Here's Paul Martin and Ray the Roadie for the Rock and Roll Chicago podcast. How are you doing? I'm good. I'm making fun of you now because you made fun of me a few weeks ago.

Well, that's fine. I can take it. I'm sitting here listening to a little Sister Christian.

Sister Christian? Yeah. Really? Yeah. I don't know why.

Night Ranger. Night Ranger. That's right.

We spoke with Joel Hoekstra who plays guitar in Night Ranger. Yeah. And I just, I don't know if I mentioned it to you before, but I just, somebody messaged us on our Facebook group that there's a Joel Hoekstra bobblehead out.

Really? Yeah. I think you've made the bigs when you got your own bobblehead. I think we just got something too.

So Joel Hoekstra's got a new song or album or something out too. Yeah. He's, he's been working.

He's been recording a lot of stuff during this pandemic time. Well, we're not talking today with Joel Hoekstra. No, we spoke to him before.

We spoke to him before, but we do have a Christian theme. We're talking with Ray Vanda, who was in the band Christian Friday. Anybody remember the band Christian Friday? I do.

Do you? I do. And you know what other band he was into, which I didn't realize. I know.

I know which band it is. It's Falcon Eddie. That's right.

Wow. I mean, I mean, I didn't realize that, but so we talked to Ray Vanda. He's got a recording studio now.

He's, he's been recording a lot of different groups and he's been keeping pretty busy even through the pandemic. He said he's quite busy during the pandemic and because most people aren't working. Right.

You know, but he's been really busy recording a lot of different groups. So that's very cool. So let's find out what Ray had to say.

And then afterwards, check out episode 33, which was Joel Hoekstra. Okay, I will. Check it out.

Let's talk to Ray. Not me. The other one.

Okay. Welcome to the show, everybody. Today we're talking with guitarist, songwriter, producer and engineer, formerly of the band Christian Friday, Ray Vanda.

How are you doing, Ray? I'm doing wonderful. You guys are doing as good, I hope. Absolutely.

Absolutely. So tell us, I know, I know now you've got a recording studio, but let's go back and talk about Christian Friday a little bit and tell us your thoughts. How long did the band last and who was in the band or whatever? Four years with the band when I was in the band.

They did continue on after I quit the band. They got another guitar player and kind of kept going. But at the time that we had it together, we were doing basically all original material.

And, you know, back in them days, if you didn't do free bird and, you know, you weren't gigging on the south side. So maybe a lot of our gigs were north side because they kind of like the original stuff. But yeah, it was about four years span.

And what was really cool is that we had two, Jimmy and Billy Brown, the two twin lead singers. And then we had a violin player, Jeff Holmes, which he was awesome. And then Jimmy Danovich on bass.

And then we had Don Polo on drums. So it was kind of a unique thing, you know, and it was different. Kind of esoteric rock.

Wasn't mainstream, which is kind of the where, you know, the mistake we might have made at that time. You know, we weren't shooting for mainstream stuff, but we stayed pretty busy. It was a lot of fun.

It was a good experience. Now, you did a lot of the songwriting, I understand, right? Yeah, yeah. Me and actually Billy, one of the singers, we did the majority of the songwriting.

But like I said, it was a fun experience. And then after the band kind of broke up, what happened? Actually, I first, the violin player actually said he was moving to Oregon. That's kind of what blew the band apart.

And then after that, then, you know, I kind of just said, you know, I had enough. I want to move on to something different. And so that's kind of how things disbanded, even though they did stay together for another couple of years.

And they started doing a lot more copy, you know, to get the club gigs. You know, a lot of clubs, they don't want all original material. So, you know, at that point in time, they were like, well, you know, if we want to keep rolling, let's start doing a copy.

And that's kind of what they were doing. And I think about two years later, the band disbanded. I've said many times on this show that back in the day, back in those days, a lot of clubs wanted, at least the clientele, wanted you to play original music.

It's not that way, definitely not that way anymore. Yeah. Well, even at that time, like I said, we weren't playing our original stuff, wasn't like Foreigners or, you know, something or Boston, something that was really mainstream.

