Today we’d like to introduce you to Henri Herbert.
Hi Henri, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I got started by listening to my dad’s record collection – we had loads of great music in the house. I remember hearing Chuck Berry, The Rolling Stones, Jerry Lee Lewis. Then a friends’ dad gave me a Little Richard cassette and that just blew my mind. I’d also hear the classical guitar cos that’s what my dad played – he was a pro classical guitarist. Then I started to apply myself to the piano that we had in the house – trying to copy the sounds I heard on the records. I was just a kid, I didn’t know any better.
After a few years I started to improve – got myself pretty proficient at boogie woogie and rock n roll piano. I started to play in bands in the local area – the Essex coast which is on the East Coast of the UK. There was a Jazz festival once a year and I was often invited to play. There was a local Jazz musician called Ray Ward, he took me under his wing and encouraged me to broaden my style beyond boogie woogie and blues. I studied quite a bit with him and I started to learn standards like Georgia On My Mind, Take the A Train, Sunny Side of The Street. Around this time I started getting the train to London to get lessons with Diz Watson who is like a master of New Orleans piano styles – he studied with Dr John and Champion Jack Dupree. He turned me on to James Booker and all those New Orleans cats. But my main passion was rock n roll – the rock n roll piano of Jerry Lee and Little Richard, also the boogie piano of Albert Ammons and Pete Johnson. My grandfather gave me a cassette of Pete Johnson and Albert Ammons – it took my breath away, the swing, the power, the joy. Once when I was in France, I saw some folks busking in the street on a piano. They must have sensed that I was a musician because they pointed at me and invited me to play – I played a few boogie woogies and then suddenly there was a hat full of coins – I realised I could make money with my piano playing.
I moved to London to pursue music full time. I got many jobs with local bands – playing blues, soul, ska. I was very happy being a sideman and learning everything I could. But soon something else started burning inside my soul – I wanted to move to the front, I wanted to be a singer, I wanted to write my own songs..I just didn’t feel ready at the time. Then I got asked to join The Jim Jones Revue which was a real good rock n roll band playing high energy punk rock all over the world – it was an awesome time and we were on the road pretty solidly for about 4 years – all over the UK, USA, Europe, Japan, Australia..it was amazing! But all things come to an end and in 2014 we went our separate ways. Then I really applied myself to my solo show, I put a band together and hit the road. Things started to happen for me around that time, since I had a viral video on Youtube. These days viral piano videos are all over the internet but this was one of the first ones, and the views were in the millions. I was getting a ton of attention and opportunities to play all over the world – I went to Canada to play some shows for a record label out there and this led to me getting to play at SXSW in Austin, TX. This trip completely changed my outlook on music and life – i was in the live music capital of the world! I was surrounded by great people and musicians – Mike Buck, Eve Monsees, Charlie Sexton, Jimmie Vaughan, Willie Pipkin, Nate Rowe, Tjarko Jeen, Soul Man Sam…and all playing somewhere every night. I was welcomed with open arms – and I am forever grateful for this welcome. I ended up sticking around, playing nearly every night and really decided to move there and begin the immigration process as soon as I got home. At the time, I was working as a docker in the UK – long shifts nearly every day 14 hours plus..hard on the hands. Austin was a place where I could live and work every day as a musican – and get my first band LP recorded.. Then somehow I got a second viral video on Youtube, and this time the views went up to nearly 80 million – this led to me getting more work overseas including a concert in Nice for the Royal Family of Monaco and others, jazz festivals all over the world incliding Japan and Hawaii. But really, I wanted to rock and play my original songs.
This brings me to my new record “Get it While It’s Hot” its my dream band on there and a dream project to get my rock n roll songs out into the world, and take the band on the road. The record drops on November 7, we recorded it in a couple days in Austin Texas and I couldn’t be happier with how it turned out. We are on the road a lot – we just did a huge trip up to Lincoln Nebraska and then across to Colorado. It really felt good on stage – lightning in a bottle type stuff and great energy..We have some great guys in the road band – Dylan Bishop, Damien Llanes and Josh Williams. These cats played with Nick Curran who was one of my heroes – we got my buddy Jim Jones to mix it – it turned into a real fun project. Now it’s out into the world!
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It has been a very challenging road. Just the regular challenges that all musicians go through – earning money while beginning a music career and maintaining it in the early days was a big challenge, as was finding a place to live while doing all that. I spent a long time living in hostels and friend’s couches. I worked in the service industry for a long time – as a dishwasher in London and also a dock worker. The songs on my LP “Nothing Free” and “Cold City” are all about this period of my life. Dock work is dangerous and tough on the hands but it’s what I needed to do, to get where I needed to be. One time I was playing in Marshall Texas, the birthplace of boogie woogie. Those early trips to the US were fun and I was totally hand to mouthinng it, carry on baggage only, moving from town to town on Greyhounds at night – off the stage in Columbus then a 2am bus to New York to play a show in the East Village, with rust and dust lingering on my bag from the Harwich docks. Man, writing this now from the ranch I’m living on in Austin sounds so surreal.
Learning to play was itself a huge challenge, and I get to relive it often when I teach beginners. There were years of bad gigs, going home dejected and once in a while getting chewed out on stage by unfriendly musicians. But more often than not I was encouraged. Getting a piano was a challenge, having a place to play and practice was a challenge – try doing that with no money. Learning to sing was a huge challenge. I’m not really gifted as a singer – I had to work hard at it.
Joining the Jim Jones Revue was a huge challenge – my predecessor Elliot Mortimer was a monster player. Big shoes to fill, I had to work hard and assimilate a whole vocabulary of music – PUNK ROCK – that I didn’t know about, but I loved it and still do.
Immigrating to the USA and getting my green card during the Covid pandemic was a major challenge but my previous experiences of life taught me that you just gotta keep moving forwards however you can. Onwards!
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I play rock n roll piano. I sing and write songs. I tour with my band around the USA and do many solo concerts around the world. I’m probably best known for a couple of viral videos on Youtube “Henri’s Boogie” and “When A Professional Musician Sits Down At A Public Piano”, as well as my work with Jim Jones Revue and my new album “Get It While It’s Hot”.
I’m most proud of having found my own lane and stuck with it – I guess that’s what sets me apart from others.
Do you have any advice for those looking to network or find a mentor?
Find people who are better than you at what you want to do and ask them. Most people are nice; they want to help. If someone is rude or dismissive, that’s disrespectful. Chances are, you don’t want that person in your life. If you are a musician or any kind of creative – get out there and support the scene, go to shows and concerts. Get involved. Ask yourself, what can you do for them? Don’t just take – give.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://henriherbertmusic.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/henri_herbert_piano
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/henri.herbert
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/henriherbert
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/henriherbert88
Image Credits
Sean Murphy
