INTERVIEW: Kyle Riabko on Close To You

Kyle Riabko in Close To You. Photo: Johan Persson Kyle Riabko spent his teen years touring as a support act for artists like BB King, James Brown and Jason Mraz before appearing on Broadway in shows like Hair and Spring Awakening. Kyle is the musical visionary and lead performer behind Close To You – Bacharach Reimagined, a new production that features fresh, yet faithful re-interpretations of classic Bacharach songs. Douglas Mayo spoke to Kyle this week, just as the show began previews at London’s Criterion Theatre. How did Close To You come about as a project? I was lucky enough to meet Burt in a recording studio in Los Angeles. I had been asked to come by to sing on some demos for some new music he was writing. It was a very exciting thing to be asked to do. When I got there, (not to be too cheesy), it was sort of a magical moment and we sort of bonded on a musical level. I just realised this wasn’t something that I wanted to let go of, so I forged a friendship. I had invited my friend and manager to the studio that day and he said to Burt “wouldn’t it be interesting to hear Kyle approach your classic songs like A House Is Not A Home" and Burt said “Yeah! I’d love to hear him sing Alfie!”. That was the beginning of the whole project. I just took it very seriously and went home and started working on it, and to cut a long story short, here we are. How long did it take to formulate the show? It took about a year to formulate the arrangement and a big part of that process was going to Burt’s house and playing the music to get his approval. It was the most nerve-wracking thing you could ever do.

I felt kind of bold and good about things, and so off I went to Burt’s house to play him some music. When I got there I’m in his music room and I’m about to press play on this boom box, and I realise what I’m doing all of a sudden. I’m in a legend’s house and I’m just about to press play on a tape of me singing his music for him. My palms became the sweatiest they’ve ever been. What was amazing was that he understood what I was trying to do. When he listed his head and said “Good Kyle”, that was probably the greatest moment of my life.

That’s how the project began, it was a back and forth process with Burt and describing to him what I really wanted to do. What I wanted was to be entirely faithful to the content of the songs and his work, but to play it from the perspective of a younger person. So that those who have grown up with Burt’s music can celebrate it again and those who don’t know it so well can discover it.

When you say reimagined, what should audiences expect?

The way that it is sort of different is that I took the entire catalogue of Burt’s music and tried to find the way to piece it all together, or a good lot of it together into a non-stop musical experience.

You don’t sit down and here an entire song with applause followed by another song with applause. It’s sort of an orchestral mash-up of a lot of his music. What’s reimagined about it is that I grew up with a lot of musical influences than Burt did, obviously, for me it was Sam Cook, BB King and James Brown, artists that were more based in the world of Blues. Burt’s music doesn’t tend to edge into that world. When I was approaching a song like Don’t Make Me Over for example, my first instinct is to pick up a guitar and play it sort of like a blues person would, the goal was to do that whilst maintaining the truth of the songs. How many songs are featured in Close To You? There are pieces of, or entirely 35 songs in the show. It was a combination of which songs couldn’t be denied to the audience like Walk On By, or Say A Little Prayer, the songs that are quintessentially Burt Bacharach tunes. Then on another level, what songs are personally attractive to me?. We ended up finding songs like a song from the soundtrack of a film called Lost Horizons called I Come To You, that Burt and Hal David wrote. It has a beautiful melody, and I thought this would be an amazing thing to introduce to an audience. When I went to Burt to see if he thought it was suitable and sung it for him and he looked at me and said “Sounds really good, who wrote it?” (laughs), and I said “Well, you did Sir!”.

It wasn’t easy to take his entire catalogue and make one statement out of it but we tried our best. It was a process of thinking about the songs from their emotional content outwards.

You opened at the New York Theatre Workshop and the show went on to be the longest-running show ever staged there. Did you have any inkling you might have a hit on your hands?

It wasn’t expected. I didn’t know whether anyone would like it. It was a really cool experience to see how people would respond to the show. What became really clear is that so many people have a personal connection to Burt’s music.

Also it was the theatre where Rent and Once were created, and a big part of the success came down to Steven Hoggett who took the concept that I came up with musically and he was able to match that from a visual perspective. We didn’t want to take things too literally. It would have been quite easy to stage Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head, with singers standing on stage with umbrellas, we didn’t want that. Steven’s work is a lot more evocative than it is literal. How long with the London season run?

We started performances last Saturday and it’s working really well at the Criterion. Our aim is just to make it the best show as we can, and we will see what happens.

What’s in your future after Close To You? I’m always thinking about different projects. What I realised during this process is that I like being involved in creating projects. I’ve had a couple of ideas for original pieces for the theatre that I’m writing. I’m also always thinking about a solo music career but at the moment I’m focused on Close To You. After that I’ll always be playing music. Book Tickets To Close To You at the Criterion Theatre