Catching Up With Kyle Henderson of The Producers
In the wake of the massive success that The Knack scored in 1979 with their debut album Get The Knack and its number-one hit “My Sharona,” the next few years witnessed what Rolling Stone once called a power pop panic. Every record company scrambled to sign a band with snappy tunes and skinny ties (sometimes more than one band) in the hopes that they would nail the next Knack. While the power pop movement was a transatlantic phenomenon, it seemed like every major American city had at least one band that would sign with a major label. In Atlanta, this band was The Producers.
The Producers had four members. Guitarist Van Temple and bassist Kyle Henderson were the two frontmen, as it were. Both also sung lead and wrote, and both were blessed with good looks, Henderson in particular. The band was rounded out by big, bald, personable keyboardist Wayne Famous and lanky drummer Bryan Holmes. Henderson—who had actually grown up in Indiana—was the last guy to join The Producers and would be the first to leave.
The Producers released their self-titled debut in 1981. It contained a dozen blasts of pure pop and did fairly well commercially, with the band being particularly successful on the East Coast. “What She Does to Me” was a minor hit and the video for “What’s He Got?” was popular on a then-fledgling cable channel called MTV. Other standout tracks, to these ears, included “Boys Say When / Girls Say Why,” “Here’s To You” and the shoulda-been-smash “Certain Kinda Girl.” The album was released by CBS/Portrait Records and produced by Tom Werman, who had also worked with Cheap Trick, among others.
You Make The Heat, The Producers’ sophomore album, arrived in 1982. Although still pop-oriented, the songs were fewer, longer and at times darker. The hit was “She Sheila,” which Temple sang, but the more adventurous tunes on the album – such as the herky-jerky title track, the Cheap Tricky “Operation” and the autobiographical opener, “Back to Basics” – were Henderson’s contributions. Unfortunately, You Make The Heat wasn’t a hit, and like a lot of bands from the era, The Producers lost their record deal after two albums. Their next disc, Run For Your Life, would not arrive until 1985 and when it did, it was released on a small, Atlanta-based label. By this point, Henderson had left the band and had been replaced by bassist Tim Smith who would later join Jellyfish.
Since that time, Henderson has recorded only sporadically but his musical pursuits have been nothing if not diverse. In 1985, he released a Christian rock album called More Than the Look of Love on Kerygma Records, the label founded by Kerry Livgren of Kansas. More recently, Henderson has turned his efforts to soul music. He currently plays around the Midwest with his new band, Kyle Henderson’s Blue Eyed Soul, performing a mixture of classic soul covers, Producers songs and new material. And he’s particularly excited about his album Life Goes On, which was just released this fall after a successful Kickstarter campaign.
Life Goes On is an apt title for the project. Like most of us, Henderson has had his share of ups and downs. True, he experienced some success in the music business early on. But he’s had his share of setbacks too – maybe more than a lot of people. As he states in the opening of the bio on his website, KyleHendersonMusic.com, “I’ve flirted with stardom, dabbled in religion, grappled with tragedy, married and divorced 2.5 times and earned an advanced degree.” He’s not kidding when he says he’s grappled with tragedy, either; in 2009, Henderson’s oldest son, Daniel, committed suicide. So when he says that life goes on, he knows what he’s talking (or singing) about.
I recently caught up with Kyle Henderson, who now makes his home in Wisconsin. Here are some excerpts from our conversation.
Since The Producers were considered a Southeastern band, I had no idea you’d grown up in Indiana. Tell me a little about what it was like growing up there and how you first got into music.
My family moved to Indianapolis the summer before my fifth grade, so I consider myself from there. But my roots are definitely Southern. My heritage on both sides of the family is nearly full-on hillbilly — mountains of North Carolina and mountains of Kentucky. I’m sure few if any of my ancestors fought for the North during the Civil War!
