While it's not necessarily true that behind every great singer stands an equally great backup singer, having Dorian Holley on stage or in the studio could make a star feel more than a little secure about the prospects of their tour or record. A multi-talented singer, songwriter, and musician in his own right, Holley has worked with a wide ranging collection of artists that have included names like Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, Trisha Yearwood, Little Richard, Roger Waters, and yes - even The Backstreet Boys. In the process, he has established himself as great an authority on what it takes to be a background vocalist as there could be. Upon meeting Holley, you can understand why it seems as if everyone has either already hired him to work with them or is currently on a waiting list for his services as he exudes a rare combination of easy confidence in his abilities and an openness and readiness to include you and inform you on what it takes to be part of the "club." In other words, it wouldn't be a stretch to guess that he could eclipse more than a few of the voices he's been paid to support, yet he obviously has the class and the character not to draw attention to that fact. In the meantime, the LA Music Academy students fortunate enough to share some class time with him are getting a chance to get the insider's view on what it really takes to be a background vocalist and how to truly be a professional and sustain a career once they've joined that finite group. Since we haven't been in class with Holley, we decided to pick his brain and ask him for some background on what it's like to be in the background.

There's only one way to get jobs in this business and it's through relationships and referrals. For singers, there's no agency. There's a union. But I think the hardest part for me was getting in. And then once people meet you and work with you...

My particular story was this: I was trying to get in as a writer, writing songs and trying to pitch songs, and one New Years, I sat down with my wife at the time and said, "Do you have any suggestions?" You know, to like make a resolution or something. And she said, "Well, maybe you need to meet somebody who is in the business and working that you like and who likes you and maybe they can turn you onto some work."

And that was my resolution that New Years, and that was my prayer that night, and the next very month I met Darryl Phinnessee, who - if you pull his name up - you'll get twice as many people that he's worked with. And we met at an audition and he was outside listening to me sing while I was doing my thing, and he was like, "Dude, why don't I know you? Where are you from?" And he invited me to dinner that night and we became best friends. And we are to this day. And he started referring me for demo work, then helped me get on the Stevie Wonder record [Skeletons], and six months later, we auditioned for Michael Jackson's first solo tour together.

That's a really good question. When I got in the business, it always amazed me that you could be working on somebody's record, like a Johnny Mathis or Dionne Warwick or whomever. I think it's changed a lot now. The lead singer will do what they want. It's just them. I think it's changed within the last ten years because now one singer will do all of the vocals. They'll do the lead and then create the palette of the background vocals. So you don't get as many background vocalists as you did when I first got in.

So I think it's first, having a knack for it - then, wanting to do it. And I've found that teaching at the LA Music Academy. Two years ago we created the background vocals class, and they couldn't give me a program for it, and I was stumped because I didn't believe it was something that could be taught. Everybody I know always loved background vocals, and that's what they spent their time doing — with their ears pressed to their stereo speakers. And the kids didn't have a clue. Many of them were just there to sing, period. But I did find a way to teach the class. The first year and a half I was like, "I'll do what I can, but I don't know if this is something you can teach. You've got to want to learn it, and you figure out how to do it yourself."

I think students and people in general think that if you can sing, you can do it all. But there is training involved, and there is serious discipline involved. You have to have an ability to stay on your part when someone else is singing something different. And being able to hear the distinction between the bass part, etc.

The other day, my wife and I were listening to Prince's new CD Musicology, and the opening bar of the second song, he's got a loop of drums. And the kick drum, kick one and kick two are not evenly spaced. I believe they just liked what they did, so they didn't change it. So I kind a laughed and asked if she could hear it or not. Then after playing it back a few times, she could hear it. But it's just amazing to watch people try to hear something in the music that you hear the first time the music is played.

