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JilStardust
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 Posté le: 15 Jan 2013 19:02 Sujet du message: |
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... du 15 janvier 2013 :
| Citation: | David Bowie's 'The Next' Day' Album: A Track-by-Track Preview
Longtime producer Tony Visconti says Bowie may do a single concert to celebrate new LP
Tony Visconti has been producing David Bowie's albums since Space Oddity in 1969. They've worked together on many of Bowie's greatest triumphs, including Heroes, Young Americans and Scary Monsters. After a long break, they joined forces again in the early 2000s for Heathen and Reality. Two years ago, he started working with Bowie on his long-awaited new album, The Next Day.
Rolling Stone spoke to Visconti about the pair's secret sessions, how medieval English history inspired some of the songs and why it's unlikely that Bowie will tour – though a single show remains possible. As the producer noted, his other longtime collaborator, Morrissey, has the opposite plan. . . but he'll get to that.
Was there ever a point over the past few years where you thought that Bowie would never record again?
I was a little scared after he had his heart condition. He had a little scare himself. I didn't speak to him for a year after that. He was just recovering and just not talking to anybody. But I was one of the first people he emailed afterwards and we were steadily in contact since then. But he never really brought up music until two years ago. So he never said to me he retired, and every time I saw him in person, he looked in really good health.
All these rumors started going around about his health. Every time I had lunch with him, or coffee with him, I'm looking at him and my dear old friend was looking really good. But music didn't interest him until two years ago; that's when he made the call. He said, "How would you like to make some demos?" And I was a little shocked, quite honestly; it was just so casual. It was just the next topic in the discussion.
How did the process begin?
I was working on another project in London, and he didn't know that. He said, "Well, when are you going to get back?" I said, "In a few days." The next morning after I returned, I was in the studio with him playing bass. We had Sterling Campbell on drums, Gerry Leonard on guitar and David on keyboards. We were in this little studio down in the East Village doing demos for a week. I was pinching myself. I couldn't believe it was really happening. From nothing, right into this demo situation.
Did he have fleshed-out songs at this point?
Yes, he wrote them at home. He had an eight- or 16-track digital recorder. They were quite fleshed out. He had nice bass line ideas and drum patterns. We quickly took down the names of the chords and we scribbled it out on paper. Gerry Leonard and I read from the chord sheet. The room was about eight-by-eight, which included a drum kit. We were on top of each other, gasping for air after an hour or two.
What sparked all this? He had been gone for so many years at this point
He just said, "I feel like writing again." I don't know long prior to that he began writing. He just came up with about eight songs.
How many days did you spend demoing in that East Village studio?
We spent five days, and we didn't record anything until the last day. We just kept writing down notes. On the fifth day, it was hard to try to remember what we did on the first day. But we got them down and this guy at the studio had a basic Pro Tools rig, and we got them down. This is November 2010. Then he disappeared for four months and said, "I'm gonna start writing now." So he wrote more songs and then he fleshed those out even more. He came up with lyrics and melodies, which he didn't have at first. But that's typical of every record I started to work with him. Scary Monsters, every album started out with maybe one finished song and 10 ideas, so this is typical.
What happened next?
In April of 2011 we went into a downtown New York studio. We only worked for two-week periods. We would take as long as two months off after each period, and he would go and write some more stuff. I would listen to it and get some ideas, sketch out some overdub things, and we'd be in constant communication during those periods. So this is about 18 months ago. If you added up all the weeks in the studio, we probably actually spent three-and-a-half months.
You've said that the first single, "Where Are We Now," isn't like any other song on the album. Do the other songs look back on his life like that one?
Not really; that's the only one. It's really the only one of its kind. Everything else on the album is kind of observations. He's writing in the third person. Some of them belong to his life, but some of them are things like social commentary. He was reading a lot of medieval English history books, and he came up with one medieval English history song. That's the title track, "The Next Day." It's about somebody who was a tyrant, very insignificant; I didn't even know who he was talking about. But if you read the lyrics, it's quite a horrific story.
You've said there are five rockers on the album.
Yeah. "The Next Day" rocks out. Same with "The Stars (Are Out Tonight)" – that rocks out, too.
Are the non-rockers more mellow? What's their vibe?
They're more funky, mid-tempo songs. Very evocative. "Dirty Boys," the second song on the album, is very sleazy.
Sleazy in what sense?
