Tony Mantor's : Almost Live..... Nashville - Richard Hewson’s RAH band: Journey From Bedroom Demos To Global Streams

Episode Date: May 19, 2026

We sit down with Richard Hewson, the creative force behind the Ra Band, to trace how an under-credited arranger turns frustration over fees into a self-made recording legacy. We get the real stories behind “Clouds Across The Moon,” Abbey Road sessions, vintage studio gear, and what it feels like to be rediscovered through Spotify and TikTok decades later. • arrangers paid a fee without royalties, pushing Richard toward writing his own songs • building early Ra Band tracks as a one-person “bedroom band” on multitrack tape • jazz influences shaping a pop sound, plus the Paul McCartney connection that opens doors • turning an “international operator” memory into the sci-fi story of “Clouds Across The Moon” • writing lyrics by creating a story scene, starting with simple phrases and expanding them • “Messages from the Stars” going viral on streaming and reigniting the back catalog • receiving the Roland SH-5 as a first synthesizer and sticking with vintage gear • analog warmth vs digital sameness, plus why hiss and tape feel “timeless” • favorite string arrangements and the craft of writing orchestration by hand • Abbey Road memories, Phil Spector’s massive orchestra request, and McCartney’s reaction • praising session musicians as the real heroes who can nail anything first take • seeing the Ra Band performed live by his son and a nine-piece touring lineup • where to find the music on major platforms and hopes for a vinyl run If you haven't already, take a quick second to tap the follow button. It really helps the show reach more people who love music and entertainment. INTRO/OUTRO Music: T. WildMantor Music BMI

My career in the entertainment industry has enabled me to work with a diverse range of talent. Through my years of experience, I've recognized two essential aspects. Industry professionals, whether famous stars, or behind-the-scenes staff, have fascinating stories to tell. Secondly, audiences are eager to listen to these stories, which offer a glimpse into their lives and the evolution of their life stories. This podcast aims to share these narratives, providing information on how they evolve into their chosen career. We will delve into their journey to stardom, discuss their struggles and successes, and hear from people who help them achieve their goals. Get ready for intriguing behind-the-scenes stories and insights into the fascinating world of entertainment.

Hi, I'm Tony Mantor. Welcome to Almost Live Nashville. If you haven't already, take a quick second to tap the follow button. It really helps the show reach more people. who love music and entertainment. Thanks for being here. Joining us today is a true pioneer in music, an artist whose influence stretches across decades and genres. Richard Houston, the creative force behind the raw band, has helped shape the sound of modern music in ways many people don't even realize. From producing and arranging for some of the biggest names in the industry to creating

timeless hits like clouds across the moon, Richard's work blends innovation, storytelling and a signature sound that still resonates today. The raw band isn't just a project. It's a legacy of creativity, vision, and musical excellence that continues to inspire artists around the world. Today we're diving into his journey, the stories behind the music, and what continues to drive his passion after all these years. Thanks for joining us today. Okay. Amazing. In the early years of your music career, you was a producer and an arrangement. Ranger, then you created the raw band. Can you give us a little bit of a background on how that all came together? Well, I don't know whether you know, but I did about 10 years of arranging or

Alden sundry. And back in those days, as it is even today, arrangers don't get royalties, music royalties. You just get a fee, which wasn't very big in those days. And I did so many records. And I thought, oh, look at the millions they're making and I'm making 25 quid. So I thought, I've got to write my own tunes because I'm never going to last unless I turn to writing my own songs. So the very first one I did, I probably was one of the very first bedroom bands, you know, recording everything in his bedroom on a very small multi-trap machine. And I could play the guitar. I could play the bass. I could play the keyboard and synthesized. Or I didn't have synthesized in those days, actually, but I could play the keyboard. And so I decided I'll have a got making a record. Actually, I was a jazz head,

really not, you know, in my previous life, not really a pop musician at all. So I mean nothing about pop music except the tracks I'd worked on. So I thought, well, I'll have a go up making a pop record. What I thought was a pop record. And I'd just put it all down on the multi-track tape. And it sounded pretty good. And then I put some brass on. I took it then to a big studio and put brass on it.

