Mannheim just keeps rolling along
By Bruce R. Miller Journal staff writer | Posted: Friday, March 02, 2007
It's Christmas in Omaha this week.
At Mannheim Steamroller's offices, that is. Founder Chip Davis is in the middle of writing the group's 2007 Christmas album.
"I'm on Track 11 right now," he says by phone from his studio. "I couldn't sleep last night. I was two-thirds of the way through 'Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas' when I went to bed. I tossed and turned and finally got up at 1 o'clock and worked until 4."
The Grammy winner finished the song, but the CD is hardly complete -- which explains why Davis won't be in Sioux City this week when Mannheim arrives in Sioux City for its spring tour. "It's hard to be in two places at once," he says.
Instead, a troupe of veterans will bring the show to the Orpheum Theatre -- much as they did in Branson, Mo., when Mannheim performed its Christmas show at a theater there and Davis and another company toured the rest of the country.
The spring tour -- built around the eight Fresh Aire albums -- is in good hands, he says. "I do miss it, but I've promised the Christmas album to our sales team."
Besides, the Fresh Aire show is like a greatest hits production for the electronic musicians. Videos -- made for earlier tours -- accompany those songs. "We use the same media we used when they first came out. When audiences see some of them it's like, 'Oh my gosh, I remember that. It's so cool.' It's like coming home for Baby Boomers who haven't seen the stuff in years."
Favorites -- like "Prelude/Chocolate Fudge" -- are included. More recent pieces (from Fresh Aire 8) feature state-of-the-art video production.
"We designed this show last year and tried it out in four cities so we could tweak it," Davis says. "Now, we've sent it out on its real tour."
That "tweaking," in fact, is a Davis hallmark. He says he'll test drive the Christmas show before it goes out and, yup, he'd like to bring it to Sioux City. Similarly, he has created a space show (involving sounds from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration) that will need to be tested before it goes out next spring. Because Sioux City is so close to Mannheim's home office, it's a likely candidate for preview as well.
To get the Christmas album in stores before December, Davis says he started working on it almost as soon as the 2006 holiday tour ended. To discover which songs fans wanted (from more than 15,000 possibilities), he put out the word on Mannheim's Web site. "We got 100,000 hits," he says.
The No. 1 request: "O Holy Night." While Mannheim already has that in its repertoire, there were some surprises -- some contemporary songs mixed with some traditional choices. Additionally, Davis will bring back "Christmas Lullaby," a cut from the 1988 album -- this time with words. "I'm hoping Olivia Newton-John will sing the song."
Since Mannheim hasn't produced a Christmas album in five years, "it was time." Deadlines for other projects caused the delay.
Now, after a three-week holiday break, he's deep into Christmas once again.
A ninth Fresh Aire, though, is out of the question.
"We quit that out of self-preservation," Davis jokes. "Everyone seems to die after writing a ninth symphony."
Instead, Mannheim has adapted its environmental music concept for other settings.
A home theater system has taken advantage of Mannheim's breakthroughs. Now, hospitals are benefiting from its advances. Davis says rooms at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., and a hospital in Omaha have been retrofitted so that patients can "block out the sounds of a hospital room. In minutes, you swear like you're in the forest or the desert or whatever. Our intuitive hearing makes it believable. Our ears guide us." Called "psychoacoustics," the Mannheim innovation has helped patients accept therapies more quickly. "We've learned that it even takes older patients back to their childhoods."
At an Alegent Health hospital in Omaha, patients are introduced to those Fresh Aire sounds in the pre-op rooms. They also hear them in the operating, post-op and recovery rooms.
The concept came about after physicians heard Davis' seasonal sounds and thought they might have practical applications in their profession. Davis' people created the equipment, wired the hospital and started the tests. "It seems to be concretely helping people," he says.
Meanwhile, there's that Christmas album to consider. He'll finish it on time, he says, even though his sales team made its first calls this week.
