RNW:  (To Kathy)  What kind of emails do you get?

KF:  Um, well, with “I Will Love You” playing on radio, we get a lot of letters about that.  People saying its perfect for my wedding, I proposed to my girlfriend, and we also get, this song reminds me of someone who passed away that I miss and you make me think of them and it makes me happy.  And you’re like, oh my God, it just runs the gamut from extremely happy to extremely, extremely sad stories.  And those kind of letters, you can’t just say “That’s really nice, thank you, love, Fisher.  You really have to read them.  Some times I read them twice to really digest them.  So, I’m really slow.  I either don’t write back, if I can’t answer it in a real way, if I really can’t address it, I’ll wait.  If I have to wait six months to write back, I do, but I won’t pass it on to my assistant.  Its either I answer it with all my heart, or I let it sit for a while.

RNW:  I think that’s cool.

RW:  I’m a Virgo, so I can’t do that.  I gotta get stuff done, like boom, boom, boom.  I’ll be on it tonight.

KF:  Ron gets asked more like technical stuff.  Hey what kind of keyboard did you use on that recording, or . . .

RW:  Actually I just get a lot, we get a lot of compliments these days from people that are getting married.  They’re shorter, but if there’s three or four paragraphs and its real serious, I’ll just yell “Kathy, I’m forwarding you one!”

KF:  And I go “OH NO!”

RW:  You know, if the subject matter will say something really sad . . . 

KF:  Like “My Father’s Funeral”

RW:  Yeah, so I’ll say, this one’s for you honey.

RNW:  So, “I Will Love You,” what was the inspiration behind that?  And, did you write the lyrics (pointing to Karen)?

KF:  Actually, he wrote a couple of the lyrics.  He wrote “Till . . . blank, blank, blank . . . I will love you, love you."

RNW:  Oh, okay.

KF:  Yeah, he said fill it in and I was like, oh no!  Till what, you know?  Till the sun doesn’t shine?  Till the seas run to the shore?  I mean, its all been said, so?  I had two points of inspiration.  First of all, we were submitting it for the “Message In A Bottle” soundtrack, and that is the saddest script I’ve ever read.  I was just sobbing my eyes out.  And then once Ron presented me with the music, and the words till . . . till, I was like, wow!  I need to write the most infinite love I can think of.  I’ve really got to stretch my brain here.  So I thought about people that I knew who had had relationships that lasted until the end of time.   And the only couple I could think of were my grandparents.

RNW:  Those are some of the best examples there are.

KF:  Yeah, so like what would they say if they could, and then I just kind of went from there. 

RNW:  That sentiment really shows in your live performance, and it can apply to anyone.

RW:  When we wrote the original melody and track, at that time she was still working her day job.  So, you know, when you get eight or nine hours alone to really work yourself into kind of a really uninterrupted space . . . you know.  Turn the phones off, you know no one is going to bother you so you dig deep.

KF:  Yeah, we always write separately.

RW:  Ironically, a friend of mine had called me that day.  She (Karen) read me the script.  I don’t like reading scripts at all because like “And the boat goes down and he’s drowning, and [at this point in the scene . . .] it like having a sports announcer during sex.  It’s very distracting but she’ll come in and tell the story.  So, I was really upset about that, but then a friend called me, a guy friend and he’s like “Oh there’s this girl and I love her so much and she just won’t . . .”  And I was really thinking that’s so unique cause guys will go, well, I’m kinda hurt about this, but lets get a beer.

RNW:  I didn’t like her anyway!

RW:  But this guy was practically in tears and it just, so I actually wrote it with him in mind.  I never told him.

RNW:  Does he know now?

KF:  He’s gonna watch me, don’t you tell him!

RNW:  We won’t tell him a thing.  It’s just between us.

RW:  His name is Bob.  We’ll call him Bob.

RNW:  Bob Doe.  Now, you guys are based in LA now, right? 

RW:  Yeah.

RNW:  Is that where you’re from?

KF:  He’s from the Valley, and I grew up in West Virginia.  West, by God, Virginia. 

RNW:  And the musical influences that led you to this?

KF:  Mine are really diverse, so Ron, you go first.

RW:  We can only talk about, well, first of all, Elton John has always been my biggest one.  So being on piano, and like, slamming chords, except for “I Will Love You,” is kind of how I play.  You know, I loved the last Radiohead record and Massive Attack and almost on the verge of harder, more dynamic rock.  Kathy’s influences are totally different.

KF:  Yeah, they run the gamut from Elvis Costello, Tom Waits, Peter Gabriel, Emmy Lou Harris, Crowded House, just all across the board.

RW:  Because guys listen to tracks and women listen to lyrics.

KF:  Yeah, any time, from the youngest age I can remember, when I got a new CD, I came home and the first thing I looked at was the liner notes and read the lyrics.  And if the lyrics were shallow and rhymey, or whatever, I’d be like, this is not going to be a good record.  And it’s interesting, because that’s usually the way it is.  Even artists that write great records, they get tired and their next record is a little like, ah, june moon spoon, here it is.  And you’re like, wow, they went out to lunch on this one.  But always, I remember my brother bought me Ricky Lee Jones’ “Pirates,” and you know, she’s a mumbler.  And I would just sit with the liner notes and . . .

RNW:  Like listening to a Rolling Stones track . . .

KF:  Yeah aaanaaay saaaaaay  yuuuuuu, who sings like that?

RNW/RW:  Bob Dylan!

RW:  See, and as a guy, I like to figure out what the lyrics are.  In fact, there’s that really funny book out now, we were reading it in the studio.

RNW:  There are several now.

RW:  You know, the parodies.  “Since you let me down there’s been penguins jumpin on my bed . . .”  It works for me.

RNW:  There’s like six volumes of that book now.

RW:  Its brilliant.

KF:  I always liked Barry Manilow’s “Looks like tomatoes.”  (Laughing)