We moved to Indiana to follow my dad’s employment. Both my parents were public school teachers. My Dad got a job heading up the drama department at the very modern, huge North Central High School (NCHS) in Indy. It’s where I went to school. I say huge because when I graduated there were 3,800 students in three grades.
All that matters because being at NCHS is an important part of my history. The school had a killer performing arts program. There were ten choirs, four bands, a full orchestra and a drama department that did one or two musicals and several other plays a year. I was steeped in performance throughout my teen years.
I began playing much earlier – [in] first or second grade. Because my parents were teachers, our house was all about learning and talking. And they “made” my brother play violin and me cello when we were very young. Mandatory recitals were the norm during visits from family or friends. I hated it at the time, of course, but an early start proved to be invaluable.
In the bio on your website, you mention that you left your previous band on the first day of the 1980s and wound up joining The Producers. How did you meet the other three guys?
I met Bryan Holmes first. He was playing drums in this wild instrumental fusion band, and they played at a club I was playing in Atlanta with Whiteface, the band you mention. This was the late 1970s. Later, I saw Cartoon, which was made up of Bryan, Van, Wayne and a bass player named Keith Christopher, who went on to have a lifetime career playing with a bunch of touring bigwigs. I got to know all of [them] during those days.
Were there any experiences from that time period in the early ’80s that were particularly exciting or memorable for you—whether it be writing a certain song, getting to tour with a certain band or something else entirely?
I remember best a couple of things: First, the excitement of sitting in Van’s apartment living room, smoking cigarettes, drinking Cokes and coming up with song after song after song that we just loved. It was one of those magical creative times. Second, the thrill of playing for Tom Werman in a New York rehearsal studio nine or ten months after the band had formed and watching him transform from polite-but-busy record exec to head-bobbing, grinning fan after no more than a couple of songs. And of course, his saying immediately after we finished the audition that he was signing us to Epic. That was cool.
“What’s He Got” was one of the most popular songs by The Producers and the opener on your first album. Tell me about that one.
“What’s He Got” was really a full-on band collaboration. The catchy theme and phrasing of the chorus – “What’s he got that I ain’t got? He’s got you, that’s what he’s got”—was Bryan. The chords and melody just arose from a band rehearsal with everyone involved. Usually, the ones Van sang originated with him, and the ones I sang originated with me. But there were exceptions. “What’s He Got” was one.
“You Make the Heat” was the title track of your sophomore album and a great song in its own right. How did that one come about?
That was mostly mine. It was reminiscent of The Police’s “Message in a Bottle,” if I recall correctly. Kind of similar ascending line with a Sus 2 chord. I was frustrated with life at the time on a number of grounds and the lyrics kind of reflect that, I think. It’s not one of my favorites.
Tell me a bit about “Back to Basics.” It was rather atypical for The Producers and my guess is it was somewhat autobiographical. I’m especially curious about the line “anything to reject the past.”
Yes, “Back to Basics” was mostly mine as well. And yes, it is somewhat autobiographical in that it loosely chronicles my transformation from classical cellist and tenor to cocky punk, slavishly devoted to pursuing rock stardom and the life that goes with it and then to a somewhat more reflective person just beginning to seek a little authenticity. I say “just beginning” because that pursuit [still] continues after many years.
What are the other three guys from the band up to these days?
Working and playing. They own small businesses or make income in other ways and play as they can. Bryan raised a beautiful family. Wayne recently had open-heart surgery to repair a defective valve. Word is, he’s doing just fine.
The Producers’ debut was dedicated to the memory of John Lennon. How did Lennon and The Beatles in general influence your music?
Well, the Producers were big Beatles fans, of course. And nobody gets out of the ’60s without having The Beatles in their musical soul. I didn’t really study The Beatles until much later, as my musical background when I was very young was pretty strictly classical. We dedicated the album to Lennon because we were in the studio recording the album when he was shot.
Referring to the bio again—you mention that after leaving The Producers, you recorded a Christian album of all things. You also admit, “It sucked and the experience of making it sucked even worse.” Please expand on that, if you would.
