Lindsey Buckingham Discusses Writing New Material with Fleetwood Mac
 

http://www.wcsx.com/gmi/story.aspx?ID=1824095

Lindsey Buckingham Discusses Writing New Material with Fleetwood Mac

By: Gary Graff

11/21/2012

Gaye Gerard/Getty Images
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA - DECEMBER 07: Lindsey Buckingham of Fleetwood Mac performs on stage in concert at Acer Arena on December 7, 2009 in Sydney, Australia.

It's no secret that Fleetwood Mac is going on the road in 2013 -- you can expect an announcement of dates soon, in fact.

But singer-guitarist Lindsey Buckingham is also hoping that some new music might result from the trek, either before or after. In fact, Buckingham says, he's already started that process with drummer Mick Fleetwood and bassist John McVie:

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Lindsey Buckingham Interview (click on the link above to listen)

"It's interesting. John and Mick came over from Hawaii quite a few months ago, and we sat down and tracked some stuff. But...we haven't quite banded together to make it into something beyond that. Obviously Stevie (Nicks) would have to come to the table for that. So that's a work in progress. We may be able to organize something -- I wouldn't think a whole album but possibly something before we hit the road, or if not then possibly something a little more extensive after the tour, depending on what everybody wants to do."

Fleetwood Mac's last album, "Say You Will," came out in 2003. The group last toured in 2010 and was planning to go out in 2012 but was waylaid by solo projects.

Buckingham has just released "Lindsey Buckingham: One Man Show," an iTunes chronicle of his current solo tour that recently wrapped up.

CLICK HERE to learn out more about Gary Graff and his award-winning music journalism including the books he has written on Bob Seger, Neil Young and Bruce Springsteen.

no Lindsey no!! do what you can now, not AFTER the tour! don't you remember how recording the new FM album after the last tour ended up?? :rolleyes:

surprised nobody reacted to this - FM album AFTER the tour if just enough time for a few songs before?

although i guess it's no secret that Lindsey wanted to do a FM album since 2009...

He said the same thing before Unleashed. Stevie has already stated that after the 2013 tour is over she's gonna make another solo album with Dave Stewart. An all new FM album? It ain't happening.

I think we've all be strung along by empty promises just like these for far too long to put any stock into proclamations like this latest one. :eek:

That's not happening. I don't even know why he said it. Whiskey.

Michele

Stevie says one thing and then she changes her mind and says exactly the opposite. even i know that by now :p

i hope you are right and that it's just Lindsey's wishful thinking.

but wording it the way you did just strikes me as so unfair towards LB, frankly...

obviously Lindsey was stating what he wants. and seems Mick and John might be on his page, if judging by 8 tracks they recorded at the beginning of this year, and Mick's Playboy interview that everybody jumped on. Stevie stated herself she didn't want to do Mac album in 2009, or 2010, or beginning of this year, and as Vivfox said, she apparently will not want to do it after the Mac tour (and for that, again, i'm eternally grateful to her!). when Lindsey just gives his stock answers, everybody complains that he says nothing new. when he doesn't edit himself and actually says what he thinks he's being accused of "stringing people along" - and, again, i don't think that's fair. maybe he's saying it publicly to try to get something done - or send a message (such as "let's do it now, we have time so why not?") to a band member who always likes to say how hard she works but the results of all that work don't seem to be very visible to a regular working person who is a non-fan. :shrug:

b/c he would like it to happen. i'm glad Stevie doesn't seem to be on the same page. 2010-2012 seemed to have been one of his most productive periods - all because "the time opened up" during which he was initially was hoping to do a FM album. :cool: :thumbsup: :angel:

Oh good grief...

Even with the song titles, I'm still not getting my hopes up. This is a cash grab...

i don't think releasing new music is a cash grab.

i agree with you re tour, but why wouldn't they do it (however much you or i may not like it)?

i don't much like song titles, but then again i loved a title like "Sick Of You" and the song snippet we've heard does not sound that promising. so maybe it will be the opposite with these 2 songs?