It's dark and it's sexy. There's a fantastic sax solo. You know, David plays baritone sax, but he invited his friend Steve Elson to do the baritone on this album. I think Steve was in the Saturday Night Live band. He's a little guy, and he's got a huge baritone sax, and he plays this dirty solo in it that sounds like stripper music from the 1950s. Old bump-and-grind stripper music . . . It wouldn't be out of place on Young Americans.
Tell me about "Dancing Out in Space."
That's a very uptempo one. It's got a Motown beat to it, but the rest of it is completely psychedelic. It's got very floaty vibe. There's a guy called David Torn who plays guitar, who we use; he comes with huge amounts of equipment that he creates these aural landscapes. He uses them in a rock context with all that ambient sound, and he's bending his tremolo arm and all that. It's just crazy, completely crazy sound on that track.
How about "Boss of Me?"
That is one of the slower, funky ones. It's really solid. There's a little Young Americans in there. But that's really not proper . . . It's a new kind of direction for him, melodically. Doesn't sound like typical Bowie, that track. But it's a very good track.
OK. Tell me about "Heat."
Well that's the closer of the album and it's very dramatic. And I'm not quite sure what he's singing about on it, but it's a classic Bowie ballad. He's singing in his handsomest voice, a very deep, very sonorous voice. And I can't give too much away about it because honestly, I don't know exactly what it's about, if it's about being in a real prison or being imprisoned in your mind. Again, it's certainly not about him; he's singing as the voice of somebody.
Tell me about "I'd Rather Be High."
There's a few songs about world wars, about soldiers. One is "How Does the Grass Grow" and it's about the way that soldiers are trained to kill other soldiers, how they have to do it so heartlessly. "How Does the Grass Grow" is part of a chant that they're taught as they plunge their bayonets into a dummy. "I'd Rather Be High" is about a soldier who's come out of the war and he's just burnt out, and rather than becoming a human being again, I think he laments, "I'd rather be high/I don't want to know/I'm trying to erase these thoughts from my mind."
Who exactly is the band on the album?
We had two drummers. The main drummer was Zachary Alford, and Sterling Campbell played on several tracks, too. It's unfortunate. Sterling was at the demo sessions in the beginning but then he didn't know when the album was gonna start, and he already committed to a tour with the B-52s. We called Zach in to substitute for him, and Zack played amazing drums on the album. But Sterling is in there as well on songs like "Valentine's Day" and "(You Will) Set the World on Fire," which is another steamer, another big rock song on the album.
Bass was predominantly Gail Ann Dorsey, and she played phenomenally well on the album, and she also did some backup vocals with David. The other bass player who played on about four or five tracks was Tony Levin. The guitars are Gerry Leonard who played on Heathen and Reality, and he's David's music director. David Torn on the other ambient guitar. And then we got Earl Slick to play some fantastic guitar solos and heavy guitar on some tracks. I played bass on the album for two songs, and that's about it. David played his own keyboards; he played also some acoustic guitar, some electric guitar as well.
How hard was it to keep this a secret?
It was very easy to keep it a secret because we're very loyal to him. I've known him 45 years, and everybody knew him for more than 10 years in the band. We just love the guy. He said, "Keep it a secret, and don't tell anybody. Not even your best friend." I said, "Can I tell my girlfriend?" He says, "Yes, you can tell your girlfriend, but she can't tell anybody." So everybody had to explain why they were leaving for work in the morning, you know where they were going and who they were recording with.
The real trick was just not telling even your best friend. Bowie fans are just unpredictable – if they hear news like this, the cover would have been blown years ago. Now one person did leak it, but nobody believed him . . .
Who?
Robert Fripp! He was asked to play on it, he didn't want to do it and then he wrote on his blog that he was asked. And nobody kinda believed him. It was a little flurry for a few days, but everyone said, "How could that be true? We haven't heard it from anyone else?"
The big question: Do you think Bowie will tour?
He says that he will only play if he feels like it, but no tour. Like, if wanted to do the odd show in New York or, I don't know, London, he would if he felt like it. And he made that very clear to the label that he wasn't going to tour or do any kind of ridiculously long album promotion. It was his idea to just drop it at midnight on his birthday and just let things avalanche.
Do you really think it's possible he'd do just one show?
It's possible, if he feels like it. I don't know. I spoke to him two days ago and he said, "I'm really adamant I'm not gonna do a tour." And he said, "If I might, I might do one show." But who knows when.
