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Paul Rappaport Interview

Paul Rappaport Interview 2026 Front Page PhotoIn the spring of 2025 Riveting Riffs Magazine interviewed Paul Rappaport, about his three decade career, and then some working in the music industry first at Columbia Records where he ascended the corporate ladder to eventually become the Vice-President of Rock Promotion Having said that we do not want you to get the impression he fits the stereotype corporate image because as his career demonstrated he at times lived on the edge in terms of taking what others may have considered to be risks, but he had the vision to knew they would work. That brings us to this conversation about how he parlayed his career at Columbia promoting Rock music into becoming the executive producer of a A & E’s Live By Request show on television for eight years.

He shares a personal moment with us, “There is something very interesting and I want it to come out correctly. When I was growing up, somehow my mother would say to me, listen Paul you were born under a lucky star. I said ma what are you talking about and she said, I see what you do. Other kids were playing baseball outside and I was at home in a homemade laboratory, because I was enthralled with NASA and the space race, I was learning how to build rockets and rocket fuel (From what we know there were no holes in the roof of the family home!). I do feel at this point in my life and I don’t know how, but I have lived a blessed life. I don’t know if somebody up there (he points up and his voice trails off) Maybe in a past life I did enough good things and now I get to have this life. Maybe I did enough good things in this life and maybe the next life will be better.”

There was another conversation, or perhaps two,  that at least from this writer’s vantage point was also pivotal in terms of shaping Paul Rappaport’s approach and perspective on life. That conversation was with his friend, David Gilmour of Pink Floyd.

It started off with Gilmour saying, “We are only here in the now.”

“David said that because we were lamenting the CD when it came out. Vinyl the fidelity is magical, but with digital it is just blocks of sound. They are getting better, but if you put on an album now it would sound more live. There is something about vinyl. We used to call it black magic, because it is black vinyl. There is something about the analog thing. We Read More

 

 

 

Floating on the Dreamline

Alan Williams Interview Photo Front Page On March 29, 2026, singer, songwriter, musician Alan Williams’ journey that began as a child and Julie Andrews will come to a rest with Floating on the Dreamline the unofficial release of his new album and his retirement concert. As we sat thousands of miles apart recently, at opposite ends of a Zoom call this writer could only have wished that our conversation had taken place in person. Alan Williams is the kind of person you warm up to in a heartbeat. He is thoughtful, intelligent, and he is as much interested in the interviewer as you are in him.

Let us add some clarity to that Julie Andrews comment we made, a reference to him as a child seeing The Sound of Music. With a smile only leaving his face for fleeting seconds during our entire conversation he explains.

“Who can say no to Julie Andrews on the top of a mountain? I don’t normally gravitate toward musicals, but as a young impressionable child that seemed larger than life. It was so successful back in the day you could trot it back out to the theaters a couple of years later and the crowds would pour in. My dad took me to see it when I was three years old.  We were in Morristown Tennessee,” smiling he continues, “I don’t think Julie Andrews was ever planning to make an appearance there. 

I don’t remember this, but I have been told the next day my mother was in the kitchen and I was around the corner and there was a piano, and I don’t know why we even had a piano, because nobody played and she heard somebody banging out Do-Re-Mi. It was me with my hand above my head to touch the piano keys. I found middle C apparently and I began to play the song from the movie.

Immediately it was we’ve got a prodigy let’s get him lessons. This is something. I was three years old and there was no way I was practicing piano. The lessons fell apart after a couple of weeks, but I think the seed was planted to make music and I think piano was the instrument by which I would engage music. It has changed over time, but for my whole time growing up it was piano.”

Decades later and another spontaneous happening gave birth to the song “Before My Eyes,” from the new album. Read More

 

 

Electronic Firefly

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Undecover (Mostly) - Stew Cutler

Stew Cutler 2025 Interview Front Page PhotoUndercover (Mostly) the new album from Stew Cutler does not describe some child hiding underneath the blankets from an imaginary monster, but rather the superb guitarist covering seven of the nine songs that appear on the record and adding to them two of his own compositions. Let us say this and be completely transparent throughout our history, Riveting Riffs Magazine has been a little apprehensive of albums heavily populated by covers, because so often the artists merely try to sound as close as possible to the original artists, leaving you wondering why you did not just buy the original record. That, however, is not the case with Stew Cutler’s Undercover (Mostly). He has reimagined some iconic songs, arranged them as purely instrumentals and given us a special gift that we will enjoy for many years to come.

