NOVEMBER 2010 ISSUE MMUSICMAG.COM NOVEMBER 2010 ISSUE MMUSICMAG.COM

DAVE STEWART IS STANDING BEHIND THE BOARD AT

Blackbird Studio, a top-fl ight recording facility tucked away in a quiet

suburb of Nashville. He bobs his head with approval as “Magic in

the Blues,” a track from his upcoming solo album, pours from the

speakers at joyous full blast. The sound is crystal clear, but the

music itself is swampy, organic and thoroughly ragged-but-right.

Stewart plays a spot of air guitar, then points to the speakers.

“That’s what it sounds like when people play in the same room

together,” he says.

Playing well with others has brought Stewart a long way. The

Sunderland, England, native rocketed to fame in the early 1980s

as half of the wildly popular duo the Eurythmics, but he quickly cast

his eye toward mixing things up with other musicians. He produced

tracks for acts like Mick Jagger, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and

Daryl Hall even as he continued knocking out hits with Eurythmics

partner Annie Lennox. When the duo split in 1990 (they have

occasionally reunited since), Stewart expanded his horizons to

include fi lm score composition and a solo career of his own—although

The Blackbird Diaries, due out in March, will be his fi rst album of

new solo material since 1995. “How the hell did that happen?” he

says with a laugh. “I just get into so many various things.” Distractions

during that period included production work for Katy Perry, Ringo

Starr, Jon Bon Jovi, Sinéad O’Connor, Imogen Heap, Bryan Ferry

and others. He and sometime production and songwriting partner

Glen Ballard established the High Window, a shared private studio

in Hollywood. And last summer Stewart co-wrote The Business

Playground: Where Creativity and Commerce Collide, a book about

the need for creativity in business.

Stewart’s latest high-profi le production client is Stevie Nicks,

with whom he plans to tour next spring. Next year will also see the

premiere of Ghost: The Musical, a stage show co-written by Stewart

and based upon the hit movie of the same name. We sat down with

Stewart in a quiet corner of Blackbird to talk about his restless quest

for new musical experiences.

DAVE STEWART From the Eurythmics to big-name producer, a life of rock and restlessness

By Chris Neal

‘Every artist has a completely different way of being, and none of them are right or wrong.’

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How do your production projects

usually begin?

I’ve never actually pitched myself as a

producer for hire. I usually have no idea how

I ended up working with an artist. I’ll have to

think, “Oh yeah, that’s because I was lying on

the floor drunk in Joe Strummer’s house in

Devon, and this person tripped over me.”

How did you meet Stevie Nicks?

Years ago I wrote this song called “Don’t

Come Around Here No More.” I was writing

it for Stevie, and then we were recording it

with [producer] Jimmy Iovine. Jimmy brought

Tom Petty down, and Tom really loved the

song and wanted to finish the verses—I had

the chorus and the whole track. That’s when

I first met Stevie. Years later I interviewed

her for a pilot for an HBO series, and

during the interview we played “Rhiannon”

and “Landslide” acoustically. She says now

when we did that she told her manager, “I

want Dave to work with me.” Later I sent her

a song with just a backing track and chorus

with me singing, called “Everybody Loves

You.” She really liked it, wrote the verses and

sent it back with her singing it. That was the

beginning of it.

How would you describe your sound?

I’m often working with lots of different people

at once—it could be Stevie or a soul singer

or a young indie person—and I morph into

their world. A lot of producers have a stamp.

“This is my world, you’ve come into it and

you’re going to sound like me with you on

top.” I’m the other way ’round. I’m like, “I’m

gonna sound like you, but you might hear a

bit of this.” And I suppose that “a bit of this”

is what you hear all over the Eurythmics—

but that was a 50/50, equal thing. So

you’ll hear maybe 10 percent of me on

another artist’s album.

In the studio, what is your interaction

with artists like?

Usually I’m just trying to understand what

they’re trying to say. “What is this song

about? Is this something about what you’re

really feeling, or is it a song that you think is

quite good, but that you don’t connect with?”

I’d rather record something that they’re really

connecting with, especially when you work

with someone like Sinéad O’Connor. An

artist like that, if they don’t connect with a

song they can’t really sing it. I’ve worked with

so many people that it’s a blur, and they’re

all different. They all have different ways of

being—Sinéad has her way of being, Mick

Jagger has his way of being, Bryan Ferry

has a completely different way of being—and

none of them are right or wrong.

Who’s on your production wish list?

I’d love to make a record with Leonard

Cohen, who is a person that I’m very inspired

by. I’d also love to make a record with Stevie

Wonder. That may seem a bit eclectic and

chameleon-like, but I can’t help it. I was

brought up in the northeast of England, and

what I was first exposed to was Northern

soul and Motown. But my brother bought the

first Dylan album, and my cousin in Memphis

was sending us records by Mississippi John

Hurt, Big Bill Broonzy and Robert Johnson.

Then the Beatles were on the radio. It was

such a kaleidoscope of different sounds.

Are you ever intimidated to work with

the people you grew up listening to?