To me, a great drummer is just a great drummer. But I've had conversations where someone would say, "Well, he's a great R&B drummer or he's a great rock n' roll drummer." For me, and for Sheryl — who made a living for awhile doing demos — you've got to be able to do a lot of different kinds of things. I grew up loving all kinds of music — from Johnny Mathis to Donnie Hathaway to even Barry Manilow. And I think there are many people like that. Of course, there are many people who only grew up singing gospel and only do that. But most of the singers that I know can do any kind of job. I know some singers who are operatically trained who are as soulful and as funky as you'd want to be.

When we got the Michael Jackson job, a lot of people hated us for getting it and circulated rumors that we got it politically because they auditioned hundreds of people for that gig. And most of them could have got it if they had known what we did. They called people as individuals then put three people or so together and put you on a tape and sent it to Michael. But he couldn't find what he was looking for. At the same time, my buddy Darryl was offered a job on a Dolly Parton TV show. So he kept calling Michael's office to see if he got that gig because that's the one he wanted. But if wasn't going to get it, he needed to know as soon as possible so he could accept the other job.

So he finally got through to someone, and they told him to take the other job because Michael hadn't found what he was looking for. And he asked what they were looking for. And he was looking for four people who were an existing group with an ability to sing jazz and pop and funk, whatever. The thing about Michael is that he does all of his own backgrounds, and he has a signature style. So Darryl says, "Why don't you let me bring my group in?" for a second audition. And they said, "Okay, tomorrow at six o'clock." So, he called me, and he called Kevin Dorsey and he called Sheryl and asked us if we wanted to do the tour.
So he put the group together, and we went over to his house the next morning and got a couple of Michael records and chose the two songs we wanted to audition with, and we chose an acapella, like a Manhattan Transfer kind of tune and worked on it all day. As hard as I thought I had worked on music, I had never worked with anybody that intensely before. And Darryl is extremely serious. He has a teaching degree in music and every nuance, every enunciation of every syllable — well, we spent the entire day working on those three songs. So by the time we arrived for the audition at six, we knew it. And they put us on tape and called us at eleven that night to let us know we got the job.

I believe that a number of people could have had that job. And since then, I've learned that when you go in for something that you can sort of stack the deck in your favor. You don't just go, "Okay, what time's the audition? Where do I go? Okay, I'll be there." If you know somebody, you call, you find out what you can and you get in there.

That's a great question. One would think that that's the best thing that there is, but I have had people call me and say, "I want a couple of fat, black girls." Then, by the same token, I've had people call me and say they don't want anyone that's overweight. I would say this — I believe that God has a sense of humor and rarely do you find someone who truly sings great and looks great. But I always tell young ladies [who are trying to be backup singers] that you have to be conscientious about that. I mean, this is show business, and people want to look at you. It's a reality of life, so try to keep yourself in shape.

The first one obviously is drinking and drugs. You can get lonely out there. Most of the time is not on the stage. It appears to be very, very glamorous, and it is while it's happening, but ninety percent of the time you're traveling just hanging out with these people. The temptations are great, families do break up, [and] people lose fortunes. You read about it all the time. And then, the business gives you the illusion that the kind of money you're making is going to last forever. But nobody pulls you aside and says you've got to save for fourteen hundred rainy days - not just one.

Then one of the other big ones is that almost every background singer thinks they're gonna become the lead singer with the record contract. And your mind can play a trick on you that since you're onstage behind Rod Stewart, Michael Jackson, whoever, that you don't have to do the work that some kid just out of high school has to do because he doesn't have that privilege that you have. And they can easily leapfrog over you because you're kind of enjoying that life and you've been tricked into thinking that that's it. What I would say is that if your object is to become a recording artist, invest that money, do your demos, your songwriting and give yourself deadlines. Don't just wait until you're off the tour to work on it because something else will come up and get in the way when you come home on a break. And realize that making contacts, auditions, [and] scheduling listening sessions for potential record company people is as difficult as any part of it and requires the same amount of attention.

Oh, man! You know, you'll find some people with jealousies or playa' hating, but never from me. You know, if the guy or girl can't sing, I'll talk about them and the people who buys their records, but again — it's about taste. I like The Sopranos, you like Friends, and we can both exist in the same universe.