Yay! I think I love her for once! No FM after tour and we get Lindsey back! :D:p

You'll probably get a handful of new music from him while us Stevie fans wait an eternity for hers.

Actually from the vibe I got from watching her and Dave at the Mill Valley film festival I think we will get another solo album much more quickly than we got IYD.I'm going to make a prediction by early 2015.I also think that unless she does a complete about face that there will not be another Fleetwood Mac album with her involvement.

Although I agree with everything..I cannot stress enough (to myself or to everyone as I post) that I 100% agree this will be the last FM material..and most likely tour with Stevie. Somewhat cornered by the band's comments last year, and loving her collab with Dave, I just cannot see another FM opportunity post 2013-14.

Don't get me wrong, that possibility makes me sad. However considering age, all band members' comments and AGE aka reality of time makes me see that as truth. It's hard to take sometimes..

BN and other prolific revelations (much like LB's one man show) are things that I dream and believe will happen. Ultimately FM, formally as we know, may end soon but many developments are to come in the future.

[More from the same Gary Graff piece]

http://www.billboard.com/news/lindse...08031892.story
Lindsey Buckingham Ready For Fleetwood Mac Return in 2013

by Gary Graff, Detroit | November 30, 2012 10:00 EST

Lindsey Buckingham is ready to get back into Fleetwood Mac in the coming year, but he was happy to go his own way in 2012.

Though he expected the band to be working this year rather than in 2013 -- it held off to allow Stevie Nicks more time to support her "In Your Dreams" album -- Buckingham took the opportunity to stage his first completely solo concerts, which have been captured on the new digital album "Lindsey Buckingham: One Man Show." "It's been an experiment on any number of levels," Buckingham tells Billboard. "It was not something I had an agenda to do, but I'd been kind of thinking about i for awhile. After Fleetwood Mac's plans got shuffled around, I had a chance to try something new, and this is what it was. I'm always looking for something that's slightly outside of my comfort zone whenever I can."

Buckingham, who had toured with his own band in 2011, acknowledges that the one-man show "was kind of odd the first couple of nights; I kept looking around to see where everybody else was. But that fell away, and I think it really did turn into a real focal point for the audience, where there was nothing else up there but me so they could really zoom in on what was going on. I always talk about looking for the center, and I think this was an obvious extension of that."

Particularly intriguing, Buckingham adds, was using technology to layer additional guitar parts into several of the songs during the shows. "When I came to a moment of clarity where I realized I was going to want to do 'Go Your Own Way' or 'So Afraid,' and the logical conclusion is you've got to be able to hit a pedal or have a loop or have a guitar part coming in," he explains. "You're not fooling anybody in doing that. You're not trying to pretend it's not there. But it kind of caps off the concept of this (one-man show) idea. I think that's the point where the show really kinda completes itself." And bloopers, he says, have not been an issue. "It's been pretty seamless for the most part. It's just a matter of keeping your eye on the ball as things are going. You'd think that because you're so exposed there'd be more of that, but so far that hasn't happened."

Buckingham says he's looking forward to doing more one-man shows and expanding their repertoire, but his focus is turning to Fleetwood Mac, which is expected to announce its 2013 tour dates soon, with, he says, a likely early April start. "I'm looking forward to it," Buckingham says. "I get to go out there and try these other things on my own, and the more that defines me as an individual and the more it tends to differ from the Fleetwood Mac experience, then the more I'm able to just let the group thing go where it's gonna go."

And, he says, that may include some new music. Buckingham says he, drummer Mick Fleetwood and bassist John McVie convened earlier this year in his home studio and "sat down and tracked some stuff," which he's recently shown to Nicks for her input. "We may be able to organize something -- I wouldn't think a whole album, but possibly something before we hit the road or, if not then, possibly something a little more extensive after the tour, depending on what everybody wants to do," Buckingham says. "The material is quite good, but we have to get everybody on the same page with that, and we'll see where it goes."

yay!!!!! :xoxo: :xoxo: :blob2::blob2:

requests!! :cool: :p :angel:

Yeap, got to agree. Stevie already said that at her age she doesn't want to work on long projects.... she doesn't want to go in the studio with Fleetwood Mac for a year, then tour for another 1-2 years. She said she wants to work on shorter faster projects.....and she did mention a new album.

