Quote:
Originally Posted by CADreaming
Is there a transcript of this somewhere?
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There is now... I assume you're probably more interested in the latter questions but I've transcribed the whole thing anyway. For posterity or just because.
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*saying hello*
B: You're one of those musicians who people, they know you, they grew up with you and then they hear you play guitar, they hear you do something solo, and they're knocked over all over again.
L: Well, you know, it's one thing in the context of the group, generally speaking anyway, where you are a band member and you have to... I mean, I've always tried to be a player who works in the service of the song. And sometimes that playing, it kind of sinks into the fabric of the production. And of course you get out there doing solo work and there's more a chance to kind of step out and do more of the fingerpicking thing by itself often. So yeah, you tend to be able to cover a little more ground that way.
B: Extended Pay is the new release. I just played Sad Angel for our audience. It sounds, you guys just fall right back into the groove and it's so interesting to me because I think about the stories behind Rumours, how long it took to put that together, and now how expedient you guys are -
L: It's ironic, is it not?
B: It's a little ironic. So why -
L: Well, you know, those were different days. Um, I think, you know, there's some little axiom - work expands or contracts given the amount of time you have to do it - and I think there was not only a sense that we had as much time as we needed. And really, Rumours wasn't a year of straight work. We were doing a few months or sometimes weeks and then going back out on the road and... But yes, we were, the making of Rumours was not an efficient process. You have to also look at it through the eyes of that time and the subculture that existed at that time and also the fact that we were still kind of finding our legs in terms of an approach. We had done one album and Rumours was an attempt to break away from some of the constraints of that and to find out our way and we were kind of experimenting around seeing where that was going to go. And if you compare that to now, we've pretty much got our drill down now so there is some, we've been doing this for awhile and I think it's a little easier to fall into what you know you can do.
B: While you do have the drill down, like you said, it has been ten years since we've heard any new Fleetwood Mac music so were you concerned that it wasn't going to go down the way it ended up going down in the studio?
L: Well, you know, I had a lot of new stuff and, um, I was coming off a solo album, Seeds We Sow, and actually had done some one man shows so creative juices were flowing. I wasn't too worried about it. Um, John and Mick are one of the great rhythm sections in rock and when you get that together and give them something interesting to play on, it's always going to turn out. I mean, certainly there was some sense in terms of the production but I wanted to work with someone who was lowkey and would not come in with too much of an agenda. I had had, had never worked with Mitchell Froom before but certainly had had many conversations with him and we had always said we would together sometime. And so he was the perfect, uh, extra element. So no, I mean, sure things can always go not the way you want them to but I was pretty confident about it and we all felt that it was a very appropriate thing to be doing at this point in time, knowing that we were going to be touring. And we knew we wouldn't have time to do a complete album before we started rehearsing but we wanted to make a start and to keep, see where it went. And, you know, if we do an album it'll be, we'll have to complete it after we're done with this tour. Um, but we did want to share some of the music with people now and to try and do a little bit of it onstage. And so it turned out very well on that level.
B: Obviously, the internet has its drawbacks when it comes to copyright issues and intellectual property issues but the flipside is, it must be really nice to have that expediency where you record some music and now it's available to anyone in the world who wants to get a hold of it.
L: Well, that's right and, you know, we've seen the business change a great deal and the model of the large company is in a mess because of that but, you know, we don't really, uh, we're not beholden to that model anymore necessarily and we kind of got in under the wire with that. And we go out and we tour and we do that thing which we've always done. So yeah, it's great to be able to say 'hey, let's put out an EP' and it becomes sort of a non-brainer in terms of making it available and having there be this ease to it. So yeah, it was a good time to do it, I think.
B: Tell me the story behind Without You because I understand that it was a lost song.
L: It was. I mean, uh, there is some disagreement as to when it was written. Stevie's been introducing that onstage, you know, as the nicest song she ever wrote about me *laughs* which is, you know, it may very well be true. Certainly, when that was written, um, our whole set of experiences lay before us and so, you know, we, she, I think it was written after the Buckingham Nicks album in that period of time before we connected up with Fleetwood Mac. She thinks it's a little earlier. Either way, you know, it's a very loving song, it celebrates the idea of the two of us and what that cocktail is when the two of use get together. But, um, yes, it's one of those things that fell by the wayside. It probably would've gone on that second Buckingham Nicks album had we done that. And then the demo of it just kind of lay fallow for years and then I believe it turned it somehow, as things tend to do, on YouTube or somewhere on the internet. And that's how Stevie became aware of it again because I think she'd forgotten about it and she mentioned it to me. And of course I remembered it perfectly and it's one of those things that, it just goes back to, you know, an early, early time and you just don't forget about it and it was a perfect contribution from her for this EP.
B: You mentioned yourself the Buckingham Nicks album. It's funny, I've asked you about it a couple of times and I've asked Stevie about it a couple of times regarding the re-release of the album. And when I ask one of you, you say 'ask the other one' so *Lindsey laughs* are we ever going to see an official re-release of the Buckingham Nicks album which is legendary in status?
L: Well, yeah, I think, you know, that's the irony. Part of the fact that it's legendary is that it's somewhat elusive. And yes, I think there will be a re-release of that on CD officially. Uh, you know, I feel it coming soon, you know. I mean, a lot of what's interesting about Stevie and me is we have our solo work that we do and then we come together in Fleetwood Mac and there are still chapters to be written about Stevie and me after all this time. I mean, it's hard to fathom how that could really be, that we would still be evolving, but that seems to be the case and I think that's one reason it's taken so long for us to come together for figuring out when's a good time to re-release that. Because we are sort of playing hide and see with each other, you know.
B: Well, I know that I have to let you go because you have a tight schedule but you're always fascinating to talk with. The Extended Play EP is out -
L: It's actually called Extended Play. We were just going to call it EP but then we thought the words Extended Play have a certain resonance. You can take it more as, you know, the idea of a play that has these three or four acts which would apply to this group or to Stevie and myself. There's lots of ways you can look at that so we jus left it at that.
B: I like the depth of meaning there. I like it a lot.
L: Yeah, absolutely.
*saying goodbye*