LISTEN HEAR
So you will actually look at the clock and
it’s work. You punch the time clock so to
speak.
I will say I will now produce. Then you really
have to get into some serious therapy because
I’m not really the one either to want to make
music, just for the sake of making music. I
really have to have something to say. Since my
last record I need to have learned something,
either about music, about myself, about the
world, in order to feel justified in saying
anything. There is too much music, there is
too much on the airwaves. There are too many
frequencies already filled up. Why should I add
to it? I hope I am honest enough to be able
to say well if I’ve nothing left to say that is
coherent or useful, then I should say nothing.
But I have to trust myself, that if I put myself
through it, there will be something there.
Was it always this hard to write music?
No, I think when you are younger you are
more confident. I think only certainty is really
a terror of the ignorant. When you are young
you are ignorant about it. I was talking to
James Taylor about songwriting the other
day. I said it’s funny that you and I and our
contemporaries write music very simply. We
are not intimidated. We weren’t when we were
young. Classical musicians on the other hand,
from the age of four, are dominated by these
huge figures of Mozart, Bach, and Hayden. And
to even conceive of writing a piece of music
with those people over you, is inconceivable.
So most classical musicians don’t write music.
But we who listen to Fats Domino, we can work
those chords out. Yeah I can write a song. We
started that way and I’m glad we started that
way. So it’s strange. ■
“Driven to Tears” by Pearl Jam with Sting
50
GUITAR TRICKS INSIDER
DIGITAL EDITION
OCT/NOV