Bernie Williams Interview with Loren Harriet
Summer 2003

Bernie Williams is the centerfielder for the New York Yankess.  He is also a guitar player with a CD on GRP Records.  Loren Harriet, who produced the CD interviewed Williams.
 
LH: Your GRP debut release is entitled The Journey Within - Can you talk about the title and what significance the title has for you?

BW: I always thought that doing the CD was going to be a story about my life and some of the experiences that I’ve had. I knew it was going to be some kind of journey. Kind of like an introspect view of the way that I feel about certain things. My brother is the one that came up with the title. He said why don’t you call it The Journey Within and I said that was great.

LH: You wrote most of the songs for the album - can you talk a little bit about each: "Las Salsa En Mi," "Para Don Berna," "Desvelado," "Just Because," "Stranded On The Bridge," Bernie Jr." And "Enter The Bond"?

BW: "Las Salsa En Mi" actually has a double meaning. In Spanish it is kind of like the symbolic meaning the way I see Salsa in myself. I grew up listening to Salsa all the time with my relatives in parties and whole gatherings and stuff. With all the influences in music that I have had over year it is just the way that I thought Salsa was in my head. The other meaning is that the song is in E Major. Mi is "E" in Spanish. So it is kind of like saying Salsa in E or Las Salsa En Mi.

"Para Don Berna" is the song that I dedicated to my Dad. I sort of thought about the time that he passed away. That was a very emotional time for me. I just came up with the melody. I told my brother that I really had a song that I wanted him to play with me about my Dad. That is basically the way that I came up with that song.

"Desvelado" is a song that in English means sleepless. I came up with that melody like at 2:30 or 3 in the morning. I couldn’t sleep. I thought about it. I had different rhythms that I sort of tried the melody on, but the basic idea was kind of like a nice simple melody. Kind of like recreating my desire to go to sleep, but in the background I have this Latin really strong Brazilian percussion thing going, meaning that I can’t really sleep. It is kind of like the way that I saw that melody line going in the background with the Latin rhythm really strong. It really sort of explains why was I sleepless.

"Just Because" is a song that I dedicated to my wife. It has a little bit of a double meaning to it, Musically speaking I take the melody line and I sort of keep putting it on a different key, in a higher key, but it is basically the same melody line and I sort of do something different every time I play it. The question for me was "why would you do something like that? The only thing that I could think of was just because. So that was the title that I put to it. I think symbolically speaking I sort of dedicated the song to my wife just because all that she is to me, and all of the support, inspiration and all that she has done for me and keeps doing for me through our relationship.

"Standing On The Bridge" is kind of a funny song. I was riding my bike on a bridge in New York and I got stranded. All I could hear was people honking their horns and yelling at me. Of course I had a full face helmet so nobody knew who I was. That melody was the only thing that I could think of. Like the second hand of the clock going tick, tick, tick, tick and me trying to get out of the bridge, like pushing my motorcycle. It was kind of a funny experience.

"Bernie Jr." is a song that I sort of came up with for my only son. When he was five or six years old he used to have big temper tantrums. He used to be out of control in school. I thought that he had a dual personality because he could be the meanest little kid around, but then the flip side of it was he could be the most loving kid. The most passionate kid. He could express his feelings in the extreme. I sort of came up with this bluesy melody. Picture him running and doing all of the kicking and playing around. Then I sort of contrasted that with this nice melody. Kind of like a bridge saying this is like really tender, really passionate. I sort of mix and match one and the other during the song. That is the way I saw him when he was little. Obviously he grew out of all of those things, but he is very dear to me. I think that was one of the things I remember about him when he was a little kid.

"Enter The Bond" is kind of like my club mix. The title became sort of like James Bond meets Enter The Dragon. It has sort of this Austin Powers kind of feel to it. It was a fun idea that I came up with. I thought why don’t I put a nice little rhythm and bass and make it fun.

LH: What is the writing process it for you?

