Отправлено: 17.05.13 10:02. Заголовок: Ну что же,тур этого ..
Ну что же,тур этого года стартовал и как всегда менеджмент Тома отлично отработал организовав на Сириус ФМ отдельный канал с музыкой подобранной Томом.
"Tom Petty Radio" Will Debut On Friday For A Limited Time on SiriusXM Channel 111 – Buried Treasure Online Channel for SiriusXM Members Begins June 1
Starting this Friday May 17 at 6pm EST, "Tom Petty Radio" will debut for a limited time only on SiriusXM Channel 111. Between May 17 and May 31, Tom Petty Radio will give SiriusXM listeners 24/7 access to music from throughout Tom's career including his music with The Heartbreakers and his solo work, as well as The Traveling Wilburys and Mudcrutch. The channel will also feature live concert material from The Heartbreakers' recent tours and some rarely heard vintage performances.
SiriusXM listeners will also hear Tom and the members of the Heartbreakers discuss the creation of some of their most notable songs as well as some memorable moments on tour. Additionally, Tom Petty Radio will feature classic moments from Tom Petty’s Buried Treasure, Tom's weekly radio show on SiriusXM.
Also, on June 1, SiriusXM will also launch an online channel showcasing Tom Petty’s Buried Treasure. The commercial-free music channel will be available on SiriusXM Internet Radio on smartphones and other connected devices, as well as online at siriusxm.com
Отправлено: 05.06.13 13:36. Заголовок: Tom Petty Guitarist ..
Tom Petty Guitarist Mike Campbell: 'We're Free From 'Free Fallin'''
On Petty's rarities theater tour, next album and recording with Bob Dylan
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers just wrapped up a triumphant five-night stand at New York's Beacon Theater. When the band plays arenas and festivals, they rarely veer too far from their large catalog of hits, but these intimate gigs gave them an opportunity to resurrect deep cuts and covers they haven't played in years. (Next week they begin a six-night stand at the Fonda Theater in Los Angeles.) Midway through the Beacon Theater run we spoke with guitarist Mike Campbell about the tour, his long history in the Heartbreakers and playing on Bob Dylan's 2009 LP Together Through Life.
I've seen you guys a lot, but that first night at the Beacon felt really special. Did it feel that way to you? Yeah, we're free from "Free Fallin'." We're free from doing 20 songs that people expect us to play year after year. These shows are a chance to play songs that aren't on that list.
It's just tough to connect with fans in a basketball arena. People are so far away from the stage. In that situation, there's a responsibility to the ticket buyer to give them what they want. We take that very seriously. We try to give them as many of the songs they want to hear, as well as a few surprises. They know that's the deal going in.
Tom Petty Finishes Beacon Run With More Rarities, Covers and Heavy Jangle
I feel like a lot of your fans know more than just the hits. It sure seemed that way at the Beacon. Well, every night's gonna be different. I don't even know what we're going to play the next two nights. But that's the exciting part of it. These nights are special. I guess that's true for the fans, but we thrive on spontaneity. We can pull out a song, maybe we rehearsed it, maybe we didn't, but we're gonna make it work on the spot. That's so exciting and so fulfilling as a musician, so the band is really enjoying it.
What was the impetus for this tour? The main inspiration for this run of shows in New York and the Henry Fonda in Los Angeles is doing covers or album tracks that we don't normally get to play. We did this back in late 1997 or 1999, somewhere in there. We did a Fillmore West run like this. We've always thought we should do it again sometime, because it was so much fun and such a great chance for the band to grow as players. We're doing a couple of other shows to help pay for the party, but these two runs are the main reason we're out here.
How long ago did you start rehearsing? We rehearsed for about three weeks last month. Mostly we just learned a lot of covers and songs from the deep tracks that we haven't played in years. We discovered a lot of songs that we had forgotten about, to be honest with you. We'd go, "Wow, it's a shame that we haven't played these before." So we're excited to try 'em out.
