The Fleetwood Mac Influence

Andy Man · #1 03-29-2015, 04:57 PM

Lately, I can't help but hear a great deal of Fleetwood Mac-inspired harmonies, production, and songwriting from a great deal of indie and alternative artists. I'm not sure if it simply because I've been listening to the Mac for a while, but I highly doubt it is accidental. The Rumours era has had a tremendous amount of influence over artists for a while, however I think it is at an all time high in terms of obviousness.

So, what groups or artists do you hear the Mac in?

Lately, the new James Bay record just screams FM on a number of tracks. I hear the harmonies of the Mac, guitar playing and piano like Lindsey and Christine, and overall production as well (though not to same extent as the performing).

I could make an extremely long list of work from a number of artists/bands that I can spot FM inspiration in.

Where have you heard the ongoing musical influence of the band?

**SisterNightroad** · #2 03-30-2015, 04:17 AM

Rolling Stone in January published an article of all the contemporary bands most influenced by Fleetwood Mac: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/li...#ixzz3OuDCvlgU
And recently Afghan Whigs sampled Tusk for their new song I am fire: https://youtu.be/b-AZ07Goa5Q

michelej1 · #3 03-30-2015, 01:11 PM

[From an article on the Dead Saras]

The Village Voice by Katherine Turman, March 30. 2015

http://blogs.villagevoice.com/music/...o_meet_you.php

With any luck, Pleasure to Meet You will find its audience — and, as Armstrong is wont to do, they'll stage-dive into that audience as well, buoyed by a growing legion of fans. Despite the Epic debacle, Dead Sara's confidence and chops are booming. "My rig has doubled in size from our first record to Pleasure to Meet You. I dance around a pedal board bigger than my body!" notes Medley, who has been playing since the age of eight, and cites influences ranging from Nirvana to Johnny Cash to T. Rex to Tupac.

One such influence would be Fleetwood Mac, whose 1979 song "Sara" gives the band their name. While women like Stevie Nicks and Christine McVie paved the way for female rockers, Armstrong and Medley are impervious to sexism and gender. "I'm a musician. It's all I've ever cared about and it's all I've ever wanted to do," states Medley. "I'm in a band with two guys who treat me as an equal. We make music that we love. I don't have the time or energy to be bothered by people's ignorance about gender."

michelej1 · #4 03-30-2015, 01:15 PM

[From a review of Follakzoid III album]

Spin, March 30, 2015 by Andrew Unterberger

http://www.spin.com/reviews/follakzoid-iii/

The best way to describe album centerpiece "Piure" — and to an only slightly lesser extent, III on the whole — may be to recall the 15 or so seconds of Fleetwood Mac's "Gold Dust Woman" before Stevie Nicks' vocal enters: the arid production, the evil tangle of guitar, the forebodingly tapping beat. Now extend that to 13 minutes. If that sounds frustrating to you, or even maddening, keep III at a comfortable distance. But if that sounds mysterious and exhilarating (albeit completely terrifying), that might be as exciting a musical prospect as you'll encounter this year. Why wouldn't you want to hear the first few steps of trepidation from the "Gold Dust" intro turned into an entire walkabout in the great unknown?

FuzzyPlum · #5 04-01-2015, 01:05 PM

Well I wouldn't say there's any evidence of direct influence on his music but George Ezra cites Rumours as a masterpiece;

http://www.musictimes.com/articles/3...-interview.htm

Besides your own, what albums would you pack away on your voyage?
There are some albums that I consider masterpieces, very few, but there are one or two, like Paul Simon’s Graceland or Rumours by Fleetwood Mac. I’d have to have a Tom Waits album in there somewhere.

I don't know whether he's established himself anywhere outside the UK yet. His voice is absolutely incredible- sounds more like a deep south blues man than a 21 year old Englishman.

michelej1 · #6 04-08-2015, 12:55 PM

[Excerpt from an interview with Kathleen Ossip, a poet]

Huffington Post, April 6, 2015 by Jonathan Hobratsch

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jonath...b_6997372.html

I knew I wanted a lot of texture in this book: I wanted to look at death from all sorts of angles, via all sorts of forms, stances. The whole time I was writing it I kept thinking of my all-time favorite album, Fleetwood Mac's Tusk. It's an album with three very different singer/songwriters, so the songs by Lindsey Buckingham are deliberately crudely produced and raucous, very anti-mainstream at the time, but then you also have Stevie Nicks's country- and folk-based songs, and Christine McVie's honey-voiced bluesy pop. But they're all in the service of exploring this one grand theme (heterosexual romance and heartache). I never get tired of it, and I wanted that sort of ranginess for The Do-Over, which includes rhymed poems, a short story, syllabics, sequences, a mini-essay, etc.

**SisterNightroad** · #7 06-09-2015, 07:03 AM

The Beastie Boys Discuss Their Fleetwood Mac Influence (Radio.com Minimation)

"Rumours" or "Tusk," which Fleetwood Mac album is better? That's what the Beastie Boys debate in this interview from 2007, where they were promoting their all instrumental album, The Mix-Up.