Five years ago I would have said...ok Stevie, you always say you want to work on projects quickly.....yet take years to release something. BUT, at her age.....I don't know what lit her fire, but she is on fire....performing, fund raisers, movie premiers....the woman doesn't stop. I love that fact that at her age..........she has more energy than she did 25 years ago...

Rock on Gold Dust Woman.... the one and only true queen of rock!!! :-)

She was on serious drugs 25 years ago.

hot in music... One man Show... 40-50 FM dates in US and some more in the rest of the world:

Hello, folks, I'm new here. I just wanted to throw my two cents in: I congratulate Lindsey on all his efforts to get new and live music out, but I am not sure how wise it is to keep pushing for another FM record. Stevie and Lindsey are so far apart musically now that any attempt at collaboration is sure to degenerate into a Say You Will-like situation, when she kept pushing for commercial music and he wanted to be all experimental.

Say You Will is very inconsistent from track to track as a result. Lindsey pulled off the experimental vs. commercial thing with Tusk but then he had Christine to add the layer that was missing with Say You Will. While Christine's Tusk songs, in my view, are the least interesting, the band was still able to make the whole thing work. At the time Stevie was still willing to take guidance from Lindsey on production and arrangement-- as did Christine, which is obvious on tracks like Never Forget -- but that no longer seems to be the case.

That is not to say Stevie should or shouldn't take direction from Lindsey, but the point is that the circumstances being what they are, it's highly unlikely a new album would sound much better, from a consistency point of view, than Say You Will. Already Lindsey has done eight songs with the other two guys. Chances are the tracks range from the Steal Your Heart Away/End of Time Variety to the Come mold to the Red Rover/Time Precious Time approach. Then what? Stevie comes in with her far less adventurous songs, demands all kinds of electronic effects a la Running Through the Garden and the IYD productions, and what happens? Another inconsistent piece of work.

I'd rather they keep doing their own thing separately. Lindsey seems to keep growing, though there are indications he is running out of ideas. He's bound to surprise us though. Stevie, for her part, put out her best album in decades with IYD. She might be able to repeat the feat. But working together, I don't think these two will ever meet the heights of Tusk or Rumours.

Welcome aboard. :nod:

I agree wholeheartedly with every single point you made. A few years back Lindsey said he wanted to bring in an outside producer for the next Fleetwood Mac album, and I certainly think that could bridge the chasm that has developed between Lindsey & Stevie musically. However, it sounds like this latest work is unfolding in exactly the same fashion as Say You Will did... Lindsey, Mick, and John recording Lindsey's songs while Stevie is out touring. I think all of us knew Lindsey would never, ever relinquish creative control of the band by bringing in an outside producer, though. Which is unfortunate, because I really do think there's still good Fleetwood Mac music to be made.

I have to agree with you Rockaway, it's really a shame that they can't put their egos aside for the sake of the music and give us at least one more really good album. Unless they do, we'd be in for an an uneven treatment a' la Say You Will. I agree that Seeds and In Your Dreams show that the two still have some creative juices flowing and were really impressive steps forward for the both of them. Add to that the most talented bass player and drummer in rock and we have potential for great things. That said, sadly, as I've noted a few times that I'm sitting this tour out, I just can't bring myself to shell out a grand for decent seats to hear a heavily augmented version of the band rehash Rumours with one or two bonus tracks so they can label themselves creative. Hard for me to admit that about my all time favourite band. Unfortunately the 2013 tour is all about reaching into our wallets yet again to cash in on an album, that while great, doesn't define this band.

I think a lot of the criticism about SYW not being cohesive is mostly just due to fans not being used to Christine's absence. Yes, they began working while Stevie was out doing her solo thing.....but hasn't every FM album beginning with Mirage been recorded that way?

