Lindsey interview in Guitar World

[bombaysaffires]

Lindsey's on the cover of Guitar World Aug 2017 edition. There's a fair bit of technical guitar stuff in the article but some interesting bits about the band etc. We get the usual karmic, circular thing about Christine, and that blasted burning all her bridges nonsense.

I will try and post pics of it tonight or tomorrow when I'm home but some quotes I found interesting:

He talks about working on Chris's songs:

"I did the same kind of thing with Stevie's songs as well. But the thing about Stevie is she's not a musician per se. She's a singer and someone who will write lyrics on a page. And she doesn't have much to do with it beyond that, in terms of the process of evolving it into a record. Christine, on the other hand, is so grounded in her musicianship, and the sensibilities that go along with that, that she and I were really able to share the whole evolution af any particular song. She appreciated and wanted to be a part of that process, and would often have things to add. So I think that's a lot of what we have in common. It definitely helps to establish and maintain a camaraderie. It was always there, but it was never tapped into in this context."

About this possibly being a FM album:

" We probably had a few conversations about getting Stevie involved. But I think that kept getting countermanded by the feeling that this really wanted to be a duet album. I don't think anyone seriously considered calling it a Fleetwood Mac album with only four out of the five band members on it. That just didn't seem right."

Asked if he and Christine share the same musical interests:

"I don't know if there really is any, in terms of what's out there on the radio. All the songs I would listen to and talk about, I don't think she'd have heard. She wouldn't know who Vampire Weekend was. Anything at all that's sort of young and current. Not to say she wouldn't enjoy it. But she hasn't pursued that."

About Feel About You:

"She'd written a second song on the album, Feel About You, as very much a standard Fleetwood Mac-y kind of ting. And I was trying to retool it and make it feel a little more modern in a way she couldn't wrap her head around at first. But then people would come in and really love it, and she started to understand".

Where does this record fall in the big machine--small machine continuum?

"That's a very good question. Where does it fall? It's certainly not as experimental as what I would be doing on my own. Because John and Mick are also on it, it has a Fleetwood Mac kind of feel. So I guess pitfalls more toward the big machine in that sense. But I think songs like Sleeping Around the Corner and Love Is Here to Stay are probably a bit more off to the side. They probably make it a little 'smaller'. I think there's really something to be said for there being two authors as well. It changed the whole equation of what it adds up to. I'm not sure I can be too objective about what it is. But it allows a little more of each of our ranges to come into play in a way I think is really healthy. So maybe it's the medium machine."

[Frankenstein]

About this possibly being a FM album:

" We probably had a few conversations about getting Stevie involved. But I think that kept getting countermanded by the feeling that this really wanted to be a duet album. I don't think anyone seriously considered calling it a Fleetwood Mac album with only four out of the five band members on it. That just didn't seem right."

I'm sure everyone did... except Stevie's lawyers...

[bombaysaffires]

I think Stevie would take great exception to his comments that she doesn't get involved in the production of her songs. That was the whole reason she did the documentary film with Dave Stewart, to show that she DOES get involved-- she always said that the FM films always just portray her as sitting on the couch or whatever while he does the work. He's not been especially welcoming of her input for many years in FM. She was absolutely involved in the musical arrangement of her material on IYD and other solo work.

I would like to hear Feel About You the way Chris wrote it before he messed with it and make my own mind up about which is better.

[BombaySapphire3]

About Feel About You:

"She'd written a second song on the album, Feel About You, as very much a standard Fleetwood Mac-y kind of ting. And I was trying to retool it and make it feel a little more modern in a way she couldn't wrap her head around at first. But then people would come in and really love it, and she started to understand"."

I knew he had really tampered with this one ..He should have left it alone and let Christine be Christine.

[secondhandchain]

I disagree. That's all we would've been very very boring without any interesting production.

[BLY]

I knew he had really tampered with this one ..He should have left it alone and let Christine be Christine.


No! Then it would have been a Christine "solo" track. Her songs are so amazing with Lindsey's involvement. Christine is and has been the first to admit that.

[sue]

[QUOTE=bombaysaffires;1212618]Lindsey's on the cover of Guitar World Aug 2017 edition. There's a fair bit of technical guitar stuff in the article but some interesting bits about the band etc. We get the usual karmic, circular thing about Christine, and that blasted burning all her bridges nonsense.