It was esoteric rock. It was it was different. And again, like a lot of clubs in the South Side, it seemed to me anyway, they were they wanted more copy than anything.

It seems like the North Side was like two different worlds in the music business back in them days. You know, the North Side, they loved the original material. We used to play trying to remember the name of the club.

We played there all the time on the North Side. And they absolutely we had a big following. I mean, they just when we played, we, you know, book a Friday and a Saturday and we'd have the place packed both nights, you know, following up there.

But the South Side, it wasn't the same. It was a little different on the South Side. And I think even today, I think the North Side is more kind of, what do you want to say, liberal about the music business, you know, than the South Side is because it might be after that Falcon Eddie.

We did a combination of both. You know, we did original material. And then, of course, we did a lot of copy.

I don't know. You played that kept us working quite a bit. You played in Falcon Eddie as well.

Yeah, that was actually my next band after Christian Friday started out. We went through different personnel changes in a couple of years, like every band usually does. And then we finally got a pretty good core.

And, you know, we were together, I want to say about eight years. You know, we played we played all over. We were real busy.

We were playing four or five nights a week. So that was a lot of fun. Like I said, we split it up.

You know, we did a lot of the Zeppelin and Travers and, you know, a lot of the rock stuff. And then we threw in our originals in between on the sets. And that seemed to work out real well for us.

Now, what would you say Falcon Eddie's type of music was? I mean, you said you did original stuff with them as well, right? Yeah. And the original stuff that we were doing was definitely rock. It kind of heavy rock.

I kind of put it in the category, like kind of like maybe rush kind of rushes, you know, nice changes. You know, it wasn't just a three chord rock and roll thing, you know, and people really thought I mean, we had a really, really good follow. That's what I'm about.

Out there again after eight years, you know, things kind of disbanded and that was it. And then I got into the recording. And of course, I've been in recording all the years anyway.

So, you know, I had a studio in my house and then I brought it into my building. And that's what I've been doing for the last 15, 20 years has basically been recording. Which I really love because I still get to play and then I work with other bands.

You know, so it's a lot of fun. Did you guys record anything with Christian Friday or Falcon Eddie? As a matter of fact, Christian Friday, we did a 45. Disco Rag and Promising Glance were the two songs that I still got the 45.

Yeah, that was about the only recording we did. Falcon Eddie, we did start doing some recording down at Acme Studios. I don't know if you remember that studio.

They're gone now. Matter of fact, the engineer guy, he passed away a few years back. But we did some recording there.

But then, like I said, I started getting into that end of the business. And at the time, I really wasn't doing the recording full time. We still had the band going.

Yeah, and like I said, at that time, you know, with the band, I still was playing four or five nights a week. So I didn't have a lot of time to dedicate to my recording end of it. And then after the band kind of disbanded, that's kind of what I did full time.

Because you guys know, I mean, it's a tough road to hold in this business. I mean, when you're supporting a family, you know, you got to make money. Oh, yeah.

You know, for the four or five nights a week, we were, you know, playing. I mean, we were making money. Don't get me wrong.

But it still wasn't, you know, enough to support the family, if you know what I mean. Absolutely. So everybody had full time gigs, you know, which like most musicians I know do.

There's a few that don't, but most do, you know. And then after that broke up, then I had more time to dedicate to this end of the business. And, you know, back then I was taped.

Then I started going to digital. And now we're full blown digital, obviously. And, you know, we work in Pro Tools.

And, you know, I've had a lot of fun back here. I was a lot of good artists coming in. I've done a lot of work with I did Shirley King's last album that was just released that Cleopatra Records.

I don't know how well it's doing, but we did that here. And let's see, we did the Spaniels. I don't know if you guys are familiar with them.

They're an old bebop type, you know, all acapella group, but really, really good vocals. Had a lot of fun working with them. And so, yeah, it's like I said, it's been I've been busy four or five nights a week now that this is what I'm doing now.

And I'm surprised with the pandemic that I'm getting this much work. I thought, you know, for sure, you know, but everybody wears the masks, you know, social distancing. Nobody comes into control.

