Boy Meets Girl: “We got here up with the music How Will I Know however Janet Jackson handed on it.” Photograph: Tia Gavin
We get to know George Merrill and Shannon Rubicam, the American pop-songwriting duo behind two of Whitney Houston’s greatest hits
Originally a Seattle band, singer Shannon Rubicam and keyboardist and vocalist George Merrill first met at a marriage at which the 2 had been each employed to carry out, earlier than getting married themselves and forming Boy Meets Girl. After shifting to Los Angeles, the duo launched eponymous 1985 debut featured the only Oh Girl, but it surely was their penning of two hits for Whitney Houston – How Will I Know and I Wanna Dance With Any individual (Who Loves Me) – that established them as one of the crucial wanted songwriting duos of the 80s and 90s.
In 1988, the pair launched their second album, Reel Life, with the hit single, Ready For A Star To Fall, that reached the Prime 5 within the US and topped charts all through Europe and Canada. Within the 90s, Shannon and George continued to work as songwriters for different artists together with woman and boy bands within the UK, attaining two Prime 10 hits with OTT and Girlthing. Then, in 2002, they revived Boy Meets Girl with the self-released album, The Wonderground, however then went comparatively quiet…till now.
Because the duo return with the 5 EP – their first new music launch in additional than 18 years – we took the chance to talk with them each on a Zoom name, to mirror on the early days and the invaluable classes they discovered alongside the way in which…
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How did the 2 of you begin writing collectively?
Shannon Rubicam: “I auditioned for a duo that George was part of way back (in 1970-something) and I used to be accepted into the group. They wished to have a 3rd concord and I’m all about harmonies, I like them. We toured across the West Coast Seattle space, enjoying golf equipment, enjoying a few of her personal songs and the same old cowl songs. After which we had been down in Southern California, at a rental home as a result of we had a string of gigs. George had sat down on the piano, in the lounge – which is about the one furnishings we had. He began enjoying and it simply delivered to thoughts a set of lyrics – I simply began writing from stream of consciousness. It was such a seamless writing session actually wasn’t even a session, it was spontaneous. And I believe that was actually the beginning of us going, ‘Wow, we truly can write collectively and that is mine!’”
George Merrill: “I had been writing for fairly a while. I’d written with my associate within the band referred to as Sparrow, and so David and I solely knew tips on how to write collectively. However then Shannon dropped this stunning web page of lyrics down and it simply held collectively so fantastically. I may simply see how the music was going to go to it. It was apparent and it was so easy. It was such a superb change, proper off the bat, and it’s becoming and prophetic that it was the primary one.”
The place did it go from there? When did you begin writing for the concord group? Had you began writing for anybody else at that stage?
GM: “This was the early days, Shannon and I shortly grew out of that union and went off on our personal as a duo. We performed golf equipment for just a little bit longer, however then discovered that it was getting in the way in which of our writing. Then she took a job as a housekeeper and I took a job as a janitor for a few yr. The 2 of us got here again and wrote songs and barely slept. That was once we actually studied the craft and wrote some actually good songs.”
SR: “We finally signed with Thom Bell’s publishing [Bellboy Music] in Seattle. He was attempting to start out an organization there and have his personal scene away from his earlier Philly sound that he’d been related to. Then we ended up shifting to Los Angeles and despatched our demos round, and had been hoping to get a file deal. However we ended up first getting a publishing contract, which segued right into a recording contract.”
GM: “After we had been with Bellboy, Thom signed us to his publishing firm, we had a canopy with Phyllis Hyman and I believe that was our first – it was a music referred to as Your Transfer, My Coronary heart. I don’t assume it was ever successful or something like that, but it surely was a giant second for us.”
Boy Meets Girl: “You must be prepared. You must have executed your work as a author, to develop the instruments.” Photograph: Tia Gavin
Have been you modelling your ambitions on any type of duo or songwriting partnership at the moment pondering?
SR: “Not initially, however in fact, then we turned conscious of Buckingham Nicks.”
GM: “Yeah, they’ve this floor lined fairly properly. All alongside we had aspirations of getting a band, you recognize, being not simply songwriters. However, in actual fact, the entire notion of being songwriters-for-hire was nonetheless… Despite the fact that we had the success with Phyllis, I don’t assume we’d fairly embraced the concept of writing for rent. Then we received signed to A&M Information, which was our first file cope with Boy Meets Girl, and a part of the contract was that they signed our publishing.
“So then we had been a part of Almo/Irving Music. We had an workplace and we had just a little tape recorder, and we’d go in and had been hanging out with Paul Williams and all these great writers. These had been heady days however I believe we began to grasp the construction of it, and it was round that point that we had been requested to write down for Janet Jackson. We got here up with the music How Will I Know however Janet handed on it.
SR: “So it received handed on to Whitney Houston’s individuals – Clive [Davis] and Gerry Griffith – and that was simply actually an excellent stroke of luck.”
It’s clear that you simply had been in the suitable place on the proper time to have that chance, however you then needed to have the power to reap the benefits of that chance, proper?
GM: “Yeah, it’s important to be prepared. You must have executed your work as a author, to develop the instruments. I positively agree with that.”
SR: “And again then we had been prepared. However there weren’t the social media alternatives that there at the moment are, so it was most likely much more luck than since you didn’t have any option to present your self, besides by your persistent efforts and being ready.”
GM: “It was partly luck. But it surely was dogged persistence.”
What recommendation would you give to someone who’s attempting to make it as a songwriter now? How do you be sure you’re prepared?
