Today we’d like to introduce you to Clyde Childrezz and Albert Hobson. They and their team shared their story with us below:
Al began Playing bass at the age of thirteen and recorded on his first record at sixteen. After working with many local bands, Al landed a gig with Seattle songwriter Steve Bensusen. The Bensusen group became the backup band for then up-and-coming saxophonist Kenny Gorlic, A.K.A. Kenny G. While working with another local band in 1980, Al was introduced to guitarist Clyde Childress and over the next few years, they toured the U.S., Canada and Asia. From 1988 thru 1996, Al toured and recorded with Mr. Clean and produced a record for the group called Making It a Better Day. In 2000 Al and Clyde reunited in the Bay Area and immediately started recording and producing their own music.
Al has studied with Music Educator Dale Titus and is currently a student of world-renowned Bassist Kai Eckhardt’s Time Engine School of Music.
Clyde Childress (Childrezz)
My earliest memories of music was my older sister, who played classical and later gospel music on the piano, and my older brother, who messed around on a bass and amp he had purchased in one of those mail-order catalogs and who would bring home an eclectic mix of jazz, a diverse list of composers from Antonio Carlos Jobim, to Frank Zappa, and The Jazz Crusaders who stick out in my mind, (The Freedom Song !) and of course, a mixture of 60’s R & B like James Brown and assorted rock & roll hits from that period. Born and raised in Seattle. In my early years, I was attracted to rock guitar players of the day, i.e., Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, Black Sabbath, and had an odd attraction to 70’s rebellious shock rockers like Alice Cooper and The Spiders from Mars Era guitarist Mick Bronson (David Bowie). I also was a big fan of ” The Mothers Of Invention” and Captain BeefHeart from the Zappa camp. I was all over the map! I loved the way the music made me feel! Naturally, I picked up a guitar at around 13 and attended Hendrix’s last concert in August 1970 at the old Sick’s Stadium in Seattle! Playing guitar helped me to cope with teenage issues subtle racism, yes in Seattle, and feeling uncomfortable with myself as I searched for my way to fit in. I began playing in clubs at 15 or 16 years old and hung out with older musicians and because of that, at times, I was introduced to some bad habits along the way.
In my early twenties, I met Albert. Seattle had a circle of musicians that we both knew and met and played in some cover bands touring in Canada, our neighbors to the north. I think for me the highlight of that time was participating in a group that traveled overseas for a Far East military tour to bases in Korea, Japan, Philippines, Okinawa, and a little tiny tiny island in the Indian Ocean called Diego Garcia. I remember this was all made possible by a little small-time agency and a small-time booking agent who will remain anonymous who was always sending us to little out-of-the-way places where most residents had never seen a person of color much less a whole group of us wearing spandex dyed hair, and playing Billy Idol and Quiet Riot! This was always met after by Mr. Small time, promises that we would be elevated to “A” rooms and much more money! Which never happened. Throughout this period of 2 -3 years Al and I became tired of the endless touring and always coming back pretty much broke. We vowed to each other that we one day we would start our own band. I remember during the late 80’s us both never losing contact but figuring before we get swallowed up in the abyss of chemicals and tragedies that we both saw coming it was time to leave Seattle, both on different trains. It was the late 80′ s and I needed to leave my hometown and decided to join a group that currently residing in all places, Montana. Didn’t really know this group of musicians, trouble was I brought with myself a few bad habits and resentments along with me seeing so far how my life and music playing had turned out.
After landing there and spending a few months playing in obscurity in bars and Native American Reservations in Montana, one of the guys in the band’s dad lived in LA and had played with a multiple platinum Grammy-winning group and was well known. Wow, this group when I was in high school in the mid 70’s was one of my favorite groups! It was now LA or bust! I was excited to finally get to the City of Angels or more specifically, San Fernando Valley. Thus began, I thought, my lifelong dream of making it! Nice house, gold and platinum records on the wall. Wow, I had arrived! I even at this point quit drinking, though I did enjoy the smoking of herb on occasion. This was around late “88”. All three of us and one of the guy’s sister put an original group project together, with various other musicians and Mr. Dad coming and going during the next two years. We recorded I felt some great tracks. But no deal ever materialized for a number of reasons I won’t go into. I learned a lot about life, the music world was able to further my guitar education by taking lessons from a world-renowned guitar player, meet other famous and well-connected people in the business but things didn’t work out. In the end, I started turning back to my old friend Mr. Alcohol a few weeks before I left for destination, Bay Area. I had contacted an old musician friend I grew up with in Seattle a couple of months before I left. He assured me he was doing great and was continuing to work on original music, as I had always known him to do. He also had gotten married and had a family.