So, we wondered at this point in his career what would lead Stew Cutler to create an album like this.  

He explains, “A while ago a friend of mine came by to see me play and she is a manager person, a producer person and she didn’t end up working with me, but I did for many years work with her on her main project which is the Harlem Gospel Singers. Her main comment was your music is really good, most people don’t know any of these songs. Why aren’t you doing any covers?

I don’t have a really good answer as to how this all got going. I thought of it as a challenge to take some songs that people knew and to turn them around a little bit. I have been a little bit fascinated with songs that end up as hits or top forties hits like the song “Betcha By Golly Wow,” the one that I did on solo guitar. It was a top R&B hit. It is such a Jazz tune. So many of Stevie Wonder’s songs were Jazz tunes. Now I can’t say that about “Close To You,” I am proud of the arrangement on that. It was a little different and I included a drum solo out of respect for Karen Carpenter.  Read More

 

Triple Threat From Belgium

Onno van Gelder Jr Interview Photo Front PageWe sat down recently with director, actor and author Onno van Gelder Jr, speaking to us from his home in Belgium. With Christmas quickly approaching perhaps a good place to begin would be with one of his five authored books, De Kerst Slaper (The Christmas Sleeper), a book that is also available in English.  

Onno (for sake of ease we will use Onno van Gelder Jr.’s first name throughout), explains the story (no pun intended) behind the book, “I have got five books until now. I have two collections of short stories, I have two novellas, and I have one Christmas story. He repeats the title in Dutch, De Kerst Slaper and in English it is The Christmas Sleeper. It is based upon an old legend. It is from Veurne which is a city in which I tend to work a lot during these past ten years. They have this old legend about the inhabitants of the city which are called Sleepers from Veurne.  During the middle ages the city was very wealthy and prosperous. They made a certain type of cloth during that time. They had a lot of merchants and a lot of workers. There was a depression during that period and all the trade went to other cities. Those who were rich had nothing to do and slept longer in the morning. Those who worked, didn’t have work, so what would they do but sleep. That is why they were called Sleepers It was a nickname for all of the inhabitants of Veurne. They were all sleeping.

A little over four years ago, Veurne asked me to revive the legend with a story, based upon the legend. I did not have to tell the legend, but there had to be links to the legend. I created the Christmas story about a character and his name is a French name Firmin Dorbien and his last name in English means Sleep Well. I called him Firmin Sleep Well.

It is a Christmas story and most people think it is a story for children, but no it is also for older people.

I received a very nice comment for that book. Someone said it was very much like a story by Charles Dickens. It is without copying and without being exactly Read More

 
Dar Williams - Prolific Songwriter

Dar Williams Interview Photo Front PageKen Rich (who also was the sound engineer and mixer), Dar Williams and her accompanying musicians have created an exquisite collection of songs for her album Hummingbird Highway with a release date of September 12 (2025). It does not take long to realize, while speaking with Dar Williams that you are engaging with a thoughtful, deep thinking, beautifully creative and highly intelligent individual, who cares passionately about the world in which she lives. At the midpoint of the record, there is a brief tonal shift that caught this writer by surprise. David Chalfant co-produced “Put the Coins,” and “What Bird Did You See?” at Grand Street Recording and Norfolk Studios at Northampton, Massachusetts.   

We open our conversation with Dar Williams inviting her to talk about one of the prettiest songs you will hear in 2025, “Tu Sais Le Printemps.”

“The best way to go about writing a song and if you feel something coming on, is to do your best to feel curious about it. This seemed light, breezy, spring like and romantic. I thought well let’s just keep on going. I pulled out (she laughs lightly) all the pictures of France, pictures of spring, of gardens and bridges and then I looked at them to see where the story (was going). My favorite part is the dog standing outside of the restaurant (she chuckles – referring to the music video). It is a French bulldog and then the aerial views of France and the cherry blossoms. The song is left open and evocative for people. You can’t help to find your way back to love or to love in that kind of setting.

