Technology
New faces but a familiar sound play with Foreigner in Kelowna
The École Kelowna Secondary School choir will be the focal point of what is expected to be a highlight of the upcoming Foreigner concert at Prospera Place on Nov. 7.
The choir will be escorted on stage to back up the band for their performance of I Want To Know What Love Is, Foreigner’s biggest-selling single.
Michael Bluestein, keyboard player for Foreigner, said it is a highlight moment of the show, as the band recruits a local choir to perform the backup singing role at every venue on their concert dates.
“A crew member looks after all that. They are ushered on stage, told where to stand, and they rehearse their part in advance to be ready for the concert,” Bluestein said.
“It is amazing to see as the kids are so into it, smiling, beaming and really excited to be part of the song performance.”
When the announcement of the KSS choir was made earlier this month, KSS teacher Sheila French said, “I know it will change their lives. And I know that they’re going to love it…absolutely everybody should be in a choir.”
KSS choir member Thomas Abresch called it a dream come true, saying he really loves ‘80s music and was a big fan of Foreigner in particular.
“I’m really excited. I think my dad is super-pumped, this is definitely his jam, and it’s my jam, too.”
Those comments come as literal music to the ears of Bluestein, a long-time musician who has found a musical home touring with Foreigner dating back to 2009.
Bluestein grew up in the Boston area with a dream of becoming a musician.
He started taking classical piano lessons at age nine and pursued his interest in pop, jazz and soul music, graduating from high school and enrolling at Berklee College of Music, where he further studied jazz piano and composition.
After receiving his Bachelor of Arts in music at Berkley, he moved to San Francisco in 1994, where he became a musician fixture in the Bay Area music scene.
He would record three CDs of his own, play in other jazz bands and earn a living as a music sideman in San Francisco.
But he decided to relocate to Los Angeles in 2003 to seek new opportunities in the music business, playing with bigger-name performers and be part of larger-scale concert tours.
His journey led him to be hired to tour and record with Boz Scaggs in 2003, Anastacia from 2004-06, Enrique Iglesias (2007-08) and Roger Hodgson (2009).
He was given the heads-up about an audition call by Foreigner in search of a keyboard player, and he responded.
“It was not a huge cattle call type of thing…I think there were maybe five or six people who they auditioned, and I got picked to join the band,” he said.
“It’s like everything in life, it’s about one per cent inspiration and 99 per cent perspiration that gets you these opportunities.”
Bluestein recalled that while he was a big fan of Foreigner growing up, he had to practice the music sheets for Foreigner songs and learn the chord progressions.
“I came into the audition and played keyboards for several songs – Feels Like The First Time, Jukebox Hero, I Want To Know What Love Is and Waiting For A Girl Like You, as I remember.
“Growing up, I always liked Foreigner, and the lead singer, Lou Gramm, had an impact on me. Songs like Cold As Ice, Feels Like The First Time and Long, Long Way From Home influenced me in a big way.”
He says keyboards have not always been front and centre in what is largely a guitar-driven rock’n roll sound for Foreigner, but he says many of their songs are still influenced significantly by keyboards.
He says that for him, Jukebox Hero is probably his favourite song to play in concerts because of the keyboard influences in that hit from the Foreigner 4 album.
Like the other members of the current touring rendition of Foreigner, none of the original musicians who formed the band are part of the group.
Foreigner began as a compilation of various musicians who came together to form the group, led by guitarist Mick Jones and keyboardist Al Greenwood in 1976.
Joining them were guitarist Ian McDonald, bass player Ed Gaglardi and drummer Dennis Elliott, with the final piece seeing their search for a lead singer end with discovering Lou Gramm.
The band’s debut album, Foreigner, was released in 1977 and sold five million copies.
Foreigner’s following two albums, Double Vision and Head Games, were released in 1978 and ’79 respectively, both featuring multiple hits.
But after Head Games, the band began to splinter apart as Greenwood and McDonald left the band over musical differences, and Jones began to assert greater control over Foreigner’s musical direction.
Working with legendary producer John “Mutt” Lange, the group’s next album, the biggest-selling of their career, Foreigner 4, was released in 1981.
That would be followed by their next album, Agent Provocateur, in 1984, which featured the hit single I Want to Know What Love Is, the ballad that the KSS choir will sing backup to on Nov. 7.
Guitarist Mick Jones and lead singer Lou Gramm had an acrimonious history at various times throughout their tenure together with the band, with Gramm ultimately leaving the group for good in 2003.
Jones noted that the two parted ways because of a lack of communication. “I think we really tried hard to save it, but it got to the point when we both realized that to go on would be detrimental to both of us,” he said.
But Jones continued to keep the band name alive, recruiting new musicians and eventually finding a new frontman in Kelly Hansen, who joined the group in 2005, and who just recently announced his decision 20 years later to step aside and retire from the music scene.
Meanwhile, Jones, diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, has been unable to continue touring with Foreigner in recent years.
Bluestein said that with Hansen leaving the group, guitarist Luis Maldonado has stepped up to take on the additional role of lead vocalist.
He says while the band has gone through turmoil and changeover since first being formed in 1976, the legacy of their music has continued to endure, and remains as much fun for the band today to perform as it is for the audiences to listen to.
