Interview
with Nils Lofgren
by
Neal Butterworth
Neal
Butterworth, Editor of the Daily Echo Bournemouth, England October
12, 2004.
The
telephone interview was held before the final Vote For Change
concert in New Jersey after Nils had performed with Neil Young and
Bruce at St. Paul on the tour.
Parts
of the interview featured in the Basingstoke Gazette, Southern Daily
Echo and Daily Echo Bournemouth before Nils concerts in Basingstoke
and Southampton.
N.B.:
Everything must be a bit of a blur at the moment?
N.L.:
A little bit, but it's not the first time. I just did a show last
night and I'm rushing off to New Jersey to do another show Wednesday
and then rushing back here to get on a plane to London to start the
tour. It's been a few years since I was over there with my acoustics
show in the little theatres and I love that and I've been coming to
the UK for 30 years now to sing and play and I'm looking forward to
it. You know this last month, September, it's 36 years on the road.
It's good to be alive and singing.
N.B.:
2001 was the last time you came here.
N.L.:
Yeah, I used to try to get over there every year but I've been busy
with the E Street Band tours and I'm excited to come back. Buck
Brown, who's in my electric band is coming with me and we're going
to do an acoustic duo and we're in pretty good shape and looking
forward to doing some great shows and letting people know we're
still around and I'm hoping after I get back in November that we're
going to start working on another solo record for my website,
nilslofgren.com.
N.B.:
There are some interesting conversations going on amongst your fans
on that website.
N.L.:
Yes, they kind of police themselves. There are some interesting
debates that go on and try and log in every three or four weeks and
just give an overview of what I'm doing and it's just kind of a new
permanent career for me for the last eight years and especially the
last few with the listers and website. I just can't see having a
record deal again without some distribution help from a great
company called Hypertension all over Europe. The music business is
just so crazy I just don't see myself hooking up with a record
company anymore.
N.B.:
It's so much easier nowadays with the internet, when you know you've
got a fan base out there who are going to be looking for anything
that you put out?
N.L.:
It's much more grass roots, it's smaller numbers but it's very
authentic and it's really how I started 36 years ago. It's about the
music and it bypasses all the politics, 90 percent of the nasty
politics, and the whole music industry too - it's not like they're
having trouble finding a slot for me in this soft porn pop. I'm
happy to just make music I'm proud of and to share it on the website.
N.B.:
There are a lot of fans over here that are looking forward to seeing
you again.
N.L.:
Yeah, I'm thrilled to be coming. You get on the bus and do 18 cities
in 19 days but you get into a groove and it's nice to wake up every
morning and know you've got an audience coming and expecting a good
show that night.
N.B.:
Your brother Tommy accompanied you on the last acoustic tour.
N.L.:
Yeah, Tommy and I continue to work together on and off and Buck and
my electric band had a live album out a couple of years ago. I've
done quite a bit of touring with the band this summer but it's time
I think for a more intimate acoustics show in the UK and that's what
we're coming to do.
N.B.:
Can we expect any newer stuff or anything from the stuff you've been
writing?
N.L.:
Well most of my songs are works in progress at the moment. Once we
get our sea legs and get three or four shows into it I'll probably
start to pull out some more obscure Grin songs or maybe even some
songs I've been writing or working on that no-one's heard yet but
that will evolve as we get into the tour.
N.B.:
Looking at the website and looking at what people are saying about
you, there are certain songs which seem to strike a chord with a lot
of your fans.
N.L.:
I'm grateful for that. I feel like I'm a songwriter first and
everything else is after that. I had a lot of good ideas and
hopefully in November I'll get home and work on a new record.
N.B.:
One of the interesting things I've noticed as well is that you've
still got this fan base who say that you shouldn't be working as
much with Bruce when you're a star in your own right.
N.L.:
I take that as a compliment and I understand the sentiment. I'm
grateful people feel that strongly that they would prefer I put out
more music and I'd prefer I was more prolific and creative but I'm a
very band-orientated person. I love being in a great band and
arguably, if you look at my 36 years, my work with Ringo, Bruce and
Neil Young is really about 15 per cent of it and that's not a lot.
As far as really going on the road and investing huge amounts of
time, it's really those three and you get a chance to play with some
of your musical heroes, especially in a band setting. It's good for
my musical spirit and when I come back to my music I feel a lot more
energised and refreshed. I'm very comfortable being a band leader
but it's nice not to be the boss all the time and to take a break
once in a while. It keeps the experience musical but it gives me a
break from being the leader and when I come back to being the leader
I feel like I'm a little bit recharged. I think it's a good thing,
but I'm grateful people would rather get more music out of me. I
would too and I'm going to start working on that in November.
N.B.:
Who's coming over with you on this tour? Are you bringing the family?
N.L.:
No, my stepson Dylan is in school and Amy's going to stay and help
him with that. Roy Whitty my fabulous guitar tech is coming with us.