I had this interesting melody that kept on being the best setting for a return to romance, as aided by the spring. When I wrote the line, “And of maddening times, we will laugh and say that’s how it goes…,”  I actually had a really emotional understanding of how much Read More

 

 

Kristen Ford and Her Pinto

Kristen For Interview Photo Front PageWhen we sat down to chat with singer, songwriter and musician Kristen Ford it was only a few days after she appeared on The Kelly Clarkson Show.

I had it (The Kelly Clarkson Show) confirmed less than forty-eight hours before we filmed it and it came from an opportunity in 2021. In this industry even the best of us gets so confused and broken down and It doesn’t make a lot of sense. Enjoy the wins when they show up. Never be too impatient, because things happen sometimes slowly and then all at once. They flew me out of Sacramento to New York.

It was the first time I worked with a producer. I think I kind of got tunnel vision and though oh my god this is actually happening. Don’t mess up. (On the show) there were The Temptations and Zöe Zaldaña. I just try to be low key around famous people.”

It seems almost prophetic when she says, “This year is the year of the horse and I don’t know if you follow the Chinese zodiac. We go from the year of the snake into the year of the horse and the fact Pinto (her current album) is that horse spirit and then a surprise like Kelly came out of nowhere.”

When you read about the first half of Kristen Ford’s life it sounds a bit like a troubadour, as she lived in six states by the time she was nineteen.

“I grew up mostly in western Massachusetts, but I had moved across the country a few different times from an early Read More

 

 

 

   

Free Whenever from NYC

Free Whenever Front Page PhotoFree Whenever comprised of bassist Trevor LaVecchia, Neil Gulieria and drummer and percussionist Brendan Steuart plays a style of music more defined by their name than any specific genre as improvisation is the most significant element. For this listener it is as though Moby and the legendary Rock band Cream got together to jam and Enya were her ethereal music dropped by and joined in. Recently, New York City natives, Gulieria and LaVecchia sat down for a Zoom conversation with Riveting Riffs Magazine.   

Referring to our characterization of their music, LaVecchia says, “I think that is a pretty good description. We like to use the words psychedelic groove. It is an umbrella term and what we do is very eclectic. We just love music.

We definitely have the psych Rock influence for sure but sprinkled in with many different textures and moods that we are trying to evoke. We want it to be a journey, so dynamics are very important to us.”

Gulieria picks up the conversation at this point, “I tend to gravitate towards the psychedelic thing too, because it is not a genre and for us it is more of a mission statement. It is evoking those types of experiences for the listener, the people in the audience. It has less to do with genre and more to do with the attitude you have towards making music.”

Both men acknowledge that a challenge for them was learning how to take that free flowing improvisational style and giving it some more structure for the studio recording, while not losing their love Read More

 

 

 

 

 

 

Maia Sharp - Tomboy

Maia Sharp Interview 2025 Front Page PhotoAfter getting to know our friend, singer, songwriter and musician Maia Sharp for several years, we are not surprised that her new album coming out September 12 (2025) is called Tomboy. It describes her perfectly when she was growing up and nods to whom she is today. We suppose she could have called it “Cheeks,” as one of her friends has aptly nicknamed her for her smile to use an old cliché lights up a room or in this case a Zoom call and conversation.  

This collection of songs is beautiful and the album overall is elegant, both lyrically and musically.

“As most albums unfold for me, I am not necessarily sure that I am writing for my own album until I am one or two songs in. I am writing all of the time. Sometimes I am writing for other people and sometimes I am writing for me to pitch to other people. About every year I look back at what I have written and if I do that about one year after a record, I can have the next album out about two (more) years after that album. It takes me about a year to do the finishing out, choosing the songs, recording, mixing, mastering, marketing and all of that stuff. On all the odd years when I don’t have a record that is when I start looking at when the next one is going to be.

At that point after my last album Reckless Thoughts, I had Tomboy already. I had that song already written and I had a little bit of production fleshed out on it, before the Reckless Thoughts album. There was just something about it that just didn’t quite fit in with the rest of those songs. I had always loved it, but I just set it aside,” she explains.