How do you decide it's time to bring back something really obscure, like "Billy the Kid"? The ultimate decision, most of the time, will be on the singer. He'll go, "You guys know this one? I feel like singing it." Then we'll join in. Someone else in the band might say, "Remember 'When the Time Comes?'" Then Tom might go, "Oh yeah. I don't know about that one, but let's give it a shot." And if it sounds really good we'll go, "Oh, hey, that's worth keeping on the list." But ultimately it's up to the singer.
There are songs in the catalog you've just forgotten about? I'm embarrassed to say there are. [Laughs]
Like? Just the other day someone was asking me, "Are you guys gonna do 'About to Give Out?'" I didn't have any memory of that song at all. There are songs that do get lost along the way, but as soon as you pull them out it all comes back to you.
I'm thrilled you guys are doing "Tweeter and the Monkey Man." I never thought I'd hear that live.
I like that song a lot. We've done "Handle With Care" and "End of the Line" before. One of us said, "Are we going to do a Wilburys song?" We said, "Let's not do one of those. How about something else?" And Tom said, "How about 'Tweeter and the Monkey Man?" I remembered the title, but it took until he played the chorus for me to remember how it went. But then it all came back to me, and we played it a few times. The band loved it.
It's got 10 verses. It's like a book [laughs]. But it's cool. I love the way Dylan writes, just on and on. The story is like a movie.
Hearing "Stepping Stone" was great, too.
That was Tom's idea. He came in Monday and he said, "I was listening to Paul Revere and the Raiders do 'Stepping Stone.' Not the Monkees version." Of course, we grew up on that stuff. We listened to the record and we said, "That's a great arrangement. This would be good live."
We worked it up, and it always brings a smile. I feel like I'm back in high school at a teen dance. It reminds me of when I first started listening to music.
"A Woman In Love" really came across well, too.
I was surprised Tom wanted to do it. Every time we brought it up in the past he'd go, "Oh, that's too hard to sing. The chorus line is wearing me out." But this time he said, "Let's try this one." It was really nice to revisit that one. It's very powerful, and the music and the words are very emotional and powerful. It really connects on stage.
I never thought I'd hear "Rebels" live.
Yeah, and I hope people understand what it's about. [Laughs] I think a lot of times that song is misunderstood because of the title, but if you listen closely, it's not a negative song in any way. It's a politically correct song if you take the time to understand what it is. We kind of do a different arrangement, so it's kind of new to us.
The encore of Chuck Berry's "Carol" had a bit of a rough start. I'm going to get technical here, but the song is in the key of G. Tom always starts it out with his signature riff and then the band falls in. For some reason, a roadie handed him a guitar that was tuned up for a different song. So he started in what he thought was G and the band came in on G, but his guitar was in A flat. We panicked and just looked at each other. We said, "OK, it's in A flat," and the band shifted into that.
But Tom was kind of left holding the wrong guitar, so he went back and changed it back, but he realized "Oh shit, the band is in A flat now." He looked at me and said, "You gotta play the riff, man. I don't know where I'm at."
I love that you brought that up, because our band thrives on spontaneity. We were able to pull it together, and we played it in A flat. It was fun. It was beautiful. I saw that the band was able to pull a train wreck into something good. On this whole tour, that will probably be the moment you remember as something special.
I was also happy to hear "Billy the Kid" from Echo. That's one of my favorite albums, and you rarely do anything from it. Well, that was emotionally a very hard time for us. I haven't been able to sit down and listen to it because at the time we were losing one of our players [bassist Howie Epstein] to a disease – drug addiction – and he was not there, but he was there, and it was just really hard to get through that process knowing what was happening to him and not being able to do anything about it. So I put that album aside. I'll listen to it again at some point, but it's emotionally just too difficult. It stirs up too many bad emotions . . . I know there's some good songs on there, though. "Billy the Kid" is one of them. I like that tune a lot.
"Room at the Top" is an absolute masterpiece.
Thank you. Yeah, I'm gonna have to listen to that album if my head gets in a better space.
"American Girl" is a nice way to wrap up the show, going right back to the very beginning. I think it's a good gesture. After they've put up with us for that long, at least give them something I know they want to hear. I still love playing that song. It honestly gives me an adrenaline rush every time, still.
That song changed your life in a lot of ways. In a lot of ways, yeah. We were in the studio and we actually found some little sound and harmonics and vibe that was ours – "That's our sound." That song is when it kind of happened, so it'll always be special.