The album cover is sort of intriguing . . .
I only just got that. I wasn't sure that was the cover.
It's real.
I thought some fan made a joke cover.
I though that too, but it's real.
[Laughs]
Thoughts on that?
I think it's great! It gives him a nice space to sign his autograph in the middle of it.
Do you think that you and Morrissey will ever work together again?
Hopefully we will. I'm going to see him Friday night in Brooklyn. We email a lot. We talk a lot. He's very reluctant to have a deal with anybody. 'Cause nowadays, the problem is, when a label signs you – right now, he has no label – so if I sign a new label deal, he has to sign a 360 deal. They want a piece of everything. If you write a book, if you write a song, if you're in a movie, they want part of your fee for all these things. So that's the deal that the big labels are offering now and that's because sales are so low and they have to make up their money some way. He's totally against that. He's old-school. I actually I don't blame him.
He could pull a Radiohead and post it online for a fee.
I know. He's also old school about paying for it himself. Traditionally, the label's gotta pay for him. I understand that, and there's an old saying in show business that you never invest your own money in a show. It kinda follows onto recording to some extent, but that attitude has changed.
He could also sign to an indie label that wouldn't make him sign a 360. . . But beyond that, he has enough fans that he'd make a killing charging $10 for an album online?
Yeah, he'll make his money back, yeah. He's playing his new songs onstage, they're being recorded on cell phones every night of the week and they're wonderful songs.
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Anonymous
Major Tom
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| Posté le: 15 Jan 2013 19:07 Sujet du message: |
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| Au fait, rien a voir, mais un peu quand même...Nagisa Oshima est mort . |
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JilStardust
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| Posté le: 05 Fév 2013 21:20 Sujet du message: |
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Et une autre de Zack Alford parue le 1er février 2013 :
| Citation: | David Bowie 'Likes the Struggle' of Winning Fans, Says Drummer Zack Alford
Onetime Springsteen sideman reveals more about secret 'The Next Day' sessions
For the past year and a half drummer Zachary Alford has been forced to walk around with the secret that he plays on David Bowie's new album. "It's been torture," he says. "Everyone always says to me, 'So, what's David up to?' I just had to shrug my shoulders and say, 'I wish I knew.'"
Now that the secret is out, Zachary is finally able to talk to us about the secretive recording sessions for The Next Day. We also spoke with him about his tenure in Bruce Springsteen's "Other Band" in 1992-'93.
Let's start at the very beginning. Tell me how you first heard about this new Bowie album?
David sent me an email asking if I was available in the first two weeks of May of 2011. It was out of the blue. I mean, we'd been in email contact, but there was never any talk about work.
What was your first reaction?
I said yes. [Laughs] Luckily I was available, so I was just really happy about that. But I didn't know what it was. But whatever it was, I'm available. [Laughs]
He asked if you were available, but he didn't tell you it was for a new album?
There was a time where I didn't know what it was. He wouldn't even say where it was or what it was. I remember [bassist] Gail [Ann Dorsey] and I talking about it, like, "Oh, did he contact you too?" "Yeah, he contacted me." "What's it for?" "I don't know."
We didn't know if it was a performance or a recording or anything. It wasn't until maybe a week before that he said, "Yes, be here at this studio on this day." Then somehow it leaked out.
What do you mean?
Well, I got an email from David saying, "Do you know a photographer named so and so?" I could find the name, but I don't remember offhand. I said, "No." It's a good thing I didn't know him. [Laughs] Apparently this photographer had called someone from David's office and asked if it was OK for him to take pictures of David at the studio. They were like, "What? Who told you there was even a session?" Obviously, someone from the studio leaked it out. We got an email after that saying, "OK, change of plan. We're doing it at Magic Shop."
By this point, are you shocked to learn that he's making a new album?
Um . . . I'd say I was relieved that he's finally back in the saddle, and I was relieved that I got the call.
Tell me about the first day of recording. Did he lay out his vision for the album, or did you just start cutting tracks?
It was all very matter-of-fact. We weren't allowed to hear any of the songs before that, because he didn't want anything out there circulating. So we basically walked in, and there wasn't much discussion. It's like, "Here's the first tune." Usually he'd play us a demo. It would be a home demo with a drum machine and a synth. Then he'd play a rehearsal demo, because they had actually rehearsed some of the material up from the initial demo stage in November. I guess that was in 2010. And so we listened to both, and then we'd go in the room and start playing it.
