Interview: Lance Hoppen of Orleans By: Dick Beach

Interview: Lance Hoppen (Orleans)
By: Dick Beach

Photography: Ash Newell

ORLEANS and AZTEC TWO-STEP at The Cohoes Music Hall Friday Sept 13th 7:30pm 

Purchase Tickets HERE!

RRX: I am happy to welcome Lance Hoppen of the band Orleans to spend a little time speaking to us here at RadioRadioX about the band and about how things are.

LH: Indeed, and I am here to answer questions, I may even know the answers.
(Both Laugh)

RRX: To say the band has been through some changes is to put it mildly. I’d say Orleans has been a rags to riches to rags to a good thing story. How would you describe the entire journey, without going into too much detail necessarily about bits and pieces?

LH: Your estimation is not that far off. It’s been a few reasons… climbs and disappointments, causing break-ups. And then, trying it again and liking it and going for a while until it’s no fun anymore. Then putting it away, so on and so forth and that cycle has been about a ten-year cycle. We broke up in ’77, got back in ’90, broke -up in ’97 and then got back in 2000… ya know? Like that! It’s a phoenix chameleon, in terms of that the coming and going, it’s also been a chameleon in terms of roster. As we started the original four, including me… when you think about recording… all of the versions have been led by at least two and usually three of us since the original break up. The band is not the 70’s band nor the 80’s nor the 90s. All of them had the same thread running through. The guitars, the vocals, the arrangements, those kinds of things. In this version that I have now, this quintet I’m very proud of. It’s really strong. That’s where we are today.

RRX: Do you think there might be some new Orleans music coming out with this lineup?

LH: You know? It’s been threatened, I’ll put it that way.

RRX: (Laughs) What’s the old phrase “don’t threaten me with a good time?”

LH: Yeah, a little framing of that. Just prior to Covid, John (Hall) had left the band at that point and then he came back just in time for Covid. So, there weren’t any gigs to do. We started doing some recording remotely. Each of us learning how to do that from our own home, both audio and video. We did some YouTube productions that year, four of them actually. Then we thought, maybe we should use this stuff and make our 50th year anniversary album? Well, that was a good idea but it was usurped by what came to be a better idea which was to make a holiday/Christmas type album. Because that had a more defined deadline. We produced a CD called “New Star Shining,” which I’m really quite proud of. Twelve songs centered around the holiday theme. And we have in the can a bunch of stuff that we’ve never finished for that mythical 50th Anniversary CD. To answer your question, yeah there’s a possibility but I wouldn’t hold my breath.

RRX: I will admit along with a number of guilty pleasures, I have a guilty pleasure for Sirius XM’s Yacht Rock. I hate to admit it but I do. Do you find that moniker and the fact that at this stage you are kind of presented as that by many people… is it a blessing or a curse?

LH: You know, we fall in that category at least tangentially not directly in the center. It’s been good in terms of doing package tours with other acts. It’s not a bad thing. Yacht Rock to me, right down the center would be something like Hall and Oates or the Doobies with Michael McDonald era. That kind of stuff. Player, those kind of bands.

RRX: Your Mom and Dad were musicians, which I find is kind of a thread with folks that I’ve interviewed over time. As I read “they went back out gigging at 70!”, did you think you were still going to be gigging at 70?

LH: I’ve never heard the question quite put that way. Yeah, I imagined for myself that this would be what I would be doing until I couldn’t do it anymore. There was a middle ground… you said rags to riches to rags, yeah… the 80’s were really not friendly to Orleans or to me. I’ve had other jobs and other ways of making ends meet for my family. But once we hit the mid 90’s or so, things perked up quite a bit with what I’ve been doing without having to do anything else. My aspiration always from being a kid was not fame and fortune but just to be a working professional musician and hopefully to do it with my older brother Larry; who was inspiring and scary at the same time.

RRX: How scary?

LH: Because he was just so prodigious, he could play whatever he picked up. He played ukulele and then it was guitar, then piano, then organ, then bass and this and that. And trumpet he was trained on. Nobody knew he had that voice until he came home from his first semester at college. Until then I was the fair-haired lad with the nice falsetto.

RRX: How many dates do you still have this year? And hopefully you’ll get back in this neck of the woods. How often do you come east?

LH: So, we don’t really tour, we do one-offs and two or maybe even three in a row. This has been a lean year, frankly, it’s been a little lighter than it has been. A pretty normal year for us recently, it’s been about three dozen gigs. They’re scattered throughout the year and you know? That’s fine. If we did fifty, I would be maxed out. I can’t be doing more than that. You have to stay ahead of the curve and that’s the job of management and the agency, it’s not my job to book the gigs. My job is to play the gigs, right?

RRX: Yeah, exactly.

LH: Besides that I, and everybody in this band have a lot of other things to do. My younger brother Lane is in the Orlando area; he’s the workingest guy I know, he’s got all kinds of gigs in Florida, from duos to big-band to whatever. And my other thing along with Lane is not Orleans, it’s a band of basically world-class ringers that I inherited the leadership from Larry. It was Larry’s project and when he passed our main client came to me and asked if I could be the band leader. What that band does is back up anybody you can think of. Over the past decade plus we’ve done 120 name acts, everybody from Joe Elliott of Def Leppard to The Four Tops. To Richard Marx to RUN DMC to… I mean you name it

RRX: Sounds like you’re the spearhead of what I’d call the modern-day Wrecking Crew.

LH: (Laughs) I don’t know about that. The band I’m talking about, everybody is a better player than me. But I have the organizational skills to let them do what they do so well. It’s ongoing but it’s not Orleans, the two things work side by side very well and will continue to do so for the next few years as far as I can tell.

RRX: It takes us all, I suppose, to finally hit a groove that works. You know? A groove that’s comfortable, that makes you happy doing it and makes folks like us happy to be able to see you and enjoy the music live. Which is always the best way. It’s a good thing, I guess.

LH: Yeah, it is. I found my niche in this live performance realm. I’ve written quality songs, I’m sure solo and co-writes but it’s never made me any money for one thing. Even though it’s been a creative success, it’s time consuming and frustrating and it’s not my first love… writing. Where I found that I could really do well is as a band leader and lead these teams… others that you talk about that are similar and different but that’s where I always find myself. This particular quintet I have to say are really good. People are going to enjoy what they came to see. I’m sure. You probably are aware that we got a sudden call that brought us up to do the Albany July 4th show.

RRX: Yes, I did.

LH: Bruce Hornsby had to bail and ya know? Two days’ notice we put the logistics together to be able to come up and do that

RRX: Thanks very much for your time. Much appreciated.

LH: You’re very welcome, thanks for having me.