It sounded pretty good, but I couldn't sell it. I could not sell it for about two years. Eventually, somebody in the clubs picked it up, and it blew up big time. And I got a deal for it. And, oh, I've got a project. I was thinking, what am I going to call the band? The sort of heavy water. No, no, no, no, no.

Somebody said, what are your initials? I said, R-A-H. He said, that's it. You got it. The Rha Band. And it stuck. Wow, that's such a great story. I love you, weren't chasing pop trends.

So take us back for a second. Who or what influenced your sound? Well, really jazz. I was a complete jazz head when I did music college and then came out. But jazz was all that was. my life. Bill Evans, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, all the great guys that everybody knew about. That was me, just jazz, and I was jazz guitarist. I was called good on the jazz guitar at the time. I met a friend called Peter Asher, who you probably know about Peter Asher, whose sister was going out with Paul McCartney.

And that's how I got to meet Paul McCartney. And round up Peter's house one day we were ever playing. Paul wanted, he discovered a new Welsh singer, a girl Welsh singer, folk singer, and wanted to make a record with him. But he said, I don't want to use the usual arranger guys because, you know, you want to use somebody a bit in left field. And Peter said, well, why do you try Richard? Because he's been to college, got some knowledge, and he's a job business. And so he'll come in with something different, which is what happened. And lo and behold, my first arranging job, which went to number one, which opened a lot of doors for arranging. Wow, that's amazing.

And then clouds across the moon happens. And it just takes off worldwide. Was there a moment in the studio or hearing it back where you thought, Okay, this one's different. This is special. Well, when I wrote it, it was because I've been coming backwards and forwards to Los Angeles, doing arranging for American artists, actually.

And I remember we didn't have cell phones or internet or any of that stuff. So to call back home, I used to have to go by the old-fashioned telephone. And when you wanted to make an international call, you'd pick up the phone and the guy would say, hello, this is the international operator here. Yeah. That's stuck in my head. And when I came home, I had a track written.

Not with that theme, just with a different lyric. I was thinking about this international operator. And I thought, what if we said it in the future, and call him the intergalactic operator. So that became a space song. Okay. And it got picked up because it was the space song. If I hadn't changed the lyric, I don't know whether it would have been a hit, actually.

But because it was a spacey thing, and it was about the time of space was all in the news. Right. New space expectation, it took off and where she went. It seemed like a lot of your songs had a good story base to them, and they were very inspirational. It was almost like listening to the soundtrack of a movie. How important was the storytelling to you in writing all your songs? Well, I suppose because I wasn't really a lyric writer, I was a musician, guitarist, jazz player.

I'd never written pop songs before, as I said. So it was really an effort for me to write a pop song. So the first one I did, really, with not clouds across the moon. with one called Perfume Garden. Okay. Now, that was when I written a jazz-type backing, and I thought, well, I don't know anybody who writes lyrics, strangely enough, even though I was there in the music.

Yes. I didn't actually know personally a lyric writer. So one day, in the bath, I went with my pencil and paper, and I think, well, I'll try and write one myself. I thought, well, that sounds like, come with me. And that was the first lyric I ever wrote, come with me. And I took it on from there, trying to make a story of it, really. And that's basically the way I've always tried to write lyrics,

to try and have a story attached to it. And that's how it goes. So here we are 40 or 50 years later, and your music is finding a whole new audience through streaming and all these modern platforms. What does that mean to you to see a new generation discovering what you created all those years ago? Yes, indeed.

In fact, I don't know whether you were aware of it, but about two or three years ago, an old tune called Messages from the Stars, which was written in 83, 1983, in Los Angeles of all places. Yeah. And it blew up big time, went viral on Spotify's, on TikTok, all the platforms. And still is, still bowling along there, which is amazing. It's sort of reignited interest in the backcathlet of which we've got quite a large one.

I think I've been 50-odd years in the business. With everything you've done and everything coming back around, Do you find more people are reaching out to find out how you did all this? How does that feel? Yeah, it feels strange because, as I say, starting I was a backroom boy, arrangers of course the background boys, they never get to see the front of the stage. And then making records in my bedroom, as I said, I was a bedroom. But I didn't really get to meet people outside because it wasn't a band,

even though it's called the Rha band. It was me, really, playing all the instruments. and then if I needed strings or brass taking them to a studio. So still, I wasn't really in the public eye. I was just a name which was great. I've got a lot of lovely compliments on YouTube and things like that, which was great. But I never actually met a lot of people. And I keep quoting this, but I had never actually been to a music business party in 50 years.