Is this you, Gail, Gerry Leonard and David?
Yes, and David Torn. The first week in May we actually had both guitar players, David Torn and Gerry Leonard. Gail was on bass and David was on either synths or he'd play acoustic guitar or piano, depending on the song.
Gerry would hand out charts while we listened to the song so we'd have something to follow, and we could make any notes we needed. We listened to the songs about two or three times, and then it was time to go play it. That was the drill.
I assume David told you that you couldn't tell a soul about the sessions.
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. He handed out nondisclosure forms for everyone to sign.
Did you even tell your family?
Yes. I told my wife and my kids. But we home-school, so I didn't have to worry about them blabbing it all over school.
It's pretty amazing in this day and age that it didn't get out there.
Yeah. I think it's a real testament to the value of privacy. This is zero promotion. Basically, him saying nothing is almost promoting the record itself.
Being quiet a whole decade and doing no interviews makes him this real mysterious character. It's almost like he's this ghost, and I can understand why he's reluctant to give that up.
In this day and age, people are so distracted that it's hard to show them anything they'll pay attention to. By actually giving them nothing, they want to know more.
I've only heard the single, but everyone keeps telling me the rest of the album sounds much different than that song.
Oh yeah. There's definitely a lot of up-tempo material. That's some kind of Sixties doo-wop-ish material. Although I don't remember a lot of the songs. I mean, it'll be two years in May since we did it. I haven't heard any of it since. I hope to have the chance to hear it soon myself.
So you basically only spent three total weeks working on the album?
Yeah.
Can you walk me through your average day of recording? What was the routine?
Well, the routine was very much like going to work. It was a lot of fun for me, because I don't live in the city anymore, but I grew up there. This was a nice way to come back. Every morning I'd stroll through Soho to go to the Magic Shop. I'd show up around 10:30 a.m. David was almost always already there. He'd be in the control room strumming away on something. Then he'd come back when we were all gathered and drinking our coffees. He'd then throw on a demo. Gerry would hand out charts, we'd take notes, and after hearing it two or three times he'd say, "Everybody ready?" We'd say "Yeah," and we'd go in and play it through. We'd only do two or three takes and he'd say, "Either we've got it or we don't."
On one occasion I recall we came back in and he still wasn't happy, so he wanted us to move on. He'd rather keep the momentum going and keep the juices flowing than sit there and hammer out a tune until it's perfect.
So we'd do the first one, then we would break for lunch. Then the same drill. We'd listen to another one, takes notes, go in . . . Usually we'd finish by five or six.
Roughly how many takes do you think you did of most of the songs?
I would say between two and five takes for all the songs.
Is that sort of low in your experience?
That is low, actually. It may not sound like it, but you can do a lot of takes in no time. Because they're all rehearsals. I can't tell you how many sessions I go to and I say, "Oh, wow, let's listen to the third take. That was the best one." And someone will say, "That was actually the sixth take." You forget how many times you've done something. So this was pretty low. On a couple of occasions it was only one take.
You said some of the songs were sort of doo-wop. Earl Slick told me some were Rolling Stones-esque. Can you describe the sound of the songs a little more?
There are a couple that remind me of the Scary Monsters period, because they're a bit more angular and aggressive-sounding, so I would approach them that way, because naturally I'm trying to tie the material into my association of what Bowie music sounds like.
There's another number that's a straight-up country song. There was another one that was based on a blues riff, but we had specific instructions to not make it sound like the blues. There were two songs that sort of had a Bo Diddley feel. I remember specifically shying away from that because I didn't want it to sound like "Panic in Detroit."
Do you know any of the songs titles?
They've changed. The only ones that have remained from my initial days are "The Stars (Are Out Tonight) and . . . is there one called "Ya Ya?"
I don't think so.
I remember "Boss of Me." We cut that with Tony Levin on bass. I remember specifically thinking, "Oh, this one sounds kind of funky. Wouldn't it be great if he played the [Chapman] Stick?" I suggested that, and Tony wasn't thrilled with that, because there were a lot of chord changes. He doesn't like to do songs with chord changes on the Stick, but everybody thought it sounded great. That sounded almost Peter Gabriel-like, like something from the "Big Time" era.
How many songs total did you work on?
Twenty-four.