One person at a time. They got to come in with a mask. And we keep everybody that's not actually recording out into, you know, the lobby area.

And they just sit out there and they can't wait, you know, to do their thing. And I will since they can't perform live anywhere. I think the recording and is that, you know, that's what they're doing.

Everybody wants to. That's exactly right. That's what that's what they're doing.

So they got the time now. So they figure, let's knock it out. So, you know, God bless that I'm working because a lot of people with this pandemic aren't working right now at all making any money.

All right. So thank God that, you know, I did. But, you know, I've been doing it long enough now where I've established a pretty good clientele.

You know, a lot of my guys have been coming to me for years. So that's a good thing. And then name your studio is.

Don't react studio. I'm recording studio. Yeah, I'm trying to do.

Yeah, I think anybody can find you on the web, right? Oh, absolutely. Yeah. And I have a Facebook page, too, for our track studio, too.

So, you know, and I don't do a lot of advertising. Like I said, I stay busy enough, you know, so, you know, I can't complain. It's a good thing.

Yeah. I was going to ask you what kind of what kind of system you use. But you said using using Pro Tools, right? Yeah.

Yeah. You know, I'm up to date with the latest version of Pro Tools, you know, so. Right.

I pay for the updates every year, even though they're going up and up with their price every year. But I still, you know, I want to keep up with what's happening. But, you know, the world's really involved with it when it comes to the studio.

I mean, these plugins now are getting really, really good. Oh, yeah. And because I sold most of my artwork here.

In fact, I was talking to a friend of mine. I don't know if you guys know Don Griffin. Oh, yeah.

Yeah. Well, I was talking to Don. He comes in and records drums because he's got a studio, too, but it's pretty small and he doesn't have a kid.

So he brings the clients over here to record and then he goes back and mixes. But he's got all this beautiful, beautiful vintage equipment, you know, back in the day. His place is up in the Palatine or something, isn't it? No, no, no, no.

He's right off of Harlem and Archer over in Summit. Oh, OK. No, he's right in Summit and he's in an office building.

It's kind of weird because when I first went over there to check out his studio, I was like, wow, where's it at? I go into this, you know, it looks like an office. Actually, it looks like a doctor's office building, you know, and I go in there and I'm walking around. I don't see any signs.

I'm like, where the hell is this guy at? So I end up going up to the second floor. And sure enough, all the way at the end of the hall, there he is. You're beautiful stuff, you know.

And I said to him, I go, Dan, I go, are you using any of this shit anymore? He said, well, not a lot of it. I said, well, good luck trying to get rid of it. I mean, you know, like I said, nothing against the vintage stuff that I am.

So I kept all my, you know, good, my crap. I sold it. And I'm glad I did.

When I did, I got something for it anyway. You know, there's a lot of these guys, you know, like Andrew Sheps, you know, Chris Lloyd Algy, you know, these guys got Grammys up the ass and they're all mixing in the box now. You know, they're not really using much outboard gear at all.

So it's, it's, this has evolved quite a bit, this recording business. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

So it's a lot of fun for me. I'm glad I did what I did and I'm where I'm at now. You know, because like I said, you know, you guys, you know, music's a passion.

You know, you play it because you want to play it. It comes from the heart. And I finally got somewhere where I can actually make a decent buck here.

Not have to stay out the four o'clock in the morning. You know what I mean? That's a good part. Yeah.

You know, I'm staying out of the bars with all the drunks screaming free bird, you know, I'm done with all that crap. Oh, it actually works out pretty nice for me. So I'm pretty happy with it.

So did you ever do any live engineering? Yeah, I did. Well, actually not a lot, but I've done a couple of gigs. I did a gig for a band at a huge church and they had a Midas.

I think it was a Midas 32. Right. Which is kind of they're nice.

They're really nice and they're not really real pricey either. But yeah, I worked on it and I did a mix for them. Actually, a live recording came out really good, too, but not really.

I don't do a lot of it. I've had people asking me, but there again, man, I'm a homebody now. You know what I mean? I mean, I like my studio.

