Thomas "MR. BRICKHOUSE" McClary

Interview with Thomas McClary, April 16, 2007

What was the inspiration for this project?

My sons, and in particular 13-year-old (Ryan), is a bona fide songwriter producer himself. He has been on three or four tracks from this CD. As I began to observe him and his rapid pace of wanting to apply more knowledge about the business and as he illustrated every day just an incredible wealth of creativity, I decided the best way to show him was to actually do a project. And to have him watch and observe the process because now he is spending more time _ along with being an A student _ in the studio than he is on the basketball court or playing football.
I’m thinking ‘wow.’ I don’t want to create a situation that deprives him of his childhood, but if this is so intense that’s he’s not bothered being in the studio for hours and hours and hours, perhaps it’s time to do a project.
I started to actually lay down some of the ideas and in the process introducing him to some of the state of the art equipment like Logic Pro, but using those creative skills that he naturally has. I wasn’t necessarily promoting my sound on him but showing him how to bring out the creativity that’s inside of him. As I started this process I got excited about what was going on.

What was the time frame for the project?

I would say about nine or 10 months ago.

Do you have your own studio?

Yes, in Pine Hills, [Florida].

Does Ryan play instruments as well?

Yes he plays keyboards, drums and a little guitar.

Is it basically a two-man show?

Right. And all of a sudden I’m getting very excited about what’s happening. Man, this is some great music. Great, innovative, fresh stuff.

Are you writing the music together?

Yes, some of it he’s writing it with me. Then the idea began to come together: ‘Maybe it’s time to do another CD. Maybe I should put a band together and approach this thing seriously.’ And at the same time I could make sure that Ryan gets an up close viewpoint as to how this whole process works. I began to reach out to other musicians and started to lay down tracks and see what worked and didn’t work. What had the magic and what didn’t have the magic.

As the creative process is going along, it’s not like you guys are trying to recreate the Commodores, so how do you decide on the musical content?

him to understand what made these songs great and what made that particular music last a long time. So we began to target these different styles of music. Shania Twain, for instance, was one act we both loved. So we said, ‘suppose Shania Twain was in our band? Let’s write and introduce something that would target Shania Twain.’ So there’s a song called “Ask Me How I Know.”
We began to look at other artists and other writers and other producers and try to predict what they would be doing now if they were still competitively active in the industry.
I asked him to listen to Karen Carpenter and some of the melodies and some of the incredible songs. And the rock operas [like Tommy] so when you listen to a song like “Whatsoever Things,” you will hear that influence.
And of course we wanted to have a well-rounded situation. Take hip-hop. The one thing Ryan and I agreed on was how many times can you write about sex and somebody’s butt? There is an emptiness and a lack substance, but we did not want to disregard that audience, so we said, ‘Ok let’s do some hip hop with some real melodies and lyrics and let’s make the lyrics relevant so it can impact people’s lives.’ You’ll hear that in songs like “Put em In the Sky,” or “Come on God’s People.”
And then of course we wanted to be able to impact not only hip-hop but reggae so there’s a song called “Selah.” We brought in the rapper Papa San. He’s a famous rapper from Jamaica. He rapped on one of the songs “Come on God’s People.”

Given all these influences, it’s hard to figure where to put your CDs on the shelves.

That’s exactly right.

Ultimately it’s a labor of love in more ways than one because of your spiritual side and you’re working with your son, but in the bigger picture, is there a greater vision in making this CD?

We want to impact the world like never before. We want to penetrate the hearts and souls of all generations really, from eight to 80 and all nationalities because we feel that we have something for everybody on this particular CD. Not just a thrown-together project but a lot of thought has gone into it to target particular audiences around the world.
There is a song that Ryan wrote produced and arranged and improvised himself and it was a surprise track, that first track, “Family Song.” He wanted to target the Nickelodeon audiences. He told me, ‘Dad you’ve got to find a way to put this on your CD. It fits right into this whole concept of what we’re doing.’
Christians have been labeled as not being able to have fun, and being square. This is just a clean song that talks about the [basket] ballers. They just ball from head to toe. My wife and I were in Miami for this symposium, and when we came back this was the surprise Ryan had for us.

Had you done any songwriting since you left the Commodores?

Not seriously. As a songwriter you always look at the world through a creative eye and you always get little nuggets of things and think, ‘You know what? This would be a great idea for a song,’ but to sit down and say I’m actually going to write; I’m going to put this down, is different. This is my first real effort at this process. And I’m thoroughly enjoying it. I was telling my wife and Ryan I’m never going to go into that sabbatical period again.

A lot of athletes and musicians get locked into what they are doing and can’t walk away from it. Did you have any pangs or where you comfortable in your shoes?

Well, there was always something there that was nagging at me. And I’m thankful that it did not go away quietly because that’s what brought me back to the table. I always felt, ‘Man what a waste. This is an incredible gift and you’re not utilizing it.’

Is there a bigger picture beyond the release of the CD?

We’re trying to coordinate the release of the CD and at some point, a listening party. Whether I do an artist thing with this project or whether I develop my own label, Ryan’s career obviously has enormous potential. He is going to go much farther than me. This will be the launching pad to do whatever he decides. He wants to produce and his sisters and brothers will be part of the artists that he wants to produce. And he introduces them on this one song.
Management would be another component. We’ve set up a company called Fifth Avenue Management.
We are working out the details as far as a clothing line. The key was to get locked in first on a logo that could be branded. We finally got that done. We went through three different companies before we nailed it.
George Diaz - Reporter from Orlando Sentinel