There's only 17 on the album when you count the bonus tracks. Do you think the others will come out eventually? Maybe another album?
Yeah, I would think so. There's plenty of stuff there. One of the songs we worked on was a leftover from Lodger. I think it was called "Born in a UFO" when we worked on it, but I didn't see that title on the record. Maybe he changed it. I don't know.
Did David ever mention the possibility of playing any of this material live?
Well, he did . . . I think it was at the end of the first two-week installment. On the very last day he asked if I would be available to do any promotion. I said "Yes!" But that was in 2011.
By "promotion," I assume he meant playing live in some capacity, right?
Yeah, I would think so.
I guess at the very least he was thinking about a TV appearance or something. Most people are telling me he isn't doing a single thing. Do you think that's the case?
I'm hoping he changes his mind. I've haven't spoken to him personally since the sessions, so he really hasn't said anything to me. I've just found out from reading things on the Internet that he's said he'll never play again. I'm just hoping that something changes his mind. But I'd be surprised if he never played again.
Why's that?
Well, because he seemed so excited about the music, and from touring with him, I know that he's always loved performing.
I know you toured with Bowie when he was on the road with Nine Inch Nails in 1995. What was that like? It had to be tough facing a diehard NIN audience that maybe didn't know Bowie's music very well.
Absolutely. On top of it, we were a brand-new outfit of guys that hadn't played together, and we're playing after a group of guys that just finished the Downward Spiral tour. They were a well-oiled machine, and they were coming back on the road just for David. We had to follow them and find our own feet. It was tough. That's a hardcore audience. Some fans were not going to stay for David, but some fans loved it. I mean, we played a lot of old material in addition to the new songs.
Right, but you're playing obscure stuff like "Andy Warhol" and "Teenage Wildlife."
Exactly. Some of it he had never played before.
It would have been so easy to break out stuff like "Ziggy Stardust" or "Rebel Rebel" and just destroy the place. He really made it hard on himself.
He likes the struggle. He likes to have to win the audience over. It's the same reason he went into Tin Machine after all that "Let's Dance" fame. That's what really excited him. When everything is presented for you in a silver platter, it's ultimately kind of empty.
Do you mind if I ask you a few questions about your time Springsteen?
No, go ahead.
When you joined up with him in 1992, he'd been playing with one drummer for nearly two decades. Did you feel a lot of pressure because the fans were so familiar with Max Weinberg's work?
I felt confident I could do justice to Max's parts, and at the same time bring my own personality into the group. Again, I know he received a lot of flak changing bands. Fans are loyal. But I also know that we sold out 11 nights at Brendan Byrne Arena. So it obviously wasn't a big enough issue to spell disaster for us. We did end up playing less and less of the new material and more of the old material as the tour went on. But I think Bruce was very careful in putting together a band he felt wasn't going to sound like studio musicians, yet at the same time a band that was going to somehow bring something different to the music, and be able to handle the breadth of emotion necessary for his catalog.
When you played Saturday Night Live the band was very small, and when the tour began it had really grown.
The SNL band was very early in the game. After that we went back and auditioned more musicians and singers.
It's similar to the Nine Inch Nails/Bowie tour in that you have a hugely iconic rock star shedding his past and really trying to move forward.
Yeah. I feel like for whatever reason, Bruce needed to explore another side of his musicianship. In this case, I know he listened to a lot of musicians. There was a huge audition process. I felt very fortunate that he chose me. It was a great experience working with him.
Did you get into the studio and work with him after the tour ended?
Yes. We went into the studio and I maybe worked on four or five songs.
Did they ever come out?
I know that "Secret Garden" came out. I don't know if it's a new version, or if he overdubbed my parts. I'm pretty sure it's Max on drums, though. The other tunes I have not heard. It's funny, though. Someone recently told me there was a tune from that period that came out. I don't remember which one.
You always hear there's one shelved album with songs built around drum loops in the style of "Streets of Philadelphia," and another one that's primarily songs about relationships, sort of like Tunnel of Love. It sounds like he was working on that one with you.
The only other song I can remember is "Back in Your Arms."
He put that one out.
I don't know if it's a version that I play on.
You played "Streets of Philadelphia" with him at the Oscars, right?
I actually got a great compliment after that gig. A drummer that I respect named Charlie Drayton came up to me and said, "Why did you guys mime to that song?" And I said, "Actually, we didn't." [Laughs] That was a huge compliment.