BW: It is an every day process. I think about melody lines and ideas and they are with me all of the time. I try to remember them when I pick up the guitar to play them. Most of the songs that I have written so far have been ideas that I have developed over the years. This CD has in essence has taken me ten or twelve years to make because of all of the ideas that I have been able to put together in songs. You can develop an idea, but if you don’t have a counter part to mix it with or an ending or beginning or bridge then it just becomes an idea and you have to develop that idea to make it a song. I think some of the songs like "La Salsa En Mi" has been maybe like eight years sort of like thinking of things that I can put in and just letting it go. Then maybe five years later I would say "Ah, OK maybe I can do this." Maybe three years later I would say "maybe I can finish it with this." Since I really haven’t thought about making a CD before, it was just making the songs. I figure if I would take enough time maybe like a week or ten days to really work on a song I would probably be able to come up with better ideas and develop them in a more complex way. To me it is just a lot of fun. Most of the stuff really flows. It is like somebody gives it to you. I would like to think it is God. He just gives them to me and I think about him and I try to create bridges and endings and nice melody lines and good harmonies for them. It is just a great process to be involved in.

LH: You recorded four covers on the album. How did you choose them and do they have special significance for you?

BW: The covers I did gave me a lot of options because with the seven songs we had to put more songs there to make it more music time. I had to listen to a lot of songs that were out there already and see if they would blend with the music that I was playing. I think that every song that I was playing that was not of my creation has a little special meaning for me. Like "Dust In The Wind" is a song that I played when I was a little kid. My brother plays the cello. We went to the same music high school. My parents were so proud of us when they had us in the living room and relatives would come into the house and they would say "why don’t you play something for them?" We would play something like that. "Samba Novo" by Baden Powell is a song that I learned a long time ago in school. We used to play concerts or have recitals in school. Like mid term tests, but our music school would have a mid term recital. We would learn a certain piece to play in front of the school body and in front of the teachers and that particular song was my song of tenth grade. Halfway through the song I forgot the whole thing. I went blank. I started over again and at the same point my mind just went blank again. I just did one of those chords and left the stage. I was very frustrated about it. It was one of my learning experiences playing live, but the thing is I figured I had a chance to redeem myself and I put it on the CD.

LH: There are many amazing musicians on the album. What was the process of choosing the musicians for the recording?

BW: I didn’t know that I was going to be able to play with such great musicians. A lot of the credit has to go to Loren Harriet who is the producer of the album. He was the one who actually went out and talked to those guys and presented them with the music of some of the demos that I made. To my surprise everybody was really interested in playing which made me really happy. It was just great. I think that is probably what made this album such a great experience for me because I was playing with top grade musicians. Every time I had an idea they were like, "OK yea we can play that" or they were suggesting stuff. Everything that I had in my mind. It was so mind boggling to me that they were able to play it. I didn’t realize how it would sound, like in a live recording and they were able to play it. To me it was a just a dream come true.

LH: What was it like working with Ruben Blades, Bela Fleck, David Benoit and Gilberto Santa Rosa?

BW: Great to work with Ruben, Bela and Gilberto. Talking to them in the recording sessions and just listening to the music was just a very rewarding experience for me. I think it really helped that they were as big fans of baseball or sports as I am of their music. I think the most challenging thing for me was when they did the recordings everything was done, all the parts were made before I had to do my guitar parts on the CD. So I think the most challenging thing was for me to play up to the level that was presented. The music that was in the background was great. The only thing that was left was my guitar part. So I was like "Oh, man. I better get my chops right because these guys are playing good." It was great to meet those guys. They were down to earth and I think that they were pleasantly surprised because most of the conversations that I would hear about somebody that is not in their line of work trying to make an album they probably think "this is just a novelty project for this guy." He’s probably not going to be taken that seriously so I think they were pleasantly surprised to see my involvement in it and seeing me really serious about the music that I was playing.

LH: Tell us about the time your first picked up a a guitar and the learning process over the years?

BW: My Dad was a merchant marine. He would travel all over the world. Mainly Spain and France and all those places. When I was really little he brought a Spanish guitar from his trips. He retired to make sure that he was raising us, but I used to listen to him like almost every night. He was sort of self taught himself how to play. I would listen to him play the guitar every night and I would ask him about this chord or that chord or this melody. I remember being five or six years old and just dancing and him playing chords in the living room and having a great time.

