but I really love playing in Detroit.

• 11:13Speaker 00

  Really? Seriously?

• 11:16Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah, I've I've I've played the, I've been playing there for a long time since the.

• 11:21Speaker 00

  Is that an Elvin thing or like?

• 11:22Speaker 03

  Well, you know, the fans there for some reason, I don't know, man, I just, it's just a connection there.

• 11:30Speaker 00

  Detroit is a jazz town.

• 11:31Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 11:32Speaker 00

  That much I do know.

• 11:32Speaker 03

  And but those people there understood a lot of the like when we got into the what they call jazz rock music and then they changed it to jazz fusion and they liked all that stuff. You could swing, then you could go play some hardcore funk, then you could do this and you could play some really intricate stuff and they were all there. And I played the Detroit Jazz Festival many times. Matter of fact, the last time I was there, I did, I brought in an orchestra. And did a live performance, uh, with Boys in the Hood. I took nine scenes from Boys in the Hood, put it up on a screen and conducted the orchestra. And that was fantastic. And they came out and it was like people, you know, it's so nice to come out and say,

• 12:16Speaker 03

  man, you don't know, uh, what that movie meant to me. I remember as a judge came out and said that to me, says like, like when I was younger, you know, that movie really meant a lot to me so people could understand what was happening in the hood. Cause Detroit is similar in many ways to Philly, you know, so it's a very potent hood.

• 12:41Speaker 00

  It is.

• 12:48Speaker 04

  Hey, it's Nile Rodgers, host of Before the Moment, a Lincoln original series. I'm driving across the country, meeting some of today's most fascinating artists. We're exploring the stories before the moment that changed everything. This week, I'm joined by breakout singer-songwriter Alex Warren.

• 13:09Speaker 05

  I had this dream of being a musician and everyone I had known was kind of like, you're not good at music, you know, you should probably have other things to back up playing whatever. Felt like I didn't have anyone close to me and my wife had flown out to visit and she found out I was sleeping in a car. She didn't know. And she was like, let's do it. And she slept in a car with me. And for the first time in my life, I realized that in a life full of what I thought was things happening to me, something was finally happening for me.

• 13:35Speaker 00

  Dude, that's like the most romantic shit I've ever heard.

• 13:38Speaker 05

  It's the coolest thing ever.

• 13:40Speaker 04

  Experience Before the Moment, a Lincoln original series on the iHeartRadio app, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts.

• 13:49Speaker 00

  Behind every chart topping hit, you know by heart, there's an original, writing it someplace where nobody was listening, some basement, some bedroom, somebody with headphones on at three in the morning, chasing a thing they couldn't even name yet. Behind the culture that marks a generation, there's an original, already moving, already shaking things up, already looping that one bar, already off tempo, on purpose, because on purpose was the point. Behind every night that changed the room, somebody had to walk in first, not knowing it would land, but doing it anyway. Originals are out there, living stories worth telling.

• 14:32Speaker 00

  What's yours? Behind every original, live in Levi's.

• 14:42Speaker 00

  I have a theory. There's a gentleman, uh, from Detroit. His name is, uh, the Electrifying Mojo. And I won't say that he's a rogue figure in radio, but Electrifying Mojo was pretty much allowed to play whatever he wanted. It was almost like he was the black character in Robin Williams, uh, Good Morning Vietnam.

• 15:05Speaker 03

  Right.

• 15:06Speaker 00

  Even though this is black radio. He's really big on Afrofuturism. He was big on fusion. He was big on experimental music. So, I mean, at one point, I mean, he will mix in Prince, Olivia Newton-John, and then he will play a work, he'll play fusion. It's almost like he raised his entire audience's palate.

• 15:30Speaker 03

  Exactly.

• 15:31Speaker 00

  To expand further.

• 15:32Speaker 03

  Very important.

• 15:32Speaker 00

  What the the boundaries of terrestrial radio is. Um, was this all recorded at the same studio?

• 15:39Speaker 03

  Pretty much so there and then, uh, a lot of it was done at my house and mainly just those two places.

• 15:46Speaker 00

  You and I shared, uh, recording at Electric Lady Studios in New York.