Never. People say, you're lucky, mate, you didn't go. But so that's how me and the public never really met. You said something earlier that really stood out. You weren't part of the clique. And honestly, I think that's what made you special. You weren't chasing other people's sound. You were building your own based on what moved you and your influences.

Exactly so, actually. You're dead on because I was still a jazz head even back in the day and still am actually. But wild about string orchestras from my college days. That's where that stuff. Yeah. And that was really the influences in my music. probably. And so I didn't listen to a lot of pop music at the time. In fact, I probably didn't know what was it in the chart. I just went my own course and out came the music the way it did,

you know, not influenced by a lot of other contemporaries. Many different people have said that you were not afraid to try new and different things with your music. When you went in the studio and when you worked with a gear that was prevalent at that time, what was one of your favorite pieces of gear to work with that helped give you the sound that you became well known for. Well, I don't know whether you know or many people know that the crunch, which was the first record I mentioned when I started to tick it into my bedroom and made it all myself. It sounds, everybody says, which synthesizers did you use? I said, I haven't got a synthesizer at that time.

I didn't have a synthesizer. It was just about the time they were coming in. Yes. When that was a hit, I got a call from Roland, the company, Roland, said the company, they can't And they said, we'd like to give you a synthesizer. It's an SH5 synthesizer, which I still have today and still sounds great. And that was my very first synth. So I hadn't actually got into electronic music until after I had the first hit, which

wasn't a synth record, although it sounds like. So people are starting to find you again. And of course, along with that, they're listening to your music. What do you hope that they get out of your music? and which songs would you like to have them listen to first? Oh, that's a difficult one. I've heard the quote many, many times. It's like your babies, aren't they?

Very hard to choose which one you would put first. Yes, very true. But I've got my favorite orchestral-type ones. I've got my favorite dance one. If you want to pin me down to the best song I wrote, probably, in my opinion, not in anybody else, in my opinion, is one I've called Across the Bay. I like the lyric, I like the performance.

That was my ex-wife that did the singing in the early days, and I loved the string arrangement of it. So I could say that probably is my favorite piece of work, not necessarily my favorite baby, as it were. So are you still working in the studio? And if you are, what are you working on? We've got a new album out right now as we speak, yeah? It's released a couple of weeks ago.

I'm doing very well. I'm really pleased to say. What it is is, there's a compilation of some of the old tracks from across the years, remixed, remade. We're all with the same, the original vocals. I've kept all the vocalists and rebuilt the tracks. And we've got two or three new tracks, brand new. And it's doing very well.

And I have to say, it's called Life After Love Songs. Yeah, that's great. Now, let's get into your remixing. I know back then you were doing things your own way to get that exact sound you wanted, and it clearly worked because people connected with it. Are you using different studio gear to remix? What's your approach to this? I'm still back in dark ages with my equipment. It's still a lot

of it, 80s, 70s, 90s equipment. Nice. Still sounds great today. So a lot of it's broken down. So the ones of the broken are not used anymore. So it reduces my choice of instrument considerably. But that's good because when I come down in the morning, I think, which drum machine shall I use today? Oh, there's another one that's working. That's the one we'll use today. And so my sound has sort of shrunk a bit. No way, it makes more demands on you. You've got to be more creative to use those sounds. Sure. And get something more out of them that you perhaps did before.

I love it. It's just lovely to go on. But technically, my son, who is a brilliant musician, and incidentally now, takes the raw band out on the road doing gigs, the raw band live. They've got brilliant musicians in it. Anyway, he comes around to my tune and says, Dad, that old gear there, you should get some new stuff.

I said, no, I don't want to. I'd like the sound I make with the sound I make with this. and I'll stick with it till I've gone. Yeah, I'm a big analog guy myself. I remember working with two-inch tape and doing it the old school way. It seems like a lot of people are trying to recreate digitally what we created back then with analog.