"Refugee" has the same cathartic feeling when you play it towards the end of the night.
The other night we were in rehearsal and we said, "Do you want to play 'Refugee?'" Tom said, "I think we need to play it." We ran through it and I said, "You know man, what a great song." I hadn't heard it in a very long time, but what a great combination of music and lyrics and energy. You know, I still love those songs.
In the middle of those huge arena tours where the set list never really changes, do you ever get bored?
No. I get, um, frusta . . . Well, there's two levels to it. One thing is you're doing your job and giving the people what they want. When I go see AC/DC, if they don't play "Back in Black" I'm gonna think, "Well, that was good, but man, I just shelled out $400. I would have liked to have heard songs I like."
I understand that, but my attitude is – and I've worked real hard on this – but I don't allow myself to get bored. I try to get into a headspace where I pretend like this is the first time I'm ever hearing this song, and I get into that and I just try to discover it. I found that if I really put my head in that space then I can get into it. I can discover it all over again.
But if you let yourself say, "Oh, not this one again," then you shouldn't even be there. I'm not gonna fall into that trap . . . But there is a part of me after the show – not during the show, but afterwards, where I think, "Well, I kind of wish we didn't have to play the same songs tomorrow night. It would be nice to change it up." And here we are.
Starting the show with the Byrds; "So You Want to Be A Rock 'n' Roll Star" is a great way to set the tone for the night.
That was Tom's idea. Lyrically, it just sets everybody into the right frame of mind. Musically, it definitely shows our inspiration and roots. Twelve-string guitars are just fun to play. It's a real tribute to Roger [McGuinn] and the Byrds.
It's a shame they don't tour. I know David Crosby and Chris Hillman are dying to do it. Roger just has no interest. Well, I'll tell you what – that's why I treasure my band so much. It's hard to keep a band together. There's so many things that can derail it. There's a lot of great bands that have . . . for personalities or women or money or whatever, they just don't want to be in the same room.
There's also bands that tour despite hating each other. You can often sense it when they're onstage. Oh yeah. What a terrible existence. I can't imagine. It's hard enough when you like each other, with the traveling and all.
One of the cool things about the Heartbreakers is that it's the same guys from day one, besides [drummer] Stan Lynch. I don't want to be corny, but we love each other. As time goes on, we really cherish the longevity. That becomes something like, "Wow, we put a lot into this." There's something really valuable that very few people have. We're really grateful to have that. We really protect it.
I think of groups like the Clash that had something so perfect and magical, and they pissed it away for no reason. We met Joe Strummer once. It was really touching. He came to the studio about a year before he died. We're sitting around talking and he said, "You guys are so great. You're together." Then he got real serious and said, "Don't fuck it up man. Don't fuck with it. Don't fuck with it." I could hear him. He was saying, "I really messed mine up. Don't follow in my footsteps."
A lot of bands like that were so young and angry. They couldn't step back and see the big picture. I know. We feel very lucky and fortunate to be able to do what we do.
You played guitar on Bob Dylan's 2009 album Together Through Life. What was that like?
It was so much fun. I hadn't played with him in so long. I got the call, and he did not let me down. He's such a genius. The funniest part came on the first day. We walked in and I'm sitting there doing nothing. He walks straight over to me and he goes, "Hey, have you ever done a record on one microphone?" I said, "Well, maybe one song." He said, "I want to do this album on one microphone, like a Bing Crosby record."
I totally got it. We put one microphone in the middle of the room, and the engineer has just got this look like a deer in headlights, like "Oh my God, what am I gonna do?" But it was such a beautiful concept, and that's pretty much how we ended up doing it. We would stand around the mic and the band would bleed into the mic and play in the room. If you were too loud you'd play quieter, since you know there's no mixing it later. I loved that about it.
The whole thing took maybe two weeks. We did one or two songs a day. Bob is my ultimate favorite player of all time, so I was definitely honored to be a part of it.
What's the status of the next Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers record? We are working on it. We need to write some more songs. It's similar to the Mojo album, playing live and blues-based songs. There's great songwriting and great lyrics. He really surprised me this time with some of the stuff he came up with. We hope to have it out next spring.
