Robert Bidney

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Robert Bidney – It’s All About The Love
Posted on July 13, 2015 by Dan Harr
by Janet Goodman

“Making this first album was a pure labor of love…Maybe, just maybe, my songs will make a difference,” writes Fort Lauderdale-area singer/songwriter Robert Bidney, in the liner notes of his debut CD, “It’s All About the Love.” Produced by Fernando Perdomo and recorded in Southern California, this collection of original songs, of which Bidney has a hand in penning all nine, reveals an artist who has lived life yet remains youthfully optimistic; he’s a seasoned ad man by day, a romantic by night.
Opening with his title track rap, Bidney weaves stories in a variety of musical styles: the sweetly reggae-grooved “Love to Share;” the upbeat theatrical “Daring to Dream;” the brassy rockabilly “Musicians Come from Mars.” Raw and lived-in vocals compliment his poignant piano work, as on The Band-vibed “Love Me Now,” and he shows his vocal range and love for Bacharach on 60’s pop “Take Away Your Love.”
But his best works are songs that either hit you in the heart or in the gut. In pop rock “Pill for Poverty,” Bidney sings with a relentless, attention-grabbing conviction that’s unforgettable. Written in the midst of his own personal financial crisis, he painfully shares in the bridge: “Over the counter or under the table/I need a remedy with hope on the label.” Co-written with Wendy Sager Pomerantz, the image-laden “From the First” gives listeners a rarely offered glimpse of intimacy among aging couples: “They still leave the light on/They still bring the night on/With an undying hunger and thirst.” His is a strong, new voice on the indie album scene that’s been a long-time coming.
Visit the artist’s website www.robertbidney.com - Music News Nashville, L.A., S.F., Austin, Atlanta, MIami, New York, Chicago, Kansas City, Toronto

AD MAN GOES SOLO:
ROBERT BIDNEY INSISTS IT'S ALL ABOUT THE LOVE
By Lee Zimmerman
Monday, July 6, 2015

Robert Bidney's debut album is It's All About the Love.

If ever there was an individual destined to be a singer/songwriter, it would likely have been Robert Bidney. For one thing, he trained for it in a very practical sense. Working in an advertising agency, his creative impulses were encouraged by writing the jingles for such big-name clients as the Sports Authority, Levitz Furniture, and PetSmart. He even got to mingle with rock royalty while working with Randy Bachman in the branding campaign for Office Depot, the one that cops the familiar refrain for Bachman’s classic-rock standby “Taking Care of Business.”
OK, that seems a somewhat roundabout way of carving out a career, but the 26-year resident of Cooper City had his sights set on loftier goals all along. Even though he pursued songwriting part-time while working at his day job, he managed to find some success by contributing material to other artists, among them, the gospel group the Swan Silvertones, old-time ’50s crooner Frankie Laine, and various other artists with a range of professional pedigrees. Still, Bidney’s ultimate goal was to write songs and perform them himself, ambitions he recently realized with the release of his debut album, tellingly titled It’s All About the Love.
“Although I continued to always write songs, my focus over the years was on supporting my family and raising my children,” Bidney explains. “Now that they’re grown, I felt comfortable moving forward with this album project. I want to get my songs out there in a big way, big platforms, big stages, big media outlets. I’ve got a lot to say, and I believe there are a lot of people who can positively benefit from hearing my songs."
Given his high-minded platitudes — expressed through songs about love, nonviolence, overcoming obstacles, realizing one’s dreams, and, heck, simply making the world a better place for us all — Bidney admits he can be a bit of a Pollyanna. And while his songs may lack the gimmickry and glamour that propel most music to the upper reaches of the charts these days, Bidney maintains he’s motivated by purer intents.
“Writing songs has always been a great outlet for helping me try to understand life, as an outlet for expressing myself, and as a means for reaching out to help others,” he insists. “When playing live, I’ve consistently experienced incredible audience reaction to my songs, genuine connections. That, to me, is extremely gratifying, not to mention inspiring.”
Citing such influences as Smokey Robinson, Graham Nash, and, perhaps not surprisingly, Frank Sinatra, Bidney says he was especially pleased to connect with producer Fernando Perdomo. Perdomo, a former South Florida musician who relocated to Los Angeles, boasts a varied résumé of his own, one that includes albums by local rockers Jim Camacho, Ed Hale and Ex-Norwegian, veteran singer/songwriters Andy Pratt and Emitt Rhodes, ‘60s folk chanteuse Linda Perhacs, his former band Dreaming in Stereo, and the various efforts recorded on his own. After the two agreed to record one song to gauge their working relationship, Bidney was sold and headed to Perdomo’s studio in Reseda, California, to record the majority of the music for the new LP.
“Fernando truly understands how to produce pop music, and that’s exactly what I wanted,” Bidney says in retrospect. “He also liked my songs and what I had to say. It was a great match. We have grown to be good friends. He’s a very special person, an amazing musician, and a truly wonderful human being.”
Bidney knows of what he speaks. After all, the title of the album expresses his sentiments succinctly. Apparently, it is all about the love.
It's All About the Love can be purchased on iTunes, Apple Music, Spotify, Google Play, Amazon, RDIO, Deezer, Tidal, YouTube, Beats/MediaNet and Bandcamp. CDs are available at robertbidney.com . - NEW TIMES