There's just something about the old gear, the warm sound, the depth of it. It's just hard to replicate. It's just a great quality sound that we can get with that gear. I think so. And also, I think, listening to it, Asian ears, I do, I said, I don't normally listen to pop music, but when I do listen to the radio, you're in the car or whenever,

I find they all sound very, very similar. All the tracks are very similar to each other, because they're probably using the same gear. But it does, where is it back in our day? I mean, back in the day, and in the scuba that I used to take my stuff sometimes to be mixed to, the engineers were so creative. You know, we thought, how can we make this sound better?

We didn't have the electronic sampling stuff that we've got now. Yeah. So we'd have to, you know, we'd have to put two tape machines together with a big long loop of tape around it or something like that to get a long walker. Things like that. I think we were more creative, fly by the seat of your pants type work, you know? Yeah, absolutely. I remember those days. There's just something about the tone you get from the two-inch tape versus digital.

That slight hiss in the background. It has that ambience that gives it that timeless sound. Yeah, well, it's amazing, isn't it? You'll find that you can now get a sample of hiss put on your tape to make it, because it's so digital, there's no background in those at all. But now put your hiss back on, which is kind of crazy. Yeah, with analog machines and tape, that was just the way we did it. That sound came naturally.

Now a lot of people didn't grow up with that, so they're using these plug-ins to try and recreate what we were getting in real time. Yes, yes. I mean, the AI stuff now. that's on Facebook that you can get to do your multi-strings, your multi-quires, all that stuff. Yeah. A little bit worrying, but I don't think they'll ever compete with the actual real sound of strings and choirs and guitars and what. Yes, I 100% agree. Now, what was your favorite decade for music?

Oh, well, again, going back to the jazz days, I started life very late in music because I didn't, I ran away to see when I left school and went to the Merchant Navy. But that, in fact, produced my musical career because one of the trips went, as I was a cadet, the guy before me, I'd have been about 16 or 17 years old going on these old tramp ships. He left his guitar behind. And I hadn't played a note of music until then.

So I went to shore and board copy of how to play the guitar. And on that long trip, I got quite good, listening to Voice of America on Shortwave. Yes. He used to listen to Willis Conover's Jazz Hour. And that was a great show. And I could get all the jazz and try and emulate it on the guitar on those long nights at sea.

And that's how I actually started in the business. So really, I've got various favourites of that. Much at Navy learning the guitar time was an amazing time for me as a teenager. And then going to college was great. I did that in my early 20s and learned all about orchestration, classical music, etc. Still playing jazz. And I think I still kept my love for jazz all these years. And playing in Ronald Scots occasionally and things like that was a great thrill.

Yeah. I still see, go to Ronnie Scots now. You've probably heard of it, Ronnie Scots, jazz glower. Yeah. Anyway, so I wouldn't say I've got one favorite era. I think each era has its own flavor and delights. Yeah, absolutely. Now, you mentioned you went into your own bedroom and created the band.

So what's your favorite instrument to play? Well, funny enough, just before I came in to do this interview, I was in the studio and I picked up my guitar. I've just finished a track which is on this album and I thought, oh, I didn't play the guitar on this track. I must play it because I don't play so much jazz now and you soon lose your chops. The old fingers get stiff and I suddenly thought,

oh my gosh, I must practice this more because I've got a bit lazy in the old age and don't practice as much as I should. But I love the guitar. That is my first thing. It was the first instrument and probably will be my last. But I still have to play the keyboard, obviously, and the synthesizers and such.

So I think the guitar probably is it. I'm a naughty boy. I'm not practicing hard alone. You mentioned before you started the raw band that you was a producer and arranger. What's one of the more interesting pieces of work you produced or arranged? Well, there are two, as I said before, I love string arranging, probably about any other kind of arranging. It's my favorite. Sure. And I've done two arrangements that I'm really proud of, I have to say.

And one is a guy called Tifford T. Ward was a brilliant young songwriter. He died very young, unfortunately. But I did his early arrangements. And I wrote an arrangement for him and a guy called Cliff Richard also with the same arrangement called Up in the World. And it was purely them with the voice and strings. And that was just, that was wonderful for me, because no other instruments, just for string orchestra.