• 15:50Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 15:50Speaker 00

  What was it like recording there in the seventies? My period there was like in the two thousands with DeAngelo.

• 15:57Speaker 03

  No, it was, it was great. Electric Lady. I, I actually recorded there recently, uh, did some, some recording, someone called me to play there, but I had a lot of fun. It was funny, when I walked in the studio, I went right to the spot that I recorded School Days. And I remember when I was there.

• 16:14Speaker 00

  Wait, School Days was recorded at Electric Lady?

• 16:17Speaker 03

  Of course.

• 16:17Speaker 00

  I did not know that.

• 16:18Speaker 03

  Where else could it be recorded?

• 16:20Speaker 00

  You're right.

• 16:20Speaker 03

  Electric Lady, man. You know, so, uh, but I remember here's a, this is an interesting thing. I was doing School Days there, I think it was School Days or maybe the album before. And I come outside where they have that round sofa, used to sit. And I'm sitting there, I'm eating a sandwich and there was this guy next to me and we were talking for a long time. This guy kind of looked kind of, he had his long hair, really skinny guy, tall guy. And it was, this guy was Joey Ramone from the Ramones. And I didn't know much about the band. He invited me downtown when they were just playing and I went in there, they were throwing stuff off the stage and people spitting and all that kind of stuff.

• 17:01Speaker 00

  You saw an authentic Ramone show?

• 17:03Speaker 03

  Absolutely. That's the cool thing back in those days, man. It was like, you're just a musician, the, the, the type of music that you played was secondary. We were musicians, you're out there trying to make it. And I'd say, yeah, I'm back there, I play. Matter of fact, I told him, he asked me, what kind of music do you do? And I said, I, I don't know what it is, but I'm a jazz musician and I like this and I like that. And he didn't really define his music either to me. He just says, yeah, we do some stuff, you know, and, and, and that was it.

• 17:35Speaker 00

  So you two just bonded socially, really without knowing the pedigree and the.

• 17:41Speaker 03

  Because it, it didn't exist, cause I, I think when you look back retrospectively at stuff that happens in art, that's when you put a name to it. If you really want to get real specific about this, if you look at the classical composers, I promise you, they were not calling their music classical music.

• 17:59Speaker 00

  We called it.

• 17:59Speaker 03

  The word didn't exist back then. They were just, you know, like Mozart was like Prince, you know, he was a wild dude, you know, and yeah, so. But anyways, Electric Ladyland is special and, um, I love, I love.

• 18:13Speaker 00

  Did you choose it because of the kinship of Hendrix building the spot?

• 18:18Speaker 03

  Absolutely, absolutely. And then also it had a great sound, cause I recorded there, there was a song I did there with Chick and John McLaughlin too. Song to John was the name of the tune. And I have a great picture in the house of that. Yeah, it was great. It was a great time and the room sounded good, you know, and I loved it.

• 18:38Speaker 00

  Are you a sentimental collector? Like this is, this album is in the packaging, packaging of it all is like right up my alley.

• 18:45Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah.

• 18:46Speaker 00

  Uh, I'm big on collecting artifacts. What's the wildest thing that a fan has ever shown you of your own memorabilia?

• 18:56Speaker 03

  Well, there was a guy a long time ago. His name escapes me, but he was a really famous jeweler at that time. And he came backstage and gave me a bass, an Olympic bass with diamonds on it. And he hands it to me and I take it and left it in a hotel.

• 19:16Speaker 00

  No, man, no. You serious?

• 19:20Speaker 03

  Yeah, I was, I forgot just, I was a bit of a scatterbrain back then, you know, but that, that was wild.

• 19:27Speaker 00

  Did he ever come back to you and be like, where is it?

• 19:29Speaker 03

  Never saw the guy, but I saw his company. It was one of these guys out there. They, I think it still exists and it was beautifully done. Like the detail was amazing and I know somebody picked that up, said, yeah.

• 19:43Speaker 00

  How do you, like, how do you, because I've heard many nightmare stories about bass traveling and my own band, getting your acts on board with you and not in.

• 19:58Speaker 03

  I have a guy with me that's very, he's an engineer. He mixes the sound. For some reason, whenever he's carrying the electric bass, nobody says anything to him. And he's one of these guys, you know, real stoic looking dude, kind of like that. When I carry the thing, I'm much taller than him. He go, hey, hold on.

