(...Story Continued from Previous Page) So there was a lot of pressure on us to change what we had
actually conceived. Thankfully, the record was already done, and that's what is
remembered today -- which is good, because I think to a large extent it stands
the test of time.
You've put out just three albums in the last 17 years, and it's been
five years since your last release, "About Time." Were the songs on
"Nine Lives" all newly written for this album or were they amassed over
time?
Originally, I wanted this record to be a continuation of "About Time" -- I
even thought of calling it "About Time Too." Because that was a great success, a
new way of doing the band for me, and I've been using that same five-piece setup
for six or seven years now. But it quickly emerged that this was different, and
what made it different was that the music on "Nine Lives" actually came about
from what the band had been playing through those years. Whereas with "About
Time," I had an idea of what I wanted and I just got the band to play my ideas.
Also, there was no deadline for this album, so I just worked on it until it
was done. But all during that time we were doing a lot of live stuff. I've
become more and more a firm believer that if you play live, you have to do it
often. Like if you don't drive your car for six months, your car might not
start.
It seems you've always had an interest in working with music from
different cultures, even going back to some of the later incarnations of
Traffic. You were aware of, for instance, African music a lot earlier than most
pop artists. How did you become aware of those sounds?
I really came into rock 'n' roll, if that's what I am in, through music --
there was a lot of social change going on in the '60s, and so a lot of people
came to music from somewhere else, from wanting to change the world in some way.
I actually came to rock 'n' roll through music, I grew up listening to '40s
dance music my father used to play, and as a chorister singing 14th century
church music. And then when I was 12 or 13, I discovered the blues and that had
a big influence on me -- and of course world music is no different than blues,
we just didn't have a name for world music then.
I did an album with the Fania All-Stars in the '70s, with great musicians, Johnny
Pacheco and Larry Harlow and Willie Colon. And I did another record with two
African musicians (1973's "Aiye Keta," recorded with Remi Kabaka and Abdul Lasisi Amao
and released under the band name the Third World), so I have always had that
interest in ethnic music, African, Latin musics and trying to incorporate that
into a living music.
You recorded "About Time" for an
independent label and did quite well with it. But "Nine Lives" is coming out on
Columbia Records. Why did you choose to get back into the major label game at a
time when so many artists are trying to find ways to escape it?
The phrase "last-ditch attempt" comes to mind! "About Time" was a success, it
was a great experience. But ultimately, the more people I can reach with the
music the better, and the people at Columbia seem to like the material, so we're
trying. It's a one-album deal, a licensing deal, so we'll see whether it works
or not.
So was there any talk of playing "Gimme Some Lovin'" with
Eric?
No -- Eric said he didn't want to do "Layla," and there was no mention of
"Gimme Some Lovin'." Actually, it did come up at the last rehearsal. Someone
asked if I had ever done a gig and not done "Gimme Some Lovin'." And I said no
-- and it's a great relief to not have to!
Alan Light is the former editor-in-chief of Spin, Vibe and Tracks
magazines and a former senior writer at Rolling Stone. His writing has also
appeared in the New York Times, the New Yorker, GQ and Entertainment Weekly. His
book "The Skills to Pay the Bills: The Story of the Beastie Boys" was published
in 2006. Alan is a two-time winner of the ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award for
excellence in music writing.
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