Jeff Phelps is an artist we’ve been interested in for a while now so it came with great pleasure to hear that Tomlab were to re-issue one of his albums entitled Magnetic Eyes on wax this coming June 2010. It’s also been digitized and available to download here (if you deal in mp3′s only). It’s a great Lp and one that’s been hiding in record shop corners so to speak all these years. We reached out to Jeff recently to find out how he’s been doing and to get a bit more information behind the man the music and this classic album.

First of all its great to see your 1985 album ‘Magnetic Eyes’ getting a re-issue on Tomlab this year. How did this come about, was it largely due to requests from fans?

I’ve always gotten random requests for albums over the years mostly because I still have the same home phone number (land line) that I’ve had since the 1980′s.  Only the area code has changed.  Then with the advent of the internet and email, friends would run across random links to clips from “Magnetic Eyes” and send them to me.  But it wasn’t until I put my own low-tech website together that I began to realize that there was true interest in the LP, and that the interest went beyond the US. I get emails from Italy, Australia, Spain, Germany, and of course, here in the US.  Jan Lankisch of Tomlab actually found me on Facebook (I’m still not sure how he did that) and initiated contact and it wasn’t long before he and Tom Steinle began discussions wth me about a re-issue.

I’ve noticed that original vinyl copies of this album can reach anywhere up to $300 online at present, how many were initially released and was it a success at the time?

There were probably less than 5,000 original copies and we had no idea how to promote or sell them.  It wasn’t really jazz, and it wasn’t really funk, and it certainly wasn’t disco.  Nobody knew what to do with it in the clubs or on the radio at that time.  They didn’t even know what rack to put it on in the stores, but most filed it under “jazz” for lack of a better option.  It was definitely not a commercial success in any sense of the word.  I was pretty stunned to find out that people were bidding on them on eBay and that the prices had gotten that high.  I don’t even know where they got them.  I still have no idea how the album made it overseas – it certainly wasn’t due to any targeted marketing effort on my part.

I’ve come across some of your tracks in various Dj’ mixes down the line but most recently in one of L.A’s up and coming producers named ‘Nite Jewel’. Are you surprised that tracks such as ‘Super Lady’ & ‘On The Corner’ are still finding an audience and filling dance-floors?

Yes I am surprised that people even know about it, quite frankly.  Everyone that heard it back then seemed to like it and enjoy it, but we had no distribution or marketing deal so after a while everyone just went on and did other things.  I met Ramona of Nite Jewel through Jan Lankisch of Tomlab.  Even though we’ve only met via email, we have become friends and she is becoming a great resource to me as I navigate the current interest in “Magnetic Eyes”.

Can you tell us a little bit about the track ‘On The Corner’ ? It’s about your wife right?

Actually, the words were written by my wife, Paula.  I arranged the music and melodies based on her lyrics.  It has consistently been one of the songs that people refer to when talking about “Magnetic Eyes”, but there are no personal stories behind it.  It’s just a song we came up with at that time.

The track ‘Wrong Space, Wrong Time’ is one of my favorites from the album, it’s taken from a poem of the same name, can you tell us more about that?

Vicki Reece, a former co-worker of mine, is the author of the original poem.  Although I rearranged the words somewhat to fit the song structure I ended up with, there is no question at all that her poem inspired and is the basis for the song.  It certainly went a long way toward allowing me to bring to different feel to the project, and I knew I wanted to use it as soon as I first read it.  I really loved it and thought it was a great poem.

The artwork on ‘Magnetic Eyes’ is pretty special, did you design that yourself or where did the idea come from?

The original artwork was done by a local Houston, Texas artist named Garry Hollie.  It was his concept and it was his drawing.  I really wish I knew where he was these days.  Hopefully, he will turn up if “Magnetic Eyes” grows in popularity this time around.

What have you been doing since the release of the album, are you still making music?