About Feel About You:

"She'd written a second song on the album, Feel About You, as very much a standard Fleetwood Mac-y kind of ting. And I was trying to retool it and make it feel a little more modern in a way she couldn't wrap her head around at first. But then people would come in and really love it, and she started to understand"




I don't know if he means to be or even if he knows that he does it....BUT..
He sounds very patronising here.
Implying that she couldn't quite get into his rejigged Feel About You...
until other people loved it...
Perhaps it was better before he "retooled" it..

[AncientQueen]

He sounds patronizing from the first sentence to the last. I've heard Stevies and Christines demos and both did more than Lindsey gives them credit for, like composing, adding a melody and a hook. It's not that Stevie wrote lyrics on a sheet and he build Sara around it or that Everywhere wasn't a perfect little gem before Lindsey got his hands on it.

[BombaySapphire3]

No! Then it would have been a Christine "solo" track. Her songs are so amazing with Lindsey's involvement. Christine is and has been the first to admit that.

she is a more accomplished pop songwriter than he.It sounds like she was unhappy with the result but went along with it. She was correct .It is does not work as a song and is the only one that I always skip on the album.

[bombaysaffires]

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[bombaysaffires]

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[bombaysaffires]

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[bombaysaffires]

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[ViscountViktor]

Beautiful circular karmic thing :] *drink*

Feel About You would still have the same crap lyrics, at least the marimba makes it a bit funky.

[Frankenstein]

Beautiful circular karmic thing :] *drink*

Feel About You would still have the same crap lyrics, at least the marimba makes it a bit funky.

Yeah. The catchy music is what makes the lyrics bearable. I don't think any production style could save those clunkers.

[BLY]

she is a more accomplished pop songwriter than he.It sounds like she was unhappy with the result but went along with it. She was correct .It is does not work as a song and is the only one that I always skip on the album.


I agree she is a fantastic pop songwriter....but have you read or watched any of these interviews? She likes what Lindsey does with her songs.

[BombaySapphire3]

I agree she is a fantastic pop songwriter....but have you read or watched any of these interviews? She likes what Lindsey does with her songs.

Yeah I did read Lindsey's quote regarding Feel About You. She seemed unsure about him dressing the song up to sound like modern pop much of which is tuneless with no discernible melody IMHO.

[blinker12]

I knew he had really tampered with this one ..He should have left it alone and let Christine be Christine.

LOL at the word "tamper" - that's perfect.

I appreciate Lindsey and love many of his songs on the album, but this interview reveals what can make him so obnoxious. He talks like he's God's gift to Mac's women songwriters who don't really know what they're doing (though Christine's a little better because she plays an instrument). On the contrary, I think he massively overproduced both "Feel About You" and "Game of Pretend" (those chorus backing vocals, shudder). They, and some of Stevie's songs on SYW, would've been better off without him.

[AncientQueen]

LOL at the word "tamper" - that's perfect.

I appreciate Lindsey and love many of his songs on the album, but this interview reveals what can make him so obnoxious. He talks like he's God's gift to Mac's women songwriters who don't really know what they're doing (though Christine's a little better because she plays an instrument). On the contrary, I think he massively overproduced both "Feel About You" and "Game of Pretend" (those chorus backing vocals, shudder). They, and some of Stevie's songs on SYW, would've been better off without him.
AMEN!
Interviews like this makes me more understanding for Stevies position towards going into the studio with FM.

[Phil]

The reality is that Stevie has been co-producing her solo work for quite some time, despite the horde of big-name producers credited over the years. I believe she has consistently sought guidance in order to realise her ambitions but as she has remarked many times, her original visions didn't always come to fruition. I think she's always had a keen idea of how she wanted her songs to sound but rarely had the focus or confidence to do it without assistance in the past.
Despite the Trouble In Shangri-La album having multiple producers listed, I think it was around that time she began to have a lot more control in terms of how the songs were shaped and overall quality control. It is quite apparent that the In Your Dreams and 24KG albums have her stamp all over them, albeit with Dave Stewart's obvious influence and assistance.
The point I'm making here is that Stevie no longer wants to be at the mercy of Lindsey as a producer. It is clear she harbours resentment towards him for all sorts of reasons but she simply didn't care for the way her songs turned out on the Say You Will album. Of course, not all the blame can be attributed to Lindsey - Stevie was absent for much of the recording and when she was present, she seems to have taken a passive stance (ie she did what she's always done and bitches after the fact). However, I think she's determined that this can not happen again so has chosen to refrain from any future involvement in Mac recordings. (Consider the Extended Play tentative involvement - which may have been an experiment on her part - that did not translate to anything of artistic merit or commercial success. The less than desirable results would have served to fortify her beliefs that Lindsey is not the producer for her these days.)
Stevie also must realise that Lindsey and Christine have a far more intuitive musical connection than she could ever achieve with either of them these days so it's perhaps in everyone's interests to remain apart, creatively speaking. This saddens me because I think they could still make one last great album together and I sense Stevie's absence throughout the LB/CM album, which essentially is a Mac album sans Stevie and a clear vision/focus (in my opinion, the album is both over and under produced, with lyrical and stylistic references to Stevie throughout).