In hindsight, do you think that no matter how well you well you guys played with Springsteen, the fans would never truly accept you because you weren't the E Street Band?
Yeah, I would definitely say that. And in hindsight, I understand it. You know, there's just something very special that gets built from the band. I mean, Max's blood, sweat and tears are in those songs.
Thanks for doing this interview. I'm really looking forward to hearing the Bowie album.
As am I.
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JilStardust
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| Posté le: 08 Fév 2013 11:20 Sujet du message: |
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Et une autre interview d'Earl Slick du 5 février 2013. Merci à avcsar pour l'info.
| Citation: | David Bowie Touring? Guitarist Earl Slick Won't Be Surprised Either Way
There are many rock stars roaming the aisles at the NAMM show held each year in Anaheim California, and 2013 was no different. But for all the boots and black leather, for all the dark shades and attitude, few cut a figure as rock 'n' roll as Earl Slick. Matchstick thin with a shock of black hair, he looks like he could be the offspring of Keith Richards and a praying mantis. Most foot traffic stops to gawk when Slick walks by because he's just one of those guys that makes people say, "Hey, I know that guy."
And they should know him. Beyond his Lower East Side cool and sinewy stance, all Slick did was become one of the premier guitarists of his generation. Sure, he's played with John Lennon, Robert Smith, the New York Dolls, and his own outfits Phantom, Rocker and Slick, among many others. For many of us, though, Slick's name will forever be most intertwined with David Bowie.
Originally hired by Bowie to replace the late Mick Ronson as lead guitarist in 1974 on the Diamond Dogs tour, Slick went on to star on the classic Bowie albums Young Americans and Station to Station. In 1983, Bowie brought him back for the Serious Moonlight tour as a last-minute replacement for Stevie Ray Vaughan. Most recently, he received an e-mail from the Thin White Duke inviting him to come play on his surprise upcoming album, The Next Day.
With the record set for release this March, Slicks tells us he's got one thing on his mind when it comes to Bowie: Touring.
Were you surprised when you got word from David with news of the new album?
Actually I wasn't even that surprised when I got his e-mail. I mean I'll put it this way: I never expected to do another album with David and I never expected not to do another album with David. That's just how it is with Bowie. You can't expect anything. He's a very unique artist in that has always done things his own way and I think that's the primary thing that makes them so interesting. He's always very true to himself and he never does the expected.
Was it hard to keep the secret while you were recording the album?
Not really, because with many new projects it's never a good idea to be talking too much about it. You never want to start rumors or reveal too much before things are ready. So in that respect, I mean yeah, this was more under wraps than most things, but I've never really been one to speak out of school.
So you get the e-mail and you head to the studio. How are things when you first arrive and see Bowie?
It's actually totally normal. We walk in, it's "Hey, how you doing? Have a coffee and some biscotti's," and then we are back in business. We play these great songs behind this great artist. It's like no time had gone by at all. David and I are always comfortable together and I think that's probably why it didn't feel like much time had gone by. We just have a very natural situation together.
Of course there's been no tour announcements yet but this is something you'd obviously love, right?
Are you kidding? In a heartbeat. I would love nothing more than to tour with Bowie right now and I think it would be the most exciting thing that music would experience for a long time. I'm serious. David, we have to tour [laughs].
Any thought on what the odds might be?
It's kind of like doing the record. I wouldn't be surprised if he toured and I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't tour.
Based on what you've played in the studio with Bowie before, had did this new record feel?
It's amazing. You know, there are a few things that kind of feel like Station to Station rockers, then there are some other things that might feel kind of like Diamond Dogs, but as usual it is extremely eclectic and it is uniquely Bowie, meaning that it's a whole bunch of really cool things. There is just never anything like Bowie record and I think that's why I'm so happy that at least we got to the album. As as to what happens next, will all have to wait and see. But I know I would like a tour to happen!
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JilStardust
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| Posté le: 21 Fév 2013 18:51 Sujet du message: |
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Voici une interview de Gerry Leonard du 20 février 2012 :
| Citation: | David Bowie Guitarist Gerry Leonard: 'Odds of a Tour Are 50-50'
Longtime collaborator also talks about playing on new album
David Bowie is doing no interviews or appearances of any kind to promote his upcoming LP, The Next Day. Thankfully, he's allowing everybody else involved with the record to talk publicly. In recent weeks, Rolling Stone spoke with producer Tony Visconti, drummer Zack Alford and guitarist Earl Slick. At the risk of going completely overboard, we also chatted up guitarist Gerry Leonard earlier this week. He's been Bowie's musical director and guitarist on all of his recent albums and tours.
