Rich Baron – Creating Memorable Melodies

Rich Baron excels at creating memorable melodies that satisfy the most sophisticated music fan as well as the casual listener.
His recordings embody his ongoing search for new ways to express himself through his eclectic songwriting and incredible vocal range. Listeners will immediately understand where he’s coming from as they find themselves on an immediate and enjoyable soulful journey.

Please welcome… Rich Baron.

MM: Congratulations on being in the elite group of Musicians that can have a professional music career for quite a while and constantly add new fans every time you write and perform a new song. What is your secret?

Rich Baron: I always loved Paul Mc Cartny's answer to this question. And I quote "There is a God isn’t there!" We all have various kinds of gifts and mine happens to be Melody and Singing, both through hard work and study grow exponentially over the years. At 19 years of age, while recuperating from an auto accident, I discovered I could sing, and thru hard work and imitation learned to sing, and found out that I had a high range. At 24 I bought my first Guitar and discovered that melodies jumped out of my head while I played chords. Brand new melodies that never existed before...You might imagine my excitement back then.

MM: Your voice has an incredible range. I’ve heard people say, “ When listening to Rich Baron, his voice takes off and you say Wow, this guy can sing. Then all of a sudden He goes higher… and then even higher with such emotion!” When did you learn that you have such a powerful voice? How did it all happen?

RB: When one starts out on this journey of vocal ability, lessons would be a good thing, however I didn't have money for lessons, so I imitated Johnny Mathis style of singing. figuring if I could sound like him I'm doing something right. I was the maintenance guy at a facility that had an incredible bathroom with a stupendous echo chamber effect. That makes it easier to scat sing for longer periods. There's nothing like hearing your voice and what it needs to do to sound good like an echo chamber room. Someone said to me one night that I sounded just like Johnny Mathis...the only trouble with that was there was only one Johnny Mathis. It was the best thing anyone could have said to me, so I set out to find MY voice. That happened when I bought my first guitar after seeing some other young artists who wrote and played their own instruments. When I wrote a song, I had to sing it like no other, there was no reference point to grab on to. This took several years though. I had to leave the John Denver, and Tim Buckley influences behind. By the late 70's it was there.

MM: You even entered a Songwriting Competition with your music when you were starting out. Tell us about that experience?

RB: I believed that the songs I was writing in the Mid 70's were very good...you have to believe strongly or pack up and go home. So I entered the 75 and 76 World Song Contest to see where I would finish, would others feel the same? Was I kidding myself?...and low and behold I won first place in 76. It was like American Idol back then. It got me a record deal and a foot in the business.

MM: You not only write great music and sing; you also play the guitar… the perfect Singer Songwriter Performer/Composer. How many songs have you written? Do you have a specific formula when writing? What is your songwriting process?

RB: I truly lost count on the number of songs I've written, approaching 1000 perhaps? There's no particular formula for me to write. Playing chord patterns was the first method, that's why studying with someone far more advanced than yourself is SOOOO important. During these chord playings, melodies come, as you vocalize them you might say actual words, sometimes these words were actual inspiration. I almost never start out with a subject matter. The inspiration gives me the subject. Melody first, then words, the words get better as time passes, you grow. Sometimes I'm struggling with a new song and something stronger takes me in another direction, and I leave the first song to complete the better second one. I've also had songs written in the 70's that I couldn't finish, that I finished this year, because I've learned so much more over the years. The last few years have been the best. I actually wake up most mornings with a melody, or musical sentence right out of the gate, and I record it on my phone and finish it when there's time...There's God again! Throwing me the ball.             

Written many moons ago