Interview: Before Clearwater show, Daryl Hall talks about his ‘D,’ working with Eurythmics’ Dave Stewart and more

The term “blue-eyed soul” was coined way before Daryl Hall first committed his fine voice to vinyl, but the Pennsylvania native has more that earned the distinction of being one of the very best to ever have that label placed on them. The soulful, smooth singer-songwriter who has been racking up his singles as half of the best-selling duo in music history, Hall and Oates, since the early 1970s is focusing on his own solo work these days, and he released a fantastic new album of his own compositions this year, simply titled D.

Hitting the stage as a solo artist provides Hall with the luxury of performing so many of the memorable hit singles he penned as part of the duo, but it also gives the 78-year-old a chance to explore some of the fine, underrated work he’s released as a soloist, dating back to his grossly underrated, Robert Fripp-produced solo debut album from 1980, Sacred Songs.

Now on a solo tour with fellow ‘80s hitmaker Howard Jones, Hall is ready to play his new material, dig into the vaults of his solo output, and, of course, play plenty of tunes from his Hall and Oates years.

Hall recently spoke to Creative Loafing Tampa Bay about his music, new album, successful music program, and about his greatest inspiration: real, genuine soul music.

Tickets to see Daryl Hall play BayCare Sound in Clearwater on Monday, Nov. 11 are still available and start at $39.50.
Regarding your early years, growing up around the Philadelphia area, which is known for such great soul and R&B, and which you’re a big fan of, when you were starting out, were you surprised by the attention you got from those audiences? Was that something that you set out to do originally or was that one of your musical goals? Or did that just come about naturally?

Well, that was the world I lived in. And so, that was my audience. That was the people that I worked with and they responded to what I do because I’m a soul singer and they like soul music, you know? I mean, I’ve always tried to bring that essence with me no matter what I do, in whatever genre I work within. I’m a Philly soul singer.

So it was just kind of a natural, coming from the area, and then it just kind of grew organically out of that being the sound, and that being something you were so deeply rooted in?

Well, it was the sound. That was my baby food. It’s what I did. It was the people that I worked with. I wasn’t from the outside. I was on the inside.

Well, you’re certainly one of the best to ever do it. I’ve seen you live multiple times and I’ve been amazed each time with what you can do with your voice. So kudos to you.

Thank you, man.

So moving on to current day, I wanna talk a little bit about your new album, D. It’s your sixth solo album, and I know you worked with Dave Stewart again on this one, as you had earlier, and that he co-wrote some of the songs on the album. It had been a while since you’d put out a solo album, so tell me a little bit about the inspiration for this new one.

Well, Dave and I are really close friends and we’ve been close ever since. Well, before we made the other album back in the ‘80s. So, it’s been a lot of years. And we both have houses in the Bahamas. I have a house around the corner from his house and, and so I was down there and we said, “Well, why don’t we? Let’s make a record.”

Dave has a really good studio. And so we just decided to do it, and started writing songs and pulling things out. I had my notes and my little bag of lyrics and all that stuff. And we just started making something out of nothing really. And we did it in increments. We’d work for like a month, and then we had our own stuff to do and then we reconvene and do it. There really weren’t a lot of people involved in it. You know, we’d bring people in, like local people just off the street to do some things. But it was mostly just Dave and I and the engineer working on the record, making the sounds and playing the instruments. There’s a couple of songs I brought in that were from earlier, that I had already written, but most of these songs were pretty much concocted between the two of us, right on the spot.

And were you already a fan of Dave Stewart’s music when you became friendly with him?

Oh, yeah, I’ve always liked the Eurythmics. I always liked Dave but it goes even beyond the music. I’ve become his friend. We’re very close friends.

That’s good to hear. I wanted to talk to you a little bit about the BeforeAfter compilation, the retrospective you put out in 2022, that covered a lot of your solo material. I have to imagine that had to be pretty satisfying, to put together this rich collection of all this material you culled from all your solo output.