Sure. I left the band to move to L.A. and pursue a solo career. I was in the beginnings of playing in a side trio with Pat Benatar’s husband, [guitarist] Neil Giraldo and drummer Myron Grombacher. But I was sick of all of it and embraced evangelical Christianity. Upon moving in that direction, I just didn’t have the fire in the belly to pursue a music-biz career in the same way as before. I decided I’d shift toward music celebrating my newly energized faith.
I say it sucked because, in the first place, I think the record sucks! The production was horrid, the songs were derivative and the performances were just awful. With one exception: Dennis Marcellino, who’s still around, was and is an absolutely killer sax player.
It also sucked because the experience was very different from my expectations. Like many others who pursue that path, I expected my newfound moral sensibilities to be confirmed and supported by this new approach to music. Those expectations, uh, weren’t met at all. And as is also typical, my conscience was very tender at this early stage of a new belief system. So I just bailed.
You’re currently recording a solo CD called Life Goes On. Tell me a bit about the title and what fans can expect on this album. What sort of songs do you find yourself writing these days?
I have eleven new songs in [the blue-eyed soul] genre, and they’re the finest songs I’ve ever written. Of course, you’ll have to judge for yourself and you’ll soon have the chance. I’m in the beginning stages of recording right now, and I’ll release the new collection this fall. These songs refer to the soul and blues greats with an occasional dash of pop sensibility and chordal sophistication that make them a little different.
The title is Life Goes On because it’s shorthand for my most basic beliefs about our time in this world. Life is mixed, no matter your story. All of us have experienced victories, pleasures and successes; we’ve also experienced defeats, pains and failures. Maybe I’ve had more than my share of both sides.
Plus, it gets even more complicated, in that the mixture is sometimes hard to separate, as the pleasures and pains get all mixed up in the same events. The opening lyric of the song “Life Goes On” goes like this: “Even in the midst of the darkest night / The moon comes out and shines her light / Even in the winds of a hurricane / A thirsty plot of land somewhere drinks its fill of living rain.”
You win, you lose; you lose, you win. And my approach is neither to pretend the loss is nothing nor to pretend the gains are permanent. You dig in authentically with the losses; you celebrate authentically the victories. Life goes on.
So that’s my basic outlook, which runs through the songs. Hence the title. The songs range from slow blues to upbeat soul grooves and much in between. Here are a few examples:
“Lucky Man”: A very sultry groove from the point of view of a guy who’s lost his woman to a “lucky man”—who gives her what she said she didn’t need.
“Winner Take It All”: Think Marvin Gaye reflecting on today’s ultra-conservatism.
“Only the Blues Will Do”: A Little Richard/Paul McCartney treatment of a very bad day.
“Suffered at the Hands of Love”: No matter your story, no matter your name, you’ve suffered at the hands of love. But life goes on, and you’ll be okay.
Those are a few.
Tell me a bit about what else you’re up to now, including your current musical project, Kyle Henderson’s Blue Eyed Soul.
After the music biz crashed for me, I spent time raising a family and trying my best to get educated! That took a while, though, as I finished my undergraduate degree when I was 39 and just last year earned a Master’s degree in communications, which is my professional discipline. I’ve been in the communications field for a long time now. I’ve worked in journalism, PR and advertising. I’m now a senior editor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and I teach part-time in the English department of Madison College, part of Wisconsin’s excellent technical-college system.
Blue Eyed Soul is my band and we play soul and blues, classic and original. My musical mentors of late are Buddy Guy, Otis Redding, Ray Charlies, Marvin Gaye, Gladys Knight, Big Mama Thornton — people like that. I love the grooves, of course. But I also love the authenticity. Soul and blues are usually absent of irony — kind of like classic country. Nobody’s trying to impress you with their wit. They’re just standing there and bringing it. I love that.
Life Goes On is available now on iTunes
Words by Dave Steinfeld
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