Carnival of Soul

The idea of recording a Van Halen tribute album without any electric guitars at first seems radical, given that Eddie Van Halen’s explosive guitar playing has always dominated the legendary rock band’s sound. But one could also argue that trying to play guitar like the aforementioned guitarist would also seem pointless. That’s the wise approach that the Los Angeles-based electropop duo the Bird and the Bee – singer Inara George and keyboardist/producer Greg Kurstin – took for their new album, Interpreting the Masters, Vol. 2: A Tribute to Van Halen, which comes out this Friday.

“We soon figured out that we couldn’t put guitar in it,” George says. “It would be almost like sacrilegious. Greg approaches his piano in a similar way as Eddie would on his guitar—it’s almost an extension of his body. For Greg to try to play guitar or to get somebody else would be dumb. So we just figured, ‘Let’s not even try that. Let’s have it be about more of a piano-driven or keyword-driven record.’”

Interpreting the Masters, Vol. 2: A Tribute to Van Halen is the Bird and Bee’s follow-up to their 2010 covers album spotlighting the music of Daryl Hall and John Oates. Their new record contains renditions of some of Van Halen’s best-known works, including “Runnin’ With the Devil”, “Jump,” “Unchained,” “Panama” and “Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love.” It’s almost shocking to hear these hard rock classics reinterpreted as predominantly jazzy synthpop highlighted by Kurstin’s keyboard playing and George’s exquisite vocals—and yet the melodies and lyrics will be certainly recognizable to Van Halen fans.

The album is mainly devoted to Van Halen’s recordings with their charismatic singer David Lee Roth from 1978 to 1984. “It’s no offense to Sammy Hagar,” says George, referring to Roth’s successor. “For us, we grew up in the ’80s. That was the era that it’s in our bones. It’s songs we recognize. I think when Sammy Hagar joined the band, we were into other kinds of music. It was only a conscious choice in that we chose the songs that we were familiar with it.”

George admits it was a challenge covering the Van Halen songs, but that was the whole idea behind the record. “It’s really a way for us to get our rocks off,” she says, “and see how we can approach music that doesn’t sound like us and make it work for us, but still trying to hold on to the value of what it is originally. We’re both fans. Once that was brought up, it was like, ‘Okay, that’s it, we got it.’ There was no going back.”

The origins of the project can be traced to about four years ago when George and Kurstin were working in the studio accompanied by drummer Joey Waronker and bassist Justin Meldal-Johnsen. Initially the Bird and the Bee had planned to entirely cover Van Halen’s classic 1978 self-titled debut album. “But then we don’t get to do songs like “Hot for Teacher” or “Jump — all these big songs,” says George. “So we used some of the first session. From there, we made the transition between it being more of a band feel and more of the Bird and the Bee feel where it’s Greg mostly playing everything and using my vocals.”

What Interpreting the Masters, Vol. 2 lacks in fiery electric guitar playing is made up with Kurstin’s performance on the keyboards, especially on the instrumental “Eruption,” which in its original incarnation is a showcase for Eddie Van Halen’s extraordinary tapping technique. “I get emotional when [Greg] does that song,” George says. “He is an accomplished keyboardist. He’s a big producer [whose credits include Adele, Sia and Paul McCartney], but I don’t think there’s a lot of people around who can play the way he can play and then also have the skill of production that he does.”

Another song from the new album is the swinging “Hot for Teacher,” which features a droll, spoken-word performance by Beck that departs slightly from the original version on Van Halen’s album 1984. Kurstin had previously worked with Beck, who himself has performed with the Bird and the Bee. “We’d sort of pulled him into the fold in that way,” George says. “One day we decided we didn’t want to imitate the original recording [of “Hot for Teacher”] with the kids in the classroom, and we wanted to have some kind of different approach. Greg had this ideal, and I think Beck was there, and he was like, ‘Would you do it?’ He just came up with all that stuff on his own and kind of vamping. It kind of really shows you the brilliance of Beck’s mind.”

The album concludes with an original Bird and the Bee song titled “Diamond Dave,” a charming ode to Roth. It originally appeared on the duo’s 2008 album Ray Guns Are Not Just the Future as a bouncy pop song; this version on Interpreting the Masters is a sultry ballad recorded live on stage. The song was prompted by George attending a Van Halen concert around the time of the band’s reunion tour with Roth. “He’s such an incredible and powerful rock singer,” she says. “I was so infatuated with his performance because it was so left field for me. After the show, Greg and I were in the midst of writing Ray Guns and I thought, ‘We should write a song about Diamond Dave.’ It felt like this kind of a schoolgirl crush on this idea of this band—the chemistry of having somebody in the band and then leaving the band, and how does that changes it. I thought, ‘This would be a really fun song to write about.’”

In the support of the record, George be touring as the Bird and the Bee accompanied by a backing band while Kurstin sits out—although the two of them will appear together for a show in Los Angeles this Friday with drummer Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters) and bassist Johnsen. “I always think of [Greg] as the Brian Wilson of the band.” she says. “He’s got to stay home and [be] in the studio. I don’t know how that makes me feel, being the Beach Boys without Brian Wilson. We have little things where we kind of bring Greg into the show, which makes it sort of fun.”

The Van Halen project is another extension of the Bird and the Bees’ approach to music as more of a laid-back passion project and creative outlet as opposed to a be-all, end-all endeavor. Since their formation in 2005, both members have led busy individual music careers. Aside from Kurstin’s reputation as an in-demand producer, George is a solo artist (her most recent album was last year’s Dearest Everybody) and a member of the Living Sisters with Becky Stark, Eleni Mandell and Alex Lilly.

“It’s the most easy and natural musical collaboration that I’ve had,” says George of working with Kurstin. “We really have very similar tastes in music. We don’t tend to disagree about musical choices, which when you’re in a band is rare and also is such a gift when you do have that like-mindedness. And then we’re very good friends. We don’t put a lot of pressure on each other. That’s one of the hardest parts being in a band is that if one person needs it more than the other one, or one person is too busy, it makes the collaboration complicated. Because there’s no pressure, [this collaboration] continues to be whatever we want.”