He didn't give up his day job — or his dream

Robert Bidney, right, will be joined by Los Angeles-based musician Fernando
Perdomo in introducing the album, "It's All About the Love," on Friday at Your Big Picture Cafe in Davie.
Ben Crandell
4:49 pm, July 2, 2015
Everyone can root for an Everyman like Robert Bidney, a guy balancing a respectable day job with a dream that seems just out of reach.
For Bidney, who works in the advertising department of Office Depot's corporate headquarters in Boca Raton, the dream was a music career, standing on a stage playing songs he had written and collected on an album that he could put in people's hands.
One day in February, Bidney, 60, a Cooper City resident with a wife and two 20-something kids, decided the dream couldn't wait. He went for it.
"I decided that this year, after supporting my family and raising my children all this time and giving them virtually everything I have," Bidney says, breaking into a hearty laugh, "that I was going to finally put out my first album."
The result is "It's All About the Love," an eclectic collection of universal meditations on love, harmony and the things that threaten them, told in a confidently unadorned lyrical style that only an experienced songrwiter would attempt. The album will be celebrated Friday night at a release party at Your Big Picture Café in Davie.
Once Bidney set his goal, things went quickly. Seeking a producer, he asked around the local songwriting community and enlisted one of the best, former South Florida musician Fernando Perdomo, who took Bidney's vocal, guitar and piano tracks and recorded the album remotely from his Reseda Ranch Studios near Los Angeles. Less than six months later, with local help from Zach Ziskin (mastering) and Steve Chumley (vocal tracking), he had an album.
"It was a wonderful marriage. I tried one song out with [Perdomo] and it was amazing. He just gets it," says Bidney, who counts among his role models Graham Nash, Davis Crosby, Burt Bacharach and Leon Russell, who is remembered with a tribute song, "Thank You, Leon."
Success was not always so direct for Bidney.
He started playing music while at Florida State and in the years after his graduation in 1976. While he got some songs recorded by other artists, he said it was "very difficult" to make ends meet, and he gravitated into advertising.
Bidney did jingles for clients including Sports Authority, PetSmart, Swim 'n Sport and Levitz Furniture. He also worked with the agency that created the "Taking Care of Business" campaign for Office Depot, working on various iterations of the Bachman Turner Overdrive song with its author Randy Bachman, who remains a friend.
But the recession of the 2000s "slammed" Bidney hard: He was unemployed in 2007-2010, when he "lost almost everything."
It is a period that Bidney has turned into art, "Pill for Poverty," a song on the album that begins: "They got a pill / When you feel depressed. / They got a pill / When there's heartburn in your chest. / They got a pill / To heal most anything … / I need a pill for poverty / Living a life that's killing me / I need a job / Gotta feed my family / I need a pill, give me a pill…"
Bidney, a man of warmth and an easy laugh, made it through that bleak period with his humanity intact, a theme reflected in the title of the album, which comes from a song written as an antidote, he says, to the period of violence and hate-mongering symbolized by Trayvon Martin and the Charleston church shootings. "When pushin' comes to shovin'," he sings, "You can rise above. It's all about the love."
"I'm an eternal optimist," he says. "I just believe things are going to turn out."
Robert Bidney performs 8-11 p.m. Friday, June 3, at Your Big Picture Cafe , 5935 S. University Drive, Davie. The evening will include a set by Fernando Perdomo. Admission: Free. Call 954- 252-5644 , or visit YourBigPictureCafe.com; RobertBidney.com.
bcrandell@southflorida.com - Sun-Sentinel of South Florida

(go to link provided to view cut from radio interview) - WLRN 91.3 FM