[elle]

Yeah I did read Lindsey's quote regarding Feel About You. She seemed unsure about him dressing the song up to sound like modern pop much of which is tuneless with no discernible melody IMHO.

Haha I seem to recall everyone having problems with too much melody on feel about you.... so which is it?

Frankly I give much more credence to their joint interviews and what they describe there as their working process when you can hear their intonation and see facial expressions than interviews that you can just read. I mean we could clearly hear Chris say little lies and yet it was transcribed as landslide.

[GypsySorcerer]

I appreciate Lindsey and love many of his songs on the album, but this interview reveals what can make him so obnoxious. He talks like he's God's gift to Mac's women songwriters who don't really know what they're doing (though Christine's a little better because she plays an instrument). On the contrary, I think he massively overproduced both "Feel About You" and "Game of Pretend" (those chorus backing vocals, shudder). They, and some of Stevie's songs on SYW, would've been better off without him.

I love Lindsey to death (and really enjoy the Buckingham/McVie album), but he is a pompous ass. And this interview was one of the worst. If I were Christine, I'd be chucking another glass of wine in his face.

[HomerMcvie]

I think FAY is the ultimate CHEESE FEST!

I'd be embarrassed for strangers to find me listening to it.

That said, I'm completely hooked on it! Melodious AF!

[blinker12]

I love Lindsey to death (and really enjoy the Buckingham/McVie album), but he is a pompous ass. And this interview was one of the worst. If I were Christine, I'd be chucking another glass of wine in his face.

Interviews like this makes me more understanding for Stevies position towards going into the studio with FM.

Exactly. If I'm Stevie, selling out arenas on my own and with seemingly every week bringing a hip new admirer wanting me to record songs with them -- why in the heck am I going to work with someone who thinks of me as a "singer who writes lyrics on a page" and "doesn't have much to do with the end product beyond that"? I mean, we have empirical evidence through hundreds of demos that she plays and writes both chord progressions and melodies. :shrug:

Getting out of your comfort zone is one thing. Enduring a coworker's lack of respect is entirely another.

(And even if she were "just" a singer - singers are musicians. They may not be instrumentalists, but they're musicians.)

[button-lip]

Exactly. If I'm Stevie, selling out arenas on my own and with seemingly every week bringing a hip new admirer wanting me to record songs with them -- why in the heck am I going to work with someone who thinks of me as a "singer who writes lyrics on a page" and "doesn't have much to do with the end product beyond that"? I mean, we have empirical evidence through hundreds of demos that she plays and writes both chord progressions and melodies. :shrug:

Getting out of your comfort zone is one thing. Enduring a coworker's lack of respect is entirely another.

(And even if she were "just" a singer - singers are musicians. They may not be instrumentalists, but they're musicians.)

She doesn't have to work with Lindsey, but the thing is he's the producer, and she's a "singer who writes lyrics on a page". I don't think it's disrespectful to say that. She can do it maybe better than other members of the band.

She can walk away from the band whenever she wants to. Like you said, she's selling arenas on her own, so I don't understand why she's still working with a person who disrespects her so much. It's not like she owns them anything.

But the thing is she's still there. :shrug:

Do you honestly believe the reason she refused to record another album was Lindsey? Give the woman a bit more credit.

[bombaysaffires]

well the funny thing is, Christine is also someone who "writes lyrics on a page". In one of her video'ed interviews before leaving the band she is talking about her songwriting and says she's "always jotting lyrics on bits of paper" and "leaving them lying about the house" she says she is "totally organized in every other area of my life but that" ... and while Stevie has come to rely on cowriters more and more over the years to compensate for her lack of musical skill and limited number of chords she can play, make no mistake that she wrote and still writes the melodies to her stuff.

