Her communities. This is Renee Den you know, on the line now with
Brian Bassett fog Hat. Of course we play fog Hat on the River one
oh five nine. You know, I love them coming to Mohegan's Son on
May nineteenth, literally around the corners. So Brian, thank you for joining
us. Ay so glad to be here, you know, I mean,
I for me, especially in this industry and growing up in this industry,
fog Hat has every thing I need as far as the elements of what makes
great music. I love like cobo, I love bass and horns and breakdowns
and like I don't know, just like funk and rhythm and rock and the
voice and every I just love everything about fog Hat. I've loved playing your
music over the years. Well thanks so much, and we love playing it.
I mean playing live is what we live for, really, and you've
all been together for a long time. You're one of the founding members of
the band. I mean, this has got to be kind of like a
surreal experience to still be out there having a great time. I've been doing
what you've loved and for so many years. Right, Yeah, it's you
know, we're so surprised. I think back in the day in the seventies,
and uh, you know, and I've been in I'm not quite a
funding member, but I've been in a plus twenty some years. But you
know, when you get a run of five or ten years in a band,
you think, oh, that's great. But you know, the band
was found in the nineteen seventy one, so that's the long run, you
know. But we're you know, forty plus years now. So to still
be able to do what you love is a blessing. Well. And some
of your iconic songs are still played today and in regular rotation, as we
would say in radio, from Slow Ride, full for the City, obviously,
I just want to make love to you. Those are songs that are
just iconic anthems in the classic rock world. What's it like today to play
those songs on stage and see younger feasts enjoying them and rocking along to them
as well. Yeah, that's the great thing, in a surprising thing.
I think some of the big hits, you know, in movies that appealed
to some of the younger crowd, and also in some of the video games,
you know, like Guitar Hero I think had Slow Ride on it,
and that brought a lot of young fans to our you know, to our
music. So it's great and it's you know, we always were a live
band and to play those songs in front of a live audience is really where
we get our energy. And to see people still rocking out to it after
all these years, you know, it's it's great for us. You know,
we just have a ball doing it. And when you're you're playing some
of these classics songs and people are in the audience, they're getting ready,
they're like, oh, we know, it's it's it's it's got to be.
It's it's got to be coming. How do you plan your set list
because you have like multiple encore songs that you can choose from, So how
do you know which one is going to be the encore of the night.
Well, you know, every year we try to do it. In fact,
we just came out of rehearsals and we try to do a little bit
of a surprise every year for our repeat you know, fans, We have
a lot of people come and see you know, every year at some point,
and so we always play our main hits that everyone expects us to hear,
but we'd like to go into the deep album tracks and pull out a
couple of surprises, you know, every concerts, every concert year we try
to change it up a little bit, you know, maybe pull some old
blues out that we haven't played for a while, or pull some deep tracks
that may be some people's favorite that doesn't get as much radio airplay as some
of the other songs. So just to keep ourselves entertained and also our crowd
interested in our live set, we try to change just a little bit every
year. And fog Hat, even though we're saying like rock and or classic
rock, there's a lot of funk in it and it's perfect for you with
some of your history in the industry with Wild Cherry and of course Molly Hatchett
has a huge Connecticut drawing by the way, as you know, but now
with Focket, so the I don't even know how you would describe fog Hat
as someone who wouldn't know. For me, though, it's like the quintessential,
Like the timeframe of when all these hits are coming out, it just
seems like that was the black and um and sort of trend setting a little
bit. But like it's got that funk, it's got that groove and that
baseline of rock and roll, right, So I don't know how to that's
the best way I could describe Fogcat. Yeah, we were always described over
the years as boogie rock, but I think, you know, rarely it's
a you know, just up tempo, driving blues rock. You know.
Fogat came out of Savoy Brown, which was part of the British blues invasion,
you know, along with Cream and John Mayo and those bands that took
American blues and rocked it up and sent it back to America. So yeah,
that's you know, there's a lot of blues rock in our music,
and were keeping up tempo and fun, like you said, the hard driving
and danceable. So it's a good mashup of a lot of good elements for
live music. You know. I still remember from from my album when I
I have like all these albums that were passed down to me for in generations.
And also I started working as a third shift overnight DJ in nineteen eighty
eight, so this has just been my life's work. And it's funny because
I look at the album covers and I remember when I would get an album,
it was such a big deal. From the graphic design of it,
reading the cover and just like sitting there and listening to all your your music.
