Buckingham still going his own way, solo (Q & A)

[MacMan]

Buckingham still going his own way, solo
By Geoff Gehman | Of The Morning Call
October 5, 2008

Lindsey Buckingham's new solo record, "Gift of Screws," is a family album. With a sweetly primal voice, a bucking-bronco/gypsy guitar and sparks of hopeful melancholy, he excavates his soul about being a husband, a father, a member of the human race and a member of a strange species called Fleetwood Mac.

Buckingham, 59, will play solo and Mac tracks on Friday in Reading and next Saturday in Glenside, Montgomery County. During a recent phone interview he discussed musical therapy, his bond with fellow band member and ex-flame Stevie Nicks and the importance of innocence.

Q: You borrowed the title of your new record from an Emily Dickinson poem. What do you like about the phrase "gift of screws"?

A: The title seemed so open to interpretation. It seemed the real meaning was slightly obscured by more crude interpretations, whether it was the school of hard knocks or something more of a sexual innuendo. Probably it hit me on a somewhat visceral level.

You have to turn the screws of a press to get the fragrance from a flower petal. You can't just sit there and watch a rose grow; you have to wring out your own effort and vision. That's a concept I buy into. It's a good overview of a lot of things.

Q: The title track was recorded but not used during the sessions for Fleetwood Mac's "Say You Will" record [2003]. Why didn't it make the final cut?

A: It was actually the other way around. In 2001 I was poised to put out a solo album that included all this material until there was this sort of group will that said: Let's make a studio album. There was, for lack of a better term, a group intervention. If you're a band member who's responsible to the sensibilities of the whole, you have to compromise. All of this material was just sitting there, so I said: Let's give it up.

Q: Your previous record is called "Under the Skin." Here there's a lot of burrowing, too, with a handful of references to "underground" and "Deep down at the end of the season/We will rise from this treason." What's going on with all this excavation of the soul?

A: (Laughs) Well, I think you have to look at what's happened to me in the last 10 to 11 years. When I actually left Fleetwood Mac in '88 or '89 or whenever, it was to regain my sanity. We all had a measure of dysfunction. The stakes were so high following "Rumours" (1977) -- that incredible commercial success. In order to get through what needed to be done on a professional level with the band, you had to compartmentalize your feelings.

I think there was a long period when I was pretty well defended emotionally. It got to the point in my late 40s that I got into a family situation. Turning that corner relatively late made me feel that I had to resurface at a personal level. Obviously, there's a lot of rehabilitation left, and it takes time. Only then can you look back at being submerged -- from on top.

Q: In the song "Underground" you write: "They heard 15 seconds and that was enough/The idea was new but the business was rough/I think I might wander underground." Is that a dig at the record business?

A: It's an interesting phenomeon to have the luxury of being part of a big selling machine like Fleetwood Mac. And to also have the other side, the solo side, which kind of taps into the left side of the palette and is obviously for fewer ears and what that does to your dynamic with the record company. There tends to be a lack of motivation to meet you halfway with the more esoteric things. Probably today that lack of motivation is at an all-time high.

Having seen that first hand, I don't think the large companies can be as imaginative or as nurturing as they once were. I'm talking about how dismissive a company or a body of people can be to something without really knowing what they're dismissing.

Q: Your guitar playing has a definite gypsy flair. I hear it especially in "Precious Time," with all those rippling, spiral-staircasing figures. Do you have an inner Django Reinhardt?

A: Of course I have a regard for his playing. I don't think it played into any of this stuff. Certainly, I'm influenced by classical guitar playing and obviously folk and anything with fingerpicking. Starting young, it was all about finding your own style.

Q: You've said that one of the goals of "Under the Skin" was to pare your fingerpicking down to essentials. What was your major mission on "Gift of Screws"? To be more familiar? To rock out harder?

A: "Under the Skin" was just as much about what I didn't do as what I did. Here, I wanted to tap into the range of what I do, to make it a broader landscape for sure, to refine things I did even before Fleetwood Mac.

Q: You've said that, partly because you don't read music, your musicianship boils down to "a child's curiosity and intuition." Why is it so important to protect your innocence, your child-like intuition?

A: I don't know if it's necessary to protect it. I think if you see people who have been taught [music], one of the things that tends to fall away is the sense of individualism, of possibility. I've even asked people over the years: Do you think it would appropriate for me to take music classes?

Usually the response is that I've gotten to the point where I've done something I can call my own. Looking for something specific, something relevant, might douse my sensibilities, my instincts.

Q: Stevie Nicks has said her nearsightedness made her view the world more romantically, more mystically. You know, you look out during a concert and you see fireflies instead of spectators. Is that wondrous quality one of your bonds with her?

