The Dave Stewart Interview: Redefining Himself As A Guitarist and A Songwriter In Nashville, Tennessee.

So was it a conscious decision to record the albums so fast and did the speed of the recording foster a creative atmosphere?

I didn’t think I’d get it all made in five days, I just thought, I’ll get five days done first. I hadn’t really written anything, so I started to write in the morning in the hotel room, I’d figure things out as we went along, and when we’d go for a tea break I’d write some more. And suddenly I realized I was recording three songs a day. The players were so great, I only had to play it to them once, and maybe just record it twice and that was it.

By the time, we were on the third day; we’d already made most of an album. It was probably similar to how it was in the 60s, so by the time we got to days 4 and 5 it was easy peasy.

Has that always been your style or does your music come from a different place today than it did in your youth?

It’s been quite a complex process. I’ve been disentangling myself from co-writing. Before with Annie, we’d write together, and I’d know that she was going to sing it. And that’s a whole ‘nother mind set. It has to be them singing about things they feel, you can join in writing the lyrics, as well as the melody, but the end of the day it’s coming out of their mouth.

So what was liberating for me, was singing things and having words coming out of my mouth that I was thinking and feeling. Without having to ask somebody: “What do you think?”

So that’s why it went so quick, as there was a whole process. But in truth, me and Annie worked incredibly quickly; we just made every album in two or three weeks including writing the songs. But it was great just being able to say, “right that’s it…it’s done”.

So I take it you feel comfortable writing for the female voice, it’s something that a lot of aspiring writers and guitarists find incredibly difficult.

Well I think I got used to it. Doing 10 albums with Annie, and writing with someone that you live with for four or five years. I kind of got over that hump by diving right in the deep end. Often when I’m writing with a girl, my wife, for example will start off laughing, but within an hour they’ll be crying. You get to talking and discussing ideas, and you’ll tease out concepts, maybe an epic event that they don’t like talking about or something that happened in a relationship. For some reason it always comes out in the first hour, and suddenly there’s loads of stuff to write about, and you just decide which topic to pick first.

It’s more like being a therapist. Not saying much, but allowing them to say a lot, and picking out the interesting ideas and attaching melodies and chords. Lots of artists write in prose and poetry, and I’ve always had the knack of injecting something that’s more song like, and suddenly we’ll know what we’re doing.

Having said that, you’ve worked with so many great female vocalists on these records: Alison Krauss, The Secret Sisters, Jessie Baylin, Stevie Nicks, and a host of others. How much of a give and take are the songs that appear on the two alums - did you have a clear idea of what you wanted or did you bounce off each artist?

There was only one song on the new album that I co-wrote, and that was with Jesse Baylin. On the film you can see us writing it together in my hotel room, and she’s got a great album called Little Spark. She’s married to Nathan Followhill of Kings Of Leon.

But every other song I’d written myself. So when Alison came to sing “Drowning In The Blues”, she’d already heard a version, and it was more about allowing her to do her thing with my words in the studio. She didn’t want to change my guide vocal, instead she’d sing around it, adding her viola parts. It was amazing watching her work. She never writes anything down. She just plays this ethereal melody on the viola, and then she layers in another one, and another one on top of that, creating her own little string section, and it’s amazing.

You mentioned The Blackbird Diaries and Ringmaster General documentary. Did you start the sessions with the express intention of making a movie or did that evolve over time?

When I was in Nashville, I thought "oh God I should document this", but how am I going to film it. On the movie you can even see my face as I’m gaffer taping my cellphone to the wall. Luckily it was one of those really good HD cellphones, and you’d see Martina McBride walk into frame.

So after that I just asked if there was anyone around town, and I met this kid, and he had a Cannon 5D. So slowly it built up, and we’d have a couple of camera men at all times, and we’d film some bonkers stuff as well as the sessions. I came up with this narrative, counting down the days, and about how I wrote songs, because people always ask me about that.

