Jeff Lynne „Yamaha All Access“ Interview
Mittlerweile ist ein Transkript ja schon so ziemlich überall aufgetaucht, also kann ich es auch hier posten. Ursprünglich war’s bei Showdown mailing list zu lesen:
Yamaha „All Access“ – Summer 2007, Number 14
The Genius of JEFF LYNNE
Pg. 19
40 Years of Strange Magic
Had Jeff Lynne been merely a great bandleader, singer/songwriter,
multi-instrumentalist, or producer, his place in the pop pantheon
would be secure. But Lynne has excelled in all those areas, crafting
four decades of great rock music distinguished by irrepressible
hooks, manic energy, and glorious production.Lynne grew up in Birmingham, England, where he made a splash as
guitarist/vocalist and producer/songwriter for the Idle Race in the
late ’60s. In 1970, he joined the great British cult band Move (sic),
where he co-produced, wrote songs, sang, played guitar and keyboards.
The same year, he co-founded the Electric Light Orchestra with move
bandleader Roy Wood. When Wood left to form a new group, Lynne
assumed control of E.L.O., writing, producing, and singing hit after
hit throughout the decide. Even today, it’s hard not to be bowled
over by the impact and innovation of „Evil Woman,“ „Mr. Blue Sky“ or
„Strange Magic,“ a song whose title perfectly summarizes the Lynne
mystique.As E.L.O. wound down in the ’80s, Lynne was contacted by George
Harrison to work with him on his album Cloud Nine. „We became great
friends, and I had the greatest of times doing that album“, says
Lynne. „It was while we were making the album that George suggested
we should form a group. And to this day, George and me are the
founding members of the Traveling Wilburys. A group I’m very proud to
be in.“In 1990, Lynne unveiled his only solo album, Armchair Theatre, which
was critically acclaimed. A few years later he worked with the three
surviving Beatles on their Anthology compilations, transforming raw
John Lennon demos into completed Beatles tracks.Pg. 20
ALL ACCESS: You’ve always seemed to strive for the grandest possible
sounds, even on your earliest records. What drew you to orchestras,
choirs, and massive overdubs?JEFF LYNNE: I used to think that more is more. I just loved to
overdub. I thought that I could deliver the song better with a whole
racket going on.AA: Why?
JL: It’s just the way I evolved as a songwriter, I suppose. I started
out playing live every night in the Idle Race, and I loved that — a
four-piece rock band with two guitars, bass, and drugs. We were
really tight. When we started recording, I always wanted to add a few
more instruments to my songs. Playing with that small line-up (even
though we sounded good), made me want to get a bigger sound.AA: The Idle Race records almost sound like a blueprint for something
you hoped to create someday.JL: That’s absolutely right. Frankly, I didn’t have the experience
yet. I didn’t quite know how to do what I wanted to do. When I did
the second Idle Race album with Liberty Records, they said, „You need
a producer,“ and I said, „No, I’m the producer.“ The believed me for
some reason, even though I was only about 21 and had never produced
anything.AA: How did you pull it off?
JL: I’d purchased the B & O tape recorded that lets you bounce tracks
>from let to right and right to left adding a new instrument as you
go. So I learned in the front room of my parents‘ house in Birmingham
by making demos of my songs for the first Idle Race album just
bouncing tracks back and forth and waiting for the buses outside to
go past so the rumble wouldn’t get on the tape. Once you bounced the
parts down, that was it — the only way to change the mix was to
start from scratch. That’s how I learned how parts work together. But
even though I didn’t understand about compression I was getting it
anyway by overloading the tape. I knew how to create the harmonies I
wanted by practicing on the B & O recorder.AA: How do you view the relationship between production and songwriting?
JL: Writing and producing for me are kind of the same process. When I
write a song, I’m already thinking about what sounds should be on it.
Whether it should be a piano, an orchestra, whatever. Other ideas
come as I’m laying down the tracks. I’ll think, „Wow, a tuba would
sound great here, or a xylophone.“AA: Some of the production techniques you used with E.L.O. were
unbelievably difficult with analog tape and no mixer automation. Now
they’re relatively easy, thanks to digital.JL: Yes, and it isn’t entirely a good thing. You can do things with
digital that you couldn’t have done in a million years with analog.
The problem is, digital doesn’t yet sound as good, though it will one
day. But I’m not complaining. The facilities of a digital recording
system are amazing, and I could never go back to tape. Like everyone
else, I’ve gotten used to CD sound, and even to mp3 sound. Besides,
sometimes you don’t care too much about the sound quality — if you
love the tune.AA: Which instruments do you tend to write on?
JL: I tend to use piano for writing ballad-type songs with big fat
chords, like „Telephone Line“ and „I Can’t Get It Out Of MyPg. 21
___________________________________
Writing and producing to me are
kind of the same process. When I
write a song, I’m already thinking
about what sounds should be on it.
___________________________________Pg. 23
Head.“ I’ve got a nice nine-foot Yamaha concert grand that I’ve
written many, many songs on. It’s mellowed quite nicely over the
years. I also like to write on guitar, usually for more for up-tempo
songs like „Rockaria,“ „Showdown,“ and „Ma-Ma-Ma Belle.“ Sometimes I
write on a Yamaha keyboard. I wrote a lot of E.L.O.’s Discovery album
on a CS80, which was one of those magic Yamaha keyboards. The only
problem was that it weighed something like 500 pounds! It had some
great sounds, absolutely fantastic for its time. Another Yamaha
keyboard that played a role along the way was the DX7. It was the
first one small enough to take on your holidays with you.AA: You’ve worked with a number of your idols. Was it difficult to
step into the producer’s role?JL: Well, you’ve got to take charge and get it sounding how you want,
or there’s no point in your being there. Sometimes you do have to
say, „I don’t think that quite works,“ or „You’d better do that bit
again.“ But it really is a thrill getting to work with your heroes.