I don't really like to get out and I'm way, way past the club scene. You know, my son, you know, he plays and I go out and see his band occasionally. Well, that was before this pandemic hit, you know, and I mean, my wife would go in the bar and they'd be up there playing.

I'd look around and I go, yeah, nothing's changed. Yeah, I mean, it's a younger faces, but everything else still seems the same. You know, there's not that many four o'clock bars left either.

No, there isn't. You're absolutely right. And hopefully by the end of the summer when we get past this, you know, and they start opening back up, it'll be great for everybody.

Because I know a lot of guys, like I said, they're just chopping the bits to get out there and play. Yeah. You know.

Well, Ray and I have talked and we've said that to probably festivals are going to be the first thing to really happen because it'll be outdoors and and people can social distance. And and you got a breeze going and everything, because clubs are going to be a little bit more enclosed. And and unless the clubs do outdoor things, you know.

Right now, you're absolutely right, which is good. And it's you know, there's more money in it. Anyway, doing a festival than there is doing a bar scene.

Right. So that's a bonus all the way around. Now, what does your son play? Pardon me? What is your son? Plays drums, plays drums.

My daughter's a singer. She's actually out in L.A. She's been out there about six years now. I mean, look her up.

If you don't just look up Vanda and you'll see all the stuff she's doing. But she's doing real good. She's she's a singer, songwriter.

And, you know, she's been like I said, she moved out there. And of course, everybody wanted to go out for the California dream. And actually, that's really not the place anymore.

But, you know, it seems like Nashville and Atlanta are kind of where it's at musically. I've been trying to talk her to move in there, but she loves it out there. I can't blame her.

The weather's beautiful. Or Austin, Austin, Texas. Austin, Texas, another hot spot.

Yeah, absolutely. You said that she's eventually going to do it, but she's got a lot of connections out there. She just did a thing with she got to deal with Disney.

They got a new movie coming out and she's doing some of the backup vocals for it, which is kind of cool. So she's doing a lot of studio work for other people to do besides her own stuff. But she's got quite a few songs and she's a good songwriter, too.

You know, but she's like me. She's smart enough, whereas it went back in the day when we were doing originals, we were just doing them because we liked them, not what was happening. So when you look at this business and the marketing end of it, you really need to, you know, do what's going, what's happening.

And she's got that down. I mean, she's right there, right in the pocket. You know what's happening out there.

So hopefully she'll she'll get a good deal someday there. But, you know, she's doing all right. And like I said, then my son, he's the drummer.

And then my other son, he's a singer, but he's kind of retired now. You know, they're married with children, you know, and he's he's pushing 50 now. You know, he's well, he's 51.

So, you know, like I'm done. What's your son's son? Who's the drummer? What's his band? What's the name? Right now, he's not really working with anybody since the pandemic. Good deal.

And everybody kind of couldn't play anymore. And you know how that goes. They're not gigging, so they don't want to get together and rehearse.

But he actually he's been coming in here working on some original stuff of his. In fact, he was here last week. And they're kind of a funk fusion type.

It's kind of cool. And he's got some good players, you know, and he's an excellent drummer. And the bass player and the keyboard player, man, I mean, they were solid right in the pocket.

It was a lot of fun. And we're still not done with their stuff yet. In fact, they're going to come in this weekend.

So but yeah, you know, like I said, he said they're just doing the studio stuff right now because they don't have enough, you know, enough work out there to go out and gig. And, you know, the guys in the band, well, they don't want to rehearse. They just want to make money, you know, especially the horn players out there.

They don't want to rehearse anything. They just want to make money. Just send me the track.

I'll learn it. And I'll see you at the gig. Yeah.

Yeah. Well, that's the way of the world, too. It's people doing files at home and sending the files.

You know, I do it all the time. Absolutely right. And it's very cool that we can do that now.

Yeah. Very cool. And it sounds like they're in the same room and everything else.

Absolutely. Yeah. It's amazing how far we've come with this business.

You know, yeah, you could be in a different state. All the way. You could be in California.

You record your part, send it over. Absolutely. In fact, I got some clients that like my daughter's voice.