Because, really I don’t sit at a piano in an empty room and try to write songs, it’s all sorts of things that inspire me. So I used the film metaphorically to show how song titles came to me. So for example Reese Witherspoon dropped into the sessions and said “what’s cheaper than free” and I thought oh that’s good, and turned it into a personal song or story from something that’s happened in my life. But the trigger points are all things, places, times, sayings.

Could you imagine recreating the Blackbird Diaries experience in a different city, which has its own distinct cultural and musical background?

I’ve got a great sense of affinity with these guys, and while there were some new players on The Ringmaster General, like Bobby Keys from The Stones, they really are the band I want to make my records with. I don’t mind making other people’s records with different players and in different places, but they’re my guys from now on.

I have been playing live with a different band though, with Orianthi on guitar and Nick West on bass. But I even ended up making two other artists’ albums in Nashville. I made Orianthi’s album there, and then I made Joss Stones’ album there.

Is that the EP from last year, or is there a new Orianthi album on the way?

Some of that EP is on there, but we went back and recorded more and more songs with the Nashville players, and we made an album out of the best bits of what we came up with.

We’re used to seeing her shredding with Steve Vai or soloing for Michael Jackson, but I think she’s a more dexterous player than she’s often given credit for. If you made this record in Blackbird can we expert to hear more rootsy sounds on her LP?

I got her playing a lot more blues influenced sounds and doing acoustic work, as well as the full on rock – but rock in a bluesy Led Zeppelin way. She’s very excited about the whole thing, because she always wanted to be playing rock music, but she got put into a box by the record company.

They’d say: “Okay, she’s a pop singer and we’ll give her 10 seconds of shredding here or there”. But if you look at her early stuff she was playing with Santana, she wasn’t just born obsessed with shredding in the dark.

Back to your LPs, you’ve been producing records since your days in the Eurythmics but Mike Bradford produces both your new records, how did it feel to hand over some control and why didn’t you self produce the record?

Mike Bradford is a great mate of mine. He’s an amazing bass player, and when I play live, he knows the stuff I like, and he’s a real guy from the streets of Chicago. He’s a solid presence, and he’ll just say if something’s shit. He doesn’t mess with words, and he’s good at keeping me on track. I’ll be jamming away, playing all this psychedelic stuff with the band and I will start saying let’s have some martinis, and he’s fine with that, but after a while he’ll go: “you know we were busy making an album, remember?”

In the last twenty years you’ve been a collaborator, a producer, a songwriter, a publisher, the brains behind a musical, and you’ve worked in film – when it gets down to it, do you still consider yourself a musician first and foremost?

I’m really sort of happy right now. In a year-and-a-half I’ve defined myself, and put what people thought of me into context with this new singer-songwriter career. It really is something that I love doing, and I’ve decided that these are the type of records I love making, and when I play live these are the sounds you can expect to hear. I’ll dip into my back catalogue, but it’ll be in this new style.

At this point I’m not looking to launch a huge recording career, it’s difficult enough for anybody these days, and I just want to play stuff I like live with great players, and if I can keep doing that for the next five years, then bring it on.

Finally, we’re always trying to introduce our readers to new artists and new styles, and we were wondering…while you’ve been out in Nashville have you come across or been introduced to any great artists new or old that you weren’t previously familiar with?

Well there’s Tom Bukovac he played on both albums, he’s just mind-boggling. He’s just obsessed with guitars. He’ll freak out if he sees a guitar on the web, and he has these amps from the 50s, and his whole life is guitar playing. He’s probably impressed me most out of any guitar player I’ve been with.

But also Orianthi, being around her, and realizing her true love of music and watching her play in a completely different way from what people have come to expect. I really think this album will launch a completely different career for her. She finally gets to rock out. If you see at a festival she’ll sneak in a bit of Hendrix or Cream, but they’ll tell her “you’ve got to play the single” and she’ll groan.