Yeah. Well, I, mean, people, people know me for what I do, it did under the name Hall and Oates. So, I thought it was time, for various reasons. One, because John wanted to go in another direction, and so we parted ways and I thought, OK, now is the time that I’m gonna bring all this music, all these years of music I’ve done under my own name into the forefront and promote it, sing it, let people hear it. I had already been doing a lot of these songs on “Live From Daryl’s House,” the TV show, or the internet show. And that was the whole purpose behind it, you know, bring these songs and let them see the light of day, let people hear them, let them be part of what I do, you know? And then I carry that right onto the stage. So it’s all seamless now, with the songs, I sing a whole lot of songs and I sing my own songs. Well, my own, they’re all mine. And, there it is; they’re all one thing now to me.

It’s a fantastic collection. And I have to say, when I saw you play the Mahaffey Theater in St. Petersburg in August 2022 while touring with Todd Rundgren, who I know is a big part of your story and somebody who you admire a lot, you were playing a lot of the solo stuff you seemed really to really enjoy and really get into playing those songs that maybe you hadn’t played as much over the years or you hadn’t gotten to feature live as much. Does that bring a new joy to you or a new excitement to play some of those songs that maybe you haven’t gotten the opportunity to play out as much as you would have liked?

Absolutely. You know, I’ve been playing the same songbook for many, many years and, I’m proud of those songs but I had all these other ones, all these other songs to play and to actually be able to do it, it was energizing. It is energizing. That’s what I do, and now I have some new songs, brand new songs to play that add more to the mix. So I have a much more joyful way of looking at the road and doing these shows.

Well, I can tell you that energy was very noticeable. You seem to be having a great time. I could tell that you were really enjoying playing the song that some of us hadn’t heard you play either ever, or in a very long time.

There you go, man.

You mentioned “Live at Daryl’s House” a little while ago. It’s been going on for about 17 years now. Does that sound about right?

I’ve lost track. But that sounds about right. I mean, it’s a long time, a lot of shows, a lot of experiences, a lot of life. it’s all mixed up. I mean, it is a true reality show. You know, it’s totally unscripted and spontaneous. So it’s really a slice of life for me, you know,

Was it something that you thought would just be a temporary thing? Or did you have any idea it would last as long as it’s lasted?

Oh, I had no idea. This is typical of everything. I don’t have a master plan and I don’t know how long something’s gonna happen and what the outcome is gonna be or any of that kind of thing. But I knew I wanted to do it. I knew that I was born to do it in some ways. I love collaborating. I love singing with different people and playing with different people and testing myself against different genres and interacting with them. And it’s the perfect place for me to do that. I can’t think of any other way I would be able to do it so there it is, man.

What about this selection process for the guests? I know you’ve had some people on there that you’ve probably admired and listened to for a long time like Smokey Robinson and The O’Jays. But then you have a lot of newer artists too. What’s the kind of thought process for inviting folks on to the show?

Well, it really comes down to not much thought. I mean, I’m presented with various people who are available because availability is a tough thing with this; to try and get everybody’s schedule to coincide with my schedule and be in a place where I am, which is upstate New York for the most part, so the scheduling has a lot to do with it. So it’s people that are available. Other than that, I mean, I don’t have a wish list or anything like that and I kind of like the unknown factor that somebody that I’m not really that aware of, and suddenly they say, here, he or she wants to come on the show and I go, “Well, let me check. I’ll think about that, and then listen to it. Yeah. Ok. Sure. Let’s, let’s run with that. And that’s how it really works. It’s not really very planned out or thought out.

One of the guests that you had on about a year ago is Howard Jones, and that’s who is gonna be touring with you throughout this current tour you’re bringing to Florida. How did that come about? And what can you tell us about this tour and about the combination of seeing Jones along with you on the same bill?

DH: Well, he was presented to me and I was obviously aware of Howard’s music. I didn’t know him personally, but I said sure, let’s do it. And the interesting part is that we got along right away. I really like Howard. We do have mutual friends and all that kind of thing and I wound up hanging out with him and getting to know him and when this tour came up, I asked him if he was available and he was, and simple as that, you know? I think he’s a great singer and he was a good “Daryl’s House” guest, and that’s really what I like. Like I did with Todd, I like to bring people on and really have that feeling of people that I know and can interact with, in a very “Daryl’s House” way. And so Howard fits that bill very well.

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This article appears in Oct 31 – Nov 6, 2024.