And I remember looking through all the Fogat album covers and things like it
was so so much fun. I kind of missed those days a little bit,
I have to say, absolutely. And that's how I listened to music
when I was growing up. You know, getting an album and it was
a big deal, you know, music being released, you know, an
album at a time back then by your your favorite bands. And there wasn't
so many things to entertain yourself back then. You know, there was no
internet, there was no video games, so when a record came out,
that was a big deal. Everybody had a great stereo or you know,
you've saved your money up to get a great stereo and just you know,
you put that new record on and read every word on the back cover and
look at all the pictures. I mean, it's sort of got lot in
the digital era. But now the vinyls coming back, I think a lot
of you know, younger people get to experience that same thing that we did
when we listened to those early records. Yeah, it was fun and like
from the and it's funny whenever I hear or say fog hat. I don't
know, maybe because I'm in the business and who knows. Everybody has their
own weird quirks. But I just see your logo in Might when I hear
fog hat, I actually like see it from the album, you know what
I mean. It's like the weirdest thing ever. I don't know why I
would even think of that, but you know, it's really cool to be
chatting with you. I'm glad you guys are coming. I'm glad you guys
are still playing. I know the band has gone through some changes, some
heartbreak over the years, as with you know, rock and roll, right,
but you know here you are coming in to Connecticut. You're gonna be
playing at Mohegan Sun on May nineteenth. Tell me about a little bit about
the show and how it's gonna, you know, sort of relate to all
ages of the audiences. I know you were just telling you just came out
of practice and you're talking about that the set lists and things like But tell
me about the show and what we can expect to say. Well, a
little bit of old, a little bit of new. We're just completed a
new studio record, which we hope to release sometime this year, and uh,
it's in the mixing, mastering process right now, So you might hear
a little bit of a new material. Also are classic hits and you might
even hear something a little funky towards the end of their said in the encore.
So that's we like slip in my old wild cherry hit the schedule,
and and we love playing mohegan Son. I mean, that's one of our
favorite venues. We like to play there at least once a year if we
can. The wolf Stand. It's a beautiful venue where you get up put
some personal to the band. It's a great stunting room, and you know
we love playing there. Well, come on, it's just going to be
a fun live show, you know. That's that's what we like to do.
Play, you know, some live rock and roll and get people all
up on their feet and rocking out with us. Now for a bassist who's
funky, right, Like do you I mean you don't have are you okay
with arthritis? Like seriously, I don't know how you do that? Like
I always think of guitar players and like all the stuff, and especially with
the music that you play, because it's like a nonstopping. Yeah, because
I think of like Earth Winning Fire. I think of when when when Chicago
did this, you know, the CTA stuff, or like like even Molly
Hatch. But some of the songs that you play, it's just like a
dozen't stop to this day, you guys. I work out to my favorite
classic Rocks tunes. I will put that up to any dance pop tunes ever
because it's incredible. But I just think of, like, my fingers are
hurt sometimes when I think about the fact that you have to play at all.
Well, you know, over the years, your fingers sort of adapted
the punishment. I think, you know, when I think back to when
I first started, I mean I did actually have blisters on my fingers,
you know, from playing hours and hours when I was young. But over
the years, you sort of get used to it, and um, you
know, becomes second nature after a while, you know. I think about
it sometimes like that, when we rehearse or learn new material, it's like,
oh, my brain can still learn new songs. That's actually good to
know, right because then you're like, Okay, that's a good thing right
there. Yeah, so it's still working. So but yeah, it's a
musician it's an interesting thing about how you know, you learn and recame material
your body. You know a lot of songs. Yeah, you know,
I'll play a song that we haven't played for several years and you're you know,
it's like body memory. I don't know, it's almost like an athlete
in a way. But you go, oh, yeah, that's right.
You go when my brain like what comes next? And then my handle autom
actually go to a certain spot on my guitar, like my hand knows my
brain doesn't. So very it's a very unday playing. But you know,
at this point, it's sort of like breathing. It's like second nature to
just pick up guitar and play. Well, I love it. Thanks for
that description. I have to let you know that I have my my workout
tapes, which I don't even know why I would say that's you because I
don't know the last time I worked out, so as sometimes I just play
the music, but I always have slow ride on there. I always have
I just want to make love to you. I always I always have empty
pages, cross down traffic. I know we're going to different bands and such,
but those are those songs. And then um, I do a lot
of CTA. I do a lot of all that, like upbeat stuff and
grand funk I'll put in their footstomp on music like I put all those songs
in there, like on one continuous track, and like I am like if
I would have really worked out to all of that, I would be in
such great shape right now. But very good. I should try that.
That sounds like a good workout tape right there. Absolutely, But anyway,
well, it's been a pleasure to chat with you. Obviously, piece of
music history here on the river Wood of five nine. I heeart meeting here
in Connecticut, Brian Bassett from a fog hat. You will see them at
Mohegan sun May nineteenth, and hopefully you'll come back and visit us again.
I'd be glad to. I can't wait to get up there. All right,
have a great day you too,