Part 2

Once you've started, how does the work gradually emerge?

I just sit and finish the song. Then I demo it. Often the demo is the album track. I don’t waste energy on throw away parts I go for it every time. I’m the batter that swings every time the ball is near the plate.

So the songs often come one after the next. Usually if I make one song that day there are two more I don’t tell anyone about. I do send most of my work to my best friend who’s a lawyer and a mom and wife and has a whole life going on - but I’ve known her since I was a kid and we both love music so it’s just a thing. And I also send them to Kevin sometimes, the guitar player from my very first real band. But most just pile up over in the song pile.

I have a very sharp memory and deeply detailed memory and I can remember every one usually. I don’t know how either as I assumed I would have lost a lot of brain RAM with all my adventures into booze and magic powders through the years but my memory is still there. I can hear all those songs on command in my mind.

Many writers have claimed that as soon as they enter into the process, certain aspects of the narrative are out of their hands. Do you like to keep strict control over the process or is there a sense of following things where they lead you?

I am always in the work and it’s equally in me. But I am riding it like a bull sometimes to get as much of it as I can - but there’s always me.

I am a vessel for my dreams. I am my dreams. My dreams are me. The way the songs work is I create them carefully, then sing them in a way that suggests I’ve removed myself as the narrator so the listener can be the narrator. It’s a mistake so many songwriters make. Getting out of the way of the listener is my immediate goal once the song is born.

My favorite singers do that for me too. Chavela Vargas, Morrissey, Sinatra, John Lydon. Elvis. They all get out of your way and you get caught in their spell.
 
Often, while writing, new ideas and alternative roads will open themselves up, pulling and pushing the creator in a different direction. Does this happen to you, too, and how do you deal with it? What do you do with these ideas?

Behind every song is the one I was after. This is how it is. I do the work because I love it so much. It’s magical and I’m always quietly realizing the bridge of one song is the window into the song next door.

I buy the ticket and take the ride. It’s what I’m here for.

There are many descriptions of the creative state. How would you describe it for you personally? Is there an element of spirituality to what you do?

Yes. Music is magic.

Especially in the digital age, the writing and production process tends towards the infinite. What marks the end of the process? How do you finish a work?

I have the gift of being incredibly sloppy and human. I leave mistakes because the next overdub is calling and I believe in the song. I believe in its humanity. And I refuse to make my music inhuman.

In fact if anything I have made it more savage as the years have passed. Soon it will be made of unicorn bones and purple lightning.

Digital recording is fine. Just because there is a button there it doesn’t mean you have to push it. But I learned that in therapy. It works well when using Logic too.

Once a piece is finished, how important is it for you to let it lie and evaluate it later on? How much improvement and refinement do you personally allow until you're satisfied with a piece? What does this process look like in practise?

I ask my manager Richard if the mix is too dirty or not dirty enough. He always knows when it’s too messy or when I’ve gussied it up too much. And I usually know the answer before I ask.

But my mixing style is like this: “What is the gap in modern Stones albums to say, Exile … and how can I create something that leans towards vibe and less towards instrumentation.” I want the listener to have an experience nor listen to me dicking around on various instruments.

Sometimes a bit of both is fun ... But I’m looking at the credits rolling by on a movie never made and I’m imagining the mix. That’s always the one. “Too much reverb? Vocal too low? Weird loud synth? Then it comes together in the end? Perfect. Print it. NEXT.“
 
What's your take on the role and importance of production, including mixing and mastering for you personally? How involved do you get in this?

Mixing is my last stop. I let Richard master the albums. Sometimes the mix is finished in the master. Sometimes he lets the guy make it MORE nuts. Once I have the mix I’m out. He knows better than I. And he is a very avid listener as are all the folks at Key Music Management. So I know I’m in great hands.

Previously this didn’t work for records before CHRIS but this is a new and amazing partnership. I mean. This man manages Dead Can Dance. Gimme a break. I know when to pass something forward and he’s the dude.
 
After finishing a piece or album and releasing something into the world, there can be a sense of emptiness. Can you relate to this – and how do you return to the state of creativity after experiencing it?

I do not have this experience of “emptiness” I am always making new things. There is always something to be made. There are more things to make than I have time to stay away to make.

But I feel bad for anyone who is going through that. My creative heart is a creature that is like a scroll rolling out of the Parthenon and it’s made it’s way into the side streets now, stopping for coffee and maybe chatting up a saucy French poet or taking a break to talk to the old timers. But it just rolls. That’s what it does. I can barely keep up.
 
Creativity can reach many different corners of our lives. Do you personally feel as though writing a piece of music is inherently different from something like making a great cup of coffee? What do you express through music that you couldn't or wouldn't in more 'mundane' tasks?

Music is magic. It’s its own magic. But coffee is also magic.

They will both stain your teeth but only one will stain your soul.