“For many of us, these are songs we grew up listening to,” Bluestein said.
The École Kelowna Secondary School choir will be the focal point of what is expected to be a highlight of the upcoming Foreigner concert at Prospera Place on Nov. 7.
The choir will be escorted on stage to back up the band for their performance of I Want To Know What Love Is, Foreigner’s biggest-selling single.
Michael Bluestein, keyboard player for Foreigner, said it is a highlight moment of the show, as the band recruits a local choir to perform the backup singing role at every venue on their concert dates.
“A crew member looks after all that. They are ushered on stage, told where to stand, and they rehearse their part in advance to be ready for the concert,” Bluestein said.
“It is amazing to see as the kids are so into it, smiling, beaming and really excited to be part of the song performance.”
When the announcement of the KSS choir was made earlier this month, KSS teacher Sheila French said, “I know it will change their lives. And I know that they’re going to love it…absolutely everybody should be in a choir.”
KSS choir member Thomas Abresch called it a dream come true, saying he really loves ‘80s music and was a big fan of Foreigner in particular.
“I’m really excited. I think my dad is super-pumped, this is definitely his jam, and it’s my jam, too.”
Those comments come as literal music to the ears of Bluestein, a long-time musician who has found a musical home touring with Foreigner dating back to 2009.
Bluestein grew up in the Boston area with a dream of becoming a musician.
He started taking classical piano lessons at age nine and pursued his interest in pop, jazz and soul music, graduating from high school and enrolling at Berklee College of Music, where he further studied jazz piano and composition.
After receiving his Bachelor of Arts in music at Berkley, he moved to San Francisco in 1994, where he became a musician fixture in the Bay Area music scene.
He would record three CDs of his own, play in other jazz bands and earn a living as a music sideman in San Francisco.
But he decided to relocate to Los Angeles in 2003 to seek new opportunities in the music business, playing with bigger-name performers and be part of larger-scale concert tours.
His journey led him to be hired to tour and record with Boz Scaggs in 2003, Anastacia from 2004-06, Enrique Iglesias (2007-08) and Roger Hodgson (2009).
He was given the heads-up about an audition call by Foreigner in search of a keyboard player, and he responded.
“It was not a huge cattle call type of thing…I think there were maybe five or six people who they auditioned, and I got picked to join the band,” he said.
“It’s like everything in life, it’s about one per cent inspiration and 99 per cent perspiration that gets you these opportunities.”
Bluestein recalled that while he was a big fan of Foreigner growing up, he had to practice the music sheets for Foreigner songs and learn the chord progressions.
“I came into the audition and played keyboards for several songs – Feels Like The First Time, Jukebox Hero, I Want To Know What Love Is and Waiting For A Girl Like You, as I remember.
“Growing up, I always liked Foreigner, and the lead singer, Lou Gramm, had an impact on me. Songs like Cold As Ice, Feels Like The First Time and Long, Long Way From Home influenced me in a big way.”
He says keyboards have not always been front and centre in what is largely a guitar-driven rock’n roll sound for Foreigner, but he says many of their songs are still influenced significantly by keyboards.
He says that for him, Jukebox Hero is probably his favourite song to play in concerts because of the keyboard influences in that hit from the Foreigner 4 album.
Like the other members of the current touring rendition of Foreigner, none of the original musicians who formed the band are part of the group.
Foreigner began as a compilation of various musicians who came together to form the group, led by guitarist Mick Jones and keyboardist Al Greenwood in 1976.
Joining them were guitarist Ian McDonald, bass player Ed Gaglardi and drummer Dennis Elliott, with the final piece seeing their search for a lead singer end with discovering Lou Gramm.
The band’s debut album, Foreigner, was released in 1977 and sold five million copies.
Foreigner’s following two albums, Double Vision and Head Games, were released in 1978 and ’79 respectively, both featuring multiple hits.
But after Head Games, the band began to splinter apart as Greenwood and McDonald left the band over musical differences, and Jones began to assert greater control over Foreigner’s musical direction.
Working with legendary producer John “Mutt” Lange, the group’s next album, the biggest-selling of their career, Foreigner 4, was released in 1981.
That would be followed by their next album, Agent Provocateur, in 1984, which featured the hit single I Want to Know What Love Is, the ballad that the KSS choir will sing backup to on Nov. 7.
Guitarist Mick Jones and lead singer Lou Gramm had an acrimonious history at various times throughout their tenure together with the band, with Gramm ultimately leaving the group for good in 2003.
Jones noted that the two parted ways because of a lack of communication. “I think we really tried hard to save it, but it got to the point when we both realized that to go on would be detrimental to both of us,” he said.
But Jones continued to keep the band name alive, recruiting new musicians and eventually finding a new frontman in Kelly Hansen, who joined the group in 2005, and who just recently announced his decision 20 years later to step aside and retire from the music scene.
Meanwhile, Jones, diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, has been unable to continue touring with Foreigner in recent years.
Bluestein said that with Hansen leaving the group, guitarist Luis Maldonado has stepped up to take on the additional role of lead vocalist.
He says while the band has gone through turmoil and changeover since first being formed in 1976, the legacy of their music has continued to endure, and remains as much fun for the band today to perform as it is for the audiences to listen to.
“For many of us, these are songs we grew up listening to,” Bluestein said.