And that's what we do. I'll just send them an MP3 of the rough mix. She goes, she records it, you know.

And then she sends me it back. Boom. You know, it's there.

Hey, Ray. Ray, what are you doing? I'm getting my Blue Rats on. I'm playing my banjo.

Except there seems to be something wrong with the strings. Well, you know, Ray, GHS makes strings for all types of instruments. Electric and acoustic guitar, bass guitar, mandolin, ukulele, and even banjo.

Then I'm getting new GHS strings and my banjo will sound better. I don't think it's the strings, Ray. GHS are easy to play with rich, full-balanced tone, available in many different gauges.

Great for all musical styles. So if you play. Play with the best.

Play GHS strings. So did any of the guys from Crystal Friday follow you to Falcon Eddy? No. No.

Totally different crew. As a matter of fact, Don Paul is the drummer. He lives out in LA now.

He's been out there, I'll bet you, 30 years. Maybe even a little longer. And he actually sets up studios out there.

Because he used to work for a place on the north side of Music Store. I can't remember the name of it now. And he was selling pro equipment out of there on the north side here.

And then he moved to LA. And he got hooked up with another outfit where they go in and they set studios up with equipment and gear. And so he's been doing that for a long time.

Jeff Holmes, who was the violin player, he moved to Oregon. And nobody ever heard from him again. I still talk to Billy and Jimmy.

Yeah, the two twins. I still talk to them guys. And then Billy, he's out in Arizona now.

He's remarried, living out there. And Jimmy, he's still over here in Oklahoma. He's remarried now, too.

But yeah, that's Jimmy Danovich. I haven't seen him in 20 years. Like I said, the Browns are the ones that I really talk to.

And every once in a while, Don will call me, hey, how you doing? And because when I was actually setting up my new studio, he gave me a lot of tips, things to do, things not to do, and things to buy, things that work, things that don't. So he was quite a big help. But yeah, I don't really, like I said, as time moves on, man, I see less and less.

But thank God for Facebook, because I really enjoy Facebook. I do. I don't spend a lot of time on it, but I've ran into a lot of people that I grew up with through Facebook that I would have never hooked up with, and a lot of my musician friends on Facebook.

So I like it. It's very cool. Right.

It keeps you in contact with someone. It does. It absolutely does.

Well, that's how I actually found you originally, because I found your wife, who I went to grade school with, you know? Oh, okay. Wow. Isn't that something? Yeah.

Yeah. Man, oh, man. How's she doing? Tell her you said hello, will you? I sure will.

She's doing good. We own a business here. Obviously, I have the studio, and that's kind of where I sit.

And then she runs the business up front, which is video transfer. We do all kinds of video transfer work. And that's a big part of the business, too.

Old analog tape, old film, people are converting over to digital. And that really skyrocketed for us. And that's super busy right now, too.

So that's good. Really? VHS tapes to flash drives and whatever else? Yeah. DVD or flash drive or camcorder tape or even old film.

We do 16 millimeter film. Oh, wow. Even so, yeah.

We do it all. Plus, I kept some of my old analog tape machines. And I'm glad I did, because I get a lot of clients that want the stuff transferred off of the old tape up to something on a CD or on a flash drive.

So I'm glad I did keep that stuff. The only time I fire it up, though, is when somebody wants something done. But, you know, I still got it.

So that's kind of cool. Right. So now who is in Falcon Andy with you? Well, actually, my wife's brother, my brother-in-law, Danny.

He was the lead singer of the band. Mark Kovac was on bass. We had Paul Hazard on drums.

And then we had a couple of different keyboard players on and off. But that was basically the nucleus of the band. So really, we were kind of like a three-piece, I'd say.

Once in a while, we'd slip a keyboard player in, and he'd last about three, you know how keyboard players were. I don't know if they've changed over the years, but, you know how they were, too. You know what I mean? Yeah.

Yeah, they were always, all the good ones were always, you know, they were in demand. So if they had a really good keyboard player, they were hard to come by. Right, right.

Exactly. They were already playing with somebody or something. Right.

