Daryl Hall has been writing songs for more than 50 years, so it makes sense that he’s stockpiled quite a few ideas along the way.
In fact, as he detailed during an episode of his popular web series, Live From Daryl’s House, he found a box of cassettes of demos and various song fragments going back to 1972. “I don’t know how you wrote, but any idea I’d ever have, I’d put it on a cassette,” he told Glenn Tilbrook of Squeeze, his guest. “I found them all. Hundreds and hundreds of them. Everything. Every idea I’ve had since 1972.”
The songwriter is in the process of having all of the audio transferred, but as he tells UCR in the conversation below, he hasn’t really had a chance to fully dig into the contents yet, though in interesting ways, he’s already finding new inspirations from those treasured analog sources. In the meantime, fans can enjoy his newest solo album, 2024’s D, his latest collaboration with his friend and former Eurythmic, Dave Stewart.
He’s also getting set to head out on the road with Tilbrook for a run of U.S. dates in March and April that will be followed by a special series of performances in the U.K. including his first-ever concert at the Royal Albert Hall.
In a recent Zoom conversation he discussed what he loves about Tilbrook’s songwriting, how his own process has changed over the years and numerous other topics.
How did you first meet Glenn?
Well, we didn’t really meet that long ago, to tell you the truth. I knew Paul Carrack [who had been in Squeeze] and I knew Jools Holland. You know, I’ve known these guys. But I didn’t really known Glenn until he toured with Hall & Oates. We got to know each other a little bit on that tour and it went from there. He came on the show, Live From Daryl’s House, we hit it off and here we are doing it together.
The two of you seem so well-matched, it seems, both as songwriters and music fans, there’s a lot of common ground there.
I do see that. There’s a certain…I’m not necessarily going to put myself in this, but I think his music, there’s a certain sense of intelligence within the pop area, right? Which is few and far between, really, with songwriters. I certainly relate to that. I think I share that to some degree and I bond with him in that way. I really think his music, he has smart music. I like his chord choices and his lyrics, everything, they stick with you in an unusual way.
The last time we spoke, your latest album, D, was still taking shape. It’s a really fascinating listen now that we’re on the other side of that, hearing what you and Dave Stewart emerged with. How much did you go into the process of working with Dave, as far as the album that you had in mind?
Dave and I didn’t really have an idea. We’re friends — we start with that. We’re very close friends. I was at his house in the Bahamas — and since then, I bought a house down there, so we’re neighbors and the whole thing. He has a really nice studio down there. We just said, “Let’s try. Let’s just go for it.” I had a lot of my phrases and titles. You know, little snippets of things in my notebooks. We would both sit there with our guitars or whatever and just throw out things. They became songs [with that process]. I think there’s two or three songs on the album I’d brought to the table. But other than that, we created everything from scratch. We didn’t know what we were doing, we just did it.
You two worked together on Three Hearts in the Happy Ending Machine in the ’80s and prior to that, you’d done the Sacred Songs album with Robert Fripp. It seems like working with Dave must have unlocked some interesting things for you creatively.
Yeah, I mean, I love collaboration. That goes without saying with me. My whole career has been working with different people and I like the result of it. If you work with somebody who is really gifted, something comes out of [the experience] that’s not like working with anybody else. My experience with Robert Fripp and the Sacred Songs album showed me how easy it is to do that kind of thing. It was my first real experience working with somebody from outside of my Philadelphia [roots]. Dave came along and I realized I’d found another person, that he’s a real artistic kindred spirit. We just fit together and it’s just effortless. We just create without thinking about it.
READ MORE: How Bob Dylan Almost Wrote a Song With Daryl Hall
You mentioned your phrases and your notebooks. Every songwriter has their process. How much would you say that yours has changed over the years?
The only thing that’s changed is I don’t write constantly anymore. I used to just sit and constantly be writing, guitar, piano, coming up with ideas, completing them and doing all that. I don’t really do that so much anymore. I come up with ideas, little phrases and thoughts and then when it comes time to put it together, I just pull them all out and see what the result is going to be. So that’s the difference. And there’s a lot of spontaneity, depending on who I work with. With Dave, we were writing a song the other day and he said, “Just give me a word.” I said a word and he gave me a word back. It was one of those kind of things and it can start in any way.