A: I mean, we are both people who have fundamentally a way of doing things without necessarily knowing what they are. I would consider myself a refined primitive, I guess, and she as well. Her process is actually much less refined. I think the bond we had musically was that I could take her basic offerings and see the potential for bringing them into some area and creating what we used to call good record making. Something that was really fundamentally different was "Rhiannon."

That began as just two fingers on a piano, like a little music box.

That was something we were able to do, to have some sort of common ground for an exchange. Let's start here, and I can take it there. Besides providing my own songs, that's my function in Fleetwood Mac.

Q: What's the toughest part about being in Fleetwood Mac?

A: (Pauses) The politics.

Q: What's the best part about being in Fleetwood Mac?

A: (Pauses longer) The money.

Q: What about the big showcase?

A: (No pause) The money.

[michelej1]

That's funny. "The money."

Actually, I think he is nearsighted too. He should be asking himself if that is the true bond he and Stevie had all of these years!

Michele

[sywlindseyfan]

nearsighted in life? or actually nearsighted with their eyes?? I don't understand, haha

[Gazza]

I don't know what's more irritating... lindsey comparing solo projects with painting, and group work with movie making, or articles about Lindsey "going his own way".

[strandinthewind]

Originally Posted by michelej1

That's funny. "The money."

Actually, I think he is nearsighted too. He should be asking himself if that is the true bond he and Stevie had all of these years!

Michele

And they slam La Nicks for her alleged money lust Looks like LB has a little as well

Great interview though in that it was not just the normal questions with canned answers. We need more this!

As for the true bond, I think clearly they both should taken at their word that they have a genuine, longlasting affection for each other. True, it has been tested over the years (estanged sometimes for their very survival) -- but, in the end, I think they are more than the money they make off of each other. I mean look at the lyrics of Say Goodbye - that song clearly expresses emotional pain and raw hurt

Thanks for posting.

[SteveMacD]

Originally Posted by MacMan

I think there was a long period when I was pretty well defended emotionally. It got to the point in my late 40s that I got into a family situation. Turning that corner relatively late made me feel that I had to resurface at a personal level. Obviously, there's a lot of rehabilitation left, and it takes time. Only then can you look back at being submerged -- from on top.

And THIS is why I stayed home tonight. I'm sorry, but somebody needs to tell Lindsey to cut this crap out. Lindsey should spend a week in a homeless shelter, with no access to money or phones, and maybe he'd realize just how good he actually has it and F**K off with the psychobabble.

[strandinthewind]

Originally Posted by SteveMacD

And THIS is why I stayed home tonight. I'm sorry, but somebody needs to tell Lindsey to cut this crap out. Lindsey should spend a week in a homeless shelter, with no access to money or phones, and maybe he'd realize just how good he actually has it and F**K off with the psychobabble.

LMAO - I wish CM were still in the picture. I have this feeling like she'd smack him after he said this

WE LOVE YOU LB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[CADreaming]

Originally Posted by strandinthewind

LMAO - I wish CM were still in the picture. I have this feeling like she'd smack him after he said this

WE LOVE YOU LB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ROFLOL!!!!!!

[michelej1]

Originally Posted by SteveMacD

And THIS is why I stayed home tonight. I'm sorry, but somebody needs to tell Lindsey to cut this crap out. Lindsey should spend a week in a homeless shelter, with no access to money or phones, and maybe he'd realize just how good he actually has it and F**K off with the psychobabble.

Actually, in that particular passage Lindsey is talking about how good he has it, explaining how he was isolated in the past and then was able to unexpectedly get a family in his late forties. He's counting his blessings there, not complaining.

Michele

[GoS]

Originally Posted by Gazza

I don't know what's more irritating... lindsey comparing solo projects with painting, and group work with movie making, or articles about Lindsey "going his own way".

I know, they always use that or "Going Insane" as titles for their articles. Everyone does it. I was just about to complain about that too.

[AliceLover]

Originally Posted by michelej1

Actually, in that particular passage Lindsey is talking about how good he has it, explaining how he was isolated in the past and then was able to unexpectedly get a family in his late forties. He's counting his blessings there, not complaining.

Michele

Right. I thought that was clear. I don't understand why people say things sometimes.

[Lindsey Jr.]

The members of FM have mellowed with age, right? I can imagine that it must've been harsh, heavy, maybe weird, from 1976-1987...

And about the money: maybe he was a bit sarcastic?

[michelej1]

Originally Posted by Lindsey Jr.

The members of FM have mellowed with age, right? I can imagine that it must've been harsh, heavy, maybe weird, from 1976-1987...

And about the money: maybe he was a bit sarcastic?

Totally, the second time when he said it without missing a beat. Like, um, no it ain't the showcase, it's the MONEY!

Michele