As for why she won't do another Mac album, Lindsey *is* the biggest reason. I don't know why people have such a hard time with that. He takes too long to make a record and his style is too tedious for her. She's far more social, and she needs an audience even when making a record-- her friends, celebrities dropping by, etc. He works in a far more solitary, serious fashion. Major clash. She doesn't find his way fun (and neither does John, who makes no bones about how tedious it is working on the same tracks over and over and over-- see even as recently as the DR doc) and he finds her way too scattered. After a zillion years you get sick of it. (from both sides)

[button-lip]

well the funny thing is, Christine is also someone who "writes lyrics on a page". In one of her video'ed interviews before leaving the band she is talking about her songwriting and says she's "always jotting lyrics on bits of paper" and "leaving them lying about the house" she says she is "totally organized in every other area of my life but that" ... and while Stevie has come to rely on cowriters more and more over the years to compensate for her lack of musical skill and limited number of chords she can play, make no mistake that she wrote and still writes the melodies to her stuff.

Like I said, I didn't find the comment disrespectful at all. Every songwriter "writes lyrics on a page". The thing is Lindsey can't open his mouth and say something about Stevie without being interpreted as an insult to her person.


As for why she won't do another Mac album, Lindsey *is* the biggest reason. I don't know why people have such a hard time with that. He takes too long to make a record and his style is too tedious for her. She's far more social, and she needs an audience even when making a record-- her friends, celebrities dropping by, etc. He works in a far more solitary, serious fashion. Major clash. She doesn't find his way fun (and neither does John, who makes no bones about how tedious it is working on the same tracks over and over and over-- see even as recently as the DR doc) and he finds her way too scattered. After a zillion years you get sick of it. (from both sides)

Well, that's a matter of opinion and style, I guess. I prefer his working method than hers. I don't need an audience while working, and I need to go through things over and over again.

To each their own, I guess. If she doesn't want to work with him anymore, she could have asked for a second producer just for her songs. I believe she has that power on the band.

I think the biggest reason for her refusal is that she doesn't have anymore songs. If Lindsey was/is the reason, she would have said it.

[dreamsunwind]

To each their own, I guess. If she doesn't want to work with him anymore, she could have asked for a second producer just for her songs. I believe she has that power on the band.

I think the biggest reason for her refusal is that she doesn't have anymore songs. If Lindsey was/is the reason, she would have said it.

Well she did kind of say it, that their styles are in very different directions in an interview around end of last year.

But I think it's a little bit of both. I don't think she has much new songs. I've said this before, but I believe (and of course it's only my opinion) any new music she puts out (and the movie song that she didn't even write does not count) will be like 24KG. Decades old demos rehashed into songs. I don't think we'll be getting anything actually NEW from her anymore. I could be wrong, but this is just what I think. And I think the fact that she doesn't really have new songs to contribute (whereas Chris and Lindsey were writing most of the songs for the album) is also what steered her away.

[dreamsunwind]

The reason Stevie Nicks is still in Fleetwood Mac despite the fact that she can sell solo tours well is because it is completely undeniable that Fleetwood Mac has always been and always will be the bigger part of her career. Stevie did establish her own successful solo career, and sure when BD came out it probably even eclipsed Mirage, but she's not Paul McCartney. Fleetwood Mac is the name of that big legendary band, over time they developed that certain status. Fleetwood Mac is the band that released Rumours and Tusk. Fleetwood Mac is that iconic name people associate with the 70s. Fleetwood Mac's songs are much more popular than the large majority of her most popular solo songs. Most of the people who aren't too familiar with Stevie just know her as 'from Fleetwood Mac'. After her star fell, it was getting back together with Fleetwood Mac for The Dance that was huge, and brought her back (and this applies to the rest of them as well). It would be completely bizarre if she left Fleetwood Mac.


** I just realized this looks random, I meant to reply to the "why is she still in the band" point that was being discussed.

[David]

I love Lindsey to death (and really enjoy the Buckingham/McVie album), but he is a pompous ass. And this interview was one of the worst.
Every time he talks to the press, it's nothing but pop-psychology platitudes and New Age jargon. In that recent TV interview he did with Christine before an audience, some kid would ask him a question all eagerly, and he'd answer with New Age jargon, and you could just see that poor kid's face drooping.

