For over 30 years, classic rocker Neil Young spearheaded the Bridge School Benefit Concerts, gathering electric groups of artists to play to help raise money for The Bridge School – a pioneering nonprofit that helps children with severe speech and physical impairments through assistive technology.
While that concert series has ended for now, Los Angeles-based production house Cinema Music Group is continuing its spirit with the release of Heart of Gold: The Songs of Neil Young, Vol 1, a collection of Neil Young covers from artists like Fiona Apple, Brandi Carlile, The Doobie Brothers, Eddie Vedder and Mumford & Sons to raise money for The Bridge School.
The founders of CMG, Dave Resnik and Niko Bolas, took some time to discuss with me the process and challenges of putting together this incredible first volume of covers.
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Indy Review: For years Neil Young has raised money for The Bridge School with his famed benefit concerts. What sparked the idea to create this tribute album as a new charitable endeavor for Bridge School?
Cinema Music Group: The Benefit concerts ran for almost 30 years until 2016. They really were an example of how important music can be. They brought everyone together for such a good cause and they felt like a celebration. When we set out to make this record I think we were trying to hold on to that and keep the same excitement and energy from those concerts. We carried that with us into every recording session right up to the sequencing, the artwork etc.
We just had a launch party the other week at the Village Studios in Santa Monica where we recorded parts of the record. We had a few artists from the album performing through the evening and it felt like those Bridge School concerts again. So many people in one room celebrating a good cause. There’s something about feeling that kind of energy in one room, you can’t get that same feeling anywhere else. Music does powerful things
IR: How involved was Neil in the album? Did he get involved from the start, or did he come in later as artists began to submit their covers?
CMG: We had Neil’s blessing to cover his songs for this record but for the most part we were on our own.
IR: Who was the first artist you reached out to contribute to the album?
CMG: Brandi Carlile was the first artist we approached back in April 2023. It took a long time to coordinate our schedules, she was very busy and touring alot but Brandi was in from the start. We eventually had her finished song in hand and mixed sometime around June 2024. So that was long process but definitely worth the wait! In terms of our first finished track, we were recording with Chris Pierce for his album Let All Who Will (September 2023) and ended up recording “Southern Man” during those sessions. Between our initial conversations with Brandi and hearing Chris’ finished track, I think they both ended up sparking the whole idea for us of making Heart of Gold to benefit the Bridge School.
IR: You gathered a great assembly of different artists for this album. How did you decide which would be on this first volume and which would go on the second? Is there any kind of thematic or musical thruline for each compilation?
CMG: With great difficulty! We listened to everything multiple times in multiple sequences. Eventually we played Brandi Carlile’s version of “Philadelphia” first and everything naturally kind of fell into place from there!
IR: Did the artists pick which songs they wanted to cover? Was there any conflict with some artists wanting to cover the same track?
CMG: We shared a master list with new artists we approached. We didn’t have any conflict with multiple artists wanting to record the same song. Neil’s catalogue is so extensive, there’s just so many good songs and I think all the artists really leaned in to that and picked songs that they really felt connected with. We ended up with two different versions of “Heart of Gold” which was perfect for the title track, so there will be another version of that on Volume 2.
IR: What kind of thought goes into the sequencing of an album like this?
It was really difficult. There’s so many talented artists singing so many incredible songs. We started thinking about sequencing for this record before we’d finished recording. Then we had multiple meetings with our distributor where we tried and played different variations of the record. We listened to everything a lot!
IR: As the mission for this album is to help raise money for a good cause, how do you tackle marketing it to create awareness without spending a lot of money?
CMG: It’s a benefit record and the artists are all helping to spread the word as well. A lot of creating awareness for this project is via word of mouth.
IR: What was the biggest challenge in putting this tribute together?
CMG: Scheduling. There’s been so many people involved and it was difficult for us to get everyone together in the same room at times.
IR: Outside of raising money for Bridge School, what do you hope listeners take away from this collection in how they view Neil Young’s incredible songs and songwriting?
Because there’s such an eclectic mix of artists on this record I guess it would be cool if some listeners discovered Neil’s for the first time. Or perhaps someone knows “Heart of Gold” but has never heard “Lotta Love” before and this is a way to introduce them to more of his work. Like any songwriter, his songs are a peek in to what he’s really like and I think the Bridge School is such an important mission for him. It’s a huge part of Neil’s legacy and it’s impossible to ignore it.
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Heart of Gold: The Songs of Neil Young, Vol 1 is out now on Killphonic Records. Volume 2 will most likely drop this fall.
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