At the same time though, Say You Will happened before the re-emergence, if you will, of Lindsey's solo career...of the "small machine" he's talked so much about over the past few years. He's always felt the need to be a little edgy and experimental when it comes to CREATING music, and I think Say You Will was still a reflection of that. He hadn't yet really embraced his "small machine" outlet as a means of exploring and pursuing the left side of his palette, as he's put it.

He has acknowledged in recent years that he's just recently realized that he can use his small machine solo career to be a little different, to experiment a little more...and still come back to Fleetwood Mac and, for lack of a better way of putting it, play it safe.

I think Say You Will was done before he came to this conclusion. A lot of it was leftover solo, "left side of the palette" material...not intended for a safer "Fleetwood Mac" sound. When paired with Stevie's songs, some of which she said were written to SOUND like Fleetwood Mac songs (when the guys had been working in another direction), it's obviously going to sound disjointed.

I have two hopes: 1: The the songs that John, Mick, and Lindsey were working on were done in a "Fleetwood Mac" mindsight...rather than a "LB solo album" mindset, as the Say You Will songs were. And 2: That Lindsey, in making new Fleetwood Mac music, is back in a "big machine" mindset. That's not to say I do not like the small machine...I've loved everything he's done as a solo artist over the past 7 years. But when he goes into a Fleetwood Mac project with his "left side of the palette" mentality, we either get something as perfect as Tusk, or a little more disjointed and not-so-cohesive like Say You Will.

Hi and & welcome to the board.

I have to disagree totally with SnL being apart musically - "Solider's Angel" proved they still can create together as a team. Even if most everyone here didn't like it, what mattered was that Stevie loved it - and felt Lindsey had "saved the day" and also that the song put them back as "Buckingham Nicks" again.

And, I don't think Lindsey was trying to be "all" experimental on SYW. In fact, when Lindsey sets his mind to it - he is still the king of making a pop song. BTLH and SYHA are two songs that were very commercial. However, he was trying to propel FM into 21st century -- and he did.

That won't happen regardless of if they work with each other or solo. It's just not possible at their age and at the state of the industry and in a youth-dictated culture.

I totally agree.

Well, really - every album ever. Stevie was just "held hostage" in the studio until she had a solo career and had something else to do while she waited on the musicians to stop tinkering. Why Lindsey would want a bored Stevie around is beyond me. He must be a clingy guy -- or value her opinion/ears on stuff if he wants her sitting around all day drawing and reading magazines while he tinkers with one piece of a song for the one millionth time. It just makes sense for the music tracks to be laid down and Stevie to be called when she is needed to lay down vocals. The process does not have to be long anymore. A major country artist comes in the studio one afternoon and lays down vocals on each song 3 times and then leaves. The engineer and producer take the best cut of the 3 and splice (cut & paste) it all together and boom it's done.

But, I think all of the artists of SnL's generation are struggling with the changes in the industry - both from a business perspective and a creative one. I mean if you don't know how to work a computer, then using the software is going to be confusing. But, it's how everything is done now. I think Stevie needed IYD to give herself a creative jolt and I think Lindsey has mellowed out enough to be able to turn songs loose a lot quicker than he would have in the past and I am looking forward to hearing what has emerged as the new Fleetwood Mac sound from the past eight years.

I would agree with you to an extent, but it's really the same as it has always been. He's a limit pusher. I think as an artist, he's always going to want to see how far he can get someone to go. And, Stevie is always going to have a commercial breaking point. She's always going to look at a bottom line even if her inner artist would want to let creativity reign supreme.

This push-pull doesn't keep them from working together. It may not make it easy, but at the end of the day - it's the industry that has put the brakes on the things and they're trying to determine how to still make money at what they do. It's hard enough for a solo artist - it must be really hard for a band. You need a bigger pie to divide and with less ingredients.