The record I did with Roy Orbison, „You Got It,“ is one of my
favorites. I was so thrilled that I got to write it with him, record
it, sing background vocals, mix it, and have it be a great big hit.
It couldn’t have been any better. Roy’s voice was still great — a
beautiful, soft, velvety sound that could suddenly soar like a bird.
It was the same kind of thrill working with Del Shannon and Brian
Wilson, people with outstanding voices. Tom Petty’s Full Moon Fever
is another one of my favorites that I co-wrote and produced. Working
with the Beatles on Anthology was the most amazing experience ever, a
lot harder, because there were three of them and only one of me.
[Laughs.]AA: What was your role on Anthology?
JL: To make records out of those two cassette tapes of John’s, „Free
As A Bird“ and „Real Love“, was the hardest job I’ve ever done, and
one of the most fun. It had probably been more than 20 years since
Paul, George, and Ringo were in the studio together. I sat there
listening to their brilliant banter for hours. It was really funny.
And then we had to get to work, and that was a little harder.AA: How come?
JL: I was given a mono cassette with John singing „Free As A Bird“
with a piano. There was tons of hiss, and the piano was loud. This
was 1995 and we weren’t using a computer yet. It was impossible to
play along to the cassette because it was a wild performance, so we
wound up recording the track based on the average tempo, and then I
flew John’s voice and piano into it. After that, we added George and
Paul singing harmonies. Doing Anthology led to me producing eight
songs on Paul McCartney’s album Flaming Pie.AA: It wasn’t the first time your career shadowed that of the Beatles.
JL: It’s hardly a shadow — it’s more like a splat! [Laughs.] I love
the Beatles dearly, totally, and absolutely. When I was doing my
first album with the Idle Race, the engineer phoned and said, „Do you
want to go down to Abbey Road? (actually I think it was called EMI in
those days) The Beatles are in recording.“ I said, „Wha?!!!“ We shot
down there, got past the bloke at the door, and there they were,
recording two different sessions for the White Album. I met John and
George in the Studio Two control room. Through the window, you could
see George martin hurling himself around as he conducted the string
track to „Glass Onion.“ I said to myself, „Listen to that snare drum
sound!“ It was all beyond my wildest dreams. Then we walked down the
corridor, and there was Paul playing bass on „Why Don’t We Do It In
The Road?“ Ringo was giving him a note on the piano. It was shocking
to see the Beatles in the actual recording studio. It was like
catching an unbelievable event in nature. I couldn’t believe my luck.AA: So do you still feel a desire to make everything sound massive these days?
JL: I think I got over it. I used to have to make everything enormous
to make it feel like a proper record. i always used to imagine that
all the records I loved were enormous as well. It was only years
later that i could listen to the old singles I loved and realize that
there was almost nothing on them! The huge sound I imagined didn’t
exist. I’ve learned so much since then. Thank goodness. There are
still millions of songs waiting to be done. It’s just a matter of
writing them.[END OF INTERVIEW]
Nearly 20 years after the creation of the band, and over a decade
since the music was last available to fans, the music of The
Traveling Wilburys was reissued on June 12, 2007. the previously
released albums Traveling Wilburys Volume 1 and Traveling Wilburys
Volume 3 feature inarguably some of music’s greatest
singer-songwriters — George Harrison, Jeff Lynne, Roy Orbison, Tom
Petty and Bob Dylan — as the iconic band The Traveling Wilburys.
Both CDs are combined on this 2-CD/1-DVD release and feature bonus
tracks of rare and newly mixed, unreleased music. The all-region DVD
contains historic footage documenting the first chord to the final
mix, and their five video clips. Digipack also includes a 16-page
booklet.
Im allgemeinen sehr interessantes Interview, jedoch war ich nicht erfreut, von Lynne im letzten Abschnitt wieder die übliche Entschuldigung zu lesen, als er nach dem bombastischen Sound von ELO gefragt wurde. Er hätte ihn überwunden, zum Glück. Er habe so viel seitdem gelernt. Ich finde es schade, dass Lynne offenbar nicht den Mumm hat, zu SEINEM Sound der 70er zu stehen und praktisch klein beigibt. Ja, es ist fast so, als schäme er sich dafür, als hätte er sich letztlich den Kritikern gebeugt, die ihn immer für den bombastischen Sound kritisierten. Oder waren es andere wie seine Kumpels, die Gehirnwäsche betrieben haben? Man kann ja beides machen, und ich finde ja gerade auch die neuen organischeren Sachen (die ironischerweise von den Kritikern immer noch als Zuckerwatte und überproduziert charakterisiert werden) sehr gelungen, und der Ansatz bei „Zoom“ zeigt ja den „Less Is More“ Approach. Trotzdem frustriert es mich, dass Jeff entweder sich selbst gar nicht bewusst ist, wie großartig seine Produktionen früher waren, oder dass er einfach mehr auf andere hört als auf sich selbst.
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