Richard John is a great PA and has been mixing my shows for years -
he's going to be running round with a little crew. It's really grass
roots and very musically creative and I'm excited about it. It's
good to just get out of the aeroplane and get on a bus again and
tour some cities all over the UK - it's something I really love to
do.
N.B.:
So no electric guitar at all?
N.L.:
Yes I am. The show is mainly acoustic, but I'll pick up the electric
occasionally and do some soloing and stretching out and I'll go over
to the piano and sit down and play the piano for four or five tunes
in the middle and Buck's playing mandolin, synth, piano, acoustic,
singing, so we cover a lot of territory with a lot of different
sounds, trying to keep it fresh for the audience.
N.B.:
Do you have one song which defines your writing career or which you
actually think "I can't wait to play that" every night?
N.L.:
I don't know about that. There's one song that keeps popping up in
the set - it's very ancient - it's a song from the first Grin album
called Like Rain. It's one of the first records I ever did and it's
one of the only repeat songs on the last double live band CD and we
came up with a new version of it which I think presents the song in
a better light and is a great combination of melody and rhythm and
has a certain majesty to it. It's one of my favourite songs I've
written anyway.
N.B.:
Just going back to the last few days - I saw you hooked up with an
old friend at St. Paul. Mr. Young?
N.L.:
Oh yeah. He came down and we had a ball. Neil and Bruce are, I think,
two of the greatest writers in history. I love them both and to be
on stage with them singing their music was really a treat for all of
us.
N.B.:
What did you actually play?
N.L.:
We did Rocking in the Free World, All Along the Watchtower and then
Neil sat in with us on our encores which were Peace, Love and
Understanding by Elvis Costello and People Have the Power - Patti
Smith joined in on the encore. So we had a great night and it was
beautiful to have Neil there helping us. As always he was very
intense and very emotional and powerful.
N.B.:
You've also been working with Patti as well?
N.L.:
Yes, I was in the studio over the last couple of years on and off
helping Patti a great solo record she released this summer and she
asked me to help out and do some TV shows and an old friend, Steve
Jordan, put a beautiful band together, so again it was not a lot of
time but we've just finished a three week run and did some
one-nighters, some TV promotion and actually our last show on
Wednesday night is for this Vote for Change and Patti's going to be
the opening act, so I'll go up and play with her and then change my
shirt and go out and play with the E Street Band. The last time I
did something like that I was on the Tonight Tonight tour and Grin
was opening for the Neil Young Tonight Tonight band (tape cuts out)
be on stage with a great band and I'm looking forward to that too.
N.B.:
Have the audiences been any different this time around with the Vote
for Change tour than they were with the E Street Band?
N.L.:
Well it is more of a political thing and there's a different slant
on it. Plus we're sharing the stage other bands which is great. John
Fogerty and REM; a band called Bright Eyes; Tracy Chapman did a
night with us, so it's fun to have some other great music to listen
to and of course we want to play for more like an hour and a half.
Last night we only played 30 minutes because there were 12 great
bands but it is a different perspective but it's still music and the
message is hey - I don't think there's a single person on the planet
that wouldn't like to see the world for the better.
N.B.:
Just coming back to the tour you'll be doing in the UK. What's it
like stepping off a stage with maybe 40,000 people and then stepping
onto a stage a few days later with 200. Is there anything different
in the way you approach it? Obviously you're a band leader this time
but is there a difference between that?
N.L.:
Yeah, what I've learned over the years it that my job is to prepare
enough and to do enough homework so that when I walk on stage I can
try to turn my mind off and use my musical instincts and you really
want to get down in the music and get lost in it as soon as possible
and stay there and I've noticed that that's a bit more difficult
when you're in front of 20,000 or 100,000 or whatever. You walk out
into these little theatres and clubs and you can see the eyes,
people are on top of you and it makes it almost easier to get down
to that place where you're lost in the music and I've learned that
in these big spectacle kind of arenas I have to really ignore the
audience a bit longer and really concentrate a little harder on the
band and the music. Also I get kind of distracted by the spectacle
of it all, which is the advantage of the little bar with 200 people
on top of you - there's no confusion - you're basically surrounded
and it helps you get down in the music a little bit easier but it's
an adjustment you make when you walk onstage - you maybe need a
little more focus to get down in it in a bigger place.
N.B.:
And I suppose as well there's always the opportunity when you're
dealing with small audiences, who are genuine Nils Lofgren fans, to
meet them and say hello and sign merchandise after the show. Is that
an extra buzz you get?
N.L.:
Yes, especially as for eight years now I've been out of the music
industry. I have my website but it's fun at the end of the night to
sit at a CD table and make some of the obscure music that people
can't find available in the shops and sign it for them and have a
chat or try to answer questions. It's just more of a grass roots,
hands on communication that usually you don't get to do and it's one
of the things that I'll try to do every night on this tour.
Source:
www.thisisbournemouth.co.uk
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