I think when I was eight years old the opportunity came for us to take guitar lessons with the neighborhood music teacher. I remember loving it. I remember coming back from school, changing my clothes, doing my homework and just sprint to my teachers house to take a guitar lesson. It was every Thursday. It used to rain every Thursday so that was kind of challenging. I think that really inspired me because I remember my love for music right away and it was something that really came natural to me. I had to work hard, but it was fun for me to work hard and always try to get better. When I was in my ninth grade in high school, it was a great opportunity for us to go to this music high school in San Juan. I remember waking up really early in the morning to drive with my Dad for an hour to go to this school. We would stay there from 7:30 am till 4 or 5. It was like a normal school, but it had a music curriculum in it. That is where I was really exposed to most of the musical influences. Back in the early age it was mainly classical and jazz. It really taught me how to appreciate music. They were trained musicians, but they also knew that not everybody was going to be a musician. They taught everybody how to appreciate music and how to understand it. That was a great experience for me. All of the sudden I’m thinking I’m going to go to a conservatory to study music or go to college, but then the baseball thing sort of took us by surprise. I was playing little league at that time, too. When I was 16 or 17 I decided to go for baseball because we thought that you have one chance to do this and if it doesn’t work you can always go back and maybe go to a conservatory or college and finish up, but to my surprise baseball sort of took over. I never looked back from that. Interestingly enough the music was always a big part of my life. I was never forgot it. I never forgot to play the guitar. I always took it with me even in the minor leagues. Now in the big leagues I take it on every road trip. I’m always thinking in musical terms. I’m always thinking about melodies. I’m always trying to get better in my technique. I always listen to in my mind the top musicians so I can get ideas from them. I think I’m just a musician at heart.

LH: How do you balance baseball and music?

BW: Music is a big part of my life. There are different aspects of music that obviously I’m not able to explore now because I’m playing baseball. I understand what pays the bills. I know that I have to be at the top of my game playing baseball so that is a priority for me. However, I think there are a lot of things that I can take from music and put into my baseball game. Actually music can help me be a better player. I think there are some aspects of being a musician like the discipline. The fact that I have one shot to make it right. There is no do over when I’m hitting. There is no do over when I’m playing live. Mainly the discipline that you have and your will to make sure that you maximize all of your potential, you can apply that to everything in life. Obviously baseball is a very stressed and a very pressure job that is magnified. I’m able to balance my music with my baseball just applying some of the principles that I study music into my game. You have to have rhythm, you have to have soul, yo have to have heart to play the game, too so I think that they compliment each other really well.

LH: What is in your CD player at this moment?

BW: In my car I have Boney James. In the house I have Bela Fleck. He had this Perpetual Motion CD. It is an excellent CD. He played classical music with a banjo so it is very interesting. I was listening to Jaco Pastorious, a great bass player. I think his first CD. Very eclectic from one side to the other, but that is how I listen to music.

LH: Will you be performing live?

BW: I played at a CD release party at the House Of Blues in Chicago during the All-Star break. At this moment I don’t think a tour will be in my best interest. My kids are very small. I’m really thinking about spending a lot of time with them. I still have my baseball career right on track. I would not like to put anything in front of it right now. I always thought that I could only do one thing good at a time. In my mind I’m not going to be able to play baseball my whole life so I’m going to try and do the best thing that I can right now within the game and try to put my mark there and play as hard as I can. By the time that I retire then I’m still going to have a lot of time to play my music and further my skills in the guitar.

LH: Who are your greatest musical influences?

BW: When I was a kid obviously my Dad was a big influence. When we were in high school he was one of our biggest supporters. He really made sure that we practiced. He really made sure that we treated music as another subject. He’d have the same value as math or science or social studies. My parents were really big on excellence. If you decide on something you go 100%. You just don’t go and just quit with the first signs of problems. I think musically speaking they were a big influence even though they really didn’t play any instruments. They gave me and my brother the discipline to stick with it no matter what. Musically speaking, listening to music back when I was in high school I was a big fan of Bach. Just listening to his story. The fact that he had to compose music for church and he had to do it on a consistent basis. He did so much. Everything that he did to me was a masterpiece. For me that was like "wow, this is just out of this world." All the classical guys, the romantics, the Beethoven, the Mozart's, we were really big on them when we were in school. Over the years my musical taste has taken different directions. I listen to a lot of Jazz. About ten or twelve years ago I was in New York and I went to a music store and I picked up an electric guitar. I started playing and changing the sounds on the amplifier and making different sounds. It opened a whole door, a whole another world for me. So I started listening to a lot of Jazz players like Joe Pass and Les Paul. Then Blues. The great musicians that are playing are so much different then the classical stuff that I was learning in school. I listened to a lot of people. My really favorite ones are guys like Mike Stern, Scott Henderson, Pat Metheny, BB King and Eric Clapton. I listen to all of them.

