IK: The first, most obvious question is, how did you come to be involved in the making of Yoko's ONOBOX 6-CD set?

BH: Putting out Yoko's music on CD has always been a project I've dreamed about. I had heard of Rykodisc which I knew was a very small label, but a label that cared about their artists. I was incredibly impressed with the packaging and the quality of their David Bowie boxed set ("Sound+Vision") which came out a year or two ago. I felt Ryko would do Yoko's music right.

I knew Yoko wanted to do something with her music because all the albums are out of print, people can't get the material. She'd been looking around for quite awhile, but hadn't found a label that she felt comfortable with. I suggested Ryko, teamed them together and it just worked out. My plan was to just hook them up, but it turned out, because of my knowledge of Yoko's music, I was able to help in a much greater capacity.

IK: You were in the studio when some of these songs were being re-engineered for CD. Were you there for most of it, or just a few songs?

BH: Most of it. Yoko would like to stress that there was very minimal remixing. I think when people who aren't that familiar with Yoko's music listen to the discs, they're going to think that a lot of it was recorded in the late 80's or 90's - very recently. But all Yoko did was take the original multi-track recordings which have each instrument separated and just tweaked them a bit, bringing up the bass, or the keyboard, etc. She worked for months and months in the studio getting the sound right. Yoko knew exactly what she wanted to do with each song and knew what each song needed before she went in.

The sound is incredible compared to the albums. "Woman Power" is a good example. If you listen to the album, then listen to the CD, you'll really be blown away by the difference in the drums and the power of the song. It's completely changed by Yoko's minimal remix.

IK: Another song, one of my favorites, which I noticed was different is "Dogtown." I like the new version better, but was wondering why they decided to include a completely different version of it.

BH: There wasa whole album that Yoko had recorded in late '73, early '74, which was right after "Feeling the Space," using the same musicians with that more jazzy sound. "Feeling the Space" was actually going to be a double album, so there were a lot of extra songs from that. Then when it was cut down to a single album, Yoko took the songs that were left over, plus some new ones in 1974 to make an album called "A Story" which was shelved.

She had done a lot of it when she and John were separated and when they got back together, the timing wasn't right to put it out. People know a number of the songs from "A Story" because Yoko recorded new versions of them later. Some showed up on "Season of Glass," a couple appeared on "It's Alright."

IK! Okay, set the scene behind-the-scenes. You were in the studio and Yoko and Rob Stevens, the engineer, were working on the songs. What were you doing while this was going on?

BH: I was trying to stay in the background, because I know how annoying a backseat driver can be, yelling out opinions. So I basically stayed in the back watching Yoko work and listening to remixes. There were a few times when I would make suggestions about a guitar piece they were missing, for example - then they would dig through the tapes and find it.

I have listened to this music for so many years, nonstop, so I knew every detail about each song. They kept trying to play tricks on me. They'd drop out one cymbal hit or something, then play it back and try to get me to figure out what was wrong. I would always catch it and everyone would freak out. I was basically there as a sounding board for ideas. I think Yoko just liked having another person there who really appreciated her music and had a feeling for the way it should sound.

IK: I noticed in the liner notes that "O'Oh" was written in the early '70's but Yoko just recently recorded the voice track. Why the gap?

BH: Yoko is proud of the fact that she did hardly any overdubs while getting ONOBOX together. There were, however, two or three songs which needed more than a simple remix, and she has pointed them out in the booklet. "O'Oh" was one of these tracks. When she recorded the song back in the early 70's, she never did a final vocal take. The band that was working with her at the time consisted of serious jazz musicians who thought "O'Oh" was a throwaway song that Yoko shouldn't waste her time on. Yoko gave in and shelved it indefintely.

During the beginning stages of ONOBOX, Yoko, Bob Gruen and I were going through Yoko's old tapes picking out songs. When Bob and I heard "O'Oh" we immediately loved it, thinking it was so 90's since 70's funk is making such a big comeback. We really loved the melody and words, so we convinced her to finish it. In fact, it turned out to be a lot of people's favorite and has been included on the single compilation disc.

IK: Do you think that people have had trouble accepting Yoko's music because it's so diverse? Even the Beatles had problems with fans accepting their music at first as each new album would come out with a completely different style. With Yoko, her style changes from song to song - from jazz to rock, ballad to almost opera-style singing. Is she too versatile?

BH: I think that may be a factor. Unfortunately with Yoko, the music she started with was so unpopular, she was so ahead of her time. No one else was doing music like she was doing, so right from the start, when people first saw her, she was doing all the really far-out stuff. I think that image stuck in people's minds. First impressions can be lasting impressions. I think that hurt Yoko's mass appeal because to this day, people who don't know anything about her just remember "Live Peace in Toronto."

IK: She's known as the artist who screams. A lot of ignorant people - ignorant in the uninformed sense - will think ONOBOX is six CDs of a woman screaming.

BH: I think people are going to be surprised that even though Disc One ("London Jam") has that type of music on it, the other five discs are made up of very, for lack of a better word, conventional songs. Songs that are catchy, melodic and accessible.