GM: “Properly, I’d say one of many greatest issues is to develop your craft. In case you’re musically inclined, to have the ability to form of whip one thing up. And mixing these issues, having the ability to have a depth of understanding of music – to get a robust overview of what’s potential. So while you go right into a room, you’re prepared for the sudden. Then I’d say the opposite factor is: be keen to pay attention, as a result of issues may go a approach that you simply hadn’t anticipated and, when you go in with a inflexible perspective, you’ll miss it.”
SR: “I completely agree with that. Yeah, embrace regardless of the alternative is. We didn’t need to know tips on how to do it, we simply needed to say sure after which give it a shot. So I’d say that additionally give it a strive.”
What recommendation would you provide to budding songwriters who could be scuffling with author’s block? Do you undergo any rituals or observe a course of to get issues going once more?
GM: “There are all method of situations that we discover ourselves in and typically it’s simply, ‘Let’s simply write a music, bang!’ However typically when you have got these moments the place you’re stumped, otherwise you’re feeling pressured indirectly, I’d say the very first thing you do is alleviate the strain – go for a stroll, go get a meal collectively, go to a film, go and do one thing sudden. Take your self out of that place, bodily. Take your self out of that and find yourself in a complete totally different scenario, have a life second. And out of that second will come the music.”
How about for people who find themselves in lockdown and may’t go to the cinema or meet with pals? In that situation, is there any approach you might replicate that change of atmosphere?
GM: “Yeah, it’s arduous, however the primary crux of what I’m saying is that you simply simply have to interrupt. Go for a stroll, I’d say that’s most likely the simplest factor. Discover an out of doors place that you may go and spend a while – really feel the wind in your hair. There are issues that occur while you bodily shift out of that place that you simply had been feeling confined.”
Boy Meets Girl: “Movement actually shakes you up and adjustments your brainwaves…And typically, as a result of I’m fortunate and have a airplane, I simply go fly!” Photograph: Tia Gavin
How about you Shannon, do you have got a unique strategy?
SR: “I do. I believe the good factor about creating something, is that you simply get to succeed in as deeply as you wish to inside your self, and convey one thing up. It’s all your personal perspective, your personal emotional terrain. And it’s sure to be relatable if it’s actual to you. So I’d say attain deeply. Then while you get caught, what I like to do – and it’s particularly COVID-friendly – is crank up the music and have a dance session within the kitchen! Fling your limbs round!
“Like George was saying, there’s one thing about movement, so I like going for a drive within the automobile, simply trying on the panorama as a result of I occur to be in an space the place the panorama is gorgeous. Movement actually shakes you up and adjustments your brainwaves, I’m fairly certain of that. And typically, as a result of I’m fortunate and have a airplane, I simply go fly!
“Additionally, I’ve by no means executed this, actually, but it surely strikes me that it’s one thing you might do, as a result of it’s form of an excessive world now: you might consider essentially the most uncensored factor that you might conjure up and simply begin writing about it. It could release a lot inside you. Then you’ll be able to decide and select what you want to observe up.”
That’s nice. Now, let’s discuss in regards to the new EP, 5. How did that come collectively?
SR: “We began writing Extra Deeply (In Love With You) and instantly recognised that it gave the impression of classic Boy Meets Girl. George was experimenting with some sounds and synth issues and drum figures, and issues to modernize it just a little, however we did acknowledge that it was actually a throwback type of classic sound for us.”
GM: “I believe the bottom had been tilled with The Wonderground album. The 2 of us had written since then, however this was pre-COVID – we couldn’t think about you know the way which may have been who is aware of what’s gonna occur musically you recognize. We’d gotten ourselves to a degree of being grateful, we felt gentle of spirit, so I believe it actually began popping out in the whole lot we had been beginning to write. I’m pondering of a few of the ‘music begins’ we had from that point – that in some unspecified time in the future we’re gonna most likely develop – that didn’t find yourself on the 5. We had been already setting the stage, you recognize, tilling the soil for the songs.”
However The Wonderland was launched approach again in 2003. You’ve each clearly saved busy within the years since, however why has the EP emerged now?
SR: “We had been writing songs, we did a short venture with Thom Bell and it didn’t find yourself going wherever. We’ve been writing but it surely’s been sporadic. I lived in Southern California, whereas George lived up right here in Northern California for fairly a very long time, then I moved up. So a part of it was proximity, which made it simpler to be extra spontaneous – we actually experimented. We weren’t very fired as much as experiment with web writing.
“A number of it’s like what George was saying, you recognize, we reached some extent of lightness. And I suppose it simply takes some time, the journey of relationship, turning into snug with the friendship between George and myself, and understanding that our spouses are snug with it as properly. I believe it made it simpler to get collectively and write, do the vocals, lay the tracks down – it’s intimate work in some ways as a result of it’s personally expressive work. And I believe we simply reached that time the place it turned enjoyable once more.
So somewhat than being contractually obliged or duty-bound to create an album collectively, you’ve naturally come again collectively since you wish to, and that’s inspiring?
SR: “We simply craved it, yeah. To get within the studio as a result of we’re studio rats and we simply adore it, it’s simply so thrilling. Since you’re a songwriter, while you get onto a good suggestion you simply wish to end it.”
GM: “We had had such a superb expertise with The Wonderground, recording-wise. It was a transitional album for us, personally, however once we appeared again at it after it was executed we had been very pleased with what we’d executed, sonically. So I believe that there was a curiosity for each of us – it’s like, ‘What follows The Wonderground?’”
Boy Meets Girl’s new EP 5 is out now. Discover out extra at boymeetsgirlmusic.com
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