Text: Molly Ringwald
Photos: Kathy Lo
Julian Fleisher is a polymorphous autodidact, by which I mean he does a lot of things, very well. He’s a singer, producer, songwriter, book writer, podcaster and even sometime actor whom I first met when he was producing the first studio recording for my friends Kiki & Herb, aka Justin Bond and Kenny Mellman. We reunited when he invited me to sit in with him and his amazing Rather Big Band at the Winter Garden in Battery Park City in New York, where had been invited to perform for three amazing weeks there — the first act to perform in the Winter Garden after it was rebuilt, post-9/11. We also spent a memorable Thanksgiving at his charming little cabin in the Catskills. We’ve become great friends since then and we got on the phone recently to catch up.

Molly Ringwald: Hey Julian!
Julian Fleisher: Hi Molly! I’m recording this call off my land line speaker phone into my iPhone. So it might crap out.
MR: (laughter) You are so high tech, Julian.
JF: You think so? I find this to be so ghetto.
MR: It’s better than I could do. For such a creative guy, you’re also very tech savvy.
JF: But isn’t that what creativity is? Taking nothing and turning it into something? Don’t you think?
MR: Yes, I do. Yes, I do.
JF: Larry (Julian’s dog with the distinctively deafening bark) is sitting right next to me.
MR: He is? How is Larry?
JF: He’s my best friend!
MR: (Laughter). That makes one of us! So tell me what’s going on with you?
JF: I have some gigs coming up soon to promote my new CD which is just about finished. It’s called, appropriately, “Finally“.
MR: How perfect.
JF: But I’m also working on a new musical with a really exciting team. It’s called “Stop talking” and we hope to be workshopping that this summer, but those things take a long time to complete!
MR: You’re the composer?
JF: Oh, girl. I’m the composer and the lyricist. So you know it’s gonna take a while.
MR: That reminds me, I just saw somewhere that the “Coraline” CD is out.
JF: Oh yes! It came out just yesterday and I saw a copy when I went to see the Magnetic Fields at BAM last night.
MR: Right. Stephin Merrit wrote the songs for “Coraline”.
JF: He’s a genius,
MR: How was their show?
JF: Exquisite.
MR: As ever…

JF: It’s funny for me to watch them because they sit stock still and they make this extraordinary music. And I think about how hard I work when I sing, just working up such a sweat with every song. And they don’t lift a finger! I need to take it easy.
MR: It’s kind of wonderful. I saw them do 69 Love Songs at Lincoln Center and it was incredible.
JF: Well, the Coraline rehearsals were tough, but in the end I am so grateful to have gotten that chance and now to be on a recording singing that insane and insanely beautiful music!
MR: You got amazing reviews.
JF: I wont deny it. But I surely didn’t expect it.
MR: We have a lot of exciting things going on! Tell me about the new album. What kind of songs are on it?
JF: It’s really different from my first one which featured all those “big band” arrangements of songs you wouldn’t expect to hear. This one’s very mellow. There’s no horn section, no shouting. It’s more of an Art-Pop record. And almost all original songs!

MR: Wow. Songs by you?
JF: Yes. Originally by me. Almost all by me and almost all songs of heartbreak.
MR: Mmm. Something you know nothing about.
JF: And there are three covers on it, all songs from my misspent youth that I needed to get out of my system.
MR: Ha! What are they?
JF: Well, there’s Tomorrow from Annie — done as a really fast latin number.
MR: Oh, I love your version of that! It really makes you think twice about that song.
JF: Thank you. And then there’s When We Grow Up from Free to Be You and Me, that I sing as a duet with the fabulous Melissa Haizlip and a Carly Simon song from Anticipation called The Girl You Think You See, which I think is wildly underperformed.