Versatile is definitely a word I use when describing Yoko's music. "Angry Young Woman" has a country sound, "Woman Power" is hard rock and "Walking on Thin Ice" is disco. I think that's what I've always loved about her is that she does touch on different styles.

IK: As I've been listening to the promotional cassettes, I keep rediscovering songs that I had sort of forgotten about, and they sound so fresh and new.

BH: That's what's great about CDs. Yoko's remixing enhances them of course, but even with just the pure originals that she didn't tweak, the CD digital quality blows you away. It is like hearing them fresh. What a difference it makes going from a scratchy album to a CD.

I want to also point out one thing that I observed about Yoko while working on ONOBOX that really impressed me. This is the first time I had actually spent time in the studio with her and watched her work on music first-hand. I was so impressed with how studio-wise she was and how music-wise about composition and arrangement. She'd be sitting next to me and say, "Oh, we need this harmony part," and then would sing each part of a six-part harmony right off the top of her head. Or she would just write out music scores right in front of me, note by note. I always knew she had an amazing natural and instinctive musical talent, but when it came to music theory, she was so talented and could do anything. I think that would surprise a lot of people in the music world.

IK! You're listed in the 96-page booklet that comes with CD set as Associate Producer of ONOBOOK. What was your involvement with that?

BH: From the beginning of the project, the booklet was always a big concern because we really wanted it to be comprehensive and include as much information about Yoko as possible. We knew it would be the fans buying this so we wanted it to be the definitive discography, with extensive lyrics and musician listings. Yoko and I selected every picture in the booklet. Each one was carefully chosen and researched. The discography is so detailed, it even tells you when things were recorded - maybe even the exact time of day. Everything you would want to know or need to know about Yoko's music is in there.

IK: There have been so many pictures taken through the years. How did you decide which ones to use? Did you have a huge pile of photographs to look through?

BH: Yes, we did. We looked at thousands of pictures, syphoning out ones that we didn't like for whatever reasons. We were very careful with each photograph we picked because we wanted shots that showcased Yoko on her own rather than sitting in the background of a Beatles recording session which is what people have selected to print over the years.

IK: Yoko mentioned to me that she'd done an interview with Kate Pierson..

BH: This is an interesting thing that I am very excited about. Ryko is not looking at this ONOBOX project as a re-issue or "blast from the past" sort of thing. They really want this music to be considered new music. They feel the college radio crowd will embrace the music and take a liking to it.

We were thinking of ways to capture young listeners because we didn't want them to think, "Oh, it's Yoko, the Beatles..that dated '60's stuff." We wanted to present ONOBOX in a way they could relate to. So when Ryko decided to do a promotional interview video, rather than using a journalist, the idea came up to have B-52 Kate Pierson do the interview. The B-52s are huge Yoko fans. There's a big Yoko connection. When John heard "Rock Lobster" he decided to go back into the studio and do "Double Fantasy" so the B-52s played a big role in the Lenono history. They've always said it was Yoko's music that inspired them to start recording.

This was an incredible coup for Ryko to make this work. In January at the Plaza in New York, Yoko and Kate got together and did an interview which was videotaped. (A transcript appeared in Rolling Stone Magazine's March 19, 1992 edition.)

IK: Now that we have it in perspective, from '69 to the present, in your opinion, what has been Yoko's contribution to the music world? What has been her influence?

BH: I think when ONOBOX comes out, Yoko's music is going to be listened to the way it should have been originally: As important, seminal recordings. Her music is so complex and at the same time simple. There's so much going on. I think people will realize what they've been missing for all these years.

Yoko's contribution to contemporary music is really just beginning. But as for her influence so far, I would say it lies in two areas. One being honesty. Yoko has always stayed true to herself as an artist. She's shown that music doesn't have to be sugar-coated or slick to the point that it has no feeling. She always sings what she feels - no pain is too personal or too great to express in music.

IK:Like during the making of "Season of Glass" when her voice cracked from emotional stress and pain - she left the imperfect voicetrack on the record because it was the way she was really feeling at the time.

BH: Right, and it's this stark emotion that makes her material hard for some people to listen to, but on a musical level, it's invaluable. The other area in which she's made an impact is recording technique. She was always trying new things in the studio, working to create new sounds.

For example, when she used a toy raygun to create a backbeat for "It's Alright," the engineers laughed at her. But her ideas always work. She has shown that there are no rules in music. Modern day bands like the B-52s follow her lead. But, pinpointing Yoko's all-around contribution to music is a tough thing to do because as I said, it's just the beginning.

IK: I noticed that she dedicated ONOBOX to Sean. Was he in the studio with her at all?

BH: He was. Sean played a major part in the making of ONOBOX. Every night when Yoko finished at the studio, she would run home and play him the new mixes. He was very honest and gave his opinions.

Sean already has a brilliant mind for music, so his thoughts were invaluable. He's at an age where he really is in tune with what is going on in music. He knows exactly what people are listening to. It's important to Sean that people in his generation listen to and respect his mom's material, so he was very eager to give his input. Yoko and Sean bounced ideas off of each other constantly during the production of ONOBOX - even while designing the actual box. Sean helped out on every level and Yoko was very happy about that.