Johnny Colla

A badge of honor I will never forget... johnnycolla.substack.com/p/a…

“What made you decide to record all the backing vocals on ‘Do You Believe In Love?’ yourself..." open.substack.com/pub/johnny…

I never really had a lot of vocal "character" until I got older and started beating my voice up a good deal. A lot of singers do that, start smoking and screaming a lot in the shower

My work with Huey Lewis & The News was great training for becoming a producer. It really taught me to see the band on the whole rather than the individual parts. And I learned to convey to others the concept of channeling the song they hear.

Sometimes shooting album covers was not the toughest work...

Lyric writing took on greater meaning over the years. When I was first starting out, it was all about getting more proficient at my instruments. But as time went on, I wanted to ’say something’ that represented who I was. Now my priority is for the music to support a good lyric.

From the album "I Hear Other Voices"

With songwriting, the only thing that's gotten easier over time is sorting out the wheat from the chaff, and not wasting time on an average lyrical idea.

HLN's a cappella got its start with us singing our favorite R&B ‘oldies’ backstage just to warm up the voices before shows. I think it was Huey who one night suggested we just throw one in the set and see what happens . . . it stuck pretty good!

"What have you learned from your wife about singing?" Christie thought I didn't 'open up' my voice enough. She tried to get me to sing from a little further down, a little ‘fuller’. I think she was right! It really made a difference, and I can hear it on the last record I made.

I suppose high school choir is going back too far, but by the early seventies one of my first recording devices was this old ‘Sound-On-Sound’ 2-track machine. It allowed me to ‘ping-pong’ my vocals . . . first time I got to ‘sing with myself’ . . . exciting stuff!

In 1986 "The Power Of Love" was nominated for an Academy Award for "Best Original Song" #oscars #Oscars #academyawards #AcademyAwards youtu.be/wBl2QGAIx1s

From the "Hard At Play" shoot

The fun for my solo work is to bring in folks who can just sing the hell out of this stuff and make my mediocre lead vocal sound better! On my album, “I Hear Other Voices!!”, there’s at least nine on backing vocals. I use them and think of them as different musical ‘colors’.

Admittedly not a recent photo

Sometimes it is all about making a good entrance.

Johnny: 'Pro Tools’ is a digital recording platform that has virtually replaced analog tape recording. I liken P-Tools to the Internet; there's a devil and an angel in there. Personally, I make sure I'm running the tools and the machines rather than the inverse.

"How have you changed as a singer over the years?" Johnny: I think my voice finally grew up. I feel like I’ve finally discovered my ‘character’, and age has certainly helped with that!