And that was one. And then another one I did with a girl called Toya Wilcox called Sympathy. The tracks called Sympathy. And that again was just me and her. A big string orchestra, lovely, and Toya. Those are my two favorite arrangements, I think. So I've got a lot of other ones I'm happy with. Those are the strength of that one for me.

You've worked with so many iconic artists, the Beatles, the BGs, James Taylor, so many. When you look back at those collaborations, what do you think they connected with when you brought your ideas to the table? Well, sometimes you'd go to the studio and it'd be wonderful. But I remember we're going in with Art Garfunkel wants to do some reasons for the breakaway album. There's an album called Breakaway Me. Yeah. And I did string arrangements on that. And art was great.

I mean, he said, hey, Richard, I love all this string arranging, right? But why do you have to move the strings around a lot? So why don't you just hold one note? That's it. Well, wouldn't be much point. It'd be big here if I just put it on one note. That was a funny comment. Another famous story, actually, is I did the big orchestra for Long and Winding Road.

And Paul McCartney didn't know. He and I worked together a lot back in those days. it was 1970, I think. And he and I'd already done stuff together, you know, so he knew me. Right. But he didn't know that had been asked by Phil Spector to do a big arrangement along and why he wrote, because the tape that I got was just him and a piano. Yeah.

That's how he wanted it to be. Nobody told him that we were going to put a big arrangement on it. And I loved it because, you know, when I met Phil, he said, oh, I want you to do a big August, a big August around this one. I said, oh, what do you mean? Sort of eight violins, four cellos, that's my. sort of stand of big orchestra for recording. No, no, I want 22 violins and I want about three halves.

Anyway, so I did put this up. I had a ball, actually, but it was a massive orchestra in E. Myr-Avill Road Studios, and we took it. Sounded great to me, sounded great to everybody in the studio. Yeah. But Paul hadn't heard it. He didn't even know we were doing it. And when he did, he went bananas.

He wrote a letter to Alan Klein, never ever touched my music. He forgave me in the end because we went on and worked together after that. later. But that was one bigger range of that I really loved. He really didn't. Now, in any situation when you're working in the studio, you've got everything worked out. Have you got any interesting stories of places you've produced, arranged, or worked with session players where things were a little bit more different than normal? Well, I did a lot in EMI Abbey Road, number two, the one that goes downstairs. A lot of my big arrangements were done down there.

There's one little studio, a sunny little place, in a place for Clapham, which is in a suburb of London. It was actually, the studio was over a bingo hall where they have a bingo caller. Sometimes you had to stop a take because the sound came up through the floor, and they had a plastic palm tree in there. Oh, it was really classy. So I did an arrangement there for a band called Jigsaw with a huge band. But there was a really great brass section. And they really played so well.

sound engineer really captured it. Brilliant. A funny little studio, nothing like Abby Road, just a little hole in the wall, more or less. But that one had the greatest price section, I think, I've ever had. Now, you've influenced so many people, so many artists, you created your own style. When people look back at your career, what would you like them to take away from it? From the whole career. Oh, gosh, well, it's just the whole career, really. It's been so varied. I think that's probably the one thing that I am amazed even to this day. You know, here we are in 2026 and I've been going on, well, I counted it up 54 years in this business. So I've seen no, you know, acoustic recording, early electronics, more sophisticated electronics, now AI, I've seen

all the changes over the years. Yeah. So each one has a flavor of its own. But I do hanker for the old days when, particularly when I was doing a string orchestra, session. I would go into a studio and knowing there's nothing but strings in there and these guys came in and most of them, most of the string players, the professional string boys and girls, they're older people because they'd

been in the major orchestras probably. They'd come into the studio, I'd have got all my music set up on the music stands and waiting for them to come. And they'd come in and they'd say, Oh, Richard, how you doing? I did it. And then they'd sit down and start talking to each other. Hey, guy, how is the family? How did John? Love you to see you. And I'd be

waiting to conduct, to bring the orchestra in, and I'd go one, two, three, four, and it immediately just play, and the sound would make you cry. It'd make you cry. And it was that, that exciting realization of what you spent the last couple of weeks writing a piece. Because in those days, we didn't have subalius or any proto-tiles or any notation. We had to do pencil on paper. And it literally was writing notes on paper, little dots on paper. They used to say, those guys will play anything you write on that title. And they would. And if there was any mistakes, it would have been my mistake, not theirs, because they never made mistakes.