Sure, it makes sense, but it means Stevie would have to agree to let Lindsey take control of the arrangement. With SYW, she seemed to have a lot to say about how she wanted her songs, which is only fair because they are her songs. But that does not help in coming up with a uniform sound, considering how different Lindsey's approach to the music has become from hers. I believe "Soldier's Angel" is an anomaly, and she only turned to Lindsey when she got frustrated with everything else she and Dave had tried. Were she happy with the arrangement before she called Lindsey to do nothing but lay a guitar track for the song, the warm-fuzzy feeling about the collaboration would not have materialized.

In any case, I recall that Lindsey had wistfully discussed working in the studio together, building songs from the ground up. But that was either wishful thinking or something else because what we are seeing is a return to old habits. If Lindsey has control as in Tango and Mirage, we can expect cohesive sound, but if tug-a-war a la Say You Will ensues instead, the results are going to be less than stellar, I suspect.

I agree abut Say You Will. And of course they are never going to meet the heights of Tusk or Rumours - we shouldn't expect them to.

However, I don't agree that Stevie and Lindsey are so far apart musically these days, at least, not any farther apart than they always have been. I don't think there will ever be a day when you'll confuse a Stevie song for a Lindsey song or vice versa, but Seeds We Sow and In Your Dreams were both very Mac-y albums, in my opinion. I can name several songs on each of them that sound like they could have come straight off an FM record (if you smacked on the others vocals and synced their production style a bit)- Annabel Lee, Gone Too Far, End of Time, Moonlight, Secret Love, That's The Way Love Goes, New Orleans.. I could go on.

In all honesty, after listening to both of those albums for the past year and however long, I don't find that there is anything very off-the-wall about either (not that Stevie's songs have ever been experimental). Lindsey has his weird voice production and his distinctive fingerpicking style, but honestly Seeds We Sow is pretty much good old pop songs throughout, at least to my ears.

Yes. And honestly, I feel that is also what makes them such a great team :nod:

i love EVERY single point you made. and all of them so true, and based on the statements from FM members, including their most recent statements, facts and realities, not on any speculations.

yes, SYW was pieced together and built mainly on top of LB's solo album that never was - and a lot of that solo album was experimental and forward moving. it still is. i always say this - whenever i listen to GOS1, i am always again and again amazed by those songs - it was one of the greatest albums that never was. at least we have that bootleg.

Lindsey went into making new songs this year with a FM mindset. he said they were meant to be FM songs, Stevie said just last week that they sound like FM songs. so to draw conclusions from SYW experience seems pointless for the new material.

exactly!

exactly! and that's why my feeling is that if we want these new songs, and fast, without loosing any unnecessary time, we should be all for macters forgetting the major label which is holding them back, record new stuff in Lindsey's studio which is freely available to them, and just put it out in whatever is the easiest way possible to coincide with the start of the tour. and there seem to be indications that they are already ahead of us and actually doing at least some of this stuff.

lots of good points here. except i don't really see that they are going back to any old habits from their descriptions of what they've been doing with new songs so far. see above.

and, do you really prefer Tango or Mirage over SYW?? i do not.

Yes, I really do, although I love SYW.

Michele

IMO ...If Say You Will had been paired down to 12 songs and if Lindsey would have tempered his "experimental" over production I believe that Say You Will would have been considered a truly great album. With or without Christine, Lindsey and Stevie put out some incredible music on SYW...unfortunately, it was far too long and abstract to ever be consistent and focused.

I really like Mirage a lot, but I would never think to describe it as cohesive.

From Mirage through SYW, the process has been for the core of the band to go in the studio and record and arrange songs. Stevie comes in and does her vocals in four to five days. That's exactly what they are doing again, based on what Lindsey and Stevie have said. For SYW, what differed from the other two albums, as far as I can tell, is that Stevie was a lot more forceful about how her songs should sound. She didn't have any say in Lindsey's songs except to add vocals. What indication do we have that when she brings new songs this time -- if that happens -- she won't take exactly the same tack as in SYW?