Exactly. So basically, it was a three-piece, really. You know, well, with the singer four-piece, I guess you could say.

But, you know, totally different than Christian Friday. Totally different. Everything was totally different.

It was more rock. And, you know, I like the rock. You know, I've been a rocker my whole life.

So, you know, we used to do a lot of Zeppelin, like I said. And, you know, things like, you know, in fact, I still love playing that stuff. But I don't really play as often as I'd like anymore.

It's funny because, you know, being in this end of the business, I got my guitars hanging on the wall. I go over every once in a while, dust them off. You know what I mean? Maybe pick them up every once in a while and play.

Or if I get a session in there and they're looking for somebody to overdub a guitar track, I might go in and overdub something for them, you know. But I don't play as much as I used to. I sold a lot of my guitars, too, over the years.

Yeah, well, we've said, too, that a lot of bands, back in the day, there were more bands. When you had a band, you just go back to the keyboard thing, you know. If you had a good keyboard player, you kept them, you know.

But a lot of bands stayed together, where now guys are jobbing out. Guys who go and job themselves out and play with this band, play with that band, play with a bunch of different bands, you know. Absolutely.

There's no doubt about it. Ron Gamble, a friend of mine that I've actually played with since he got out of NAMM, on and off, never actually had a band with him. But he's another guy who plays with four or five bands.

Well, he was until the pandemic hit. But yeah, I mean, the guy always had his coat and hat on, ready to go for another gig. Who are you playing with tonight, Ron? Oh, I'm playing with Rustic Nails or whatever, you know.

And I'm like, oh, OK. Yeah. But yeah, he's another guy.

Like I said, he's always, you know, there's nothing wrong with that. Oh, no, no. And with June doing a lot of copy material, obviously, you know, if the band's playing the same kind of stuff, you know, I mean, you know the song, you just fit right in, you know.

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. But it was never that way back in the day.

It was always, it was like you had your band and your group of guys, and you went straight from that group, at least in my opinion, you know. Right. For sure.

And each group was enemies. Our group is better than yours. Yeah, yeah.

I can remember them days, too. It was always competition, you know. But hey, there's nothing wrong with competition, you know.

And I run into a lot of guys, like I said, you know, like a friend of mine, Tony Wilson. I remember, you remember Landslide, that band, that was his old band. And I've known him for 40 years, you know.

And he comes in the studio and we reminisce. We always laugh about shit, like, you know, we're talking about the old days, you know. And because we always played, Harlows was kind of like a regular place for us to play.

Sure, good old Harlows. Once a month we were playing there, you know. Right.

Same with Landslide, you know, there was a few clubs that, you know, you'd always play, you know. Right. So.

Man, I played Harlows many a time myself. Oh, I'm sure you did. Absolutely.

It was a fun club. Oh, yeah. You know, I mean, for the South Side at that time, it was probably one of the better clubs to be playing.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. If the walls in that place could talk, huh? Oh, boy, we'd all be in trouble, that's for sure.

But I noticed some stuff that I did find on Facebook or on the web. You guys used to play Monopoly and a couple other places up north, a lot of places up north, right? Yes, absolutely. Yeah.

And like I said, it was like, you know, it was like two different worlds to me when it in the music end of it, you know, totally different type of crowds up north than there were on the South Side. Right. I kind of dug the North Side, actually, because they were real open to, you know, especially new stuff.

You know, they love the original stuff. Right. But South Side, they know they just want to hear Free Bird, you know, they don't give a shit, you know.

Well, I'm a true South Sider myself, but I still like to hear some original stuff from time to time. Oh, absolutely. And of course, there again with technology in today's world, a lot of these people are doing their own things.

You know, they got a studio in their house, in their bedroom. Right. And a lot of them are using virtual instruments now.

So you really don't need to have the acoustically perfectly, you know, the room that, you know, those days are kind of over with a lot of these guys. Yeah. And especially if they're working with virtual instruments, because, you know, they're pretty much they sound great right out of the box.

Right. So a lot of guys are doing stuff from even though I'm old school. I like real musicians and my studio is set up for real musicians.