During the dinner with Glenn on the Daryl’s House episode, you spoke about how you found a box In recent times with every songwriting demo and idea you’ve put to tape since 1972. At that time, it was all in the process of being digitized. Now that we’re down the road a bit here in 2025, I wondered what sort of fun things you’ve gotten to revisit as the tapes are being transferred?
Well, they’re still be digitized, believe it or not. I have thousands and thousands of things, so I’ve yet to delve into it. I’ve been saving it and I wasn’t going to do that before I started working on this new album with Dave. But then, I just decided to forget about the stuff I’d already come up with and just go [into the studio] without thinking about it. But the other day, when we were writing the song, I realized the melody that I was coming up with was one of those old melodies that’s on those tapes. It might have been years ago, but it just kind of came to me. I think, unconsciously and subconsciously, I’m using those things without actually even reviewing them yet.
It seems pretty fascinating that you can have something like that emerge in that way.
Yeah, one of the songs from the album, “Break It Down to the Real Thing,” I wrote the melody to the verse in 1988. It came to me when I was rewriting it with Dave, so there’s another version of that.
Listen to Daryl Hall’s ‘Break It Down to the Real Thing’
What do you think the end game is, once you get done with the audio transfers?
I will go through it. I’m sure there’s some little gem of an idea I can use, that’s for sure. I don’t know! I don’t know what I’m going to hear. But I have listened to some of it and I remember every single thing, that’s the weird part. It’s not like, “Oh, did I do that?” No, I remember everything about it. So that’s a little strange too.
Going back to the D album, you were opening your shows last fall with “The Whole World’s Better,” which is a cool tune. What are the origins of that song?
I had the chorus and basics of that song. Then Dave and I fleshed it out. The songs are all personal in their own way. That one started because the person I was in a relationship with was a very difficult person and I knew when she was singing, everything was okay, so the whole world suddenly got better.
You’ve been having a lot of fun with the Daryl’s House vibe of the touring that you’ve been doing recently. It made me wonder if any of these tours give you the chance to write with any of the folks you’re out with.
Not really, no. Because if I’m touring, I’m totally in a separate world. When I’m doing the show, I just don’t have the time to sit with people. But you never know. Something could change and I could call somebody up and say, “You know, we had a good time together, let’s get together.” It’s not something I’ve pursued to tell you the truth.
READ MORE: Daryl Hall Announces Tour With Glenn Tilbrook
The tour with Glenn is going to be a lot of fun. The whole concept finds you jamming on songs like you’ve done with Howard Jones and Todd Rundgren for past outings. Hearing you and Glenn sing things like “Black Coffee in Bed” and “Hourglass” on the Daryl’s House episode, as I mentioned, his songwriting is really well-suited for what you do. As a listener, it felt pretty natural hearing you tackle some of those songs. But how did it feel for you to sing those, from your perspective?
They’re complex. I mean, they’re complex in that, you don’t just open your mouth and sing. You have to really work it out. I had to figure out how I was going to sing it. What harmonies was I going to do with him? All kinds of things like that. “Pulling Mussels (From the Shell),” that’s an interesting song in every way.
Watch Daryl Hall and Glenn Tilbrook Perform ‘Black Coffee in Bed’
You mentioned that you’ve been continuing to write with Dave. Is there a record starting to take shape?
I just came back from hanging out with him for a few weeks and we wrote three songs, so let’s see.
You were also going to do some work with Robert Fripp when we spoke ih 2022. What did you come away with?
Well, Robert and I have remained in contact. But it’s proximity really more than anything. I have a studio house and Robert has left his equipment there, so that speaks volumes.
What’s on tap for the rest of the year besides these tour dates?
Just more of the same, really. I’m going to be touring and doing more Daryl’s House episodes. That’s about it, going to the Bahamas and hanging out here in Connecticut, doing whatever.
Who’s the guest you’re trying to get for Daryl’s House that you still haven’t gotten yet?
You know, I don’t have one. Truly, I don’t have a wish list. It all happens by chance. It’s [about] who is available. Do I like that person? Is he or she available? That kind of thing.
I love what you guys are doing with the show. The dinner segments seem like they’re a really great way to exchange and just be at one with these people as far as the creative process.
Yeah, the dinner segments are amazing. You know, we have to edit a lot of this stuff down, because we’re there for hours and hours. One of these days, I’m going to put together a different edit of just the dinner segments, because so many interesting stories come up.