The guitarist is more optimistic than many about whether or not Bowie will tour. "I would say that it's 50-50," he says. "A couple of times, when we played back one of the more kick-ass tunes from the new record, he'd be like, 'This would be great live!' Of course, everyone was like, 'What? Did he just say that?' But other times he'd just roll his eyes if someone brought up playing live."
He continues, "If he gets the bug in him to do it, it'll happen. His voice is sounding great and he's looking great, too. He could totally do it. You never know with David, though. I feel he might want to make another record before he plays shows. He's being really prolific right now."
Rolling Stone also spoke with Leonard about his earliest days with Bowie, the premature end of the 2004 Reality tour due to Bowie's heart condition and the secret sessions for The Next Day.
How did you first come into contact with David Bowie?
I'd always lived in Dublin, and I moved to New York around 1997. I just worked my way up as a guitar player and I got to meet all of these wonderful people, like Laurie Anderson and producer Mark Plati. It was through him that I met David, since they were working together at the time. He knew my kind of ambient guitar style and asked me to play on a track for Bowie's [ultimately shelved] Toy record. Then he called me in to play on a few tracks on [2002's] Heathen.
Then David asked to me audition for the [touring] band. I do a solo thing called Spooky Ghost and he came down to see me in a tiny club with about 50 people. They need a guitar player to cover the Robert Fripp and Adrian Belew parts. . . the more kind of wacky stuff. David turned to Mark and said, "Can Gerry rock?" I do this kind of very improvised thing with looping and textures with a little trio. He really liked it and he invited me into the band.
Your first show was at Roseland Ballroom in 2002 when Bowie did Low straight through. That's a pretty intense way to start.
Yeah, it was very intense. We played Heathen and then Low straight through. I had talked him into letting me play this very elaborate loop on one of the Heathen tracks. I set the whole thing up and then the band comes in around me. I'm just about to walk onstage and he taps me on the shoulder and says, "Don't fuck it up, Gerry."
How well did you know Bowie's catalog at that point? That's a lot of material to learn.
Yeah, I had my gaps. Growing up in Dublin, some of that stuff filtered through, like the Berlin trilogy, and the earlier records were around. But I didn't have much money, so I had cassettes of my friends' records. When I got the job, I had to do some brushing up. When I took over as his musical director, I asked him to send me a bunch of records. I had just bought this old house and I had this table I knew was eight feet long. I had two rows of CDs laid out on this table. That's sixteen feet of CDs, just to start out with. That's a lot of songs.
I'm sure it was surreal to find yourself onstage at Roseland playing Low straight through.
That was really fun. We went on and played a few shows and I remember one night, we were playing at this tiny place in Berlin, maybe 1,200 people or something like that. It was a real pressure cooker. We're getting called back for a second and third encore, and after that David goes, "Let's do the Low record." We were like, "Sure!" The audience just freaked out. Can you imagine it's the third encore and he just comes on and said, "We're gonna play Low?" It was totally spontaneous, but we had it in our back pocket by that point.
By the time you launched the Reality tour the following year, the repertoire had really grown.
We'd work up new songs in soundcheck all the time and work them until we were ready to have him sing with us. We got to do [1970's] "The Supermen" and all this stuff that was really left-of-center, but really great album tracks. The fans were really going crazy for it.
Every period of his career got some love. You're doing "Station to Station" and "Loving the Alien" and "The Motel."
Yeah, we did "Suffragette City" and "Blue Jean," "Bewlay Brothers" and "Fantastic Voyage" and then we'd do "All the Young Dudes" and "Changes" and all his hallmark songs. We were all over his catalog. He had a love/hate relationship with "Let's Dance," but when we hit Australia and he hadn't been there in years, he would do it. If we were playing Britain or something, we'd focus on more obscure stuff.
Do you remember the Oslo show when a fan threw a lollipop and hit him real hard in the eye?
I do. Somebody else said that it somehow contributed to the demise of his touring at the time, but it was just a little speed bump. My understanding is that it was a Korean girl and she threw it as a form of affection. But it hit him right in the eye. We eventually laughed about it and carried on.