They'd just played like heaven. It was like heaven. Have you ever been in a situation where everything was just going really fine? It was all planned. It was all worked out. And then all of a sudden, someone makes a mistake. Yeah. It wasn't written this way, but the rest of the group follows them and keeps playing.

Yeah. And it turned out so good, you couldn't change it. Did that ever happen to you? Yeah, quite often. Quite often you make a mistake and you think, oh, that's better than I wrote myself. Yeah, you do. You do get funny moments like that occasionally.

But, no, I was just always amazed. I think my heroes of the music business are the session musicians. They are so great. And they will play anything perfectly first time. I wish I could do it. I'm a terrible player, really. My son's like that. He's a trombonist.

He takes out the live raw band. But he can play anything. He can sit in a symphony orchestra and play the trombone. I couldn't be. No way. Now your son is out there carrying the raw band forward, bringing it to new audiences, and people are discovering it all over again. That has to be a special feeling for you. What's it like seeing something you created live through him?

Oh, I love it. The first two or three gigs he did in the jazz cafe and places in London. I sat in, and I don't know whether you know, but most of the music tracks I write for the Royal Band usually start with an electronic intro. Electronic, in my terms, means synthesizer, not necessarily anything incredibly technical. But it's hugely a synthesized thing.

So I sat in for a few of the gigs and just did the samples at the beginning and then sat back and watched these guys play. They had three girls singers, and they were brilliant. The only thing was it quite big for a touring band. It was a nine-piece band. But the sound is amazing. They really do sound.

like the raub band and it's such a thrill to hear this music. And you think, they're the girls singing those words that I wrote. My goodness me. It's a thrill. It really is. In closing, you've had such a lifetime of working with so many incredible artists. You've built a legacy with the raw band. In the future, when people discover your music again,

what do you hope they feel and take away when they hear it? Well, that's a difficult one. I just hope that I can bring some pleasure to them. know if they like the tunes, you know, if they don't like the tunes, we'll fair enough. The music that I did spend all those years, I still am going to keep going, even though I might be 1999 or whatever it might be. It's just a thrill to make music and people actually, some of them say, I really like that. That is the thrill of it. People like it. Yes, music is powerful. It can take you back to good times, hard times. It's universal language that connects all of us.

When you sit back and think about all you've created and how people are still enjoying it these years later, that should give you a sense of pride and fulfillment. Yes, exactly so, and very much so, and it's quite often the way I find. The last record you made is your favourite. But this album that we've got out now, The Life Without Love After Love, is my favourite, obviously, now,

but I did play it through it. Actually, I played it before we sat down to do this interview, and I thought, actually, I heard people like this, because my heart and soul's in there. It really is. Yeah, and I just think that's so good. Now, how do people find you? Do you have a website so they can follow what you're doing?

Yeah, we've got the Royal Band website, but it's on all the platforms, Spotify, YouTube, the major digital platforms. And I'm hoping, because it's not so fashionable now, but it's getting better, isn't it, the vinyl situation? Now we've got three or four albums out at the moment. You know, old albums, they've been re-putting out on vinyl. And we've got a lovely potwork for this,

album and I'm hoping to persuade them to do a run of vinyl because I'd like one myself. Yeah, I'm hoping it will come out on vinyl soon. Yes, vinyl is definitely making a comeback. It is. Yes, and it's nice because we get to see that people are rediscovering that vinyl has that warm sound when that needle is placed on that final record. Yes, that crackling is. It's got it.

But you could get the sample of that now and put it versus your tracks. I know, but it's not. the same as when we made it, though. It's not the same. No, of course not. Yeah. It's the proof of the feel of the record and the little clunk when the stylus goes onto the track and that music comes out. Magic. Absolutely, it sure is. Well, this has been a pleasure. I've really enjoyed this and very happy you could join us today. Hi, thank you very much. Yes, for having me. It's been interesting to meet you. Yes, same here. It's been really, really nice. Thanks again. Thanks for joining us today. We hope you enjoyed the show.

This has been a Tony Mantor production. For more information, contact media at plateau music.com.