Some folks have cited Lindsey saying these songs he has done with John and Mick are FM songs, but what is that exactly anymore? It seems to me he does his thing and she does hers, and whatever they throw into the bowl together, they call it FM. Granted this current collaboration has a better chance of sounding more cohesive than SYW since SYW had a lot of older songs thrown in, but Stevie and Lindsey would really have to be in sync.

I didn't say that. I said the sound, from a production standpoint, is far more cohesive than in SYW. Even Lindsey has said that in retrospect he doesn't think SYW gelled all that well because of the difference between his and Stevie's songs.

Well, maybe that's what they are trying to figure out too. To define a Fleetwood Mac sound without Christine in a way that sounds current could have been part of the struggle on SYW. They could be a lot closer to finding their common ground again now.

By the way -- all of these SYW discussions just make me want to go back and read old posts from when it was first released. I have to wonder if everyone felt it was so disjointed then before there was any press to suggest they were anything but proud of their new product. I think opinions have been swayed a lot...

That's quite possible. However, when I read Lindsey's comments recently about SYW, I almost wondered if he read some of my criticism from back in those days on other boards because they sounded exactly like what I have always said. :)

yes that was not a fair question for the whole board:sorry:. it was just part of a conversation with RockawayBlind since i was curious about his/her opinion (considering their cool name!:cool:). i guess mostly because i can't hear anything at all on Mirage or Tango that sounds like RAB, but can think of number of things on SYW, of course (RR first and foremost).
you didn't :D. but you made it sound like cohesiveness is what you might prefer. my point is - for me, as a person who prefers Lindsey-specific, perhaps left-side of the palette, if you must call it that, i'd take SYW weirdness any day over any cohesiveness of Mirage or Tango. (but i would take GOS1 1000 times over any of those albums. there's no comparison there.) i fully understand that many people, especially if they prefer Mac sound over LB solo would not agree with me, and that there's a lot of love for those 2 albums that i just don't feel. :shrug::angel:

yes, in complete agreement with you! i said that many times when people talk about Lindsey's production being a main problem on Stevie's SYW songs. she didn't allow him to do to those songs what he wanted to. (perhaps similarly to DS not trying to cut her songs on IYD to some kind of poppy/commercial length, but just went with what she wanted and that's why there are so many long songs on IYD.)

i completely disagree with this - and Josh's post is just fabulous in explaining his evolution with solo vs Mac sound. Lindsey knows what he's doing and which of his songs are FM-ish and which are more esoteric. FM is mellower and more poppy. you can almost know exactly who is an FM fan vs SN fan vs solo fan by who likes which song on SWS. because SWS has all these types covered thoroughly. think EOT for example - definitely FM.


look - you all know that i can care less about another FM album, i'd much rather Lindsey spends his time on all his various solo projects. but he wants to work with Mac guys, he wants to work with Stevie, there is a love there that they feel they can draw upon and make something new together... so as a fan of his work, and as a person who had a chance to meet the guy on several occasions last year and found him unbelievably warm, and nice, and human, and natural, and completely different from all the stories circulating around, i would love him to have a chance to do something he apparently really wants to do and makes him happy. :nod:

so yes, i'm completely biased in this. all the output and shows LB gave us in the last 2 years have certainly made my life more relaxed and interesting in many different ways... and so i'd love for new FM material to happen because he seems to want it... and fast!!!!! so that he can turn back to small machine in 2014. :nod: :angel:

That is entirely speculation on your part and totally goes against anything Stevie has ever alluded to in regards to SYW (and I hate the SYW/Lindsey vs. Stevie arguments because I think it's highly exaggerated.)

I was lucky to meet him in 2006 after a concert of his in Phoenix and I whole heartedly agree with this statement. However, we must keep in mind that we only spent a few minutes with him. You a few minutes more, so we really don't know the full extent of his personality.

why, yes it is! :p ;)

but i couldn't resist it b/c Rockaway is the only person besides me who i ever saw bring up that point and i love to speculate on it. ;)

Oh! So, she's just pissed because he was right. LOL! :laugh: Hmmm... I could see that...