I actually never stopped making music, and you can see what I’ve been working on at my website.  But I got sidetracked somewhat when I joined, and later became leader of, a popular cover band in Houston called The Next Level Band.  We played literally every type of event (weddings, political, corporate, clubs, private parties) for over 10 years, but it was very much a hindrance to creating original music.  As I like to tell people, in the end, I just couldn’t play “Brick House” by the Commodores any longer.

We did manage to put a CD out in 1998, and even though I like much of what we put together, my real regret is that we did too many individual tracks in the studio and not enough of it was played live as a band.  We also relied on drum machines for some tracks and I believe that was misguided.  We really were a great live band; for some reason, all of our parts just “fit” when we played live, perhaps from years of playing together.  As co-producer, I feel like I failed to capture us in our best light.  Then, when we played all the songs live at our release party, I knew I was right.  We, and the songs, sounded fantastic.  Live and learn, I suppose.  My favorite song from that CD was “Don’t You Think I Tried Hard Enough”, and it’s fitting that we used all live instrumentation on it and no drum machines.

In 2002, I worked with one of the former lead singers of The Next Level Band, Domonic Eagleton, to put together a CD.  We called ourselves “Two Souls”, and our CD was called “I Could Be Your Angel”.  I played all the instruments, Domonic wrote words, but it took us a while because most weekends were taken up gigging with The Next Level. We got a nice response to our effort, particularly from the title track, “I Could Be Your Angel”, and “I’ll Stay Forever”.

I’ve also dabbled in gospel (see Phelps Blount Burris on my website, and on MySpace), although my part was just the music.  In all honesty, take away the words and it doesn’t sound much like gospel at all.  It was fun to work the other co-writers, though (Farris Blount, Tasha Burris).

Most recently, I’ve just come out with an all instrumental CD with a group I formed called “Porterfield Rose”. It’s something a little different in a genre I call instrumental pop, and it features Lovancy Ingram on violin, Vedoster Ingram on clarinet, Marcel Miner on bass & guitar, and myself on keys & sax.  Our first CD is called “Echos Of A Rose”.  You can find it on Myspace at  HYPERLINK “http://www.myspace.com/porterfieldrose” www.myspace.com/porterfieldrose, on Facebook (Porterfield Rose fan page), and now on iTunes.

Who are you currently listening to in todays scene?

I always warn people when they get in my car, or attempt to listen to my iPod, that it will be difficult, actually impossible, to predict what song may come next.  I usually have all my long time favorites like Steely Dan, The Crusaders, John Mellencamp, Tupac, Gil Scott-Heron, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Kirk Whalum, Third Eye Blind, Lee Ritenour, and Sade mixed in with my own stuff as well as from Nite Jewel.  I’m spending a lot of time working on the 2nd CD for Porterfield Rose as well as preparing for a few live performances this summer so I haven’t listened much beyond my old standbys.  I hear a lot of stuff I really like, but I don’t always know the name of the artist.  I have to get better at that.

What’s next for Jeff Phelps, do you have any albums or projects forthcoming?

As I mentioned above, I’m focused musically 100% on Porterfield Rose at this time.  It’s a fun group and the instrumentation allows us to continue to cross barriers between jazz, pop, and other genres.  I hope readers get a chance to check out what we’ve come up with on our 1st CD, “Echos Of A Rose”.

Thanks for your time Jeff, any last words?

I’d like to thank you, Darren, for taking the time to include me in your blog.  I’d also like to tell aspiring musicians to go with the music you have inside.  Don’t let anyone tell you you’re not good enough or talented enough or that your equipment is inferior or that your music doesn’t fit neatly in a “box”.  Check out my story about “Magnetic Eyes” on my website to see the list of equipment I had at the time.  These days I’ve got all the high-end recording and production toys, but I’m not convinced I’m making better music than I was back then.  It proved that the song is what’s important.  If you are true to your music, it will find an audience whether you realize it or not.  I am living proof.

Real Talk…..

For information and details check Jeffs website http://www.magneticeyesmusic.com/