Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
Another vote for a book of interviews!! Perhaps with some commentary
from you recollecting your impressions of the person at the time of the
interview.

And, speaking as a HUGE fan, I'd like to see the Fleetwood Mac
interview very much. Which band members did you interview, and how was
it to interview each one? 

Which kind of brings me to another question: Blair Jackson did a
wonderful interview with Stevie Nicks around the time her Belladonna
album came out (1981) for BAM. Have you interviewed a subject in the
same time frame as one of your friends and/or colleagues? What's that
like? 
  

    

If I remember correctly, the Bella Donna issue also included part 2 of our
Jerry Garcia interview, which had been on the cover of the previous issue.

Ruth, I don't know if you'll like the Fleetwood Mac interview.  I spke with
Lindsey, Christine, and Mick.  The headline on the magazine cover was
"Where's Stevie?"  I'm not sure what was going on, but it was another of
their periods of estrangement.

I've got plenty of interviews, but not much time to concentrate on putting a
book together.  If I could afford to pay someone to OCR all the transcripts,
I could work on 'em during my travels, but I don't have that kind of budget.
It'll happen eventually.
  

    
Just read it, along with Blair's. Sounds like you each had a
completely different opinion of  Stevie. Did you guys used to compare
notes when you interviewed the same person/band? That would be a great
GD Hour segment-  you and Blair talking about the interviews you've
done.
  

    
I'm not so sure the listeners would be so happy to hear two gfeezdedrs
telling war stories of '80s music journalism.

Blair and I would compare notes from time to time, but I don't recall
any particularly memorable stories from that time. He gave me
assignments at BAM, and I occasionally gave him assignments at MIX
(until he left BAM and got a full-time job at MIX, right around the
time I left that fdield altogether).
  

    
>just read it

where?
  

    

I'll be danged.  It's right here:

http://bla.fleetwoodmac.net/index.php?page=index_v2&id=184&c=11


And here's a Lindsey BUckingham interview from April 1982:

http://bla.fleetwoodmac.net/index.php?page=index_v2&id=51&c=9
  

    
(Note: offsite readers with comments or questions can send email to
<inkwell@well.com> to have them added to this conversation)
  

    
Since the announcement for this conversation promised that you would
talk about what life on the road is really like, David, lets turn to
your experiences as a touring musician.

How do you cope with being away from home for extended stretches of
time?
  

    
Great question!

David, could you also talk a little bit about practicing? How do you
do it? Do you have a routine, do you jam or work on songs as a way to
improve your playing skills?
  

    

For one thing, I don't go on the road for extended stretches of time.
I think 18 days is the longest I've ever been away - three weekends
plus travel days.

I am fortunate to have a stable home life with a loving and supportive
wife who prefers having me around.  And I'm old enough and, finally,
smart enough to behave sensibly on the road.

My friend Michael Wegner of Cosmic Charlie turned me on to a book,
"Healthy Highways" by Nikki and David Goldbeck - a directory of
restaurants and grocery stores that offer healthy foods.  Usually when
I start a tour I'll buy a small cooler and hit one of the stores in the
book, and I'll stock up on soy milk, high-fiber cereal, fresh fruit,
etc.  I have sometimes gone several days without going into a
restaurant, where the temptations are very powerful.

Traveling alone is much easier than traveling in a group.  The first
time I ever toured was in 1997 with the Merry Danksters (Chuck Garvey
and Al Schnier of moe., Gibb Droll, Peter Prince, and Dave Ruch, plus
crew).  I was sick as a dawg within a few days, after staying up too
late, sharing joints with large groups, laughing til I hurt, and eating
too much of the kind of food I need to eat very sparingly if at all.

In January I toured with Mark Van Allen (awesome pedal steel player,
formerly of Blueground Undergrass and currently touring with an
untitled band fronted by Jimmy Herring) and Ralph Roddenbery
(singer-songwriter from Athens GA) - a trio we're going to call Goody 3
Shoes when we ever find time to do it again; it was way too easy for me
to abandon my self-discipline and go into that Cracker Barrel, where
even the oatmeal is served with biscuits and gravy (okay, that's not
strictly true, but try sitting across the table from a three-meat
breakfast with a bowl of plain oatmeal staring up at you).

I am also fortunate to have friends in many of the areas where I tour,
so I benefit from their company as well as the occasional home-cooked
meal and a decent bed in a room that doesn't have a dull roar rumbling
in the walls 24/7.