As I remembered, his only vice was smoking weed then always had a keyboard handy to jam. Alright, great! Long story short, one day my friend had “disappeared” early on after I had arrived. His wife commenced to telling me a story about how my long-time friend/musician had started smoking “crack” and would go on these extended runs sometimes for a couple of days. I was in somewhat of a shock, I didn’t know anybody in the area, and a lot of people back home in Seattle had heard I was doing well in LA with good company. I had fallen off the wagon again and here I was still having thoughts and some kind of feeling about my Southland experience and here I was in a new area with a friend I didn’t know anymore. For the next five years, I lived in Oakland playing music sporadically and trying to survive living with a girlfriend and working temporary jobs and gigs here and there. I was self-medicating and bitter about how my dream of music had faded and in a moment of clarity, I realized it had not been the music but the lifestyle I had adopted. In 1994, I entered in a rehab Center spearheaded by my job at the time, it was that or get fired. During those years, my brain was constantly coming up with music. I would record bits and pieces of it, but being in the shape I was that was all I could do at the time. I called my friend Albert a couple of times in that period, he was busy working in a group staying busy. He had not returned to our home of Seattle either.
After I began feeling better after staying sober with support, one of my sober mates in this clean and sober house I lived in let me borrow a four-track one day. It felt like a magical tool! All these musical ideas I had I recorded! It was by today’s standards a primitive setup by I was overjoyed. When I went to a seminar for an event showcasing some recording and editing in “99” I became obsessed with learning how to run the software on a computer. I prayed that if I could have one person here from Seattle, it would be Albert. About a year later, out of the blue I received a call, it was him and he said he had gotten divorced along with some other life problems and had come down to California to start over. He wanted to know where I lived in California. It turns out he was maybe fifteen miles north of where I lived with my girlfriend. He told me later when he first seen me that he could see a totally new Clyde from what he could remember. He then saw the computer set up and asked, “Can this Thing make records? Indeed it can my friend” We have been recording our brand of music ever since “2000.” I have been knowing brother Al for 43 years and making the best music of our lives!
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
ALBERT My biggest obstacle along the way has been raising my children. I gave up touring with bands in 1998 to focus on giving my children a stable environment. While working a day job to support them, I continued to Write and produce music with Clyde. I also played corporate gigs and earned an Associate’s Degree from Chabot College during this time.
Clyde
The way I think can be challenging. I saw a car in Berkeley with a bumper sticker it said, “Don’t believe everything you think. It is important for me to have close friends like Albert so I can pause and ask, “What do you think about this ?” I am a parent and after your kids are grown, I can see some of the mistakes they may make, but all I can do is make suggestions. It’s up to them to accept advice or not. That’s hard, I wish they would just take my suggestions.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
Albert
I’m a Bassist songwriter and producer. My specialty is being a Professional Bassist. I’m most proud of being able to maintain my own sound and style as a Bassist and songwriter; something hard to do with so much repetitive information at our fingertips.
Clyde
Songwriter, Guitarist, Sound Designer
We love surprises, fun facts and unexpected stories. Is there something you can share that might surprise us?
Al
I started playing bass at when I was Thirteen. My early influences were Bootsy Collins, Larry Graham and Bernard Edwards of the supergroup Chic; I remember listening to their records and practicing all day. I would often skip school just to sit and practice all day, this was not uncommon living in rainy Seattle. By the time I entered ninth grade, I had become good enough to play in the R&B Stage Band under Professor Ray Baldwin. I remember Mr. Baldwin being hip and cool because he was twenty-five years old and played trumpet for the hottest band in Seattle at the time called Elbowed Out. So, for the next four years, I would develop my skills and end up being sought after by local musicians. I met a guitar player by the name of Gary Hendrix who was first cousin to The Famous Guitarist Jimi Hendrix. He auditioned me for his band and I got the gig. Gary wanted to add an additional guitar player to play lead and solo parts while he sang; he kept saying if I can just get Clyde. One day the mysterious Clyde showed up and blew us away, I was especially interested in his equipment. From that day we hit it off and became friends, I was Seventeen and Clyde was Twenty-Three.