Right. I don't do a lot of virtual stuff. You know, I mean, we might use some virtual instruments to pad a chorus or something like that.

But normally, you know, I stay away from it. I like real drummers. Well, yeah, as a matter of fact, I did live sound engineering for many years and I had bands come in with tracks, you know, and that was another thing that used to bug me, you know, but I get it.

I get it. But yeah, but well, you know, there again, like I said, music is musical, you know, just like, you know, if you throw on a certain compressor that just has a nice, beautiful saturation compared to this and it just is musical sounding. And it's the same thing when you're playing music.

You know, if you take something and, you know, it's metronome. I mean, it's right out, but it's mechanical. It's no more musical.

It's mechanical. That's how I kind of look at it. Nothing wrong with flowing a little bit in the song.

Yeah, exactly. You can get the BPM of a song. A lot of these guys, man, I go, hey, you want to play to a click track? What are you doing? You're going to be doing a lot of, you know, virtual instruments and stuff.

It might be a good idea. And a lot of them are like, no, they don't even want to click track, you know, right? So kind of let me run through the song. I kind of get a good idea where that BPM is sitting anyway.

And but I won't use a click. And, you know, decent drummers usually have decent clocks. And if they get to a chorus or something and they kind of rush a little bit, it's nothing wrong with that.

It adds to the musicalness of the song. Right. Yeah, absolutely right.

Talking about the, you know, all the stuff from the past and stuff. An odd thing happened to me the other day. It was at the supermarket grocery shopping.

And I suddenly realized I'm singing along to the music that's playing. And it's Deep Purple, Highway Star. And I'm like, oh, we've made the supermarket tracks.

Yeah, I love it, though. I love it, man. That was a great band.

You know, as I said, I'm you know, we're all over older. So we all like that. We grew up with that stuff.

All right. Well, you see commercials on television now are all using stuff from the 60s and the old Motown stuff. And they are 70s music.

It's all it's all in every commercial. And if a Walmart or that's what music was music, though. I mean, you know, today, like a lot of these things that I listen to, I don't listen to the radio a lot either, by the way, guys.

But when I do, when I put on some of this crap, I'm like right off the get go. Soon as they start, you know, they're not even, you know, eight measures into the song. And I'm like, you know what? This is virtual instrument.

Yeah. There's no pickup chords. A lot of these songs, they you know, they don't have bridges anymore in them.

You know, like the old stuff, the 60s and 70s, you know, that made the songs. Right. You know, those little changes within the song.

A lot of this stuff is just so boring. I'm like, really? You know, I'm waiting for a good hook line and I don't even hear that a lot of times anymore. Right.

You know, right. So it's a shame. But, you know, I believe what goes around will come around.

You know, I always tease everybody, you know, back in the day, that's when music was music. And my daughter get mad at me when she'd see me post something like that on Facebook. What do you mean, Dad? I go, you'll learn.

You'll learn someday. But I think it'll things will swing around again. You know, I used to do a lot of rap years ago in here, Ted, maybe 10 years.

And, you know, I don't do much anymore. Thank God, real big find a rap myself. Right.

But they're a little bit of their logic or their pro tools at home. And, you know, they download their beats. So all they're doing is rapping to a beat.

They don't need me. Right. And that works out fine for me because, you know, like I said, that wasn't anything I really enjoyed doing.

But for a while, I did a lot of it. And thank God that it's kind of phased away. I don't know if you know Jeff Loof of Star Tracks.

We used to work. He had Star Track Studio. Jeff, was he over at Cicero over there in Middle Oakton? Yes.

Yes. Well, he was. I never met him, but I knew of the studio.

Crestwood. It was actually Crestwood. Oh, Crestwood.

You're right. Crestwood. Okay.

Yeah, I do remember the studio, but I never met him. Oh, okay. Well, Jeff plays in my band with me and we do all our recording through Jeff.

You know, he's no longer there. He's mostly got it in his house now, but we're still here. Pro tools and stuff.

But he was doing a lot of rap for a long time. And that's what made me think, you know. Yeah, pretty much.