In sum, I don't stay up after gigs drinking and chasing girls; I eat
wisely most of the time; and I don't stay away from home for months at
a time.

I am always glad to be on the road, and I am always glad to be at
home.  Sometimes the transition can be difficult - folding laundry,
washing dishes, and that sort of stuff can seem like a lot of work
after a couple of weeks of playing gigs, driving across this beautiful
country, and being responsible for nothing but the music.  And
conversely, hassling with airports, rent-a-cars, long hours and long
drives, the separation from my wife and kitties, etc., takes some
getting used to every damn time.  But I love Rita with all I've got,
and she loves me, and through the nine years and counting, I've been
able to keep these things in balance and make the best of both states
of being.


Mark Van Allen:  http://www.markvanallen.com 
Cosmic Charlie: http://www.cosmiccharlie.net 
Ralph Roddenbery; http://www.ralphroddenbery.com
(note only one R at the end; he's distantly related to the Star Trek guy, but
his branch of the family lost that R due to a bureaucratic error at a County
  

    

John slipped in while I was composing that long reply and doing some work in
the studio.

> David, could you also talk a little bit about practicing? How do you do it?
> Do you have a routine, do you jam or work on songs as a way to improve your
> playing skills?

I don't have any sort of practicing discipline.  Never have.  because of the
way my life and personality are structured, I sometimes go several days
without playing at all.  I just emerged from such a period: the death of
Vince Welnick and the final illness of my best friend kept me involved in
other matters for several weeks, and although I made some music at home that
is going to wind up on that new CD, I really felt disconnected from the
guitar for a while.  I'm back to playing every day now, and I'm looking for-
ward to three performances this weekend and the trip to Ohio at the end of
the month - which kicks off a summer touring schedule that will have me on
the road about half the time through September.

Brent Mydland, the late Grateful Dead keyboardist, once told me that Bob Weir
advised him not to practice Grateful Dead songs.  His point, Im pretty sure,
was that the most important aspects of that kind of music can't be rehearsed
outside the context of the band: what happens onstage happens among all the
players, and the more open you are to what's coming at you, the better for
you and the music.

That's actually true for my solo work, too, on a certain level.  I can and do
rehearse specific songs and specific improvisational settings, but much of
what I think is important about my performance is how I interact with the
listeners.  I want to have that fingerpicking song solid when I take it out
on the road, but I don't want too much of what I do fixed too firmly.

This year I finally got the additional equipment I needed to be able to set
up my performing rig in my home studio and rehearse/record with it.  For a
long time, I'd have to negotiate iwth Rita for permission to set up in the
living room for a day or two; now I can develop new ideas and record them
whenever I want.
  

    
I figured playing was your practice routine! And it shows in the
music, that the song is paramount and your fingers and strings are the
vehicle for the moment.

"I'd have to negotiate iwth Rita for permission to set up in the
living room..."

You should see our living room with its tastefully upholstered
furnishings, stone fireplace, Windsor chair and Queen Anne table ...
and the giant speakers, amplifier and wires!
  

    
You've talked a bit about the technology and its impact on your music.
Can you point to songs you've written with this looping technique that
could not be possible without it? What about songs that came into
being thanks to the gear but could stand alone?
  

    

"Dawn's Early Light" on "Solo Electric" (hear it at
http://www.dgans.com/inkwell ) is one of my first loop compositions.  When
Rita went to Paris a year and a half ago, I set up my equipment in the living
room so I could play and record at all hours.  This was a piece I started in
the morning, then went and did some other stuff for several hours, and then
came back - with the music still stored in the loop station - and worked on
it some more.  Then I threw it into the digital audio workstation and edited
it down to its essentials.  A very short excerpt appears on "Solo Electric,"
and a much longer edit is very likely to turn up on "Cloud Surfing."

There's no way I could play that music without the loop.  There are several
musical elements that make it what it is, built upon a very simple chord
change (C and C sus4).  Unamplified, without the digital assistants, all I
could do would be the chords.
  

    


> What about songs that came into being thanks to the gear but could stand
> alone?

I'm not sure there are any.  But it could happen!
  

    

Further thought on touring: I have yet to discover a part of America that
doesn't have plenty of wonders to behold.  I always have my camera with me,
and when I'm not pressed for time I'll get the hell off the Interstate and
see what I can see.  I've gotten interested in geology over the years -
largely thanks to my wife bringing "Roadside Geology of Utah" along on our
first trip to the Grand Staircase.

If I could go back in time I'd kick my juvenile self in the ass for ever
having been bored.  There is no excuse for being bored on this planet.  Just
open your eyes.
  

