Speaking to Reminiscin', Roy talks about sleepless nights and his new album in the brew!

Roy Ayers has a musical journey that has brought sunshine to many lives. His career has been a leap of great musical direction, exceptional taste and mass inventiveness. Bringing the magical spins of, Coffy Is The Color, Don't Stop The Feeling and Searching Roy's mission is far from being complete.

Although being in demand is a tag Roy Ayers only knows too well, it is his fans that Roy, first and foremost chooses to please. With fans set worldwide Roy nomadically jet sets from state to state, Europe to the Far East Roy's in his quest. With some time to spare, Roy stops in his tracks to speak to Reminiscin'. Talking about is undying love for music, a call from Prince and how a good game of chess is the tip of relaxation-Roy Ayers gives light to his experiences.

Being in the industry for so long how have you learnt to handle music critics?
Roy: It is not only music critics; it can even be some fans. It is very interesting. I am sure that over the years I have got better with handling almost everything in the industry. You see a lot of things happen all the time and a lot of people are critical a lot of the times. Sometimes people say things like, "You didn't play my song. I am not coming to your show again." Usually I answer them, "I am sorry that you didn't like the show but if you come next time I will try and play your song". But sometimes the people who say I haven't played their song, I really did play them, but they just didn't hear it for some reason. But the music critics are a special breed they seem to like my music a lot. I don't know why they call them critics, I haven't had any bad criticism from my music at all, especially in the form of negativity. It has always been accepted and it is wonderful feeling to be accepted all the time. I think I am kinda consistent and the critics are also consistent - it's a good vibe.

You are already a versatile instrumentalist is there any instrument you wished you had learnt or brushed up on?
Roy: Oh yeah! I kinda always wanted to play the trumpet and I did play the trumpet in a High School band, but I really got into the percussions, the drums and of course the glockenspiel, which is like the xylophone. It would have been the trumpet had I played another instrument.

What satisfaction do you get from performing live?
Roy: It is a wonderful release that I get. I get to experience the people in the audience, their reaction to my reaction. I mean my reaction comes from their reaction, and of course their reaction comes from my vibration and my sensitivity when I am performing music. I am glad I can give them motivation, and in return their motivation inspires me to play harder and to really please the audience-I am that kinda musician. There are some musicians who don't care about the audience, I care about the audience, I care about music, but I care about the audience too. There are some musicians who just care about the music and nobody else. I respect them and they have their own feelings, but my feelings are with the audience- I love to please people.

Having your own record label - how important is autonomy in the music biz?
Roy: It is very difficult to have your own label. For me many years I was on many different major labels. I recorded with Atlantic, Columbia and several other labels. It seems in this industry it is controlled, probably, more so by the major labels. Most artists know nothing about forming their own label and the record companies have always done everything for them. It made me look at the industry very carefully and look at all these people who have been previously on labels, and that have been recording artists for many years; it doesn't matter what colour you are, eventually everybody gets dropped from the major labels. Eventually everybody leaves the major labels, sometimes they leave and go to another label or sometimes they leave and you never hear of them again -that is just the way it is.

What do you find rewarding about penning your own lyrics?
Roy: The rewarding thing is you reap most of the benefits from writing your own lyrics and of course having your own publishing company. In my case I write my own lyrics and I have my own publishing company and I still do have it. It is an interesting industry.

What keeps your pen poised?
Roy: I guess the creative aspect of it. I love writing music. I love singing alone, to act as the people when I play the music. I love to see the reaction of the people when they buy it (laughs) it makes me feel like I have done something that really hits their nerve. That is good as it keeps me creating and keeps me trying to move into new directions.

What entices you about producing? Does it still excite you?
Roy: Yes, it is very exciting! I haven't been doing too much producing as far as other artists are concerned; I just like producing my records mostly. It would be interesting to do some people I like, to take the people that I want to do. I like to produce for people that I like. I would like to really do something on Quincy Jones because nobody does that.

What do consider as time being well spent?
Roy: The well-spent time that I use is when I go into the studio. The reward is the results of what I do; of course the biggest reward is the finished product. The time I spend on it is worth it because it is many hours when you are creating music. Sometimes you come up with blanks, but the time you come up with something you get a hot streak going. I could try and write a song right now and not come up with anything. I could come up with ideas, but sometimes I would put them down and record them on a cassette or CD and then come back to it later, and that's the time that is well spent because I can create a phrase or a melody. If it's not happening or I think it's not gonna happen, I will come back to it the next day or weeks later and I will work something out. It is a wonderful feeling when you spend time with it because you have to start from scratch when writing music and you write it with the impulse that you feel at the time.

If you had three hours to spare out of a hectic schedule what would you do?
Roy: If I had the time. I would spend that time in the studio because that is free time. Most of my time is spent traveling, sleeping and performing, that is where most of my time is spent. You have to get your rest to rejuvenate yourself, so I do that, and of course a lot of time is spent doing that. So, when I do find the time to spend in the studio that is wonderful.

What are your traveling nightmares?
Roy: My traveling nightmare is sometimes I am so tired that I can't sleep. I sit up in my hotel room wherever I am, I take a hot shower, get into bed and I close my eyes and a half hour later I am still awake. Sometimes I stay up the whole night and the next morning I have to get up as I have to play somewhere.

How do you get adjusted to your traveling schedules?
Roy: Adjustment requires a change in times. I'll give you an example; I just did an engagement in Las Vegas, Nevada. Prince was trying to contact a group and my agent said if you want a group I have Roy Ayers available, Prince said that is what he wants, it made me feel good. I'll cut a long story short. We got the tickets together but we couldn't get anything direct, so we had to get dropped off in Atlanta then we had to change planes. The time it took us to fly to Atlanta and Atlanta to Las Vegas including the time we got off the plane was about nine hours. This was on the day before. We were worn out tired, but we were cool; the gig was the next day. The next day after that, we had to fly back and we had to stop in Atlanta because they didn't have any direct flights at that time. They were all booked up. So we are talking 18-hours flying time and staying out at the airport. It was horrible but that is gonna wear you out, when you go to Russia from the US it takes about eight hours, when you go to South Africa it takes about 18-hours, when you go to Australia it takes almost 18-hours. The flying time is very tiring.

Any unusual hobbies or interests?
Roy: I play chess that relaxes me. But probably, my favourite hobby is writing music. I have a couple of guys who I write songs with and we collaborate, it's a lot of fun.

What's next in line for Roy Ayers?
Roy: Well, I am doing superstars of Jazz fusion; as a matter of fact it's called The Original Superstars of Jazz Fusion. It is with me, Lonnie Liston Smith, Jeane Carne, Bobbi Humphrey and Jon Lucien, and Wayne Henderson from the Jazz Crusaders. We have been working together and we have started doing a lot of things. We will probably come to London with the show. It will be a very nice show. I am doing that and I am also working on my next album. I just did a cover on one of Rick James' songs, called Give It To Me Baby. It is very interesting as it is done quite differently to the way Rick James did it but I like it.