Also, I think it's a self-defeating mistake to expect every arrangement he makes of another band member's song to be great. He obviously wants everything to be great, but that's unreasonable, despite his orchestrational savvy. From time to time, he's going to take a demo from one of the women that we all love, and crap it up with a production misfire. There's actually nothing terribly rotten about that. What band's work doesn't have clinkers? Lindsey's real value as a producer and orchestrator for Christine and Stevie is to refashion those demos into something nobody expected. If you want to bring your demos intact to the public all the time, then you can make yourself an entire career of doing albums exactly like "24 Karat Gold" and "Christine McVie" (1984). Imagine if the Fleetwood Mac catalogue since 1975 looked entirely like that. Pleasant, but ho-hum. You've got to give somebody with the forward-looking vision that nobody else sees the opportunity to fail once in a while.

[AncientQueen]

^^^I see his contributions, but still find his way of talking down Stevies and Christines contributions down is a real problem. It's not about what he does for the band, it is about how he talks about it.

[bombaysaffires]

Every time he talks to the press, it's nothing but pop-psychology platitudes and New Age jargon. In that recent TV interview he did with Christine before an audience, some kid would ask him a question all eagerly, and he'd answer with New Age jargon, and you could just see that poor kid's face drooping.

Also, I think it's a self-defeating mistake to expect every arrangement he makes of another band member's song to be great. He obviously wants everything to be great, but that's unreasonable, despite his orchestrational savvy. From time to time, he's going to take a demo from one of the women that we all love, and crap it up with a production misfire. There's actually nothing terribly rotten about that. What band's work doesn't have clinkers? Lindsey's real value as a producer and orchestrator for Christine and Stevie is to refashion those demos into something nobody expected. If you want to bring your demos intact to the public all the time, then you can make yourself an entire career of doing albums exactly like "24 Karat Gold" and "Christine McVie" (1984). Imagine if the Fleetwood Mac catalogue since 1975 looked entirely like that. Pleasant, but ho-hum. You've got to give somebody with the forward-looking vision that nobody else sees the opportunity to fail once in a while.

Totally agree.

But I think with Stevie's songs, as she's noted many times over the years and which Lindsey himself has copped to in his later years, oftentimes his 'misses' were NOT honest attempts at arrangements that backfired, but rather deliberate mucking up her songs because of his personal feelings to/about her. THAT is unacceptable and unprofessional. For all his New-Agey talk (as another poster put it) about "rising above it" and being "heroic" yada yada, often times he *wasn't* his "higher self" when arranging her songs.

Someone mentioned Carol's book and her description of an (different) event and that prompted me to dig out my old copy and flick through it for the first time in forever. And in one part she's describing Lindsey working on one of Stevie's songs during Tusk (Storms, I think) and how Stevie played it to everyone, and was clearly very proud of it, and Lindsey, in front of everyone, just tore it apart and told her "this part is crap, and that part is crap" and that her melody had to change and he did it in a particularly un-necessarily vicious way that made everyone cringe. His goal seemed to be to humiliate her in front of everyone and show how stupid she was and how brilliant he was. At the end, after Stevie was devastated, she quotes him as saying something snarky like "But otherwise it's a really good song Stevie". Now, think what you will about Carol and her motives and whatever else, but her description jibes in many ways with the way he's been described at various times by Stevie, Mick, Christine, Ken and in his own way, Richard. So while he *is* absolutely genius when he wants to be, I totally was reminded why Stevie is reluctant to give him full control over her songs. You need to be able to trust your producer.

And I think nowadays his tendency is not to bring out the best in each of the other two writers' styles but to make them sound like versions of him (at least that's how it sounds to my ears) and it dilutes what makes this band so unique-- three distinct voices.

[Angel75]

Totally agree.

And I think nowadays his tendency is not to bring out the best in each of the other two writers' styles but to make them sound like versions of him (at least that's how it sounds to my ears) and it dilutes what makes this band so unique-- three distinct voices.

I definitely think this has been the way for the BuckMcVie album, he has made Christine sound more like him than she really needs to me. She can excel as a songwriter in her own right I still feel and not be manipulated into a female sounding Lindsey.

However in saying that I think Lindsey made a conscientious effort to write something that would suit Stevie's FM style and her voice in Extended Play and I was proud of him for that.