Around the same time, I was gigging with another group lead by local Songwriter Steve Bensusen. Steve was good friends with a local Saxophonist by the name of Kenny Gorelick AKA Kenny G. Kenny ended up going on tour with Recording artist Jef Loerber. When they finished the tour in 1981, Kenny came back to Seattle and asked us -the Bensusen Band – to back him up. We played a bunch of local shows but the one that stands out is the night Jeff Loerber showed up and brought a music mogul with him. This was the showcase gig that got Kenny Signed to Arista Records. Once Kenny was signed by the label, he was appointed studio cats out of L.A. so we never heard from him after that; the cold reality of the music business.
In 1984 I was now Twenty-one and still working with Gary and Clyde who had now merged with some other musicians forming the group Cross Walk which landed us overseas doing a DOD (Department of Defense) tour. We toured Korea Japan and the Philippines. By 1986 we were all going in different directions which lead me to take a gig with a band called The Tools and relocate to the Tri-Cities of Washington.
In 1988 I got a call to play with a group called Mr. Clean named after the buffed bald-headed leader of the group. I spent ten years in the group and during this time, Studied Music Extensively got married and had children. In 1998 I had reached my mid-thirties and realized my kids needed insurance and a stable financial life so I made the decision to leave the band and stop traveling.
I started looking for a job but had no job experience so I took a job as a Huffy Technician, how humiliating I was now building bikes for a living but it didn’t matter because I was on a mission to make sure my kids had a better upbringing than I had. After a few months of building bikes, I found a job in the newspaper that said Safety Kleen great pay benefits and family oriented; my first thought was I’d rather clean carpets than build bikes. Turned out it was an environmental company that was worldwide. I was hired August 8th, 1998 by Steve Oss Who because of my lack of job experience and miss spelling words on my application decided he needed to give me an aptitude test. I passed it and we immediately went out and he started training me.
In 1999 my wife who suffered from Bipolar Manic Depression, took my kids from the Tri-Cities of Washington where we were living to Fairfield, California. I stayed and worked for six months but management knew I was missing my kids so they put me down for transfer to California. In May of 2000, I drove to California and brought all the belongings that were left behind and dropped them off to my soon-to-be ex-wife. Clyde and I had kept in touch over the past several years so I knew he was somewhere in California. After a few days of trying to find places to crash, I called Clyde and told him I was in California. When I told him where I was he said “You’re only fifteen miles away from me”, what a coincidence. I immediately drove to his place in El Cerrito and we started writing music together. I was once again blown away by Clydes tech savvy Computer skills. I remember asking him, can we make records with this thing? For the last twenty-three years, we have written Arranged and Produced our own music.
The most surprising thing about myself?
I’ve raised my children, maintained a job in the environmental field and earned an Associate’s Degree. All while continuing to persevere as a Recording Artist and Freelance Bassist who studies with the World Renowned Bassist Kai Eckhardt.
Clyde
What has been and still is surprising about myself is how I’ve supported myself outside of being an artist. For the last 25 years, I have worked in the capacity as a Substance Abuse Counselor, Homeless Advocate, Harm Reduction HIV/Aids Case Manager and Mental Health facilitator & Counselor. In my current position, I provide Music Therapy to the mentally challenged which has been quite rewarding to watch clients transform In a good way while listening to music with most of the time just a guitar. This experience has been humbling and a way for me to give back, working in the Non-Profit arena for the most part with this population. What also has surprised me more importantly is I had never really focused on a 9-5 career I always thought it would be about music. But then along this road traveled, the people I have met it has affected me musically and what I learned from people has brought me to a much better place than I would have ever been without this particular path.
Contact Info:
- Website: docalmistaclyde.com
- Facebook: Albert Hopson Clyde Childrezz
- Youtube: DocAl&MistaClyde
Image Credits
JP Castillones