Things changed when he started getting that chest pain [a few days later]. We were onstage in Prague [on June 23rd, 2004] and I could tell. I saw him walk off after four songs and I was like, "What the hell is going on here?" We played a couple of instrumental songs from Low. Then we played another one where Cat Russell was able to sing the lead. Then he came back and we did "Station to Station," which is a monster kind of song. He was like, "You know, I can do it." He just didn't feel well. It was kind of a mystery.
I guess nobody knew how serious it was.
He's been working out with his trainer. The general consensus was, "Oh, maybe he overdid it." They would do some of this boxing, sparring stuff as part of his training. I think he felt like he pulled a muscle in his shoulder.
A couple days later we did the Hurricane Festival in Germany. Afterwards we were holed up at a hotel and somebody said, "We're going home, taking a break." It was a huge disappointment. Everybody felt like David was at the top of his game.
What do you remember from that final show in Germany? Was he in pain?
I've seen some footage from it and it feels like a very relaxed show. It feels almost like we were in the rehearsal room. I don't remember him being in pain, but it was more of a mellow show. I didn't really see him afterwards. I think he took some painkillers and got through the show, but he was exhausted afterwards. Then, obviously, they did some more tests and found the real culprit, which was a blocked artery. They put the stint in and that was it.
He announced a comeback concert in 2007 as part of the Highline Festival. Did he contact you about that?
We'd hear these rumors, but he never contacted us directly. We'd hear a little bit from the office, but with David, stuff is always really under wraps.
How did you first hear about this new record?
I got an e-mail from him in November of 2010. The subject line was "Schtum." That means "keep quiet." It was a little e-mail saying, "Are you available to come work on some new demos? I just want to get together in this little room. Please keep it to yourself. Don't tell a soul." It was obviously one of the most exciting e-mails I got all year. I was like, "Whoa! He's going to do something? Amazing."
It was myself, Tony Visconti, Sterling Campbell and David. We went into this tiny, tiny little rehearsal room downstairs in the East Village. It was like a little dungeon. We went there from Monday to Friday one week. He would pull these songs out of a hat. He's very old-school. He had this book bag with a legal pad and a little four-track recorder where he'd cut these little scratch demos. He would pull out a song and we'd chart out the chords and try to figure it out. We'd play it through a few times, kind of extend it a bit, come up with a form, and then put it away. By the end of the week, we'd cut all these demos, just for him.
It was really exciting, but it was totally under wraps. We just went there, put our heads down and worked on the new music. I was really thankful he was writing again, and he was in great form. He was really excited as we brought all these songs to life. On the Friday, I said goodbye and he went, "See ya!" That was it until May of 2011 when I got the call saying, "Okay, we're going into Magic Shop. Are you available these two weeks?" They did two weeks in May. I was involved in about eight days where we basically tracked live.
That summer, he came up to visit me in Woodstock. He asked me if I had a drum machine. He said, "Okay, I'll come over for coffee and maybe we'll do a little more writing." I didn't actually have a drum machine, so I ran over to my friend's house. He has a nice old Roland TR-808. I said, "Ed, I'm borrowing your drum machine. I can't tell you what for, but I need to take it right now." David came over and we wrote a couple of songs together. Then we went back into the studio and did two of those songs. It was such an honor. This session was over two weeks in September of 2011.
What happened in 2012?
I heard they were doing vocals and a little bit of strings or saxophone or piano. He would disappear for a few months and then call up Tony Visconti to book another couple of weeks. I went back in March of 2012 for a couple of days to do more guitar over drums.
This is all taking a really long time. Did you worry he was going to wind up shelving the whole thing?
Absolutely. All the time. When I went back in 2012 they played me some partially mixed stuff. I'm always the one who fears the worst, but at that point I realized it was actually going to happen. Before that I was thinking, "Maybe he's going to scrap it, or maybe he's going down to Zimbabwe and make a record with people down there."
Why do you think he's been so quiet? It doesn't seem like he's going to promote the record by doing any interviews.
I think he's reinventing the wheel. He's in a world where everybody is Tweeting and Facebooking. He's doing the complete opposite, and then he comes completely out of the blue with this thing. The silence is part of it. He's letting the record come out, letting the artwork out, letting the video out. In his mind, those are the artistic statements - not getting on the phone with everybody and setting it up with all kinds of chatter. So I really think it's just part of his aesthetic right now.
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Source : www.rollingstone.com
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