• 20:19Speaker 00

  And you gotta negotiate, to this day?

• 20:21Speaker 03

  To this day, man.

• 20:22Speaker 00

  You can't be like, I'm Stanley Clark.

• 20:24Speaker 03

  Carrying the bass. I mean, I'll even have a guy carry it on, then bring it to me again and I'll put it up in the, you know, but just walking on, I don't know, for some reason, it stands out.

• 20:38Speaker 00

  As far as I know, is there any level of creative benchmark that you have yet to? Let me re-ask it. Are you satisfied?

• 20:51Speaker 03

  You know, I'm definitely satisfied with my life and musically what I've done, but there's still some things that I want to do. I want to write an acoustic bass concerto that I've started. You know, something that'll go in schools, education. It's pretty good, too. And then a couple orchestral things and then I, you know, I used to enjoy producing singers. I produced a record for Natalie Cole. I produced a few other things with Howard Hewitt, different things. I would really like to produce some stuff for some singers, you know?

• 21:22Speaker 00

  Is there a hidden talent that you have that is non-musical? Like, are you a good cook? Do you like archery?

• 21:32Speaker 03

  That's, that's your best question.

• 21:35Speaker 00

  No, well, I want to know, I ask you 100% music questions.

• 21:39Speaker 03

  I would, I would have to, I'd have to ask my kids and.

• 21:45Speaker 00

  If you weren't doing music, what else do you like doing? Like just driving or?

• 21:52Speaker 03

  Well, you know, I do like fast cars.

• 21:55Speaker 00

  Okay. Are you a car collector?

• 21:57Speaker 03

  I did have a lot of cars at one point.

• 22:00Speaker 00

  What was the highest number?

• 22:02Speaker 03

  At one point I had about four, five cars, which isn't a lot, but.

• 22:07Speaker 00

  That's a lot.

• 22:08Speaker 03

  That's a lot.

• 22:09Speaker 00

  I have three and it's hard to maintain.

• 22:11Speaker 03

  Now I have, I have like one, two, three, four, four now. Yeah, it's still, yeah, but I love fast cars.

• 22:19Speaker 00

  Well, again, this is the Last Train to Sanity. Awesome, awesome packaging. This will fit nice at home with me, with my other artifacts. And again, stay tuned for our full episode where we go kind of from soup to nuts to his life's journey and I hope you guys stick in with us. All right, it's Questlove Show Mini.

• 22:59Speaker 00

  Questlove Show is a production of iHeartRadio.

• 23:11Speaker 00

  Behind every chart topping hit, you know by heart, there's an original, writing it someplace where nobody was listening. Behind the culture that marks a generation, there's an original, already moving, already shaking things up. Behind every night that changed the room, somebody had to walk in first, not knowing it would land, but doing it anyway. Originals are out there, living stories worth telling. What's yours? Behind every original, live in Levis.

• 23:46Speaker 06

  This is Shirley Strawberry from the Steve Harvey Morning Show. Buy smart, drive for less and trade for more. That's Toyota affordability and it starts with a great deal on an all wheel drive Camry, Corolla Cross, or a Corolla sedan with the latest features and tech. Or test drive a spacious Grand Highlander or adventure ready RAV4. And with so many hybrid models available, you can enjoy longer trips without all the stops. While Toyota's legendary resale value means you could get more at trade in, get a great deal today and a great value tomorrow. Shop toyota.com for deals and details. Toyota, let's go places.

• 24:27Speaker 05

  Honestly, honestly.

• 24:28Speaker 07

  Honestly, no one wants to think about HIV, but there are things that everyone can do to help prevent it. Things like PrEP. PrEP stands for pre-exposure prophylaxis and it means routinely taking prescription medicine before you're exposed to HIV to help reduce your chances of getting it. PrEP can be about 99% effective when taken as prescribed. It doesn't protect against other STIs though, so be sure to use condoms and other healthy sex practices. Ask a healthcare provider about all your prevention options and visit findoutaboutprep.com to learn more. Sponsored by Gilead.

• 24:57Speaker 00

  This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human.