I've heard rumors you're already planning a tour for next summer. Hopefully we can have the album out and tour a little bit, maybe go to Europe next summer. I don't really know yet, but that's the idea.
Do you think that Mudcrutch are going to play again at any point? Oh, I'd love to. We were talking the other day about that. We want to do another album, but with all the touring and the Heartbreakers albums we don't have time to squeeze it in now.
The east coast got robbed on that last tour. It's time to bring it over here. That was a really great band. We played some gigs on the west coast that went really well. That was a lot of fun, so I hope we get to do it again.
That should do it. Thanks for talking, and I'll be back for the Saturday show at the Beacon. Awesome. It might even be polished by then [laughs]. Don't hold that against us.
Q&A: Tom Petty on His Rarities Tour, Writing With Bob Dylan 'I don't want to become a jukebox'
By Andy Greene June 14, 2013 9:00 AM ET
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers just wrapped up a series of 11 shows at the Beacon Theater in New York and the Henry Fonda Theater in Los Angeles. Huge hits like "Free Fallin'" and "Last Dance With Mary Jane" didn't make a single appearance. Instead, the show was built around rarities like "Rebels," "Wildflowers" and "A Woman in Love (It's Not Me)." The change of pace clearly reinvigorated the group, and they played some of their best shows in recent memory. Midway through the New York run, Petty paused to talk with Rolling Stone about the tour.
I would imagine you're having more fun at these shows than your usual arena shows . Well, it's different, you know? Something different is really good these days. It's more intimate. There's a really free selection of material going on, and the crowds are great, so it's terrific fun.
100 Greatest Artists: Tom Petty
On your last arena tour, did you get bored just doing the same hits every night? Well, in all the tours, I always put in some new stuff and some stuff we haven't done. But you can sort of get into a routine where you kind of really know the show really well. I don't want to become a jukebox, but I do enjoy all the gigs. I can't say I don't enjoy them, but this is pretty exciting.
We've done this before at the Fillmore, and in Chicago some years back. It always breathes new life into things, and this is particularly good. We're really enjoying it.
I want to talk to you about some of the songs you're resurrecting for this tour. Let's start with "Walls" from the She's the One soundtrack. I love that song. "Walls" came up in rehearsal one day. Our crew guys got us lists of all the albums. They keep records of everything we play, pretty much. The way we've done it is we've gone into rehearsal for, like, three weeks, which is long for us. We would just start to play and at the end of the night they would have lists of everything we played. And that would go on the next day. We'd be like, "What do you feel like doing today?" It would usually not be anything we played the day before. When we were done we had all these lists of things we played, and that's basically what I'm using to select the songs.
I feel like "Walls" could have been a hit. Well, it probably should've, yeah. It was a confused record because it was a soundtrack record. They wanted different arrangements and different versions of the songs. I don't know that they ever figured out what was there.
Let's move onto "Fooled Again (I Don't Like It)" from the first album. That was a real flash from the past. We used to play that on the first tour we did where we were going around doing clubs. Then we first went over to England. That was a big party of a show, and for whatever reason, that song just got left behind real early. When we re-addressed that one we were like, "Wow, this is good."
What made you decide to cover "Friend of the Devil" by the Dead? Mike [Campbell] is a huge Grateful Dead fan. He started playing that one and taught it to the rest of us. That was back in the 1990s at the Fillmore. We put it out on the live anthology record a few years ago. I thought, "Yeah, that's doable. That's a really good song."
Are you a big fan of the Grateful Dead? Not like Mike is. I like some of the Dead, but I don't know them like a hardcore fan would.
How about "Tweeter and the Monkey Man?" I never thought I'd hear that one live. That was one [of the Traveling Wilburys] songs I had a hand in writing with Bob [Dylan]. We've just never done it. No one has ever done it. So I just thought, "This would be interesting to try." We played it and it came off entirely different, but kind of cool. We're really enjoying playing that one.