Read more here: http://radio.com/2015/05/11/beastie-...ac-minimation/

Radio.com Minimation: The Beastie Boys’s Fleetwood Mac Debate. You'll never guess what album influenced 'The Mix-Up.'
May 11, 2015 8:03 AM
By Brian Ives

On Minimation, we comb through the CBS Radio interview archives and animate interviews with legendary artists. In this interview from 2007, the Beastie Boys take on the timeless debate of which Fleetwood Mac album is better: Rumours or Tusk?
If you’ve ever had the opportunity to talk to all three Beastie Boys together (that is Mike D, Adam Yauch and Adam Horovitz), you’ll appreciate this episode of Minimation. The experience was akin to herding cats.
By 2007, when this interview took place, it was well known that that’s how talking to the Beastie Boys would go. Asking what inspired their then-new, all-instrumental album, The Mix-Up, probably never had a chance of getting any legitimate answer. Adam Yauch’s answer, that they were influenced by Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours, should probably be taken with twelve grains of salt; as should the ensuing debate over whether or not Mike D prefers Tusk to Rumours, which included shout outs to the Clash and Electric Light Orchestra.
As someone who has interviewed the Beastie Boys together, I can promise you that this is exactly what interviewing them was like. It was difficult, frustrating, fun in the way that a roller coaster that you can’t wait to get off of is fun. And I wish I could have interviewed them one more time. R.I.P. Yauch.

He's So Unusual · #8 06-15-2015, 01:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FuzzyPlum

Well I wouldn't say there's any evidence of direct influence on his music but George Ezra cites Rumours as a masterpiece;

http://www.musictimes.com/articles/3...-interview.htm

Besides your own, what albums would you pack away on your voyage?
There are some albums that I consider masterpieces, very few, but there are one or two, like Paul Simon’s Graceland or Rumours by Fleetwood Mac. I’d have to have a Tom Waits album in there somewhere.

I don't know whether he's established himself anywhere outside the UK yet. His voice is absolutely incredible- sounds more like a deep south blues man than a 21 year old Englishman.

He seems like such a cool, easy-going guy. He tweeted about his family going to see Fleetwood Mac, but he couldn't go because of work commitments.

pauls90 · #9 06-16-2015, 10:51 AM

Empire of the Sun, The War on Drugs, Florence and The Machine, Lykke Li, just to name a few!!

SorcererJP · #10 06-16-2015, 11:37 AM

These are the Dutch " Common Linnets", last years runner up at the Eurovision Songcontest.

Their most recent single, reminds me a lot of Fleetwood Mac:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOlPVr4ZVFU

James89 · #11 06-16-2015, 12:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SorcererJP

These are the Dutch " Common Linnets", last years runner up at the Eurovision Songcontest.

Their most recent single, reminds me a lot of Fleetwood Mac:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOlPVr4ZVFU

I know what you mean. That mix between the guitar and bass sounds very similar to the Mac.

wheart · #12 06-16-2015, 01:50 PM

Angus and Julia Stone's second record, Down The Way, is very reminiscent of Fleetwood Mac, Rumors/Tusk era.

He's So Unusual · #13 06-17-2015, 01:50 AM

johnnystorms · #14 06-17-2015, 02:21 AM

I still contend that even back in 2011 Foster the People's "Pumped Up Kicks" sounds like a Mirage track, most notably the harmonies and bass lines. Obviously the actual lyrics are another story

michelej1 · #15 06-18-2015, 02:45 PM

Gigwise Thursday 18th June 2015 by Alexandra Pollard

http://www.gigwise.com/news/101223/h...-fleetwood-mac

Hurts' 'surprising' new album inspired by Fleetwood Mac

Surrender is due for release later this year

Hurts have cited Fleetwood Mac, Steely Dan and Motown as influences on their forthcoming new album, saying, "We decided to see how things would turn out if we enjoyed ourselves."

The duo's first two albums - Happiness and Exile - were recorded in Manchester. For their third, Surrender, they split their time between Ibiza, LA, New York and the Swiss Alps - the effect of which they say made their music notably lighter.

"It was quite a dark time making the last record," Theo Hutchcraft told NME, "and the content was quite reflective of our state, but once we'd finished it and exorcised the demons our mood shifted quite a lot."

The band launched Surrender with an intimate show at London's Scala this week - read our review here.

He continued, "This time we decided to see how things would turn out if we enjoyed ourselves and went to some exciting places. It made us look outwards for the first time in a long time. The second record was very internal and very intense so we craved the opposite. Now, at this stage in our lives, to make a record that would sound as dark as the second or as melancholy as the first wouldn't be a true reflection of us. That's not to say it's all a barrel of laughs though; we're still drawn to the darker side."

He also revealed that the album was influenced by Fleetwood Mac, Steely Dan and "the backing singers and gospel choirs" of Motown, saying that the LP will "delight and surprise people in equal measure."