Knowing Maia Sharp, not only as a regular guest at Riveting Riffs Magazine Read More 

 

Ana Luísa Ramos

Ana Luisa Ramos Interview Photo front pageSão Paulo, Brazil to St. John’s Newfoundland in Canada is almost 8,000 kilometers, a distance that likely a young girl named Ana Luísa Ramos thought she would never travel when she was singing in a children’s choir, let alone make St. John’s her home, many years later. Proud of her Brazilian heritage, but obviously proud of her home in recent years, Newfoundland, Ana, her husband Eric and their family have not only traveled together across great distances but also have had a musical journey together that started many years ago. Ana Luísa Ramos sat down with Riveting Riffs Magazine over a Zoom call to talk about her life, career and took us back the very beginning.        

She begins, “I was born in Ribeirão Preto and that means Black River. In the city we have this river and it used to be a big river. Now it is not that big and not that clean anymore. I was born in 1988. I always loved music. My parents are not musicians. From my mom’s side her grandma and her brothers, they used to play and sing and paint, but music is very present in my culture and people are very much connected to music.

I have always had music at my house and I had many diverse influences. My father loves Brazilian music, but he also is a Beatles fan and all of the sixties Rock bands. My brothers, I have two older brothers and they were the ones who introduced me to MTV. We used to see what was happening in the U.K. and in the U.S. I remember the first time I saw Pink Floyd (big smile).

I started singing in choirs and my grandma, my father’s mom, loves Classical music. At the time we would listen to music on CDs. There was this magazine that if you bought the weekly issue, you would receive a different CD every week. There were many Read More

Rachael Sage and The Sequins

Rachael Sage Interview 2025 Front Page Photo Rachael Sage’s current album Canopy creates a welcoming vibe for the listener, and the singer songwriter musician has a way with her musical canvass of creating a big tent that says come on in, everybody is welcome. This collection of songs creates an intimate setting in which she seems comfortable combined with an orchestral sound (more on that later).  

“That is always what we are striving for. When I hear you say that it is almost like you might be picking up on this concerted intention to have this be more of a band type of a project and even though I have been playing for many years with most of the folks on this record there was definitely something different, in knowing before I rolled my sleeves up that I wanted this to be a Rachael Sage and the Sequins record.

I had already worked a couple of times before with my engineer Mikhail Pivovarov. He has been very graciously coming up to where I live in the Hudson Valley and doing a lot of the recording with me in my actual home space. We did maybe fifty percent of it up here and the other half with bass, drums and piano in Connecticut at the Carriage House (Carriage House Studios). Maybe that is what you are hearing.  

I have recorded with bands frequently. I don’t always do things separately and in piecemeal. We have gone  Read More  

 Actor Ruben Yuste

Ruben Yuste May 2024

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 Tawny Ellis - Edge Of The World

Tawny Ellis Interview Front Page PhotoTawny Ellis is a lot of things and that is the most understated statement you will ever hear anyone make. She is an accomplished actress, she is an excellent singer, songwriter and musician, she has fashioned jewelry, she is a critically acclaimed sculptor with her art appearing in galleries in numerous countries, she is a painter and that is her art on the front cover of her current album Edge Of The World.  She also works with her husband Gio Loria as the vice-president of his company Black Volt Amplification, which acts both as a luthier and builds amplifiers.  a We will stop there, because if we continue listing her other talents and accomplishments you may be in for an even longer read than you anticipated in this the first part of a two-part interview.  

It has been five years since Tawny Ellis released her last album and there can be many reasons why, especially with someone this busy.

She opens up, “Honestly, I think I got really gun shy. Something shut down on me, because I had worked on that album for quite some time. I released it in 2020 and I had signed up to go on tour in Europe and open for a really great artist over there. They shut down the whole world (due to the COVID pandemic). The day that I was supposed to get on the plane to go to the U.K.  to hook up and go on the tour and to play all of these shows they shut everything down and nobody could go anywhere. I felt like I had just flown a plane into the mountainside. It was horrible. We had packed everything and promoted and all the gigs were laid out. I am a really sensitive person and it was so hard.