"Anytime I think I need inspiration, I just go look at the bank loan and I get right in the mood," he says.
At Mannheim Steamroller's offices, that is. Founder Chip Davis is in the middle of writing the group's 2007 Christmas album.
"I'm on Track 11 right now," he says by phone from his studio. "I couldn't sleep last night. I was two-thirds of the way through 'Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas' when I went to bed. I tossed and turned and finally got up at 1 o'clock and worked until 4."
The Grammy winner finished the song, but the CD is hardly complete -- which explains why Davis won't be in Sioux City this week when Mannheim arrives in Sioux City for its spring tour. "It's hard to be in two places at once," he says.
Instead, a troupe of veterans will bring the show to the Orpheum Theatre -- much as they did in Branson, Mo., when Mannheim performed its Christmas show at a theater there and Davis and another company toured the rest of the country.
The spring tour -- built around the eight Fresh Aire albums -- is in good hands, he says. "I do miss it, but I've promised the Christmas album to our sales team."
Besides, the Fresh Aire show is like a greatest hits production for the electronic musicians. Videos -- made for earlier tours -- accompany those songs. "We use the same media we used when they first came out. When audiences see some of them it's like, 'Oh my gosh, I remember that. It's so cool.' It's like coming home for Baby Boomers who haven't seen the stuff in years."
Favorites -- like "Prelude/Chocolate Fudge" -- are included. More recent pieces (from Fresh Aire 8) feature state-of-the-art video production.
"We designed this show last year and tried it out in four cities so we could tweak it," Davis says. "Now, we've sent it out on its real tour."
That "tweaking," in fact, is a Davis hallmark. He says he'll test drive the Christmas show before it goes out and, yup, he'd like to bring it to Sioux City. Similarly, he has created a space show (involving sounds from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration) that will need to be tested before it goes out next spring. Because Sioux City is so close to Mannheim's home office, it's a likely candidate for preview as well.
To get the Christmas album in stores before December, Davis says he started working on it almost as soon as the 2006 holiday tour ended. To discover which songs fans wanted (from more than 15,000 possibilities), he put out the word on Mannheim's Web site. "We got 100,000 hits," he says.
The No. 1 request: "O Holy Night." While Mannheim already has that in its repertoire, there were some surprises -- some contemporary songs mixed with some traditional choices. Additionally, Davis will bring back "Christmas Lullaby," a cut from the 1988 album -- this time with words. "I'm hoping Olivia Newton-John will sing the song."
Since Mannheim hasn't produced a Christmas album in five years, "it was time." Deadlines for other projects caused the delay.
Now, after a three-week holiday break, he's deep into Christmas once again.
A ninth Fresh Aire, though, is out of the question.
"We quit that out of self-preservation," Davis jokes. "Everyone seems to die after writing a ninth symphony."
Instead, Mannheim has adapted its environmental music concept for other settings.
A home theater system has taken advantage of Mannheim's breakthroughs. Now, hospitals are benefiting from its advances. Davis says rooms at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., and a hospital in Omaha have been retrofitted so that patients can "block out the sounds of a hospital room. In minutes, you swear like you're in the forest or the desert or whatever. Our intuitive hearing makes it believable. Our ears guide us." Called "psychoacoustics," the Mannheim innovation has helped patients accept therapies more quickly. "We've learned that it even takes older patients back to their childhoods."
At an Alegent Health hospital in Omaha, patients are introduced to those Fresh Aire sounds in the pre-op rooms. They also hear them in the operating, post-op and recovery rooms.
The concept came about after physicians heard Davis' seasonal sounds and thought they might have practical applications in their profession. Davis' people created the equipment, wired the hospital and started the tests. "It seems to be concretely helping people," he says.
Meanwhile, there's that Christmas album to consider. He'll finish it on time, he says, even though his sales team made its first calls this week.
"Anytime I think I need inspiration, I just go look at the bank loan and I get right in the mood," he says.
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