Oftentimes you'll see a film, and you would never know, but the vocals are an integral part of the soundtrack. Sometimes they'll be buried, like an oboe, so you won't hear it. Sometimes it will be part of like an end title song or sometimes it will be on something like, "Circle of Life," which was a big part of storyline for The Lion King. In Die Hard, they played the Stevie Wonder song "Skeletons," so that was like a fringe benefit. In Ants, they used "I Can See Clearly Now." In Phone Booth, where you can actually really hear me, there are some guys on the corner singing, and mine is one of the voices. In Brother Bear, we sang with Phil Collins.

A great one was with The Five Heartbeats. Robert Townsend had original music, and he wanted scenes to go with the music, so what was great about it was we were able to work with the music producer Steve Tyrell and create the arrangements for the songs and the personality of the songs in sort of a Temptations, Four Tops kind of way. That was really gratifying because you really felt like you were part of the movie. And it stands as probably my favorite soundtrack that I've ever sung on.

That was great. That was fun. It was a lot of pressure, though. Those kind of TV things are really hard. There's a lot of music, like twenty songs, maybe more that didn't make the final cut, and a couple of days to do it. Ricky Minor was the Music Director, and he's great. A lot of people are jealous of Ricky because every time you turn on the TV, he's there.

But there's a reason for it because that job is high, high pressure. He has to deal with the musicians. He has to deal with the producers, the choreographer, and the stars. And some of the stars are extremely difficult to deal with. We had one star that was really tough. And as good as the band may be, there still is [a] certain skill level you need to be at to be able to do this. You have to be like, "We're going to bar 32, we're cutting out bar 10 through 12, and replacing that with blah, blah, blah," and it's constantly changing up until shooting time. And you've got a huge band, and I'd love to have the money for that job, but it's a huge job. I don't know how he does it. And for us, they needed us to be able to sing the songs for the band to help them know where they were. So when we should have been learning our stuff, we were helping the band. As grateful as I was to have the job, I was glad when it was over.

[Laughs] No! I want more!

I learned so much about work ethic from him. To be where he is, to work as hard as he does, you would think he was still just trying to make a name for himself.

Rod helped me to loosen up. He helped me to infuse the spirit of rock n' roll into my repertoire and just do it.

James helped me to increase my desire to extract the pure beauty of music out of whatever it was I was doing. He has exquisite taste and his great music made me want to dig a little deeper to find that beautiful sound.

Look at the volume of great songs he has written.

Before I worked with him, I had a lot of people tell me, "He's hard to work with." And he's just a guy who works hard and wants the best. And that's what I want. I think people who are slackers are afraid of that and mistake that meanness or whatever. But he wasn't mean at all. He has a level of excellence that he expects, and that's what I expect.

Just the beauty of her voice. I didn't work with her that much, but she helps put you in touch with that beauty.

He is nutty, amazing. It was like meeting an icon. His presence is electrifying.

That was really cool because the record we did with him was very bizarre and interesting.

Great. Just great. He's a giant, and it was just a pleasure being around him and being able to listen to him.

That was a quick thing. But they were really nice kids. You know, the business is what it is. I mean, you can't really compare Alexander Graham Bell with [the] guy who invented the Frisbee. But you also can't blame the guy for making the Frisbee.

Right. But you know, who wouldn't — if given the opportunities of the Backstreet Boys — who wouldn't go for it? You know, they're nice kids, so God bless them.

He's the best. I was a little nervous with him. He's great, nice, funny, down to earth. Nobody works harder that Stevie. All he does is write and record music. There's nobody else like him. There are warehouses of music that he has recorded. I just know that long after I am gone, they'll still be able to put out Stevie Wonder records. He's working on a new record now, and they called me about it but it kept getting pushed back and pushed back and just hope that it works out that I can work on it.

I've also been working with Linda Ronstadt on a new tour — doing a date here and a date there. That's a great experience for me. She's doing both standards and her hits, and I get to do some duets with her.