MR: How great. I’m surprised you didn’t record N.Y.C.
JF: Ah! Our song! Well, I thought a lot about it. But I figured one song from Annie was just too fucked up. Don’t you think?
MR: (Laughter) Indeed. You’re probably right.
JF: And now you! You’ve got a book coming out!
MR: Yes, I do! It’s called “Getting the Pretty Back: Friendship, Family and Finding the Perfect Lipstick.” And that’s coming out April 27th — just in time for Mother’s Day!
JF: Wow: So we are both cooking! I’ll expect a signed copy for my mom.
MR: No problem!
JF: Thank you. I need a groovy Mother’s Day gift. Are you enjoying LA?
MR: Well I sure am enjoying the weather. Certainly compared to what I hear about the weather there. What’s it like today?
JF: it’s the first day it’s been over 30 degrees in, like, a year.
MR: Yeah. You know, when I hear about that I don’t feel so sulky about being in Los Angeles.
JF: Copy that. This is first year that Winter really got to me in my bones. I need to go where it’s warm. I need to follow my ancestral programming and just, I don’t know…go to Boca.
MR: (Laughter)
JF: Summers in the Catskills. Winters in Boca.
MR: Ah! The Catskills! That’s the place to be during the summers, isn’t it.
JF: Oh, it is so magnificent there.
MR: I miss it! I haven’t been since we had Thanksgiving up there. Have I?
JF: Nope. That was it. And I have to say, Bovina has really turned into the “it” town upstate. The photographer Kathy Lo took some genius pictures up there that are part in this article and I think you will find them… well, lets just say I think you will enjoy them.
MR: Oh, I’m sure. What a lovely place you found up there.
JF: I am super lucky. And now it seems that all the kids are going there.
MR: I know, I know.
JF: Our friend Kenny (Mellman of Our Hit Parade and Kiki & Herb) visited and wrote a piece for some popular food blog about Bee’s amazing breakfast sandwiches at Russels General Store there and suddenly people were coming from hundreds of miles away for bacon, egg and cheese on a roll.
MR: Wow.
JF: Yeah. It’s attracted — almost by accident — an amazing group of creative people. Mostly because it’s affordable and beautiful. It’s like the East Village of the upstate, but with no “scene” at all. Well, you remember. Its heaven. It’s where I plan to die. Next week.
MR: Oh now. Let’s not talk about that! This is hardly the time to die! You have so many exciting things going on right now!
JF: You are correct. 2009 was a long hard slog and now 2010 is starting to deliver, so you’re right.
MR: Well, I can’t wait to hear your music. Are you going to send me an advance copy?
JF: Absolutely. Autographed.
MR: Are you coming out here?
JF: I have some plans in the works to promote the CD. But if I come out there to sing, you know you’re singing with me.
MR: (Laughter) But of course! How could I not?
JF: Because I don’t know if the world knows enough yet what a great singer you are.
MR: Aw.

JF: Are you gigging in LA?
MR: I am! And I’ve got plans to start recording my new album when the book tour is over.
JF: You are? Who’s producing it?!
MR: Peter.
JF: Well, I’m jealous.
MR: (Laughing) You can’t be jealous! You have all this other stuff going on! You can’t be jealous!
JF: Well. Ok. But I am. Where are you gigging?
MR: There are a couple of places around LA. But did you hear that the Jazz Bakery closed?
JF: No. What a bummer!

MR: Yeah. It was THE place where real musicians played and now it’s closed.
JF: That’s because nobody leaves their house anymore.
MR: I know. It’s true.
JF: We should have been around 40 or 50 years ago when nightclubs were where people went.
MR: Yeah. And we could take cable cars to get there!
JF: Horse and buggy!
MR: Yeah!

JF: In the future, we’re going to be performing from our living rooms for other people who are watching us on flat screen TVs in their living rooms.
MR: It’s hard to go out! LA is so big and if you want a couple drinks, you know… the last thing I want is my mugshot paltered all over the internet. You end up having to take a designated driver everywhere. It’s not like that in New York.
JF: Yeah. You’re all floating around in your own little bubbles out there.
MR: Our own little hybrid bubbles.
JF: Ah. Yes. Well, don’t step too hard on the gas pedal…
MR: I know, right? Recall!
JF: Yikes. You be careful!
MR: I will. I will.
JF: Okay. Well, I will see you soon! Either here or there.

Designed by David Covell

Julian Fleisher’s Guilty Pleasures
The 92nd St Y Podcast
The Drag Quees of New York
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