LH: If you could make up the ultimate band, who would be in it and why?

BW: I would probably have John Williams conducting the band, doing all of the arrangements. Maybe John Williams playing the guitar if it was classical stuff. I’d have Pat Metheny playing if it was Jazz. Eric Clapton playing Blues. Maybe Victor Wooten or Jaco Pastorious playing bass. Probably Vladamir Horwitz playing there somewhere. There are so many great musicians playing different types of music over the years. When you listen to the music sometimes you don’t realize how much is out there. One of the things I learned when I was in school and over the years was that I always have to keep my ears open to any kind of music. If it is well made and it sounds good I will listen to it. It doesn’t really matter what country it is from or what decade it is from or what age it is from. If it is well made I definitely listen to it.

LH: When traveling around the world, what musical influences have you found and picked up?

BW: In my experiences in traveling to different places I think good music is timeless and it doesn’t know any boundaries either. I went to Japan and I was listening to Salsa in Japan. I was listening to Jazz in Japan. I was exposed to all of those experiences and of course they have their own traditional music that I listen to also, but I think there is something about a great piece of music that can transcend the space and time and countries.

LH: Tell us about Puerto Rico?

BW: I was born in San Juan, but I grew up in a place called Vego Alta which is actually about 45 minutes west of San Juan. To me that is home. It looks kind of like the country side of the island. A lot of vegetation, a lot of green, mountains, it had a lot of coast, the beach and all of that, but I think I have the best of everything. I had great weather all year around except for the hurricane season. I was able to do all my daily activities: playing baseball, playing sports, going to music concerts. It was just great to grow up there. I still go back, but it is very hard for me to go back and establish myself there because with the kids growing up, it was just a priority for us in our family to stay together. With the kids in school it doesn’t really give us enough time to go to Puerto Rico. They will be switching schools every year. I think it was a lot better for us to stay in one place at a time and since I signed a long term deal in New York it was just better for us to stay in New York the whole time. We live in New York, but we always go like during the holidays and spend time down there with our relatives.

LH: There is a strong Latin influence to your music - which Latin musicians did you listen to over the years?

BW: It was a big influence. As you grow up as I grew up being in Puerto Rico we’re always exposed to the Latin rhythm. It is not always a very straight forward rhythm. It’s more of a syncopated rhythm. It’s very challenging and I think growing up in Puerto Rico you are more exposed to it since you are a baby. It’s a lot easier for you to play other kinds of music because you are always with a rhythm in your blood. I think to me that was the biggest influence. Being in the states and listening to the music here there is not a lot of syncopation like in the traditional music. You hear a lot of the straight forward rhythms. You don’t hear a lot of the syncopation as you would in Brazil or Latin America. To me to be able to recognize that rhythm it makes it a lot easier to write and to think in musical terms and really sort of get very complex with my rhythm listening.

LH: What do your Yankee teammates think about your music?

BW: The are always making fun of me with my guitar. I think that they appreciate the fact that I play guitar and I think that some of them have tried to play as well. I have been playing for such a long time. Sometimes I listen to something and I am able to play it on the guitar so they think it is like a piece of cake. They say "Oh I can do that." So when they pick up the guitar it’s like they are picking at some computer or something. They can not understand. In my mind I make my guitar sound in a way that is not very intimidating for them. I’m not really playing a lot of rock and a lot of hard stuff. At the same time I make it sound and look so easy that they think they can do it. It is funny to see them try. Hideki Matsui, our newest Japanese player, hopefully he’ll get a chance to listen to it and I’ll get good reviews from him, but I think Derek Jeter will be the one that is going to be on my case. Besides he is the biggest instigator on the team any ways. He’ll be out there trying to create some controversy within the team, in a good way. He is always kidding around and making everybody feel good. He will be the one trying to get me to say something funny about the CD. Last year I was picked for People Magazine and he was the one spreading the rumor that I was walking with a mirror in my back pocket. He was spreading around for all my teammates for me to be funny, but I think he will be the one.