You can’t really re-release an album and I got really disenchanted with the world at large. When I went to write I felt like I had so much to say, but I couldn’t figure out how to say anything. I couldn’t really relate to humanity. I felt like they were at each other’s throats in so many ways. Everybody was turning on each other. I (became) really disillusioned and so I started writing some things three years ago and I couldn’t really catch fire with finding my voice. I did not want to not write about things that were important and pivotal, but I didn’t want to be brow beating or anything. I had to find a magical way to bring people together. I felt like the world was so divided and I still think it is in a lot of ways.

My Canadian friend Daniel Lanois (celebrated musician, composer, producer) who is my neighbor, (with whom) I have become very good friends over the last fifteen or so years would always invite me to hear what he was working on. His work ethic and everything he works on is really impressive. I found what I wanted to write about and they were things that would make people sing along with me. I wanted the right music that would bring people together.

I went up to his house and he played some music for me and that is always very mind blowing and amazing. He is such an amazing artist. I came home, picked up my guitar and I started writing “La La La Love.” I was in such a state of frozen artistry that I decided I was going to write the silliest song I (could) come up with. Stuff that I had warded off my whole life. I was never going to have a song that is La La La or all trite stuff. This song came out and you might think it is lighthearted, but the verses are very intense, “It’s been a hard couple of years / Just tryin’ to stand up straight, don’t fall under this veil of fears…” It is something that everybody can relate to. It talks about “…I think I know the way / Don’t fall too far from love, oh love”  It  Read More

 

Ágota Dunai - Actor Interview

Agota Dunai Interview Front Page PhotoWhile she has moved around a bit, actress Ágota Dunai now calls Budapest home, in her native country Hungary. You may have seen her in the high altitude action thriller Fight and Flight starring Josh Hartnett, the second time she has worked with him and Katee Sackhoff or perhaps in the film Dr Jason II Lights and Shades, streaming on Amazon (in some countries) and soon you will be able to see her in a Tom Cruise movie (at press time still to be titled). With three films either released or in production during 2025 and two more from 2024, Ágota Dunai’s career is gathering momentum and so it should for this talented young actor.   

In the film Fight and Flight, Ágota Dunai says, “I played a flight attendant. I had flight attendant experience before in another film, and they chose me,” Although she had a minor role in the film she says, “I really hope it made it to the film. I haven’t seen the film yet. There was one scene when the plane starts to crash and there is a lot of shaking and someone falls down. Then I go to the (person) and help him up. I ask if he is okay and ask if he needs medical help. That was my speaking scene, but in many other scenes I was packing, sorting and helping with seatbelts. Also, when there were fight scenes, I was trying to protect the other passengers. There is one scene when somebody gets cut with a chainsaw and there is fake blood scattered on me. There are a lot of action scenes.

I (also) worked with Josh Hartnett in The Fear Index. It was nice to work with him again.”

With impeccable English, proficient in German and of course her native language Hungarian, it would seem that the opportunities will soon be pouring in for a genre she confesses to like, action films.

In the film Dr. Jason II Lights and Shadows, Ágota Dunai worked with the award-winning Greek director George Tounas (Rush 4 – 2025, Reloaded and Reloaded 2) and she was in the lead role in this psychological thriller. (Tounas now makes his home in Stuttgart, Germany)

“My character is a female lead called Jenna Knightley. I know these days there are a lot of feminist heroes, but this film was not like this at all. This woman was kidnapped and she is rescued by her love Dr. Jason. In this film I was the victim who was waiting and hoping to be rescued. (editor’s note: spoiler alert – you will have to watch the film).

Then I got rescued at the end (This is a spoiler). It was exciting and it was an independent film in Germany. It is streaming, so people can watch it on Amazon and other platforms. It is a psychological thriller.”  Read More

 
Award Winning Actress Luz Nicolas

Luz Nicolas Interview Photo Front PageIt is not every day that you get to have a conversation with a star of the theater world on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, but recently Riveting Riffs Magazine sat down over a Zoom call with Luz Nicolas, originally from Madrid, Spain and having lived in Washington D.C. for more than a decade and performing and acting as assistant director for numerous plays over the years at the GALA Hispanic Theater. She was in the midst of rehearsals for the stage production of Kiss of the Spider Woman for which she is the assistant director.    