I think we're all anybody that's been in this end of the business for as long as we have, or I haven't. They've done it for sure. No doubt.

But thank God, like I said, it's faded to the wayside. Thank God it's for technology. So, you know, I mean, it's worse, too, when you get some young kids in there.

And I love the young kids, you know, I mean, they're learning. And, you know, when you get these guys in here and they're like, okay. And I always tell them, I go, you know, you guys don't know how good you got it today, compared to back in the day when we used to record in the 70s or the 80s.

And it was all tape. Yeah. You know, you screwed up.

Well, you just did a retake. Right. You know, today.

Oh, no, don't worry about it. We'll copy and paste something over here and over here. We'll make it work.

Fly it in. You know, they don't understand that. They don't get that.

Right. You know, they don't get that end of it. Well, I tell you, it took me a while.

It took me a while to realize that you had to, that you were able to fly stuff in and you didn't have to sing this part 15 times, you know, you sing it once in a day and they, you know, you have to malt it a couple of times. And yeah, the good old days today, man, really is mad. Yeah.

And it saves the clients a lot of time too. You know, keys, drums, you know, amps, we got everything they need. And that makes it easier.

Corner one is a musician and the other guy's broke. Well, there's a, there's a lot of meaning to that. If you know what I'm saying, you know? Right.

So you try to make it affordable for them too. Sure. You know, give them a good product at a good price.

So do you have any MP3s of any of the Christian Friday music or the Falcon 80? You know what I do? Uh, I don't have them handy right now to play, but I do have them. I could send them over to you too. If you want to listen to some of that, you'd really get a kick out of the Christian Friday stuff because it was unique.

I'll dig through the archives here and I'll find some stuff I can send over to you. Tell us once again, where people can find you at? Well, they can, I've got a Facebook page for my studio too. It's On Track Studio on Facebook.

And then I got a website too. It's www.ontrackstudio.net. Okay. So they can find me in either of those, those two places.

All right. Very good. Very well.

Well, thanks for joining us today, Ray. It's uh. No, I'm glad you guys are doing great.

I'm glad to see it, man. It's awesome. I'm glad you're doing this because it's a lot of fun, a lot of fun getting some of the backstories and stuff of, uh, some of the bands and musicians and stuff that we talk with, you know? Absolutely.

It's very cool, man. I'm looking forward to it. I'm going to promote it, uh, every Tuesday, right? Every Tuesday, a new one comes out.

Yep. Every Tuesday. Good.

I'm going to promote that too. I'll put it on my Facebook and on my On Track page. Very good.

Thank you. Appreciate it. We will talk to you soon and stay healthy.

You wear your masks when you're outside. Remember, that's right. Thanks.

Get your vaccine if you can. Okay, guys. All right.

You take care. Talk to you soon. Bye-bye.

All right. Yes, absolutely. So that was Ray Vanda.

Pretty interesting fella. Yes, he was. He's been doing quite a bit of stuff, you know, after, uh, after his musical career, if you want to call it, you know, he's been into this, uh, sound recording engineering for quite some time.

Yeah. Well, he, uh, I guess that's still part of a musical career though, isn't it? It is. I'm just thinking, I'm talking about the performing end of it.

Right. But, uh, so, uh, Ray, uh, it was good talking with Ray Vanda and, uh, finding out, uh, about Christian Friday and Falcon 80 and what he's been doing now with the studio and, uh, he's been keeping going. He's got quite a talented family too.

Yes, he does. A couple of sons that are musicians. His daughter's a singer out in LA.

Right. That's very cool. There's something to be very proud of.

Yes, indeed. Thanks for joining us, everybody. Thank you very much.

And don't forget to check out the Illinois Rock and Roll Museum on Route 66. Check out their website, roadtorock.org. And while you're there, sign up for a charter membership. You'll love it.

Yes, indeed you will. Thanks so much for listening, everybody. We'll talk to you next week.

Thanks. See you next week. Bye-bye.

Thanks for checking in. Rock and Roll Chicago podcast does not own the rights to any of the music that's played on this podcast. The music is used to promote the band or musicians that are interviewed.