    
Bravo for that sentiment, David!  Hell, that'd be a fine theme for a song.  
Not sure I can think of a song like that.  Not "haven't got time for the
pain" but sort of a parallel sentiment.
 
  

    
100% agreement with <141> also.  I've been to 49 of 50 states and D.C.
(Alaska, I've got my sights set on you) and there is not one that I
don't want to go back to to see more.  Grand Staircase was a spiritual
experience of sorts for me.  I might get to go back next year.

A Gans version of This Land Is Your Land might be kinda cool.
  

    

I've posted a lot of photos from the southwest here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dgans/sets/411363/


I have a thing about collections of objects that are usually seen singly,
e.g. yards full of concrete gnomes, etc.  This set of images consists mostly
of two such places, one in SWinston-Salem NC and the other somethere in
Kentucky, en route from Nashville to Bean Blossom, Indiana on the day my
mother died:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dgans/sets/448447/
  

    
>>There is no excuse for being bored on this planet.  Just
 open your eyes.

sounds like a song in the making.

you do have quite an eye for photography, David.

just wanted to say i'm enjoying the conversation, and am glad to be one of
those people who opens her home (and kitchen) to you when you're on the road
in my neck o' the woods!
  

    
What Audrey said, in all regards.
  

    
> I think 18 days is the longest I've ever been away - three weekends
> plus travel days.

That sounds like an eternity to me!  I've been away from home for that
long, certainly, but (with one exception) never without at least part
of my family.  The only exception was my first year of graduate school,
where I spent 9 months in Princeton while Kathy & our son were in
California.

I'd be interested in hearing more about your touring routines.  Is
there such a thing as a "typical" day on tour that you could describe
to us?

And I'd be interested in hearing something about pre-show routines. 
How do you get ready to go on stage?  Do different types of venues mean
that your pre-show activities and preparations are different?
  

    

Eighteen days isn't too long when you're enjoying the adventure.  And with
high-speed internet available for free in most of the motels (and friends'
homes), I am able to interact with my online communities without
interruption.  Close contact with Rita is, of course, impossible, but we talk
every day (or more often), and of course the reunions are sweet.

If would be nice if I could get Groucho and Hugo to check their email once in
a while, but hey.  (Speaking of whom: yesterday I was digging around in the
photo closet for a colleague, and I found this hilarious image of Groucho
getting flea-dipped on her first day here, back in May '87:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dgans/171803785/ )
  

    
That poor cat!

Email with cats (and dogs, for that matter) isn't nearly as satisfying
as actual scritching!
  

    

Regarding touring routines: I don't know that there is much of one.  Airports
are a necessary evil, and airlines are becoming more annoying as they attempt
to wring more bonus bucks out of their passengers.  For example, I've almost
always been able to carry my guitar on board and stash it in the overhead
bin.  It's a very rugged case, so I am never unwilling to gate-check it, but
once in a while (and more often, it seems, recently) a gate agent will decide
I have to pay an excess baggage fee.

When I fly out on tour, I rent a car and drive in a big circle.  I've had
pretty good luck with the cars, and sometimes I'll even get an upgrade to a
cooler vehicle.  It's fun to drive new cars, different cars; I'll confess to
enjoying the feeling of riding high in an SUV from time to time.

Rather than place myself at the mercy of cable TV, I usually bring audio-
vicual materials from home.  I also download TV shows via bittorrent, so I
don't have to miss The Daily Show and the Colbert Report while I'm on tour.
I do tend to leave The Weather Channel on a lot when I'm gettng ready to
leave in the morning.

Motel breakfast bars are pretty disgusting.  I usually bring a bag of Traci's
Granola, which we guy at the Grand Lake Farmer's Market, so all I need from
the breakfast bar is nonfat milk and a piece of fresh fruit (although I'm
spoiled on that score, being married to the former produce buyer of the Inner
Sunset Community Food Store, who has taught me a great deal about what to buy
and when).  I often bring my own coffee on the road, too; most motels have
coffee makers, and it is astounding to me how fucking awful the grounds are
in those packets.

I'm much happier when I can stay with friends.  Both <aud> and <jera> have
made me most welcome in their beautiful homes, and access to their sweet pets
is also delightful.  Gary has a dalmatian named Patches, and a new pup named
Lillie Belle I hope to met this fall; Audrey has cats, and two handsome sons
who are also pleasant companions, and her husband <dam> even makes an
appearance sometimes :^)