For those not familiar with the play adapted by Manuel Puig from his 1976 novel and later made into both a film and a musical, she explains, “It is about two men in jail, but they develop a character of a woman. It is a fascinating (story). Manuel is an Argentinian playwright. There is also a film with William Hurt and Raul Julia. I think that was in the ‘80s (1985) [Editor’s note: The film also starred Sonia Braga in three roles as Leni Lamaison, Marta and the Spider Woman]

The story is about two men who are in the same cell. One of them is there, because he is a revolutionary who goes against the government and the other one is there, because he is gay and he is also accused of being a pedophile.

It begins with one of them talking about a movie. He is telling a story about a woman. They get to know how different they are, and yet at the same time, they are starting to understand each other very well. They love and care for each other very much.  What he is sharing with the other (person) is not about an actress. It is about a movie.  

One guy who is struggling and is sick and his body is breaking down. The other man is helping him by telling a story.” As for how she became involved in the play she says, “I have worked many times with the director José Luis Arellano. He is from Spain and he is a friend of mine. He has directed me about ten times. To me he is like my soul brother. We know each other very well artistically and personally. When he knew he was going to be directing the Kiss of the Spider Woman he said, ‘I would love fore you to be my assistant.’ The show is deep, raw and intimate, so he wanted somebody who could go with him and the actors throughout the process. I also know both actors very well. It was a perfect match. Jose said he could not think of a better person to do this job and he invited me.

I was also the assistant director of Mummy in the Closet (Momia en el Clóset) It was a musical at GALA a year ago. It was amazing. The two actors came from that musical. I am so excited that we are going to get together. It is kind of like a theater family reunion. It is at the GALA Hispanic Theater (Kiss of the Spider Woman - El Beso de la Mujer Araña) in Washington D.C. September 4th to 28th. It is absolutely Read More

 

 

 

 

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Jesse and Noah Leave Love Alone

Jesse and Noah Photo 2024 front pageJesse and Noah Bellamy who perform and record simply and Jesse and Noah, visited with Riveting Riffs Magazine recently to talk about their new EP Leave Love Alone, which derives its name from the titular song and to ring in the holiday season with two Christmas songs, one a cover tune and the other an original.  

We jokingly asked them about the song “Leave Love Alone,” and if it was a reference to a relationship that went sideways.

Jesse replied, “That is an older song, so I don’t even remember. I started that song with Simon Bruce, an Australian singer and songwriter who lived here in Nashville for a while. We halfway finished it and he and Daniel Tashian finished it and then it came back to me. Daniel was going to put it out and then I didn’t hear anything for a while and so I thought I would just throw it into this mix of songs that we were doing for our next session. We thought we could do a pretty good job on it. We recorded it, got it ready to go and he ended up putting his out around the same time or maybe a couple of weeks before or something like that.

He released it mostly in Australia. I guess it is worldwide, because of streaming.

The songs ended up being so different and with different audiences, so they didn’t really clash.”

Produced by Pino Squillace, engineered by Brandon Henegar and recorded at the House Of David Studios in Nashville the song is a Country song, with Rock influences and excellent musicianship. Those who have followed Jesse and Noah over the years, should not be surprised that Noah serves up some incredible electric guitar licks, while being joined by Lorenzo Piccone and Steve Cirvencik (also on guitars).  

Jesse and Noah are talented producers and sound engineers in their own right, so we wondered why they chose to have other people produce and engineer the album Leave Love Alone.

They laugh simultaneously, and Noah finally says, “We just got bogged down,” while Jesse adds, “Some of these songs we were producing and had versions of them, and we just couldn’t finish them being at home. It took a long time to get everything out. We started working on some of them in 2020 and we did some sessions at the ranch down in Florida. It seemed like it would be easier to go in (to the studio) and recut them from the ground up rather than trying to finish the versions that we had.”

As for drummer Herschel VanDyke, Jesse says, “He has been playing with us for seven or eight years or something like that. He is pretty key to our sound at this point. Read More

 

  

 
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