For the first three hours or so. Especially

when they start singing, you go, “Wow,

that’s Mick Jagger!” or “Wow, that’s Aretha

Franklin!” But they’re usually so relaxed in

themselves about what they do that you also

relax. Then you see them get critical about

their thing, and you realize they’re just as

worried about executing what they’re doing

as anyone.

How do you tell someone that a

performance could be better?

Once I get to know people really well, they

can tell by the amount of attention, or frenzied

excitement, that I’m putting off. I’m a bit of

a vibe master, so if I start celebrating they

know it’s going really good. I’m not the kind

of person who goes into all the technical

reasons—“You should be singing a B-flat.”

It’s nothing to do with that, it’s to do with

whether they’re feeling it. Everybody goes

through these waves, these moments where

you can’t get anything to sound good. Then

you’ll go through waves where it peaks,

where everything sounds really good. It can

be something in your life, your circumstances,

what kind of environment you’re in. You get

the wrong person in the wrong place, or the

wrong person in the right place.

With Stevie Nicks at the High Window in Hollywood, July 2010

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With Glen Ballard at the High Window in Hollywood, July 2009

With Annie Lennox and Stevie Wonder

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NOVEMBER 2010 ISSUE MMUSICMAG.COM NOVEMBER 2010 ISSUE MMUSICMAG.COM

Do you have a favorite studio?

This one! (laughs) I like this one. I also like

Henson Recording Studios in Hollywood.

I like the big room at Abbey Road. When

we’re recording in bigger rooms, I tend to

like them tangled up with wires and carpets,

very old school. When I get into electronic

mode, like early Eurythmics, I like a little

room with nobody else in it. That’s when

I’m doing experimental stuff, taught to me by

great people like Conny Plank, the German

producer who did Kraftwerk.

What is your home studio like?

Glen Ballard and I share a space, although

we’re moving now. We’d have different

rooms that have different functions. I’d have

a little room with very little equipment—a lot of

software, plug-ins, a keyboard, two or three

of my favorite guitars, a little rack of things

to make sure it will sound reasonable. Then

if something sounded good we’d move into

the big room, where there’s more gear and

different amps and stuff, good mics. Then if

we think it’s going to require a whole setup

we head to Henson or somewhere that’s big

and has lots of choices. But I tend not to want

to run a [private] studio like that, because

then if you don’t use it you feel guilty, you

think you should be renting it out—which I did

for years. I had a studio in England called

the Church, which became quite well known.

It was a huge church from the 1850s, with

stained glass windows. I would use it for all

the different things I was doing. I had Dylan

there, Patti Smith, Oasis and others there.

But after a while if you’re not using it you rent

it out, and you get disconnected from it. You

go there and somebody else is there. You

can’t get into the kitchen because they’ve

got the door locked.

Is there any piece of gear that you

consider essential?

Necessity is the mother of invention. If I’m

in Jamaica, and there’s nothing, but I’ve

got my laptop and the room is great, I’m

excited. I’m not one of these audiophile-type

producers. Glen is more like that. We were

once working with the same artist, and we

went to do it in Jamaica. Glen brought in all

this gear, rented a villa, blacked out a room

and recreated his studio. I arrived with a

laptop and a couple of pedals! (laughs) Glen

laughs about this, too. I went to a local village

and asked to borrow a café’s sound system,

took it back to the house and plugged it in. I

like things that are meant to sound terrible,

like plastic Woolworth’s guitars, mixed with

something that sounds wonderful. The

Eurythmics records were all like that. A song

like “There Must Be an Angel (Playing With

My Heart)” has got a drum machine and a

tube chord sequencer, then you’ve got a

real harp playing, an opera singer from Paris,

and Stevie Wonder on the harmonica. If you

analyzed it all, it looks bonkers.

Is adaptability your strong suit?

I’ve lasted through all sorts of changes

sound-wise, so what’s happening on the

scene never bothered me. I didn’t go into and

out of fl avor. Have you read a book called

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance?

It’s about how when you go off on the side

roads, you get a lot better adventures than

on the freeway. One thing leads to another

on these side routes, if you let it.

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At Blackbird Studio in Nashville, August 2010

‘I’ve lasted through all sorts ofchanges, sound-wise.’

Brian

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With Joss Stone at Henson Recording Studios in Hollywood, July 2009

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Here are a few of the albums that best exemplify Dave Stewart’s wide-ranging work as a producer.

The Eurythmics, Touch (1983) Feargal Sharkey, Feargal Sharkey (1985)Mick Jagger, Primitive Cool (1987) Imogen Heap, iMegaphone (1998) Sinéad O’Connor, Faith and Courage (2000)Bryan Ferry, Frantic (2002) Various Artists, Music From the Motion Picture Alfi e (2004)Ringo Starr, Liverpool 8 (2008)

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RICHARD THOMPSON SUGARLAND TRICKY NATASHA BEDINGFIELD

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LIGHTING LESSONS

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JOE SATRIANIWizard of shred

LINKIN PARKGoes nuclear

LIZ PHAIRFun time

JOHN LEGEND & THE ROOTSOn a quest for hot sounds and hard truths

M7-COVER-proof1.indd 1 11/18/10 4:50 AM