A lot of people thought you guys were mocking Bruce Springsteen, but I've always seen it as an homage to him. Yeah, it was not meant to mock him at all. The song was supposed to. . . It started with Bob Dylan saying, "I want to write a song about a guy named Tweeter. And it needs somebody else." I said, "The Monkey Man." And he says, "Perfect, 'Tweeter and the Monkey Man.'" And he said, "Okay, I want to write the story and I want to set it in New Jersey." I was like, "Okay, New Jersey." And he was like, "Yeah, we could use references to Bruce Springsteen titles."
He clearly meant it as praise. We weren't trying to knock anybody, and there's not much of it in there anyway. So we sat and wrote the song. The English guys [George Harrison and Jeff Lynne] left, actually. It was the only song that they were like, "This is just too American. We're out on this one." So the two of us just sat there for most of the afternoon, and then we edited it down the next day.
This live version you're doing is really infused with a whole new energy. It's kind of taken on a life of its own with us. It's a whole different way of getting it over. I'm really enjoying it. It's a pretty durable song. You can do a lot with it.
How about "Billy the Kid" from Echo? That's always been one of my favorites songs. I just wanted to play it. I hope we play that one again.
Do you think you'll ever be able to play Echo songs like "Room at the Top" again? That's one I haven't wanted to do. I haven't wanted to even hear it since I did it, and I don't think I have. You never know. Sometimes you go back to something and it's different than you thought it would be. But that's one I didn't try this time.
I feel like the whole Echo album has really grown in popularity since it came out. A cult following has grown around it. Yeah. I recently had a fan stop me and tell me how much that record had helped her through a bad time. And she said, "I know you don't like it." And I was like, "It's not that I don't like it. It was just a really hard period in my life." I haven't heard it in so long, but the last time I heard it I thought, "God, there's a lot more on here than I remembered."
Do you think your next tour will be back doing the hits in arenas, or is this run changing the way you think about your shows? Well, it's hard to say. I think we'll wind up back in the big rooms again. I think that this could influence things quite a lot. It's just kind of a verification that the audience not only goes along with it, they like it.
When I go to see people, I always kind of hope they are going to play some kind of songs I know. So you've got to know your audience. It's kind of something that is a blessing and a curse in a way. You're obligated to play some of that stuff that people know, but I don't think that's all you have to do. I think there's a way to fill everyone'e needs. So who knows? This may have a tremendous effect on us from here out.
Yeah. When you did "A Woman in Love" at the Beacon, the place went insane. It was like you were doing "Free Fallin'" or something. Yeah. I know. It's really strange. We did "Angel Dream" and it got this huge response the other night. It was very satisfying. We did a lot of songs, and I want to try and play more of them. It would be a little surprising to turn out back on this kind of thinking, I think.
Are you thinking about doing more runs at places like the Beacon in the future? I haven't got that far in my thinking yet. I'm still in the middle of this run. (laughs) I got six shows coming up in L.A. at an even smaller place. Then we go back to the big shows. I don't know and it's all speculation, but I would rather develop an audience around the quality of our work more than the popularity of our work.
I'm very grateful we've been able to play hours of hits. It's a great thing, but not the point where people think that's the only songs you ever did.
Отправлено: 18.06.13 10:02. Заголовок: Tom Petty and the He..
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers Jam Out at Bonnaroo
Even though Bonnaroo has broadened its base over the years, the festival – which wrapped up last night in Manchester, Tennessee – has maintained a tradition of slotting jam-band headliners to close things out on the main-stage. Not last night, though, when Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers — masters of the three-minute pop song — reprised their role as 'Roo headliners, having first played the festival in 2006 on a Friday night.
On the heels of their recent set of theater residencies in L.A. and New York, the band eschewed tried-and-true hits like "Mary Jane's Last Dance" and "Free Fallin'" in favor of deep cuts and covers from the furthest reaches of their vast catalog. At first, it seemed that the band may have jumped on Bonnaroo as Sunday night headliners so they could stretch out and jam for the masses – or at least, it did until Petty said, "I predict we're going to have an incredible time tonight. I don't have to be anywhere for hours!" before kicking into "Free Fallin.'"
That blockbuster single joined other obligatory live staples like "Learning to Fly," "Refugee" and "Running Down a Dream" that were still highlighted throughout the show. However, the band did match 'em with unexpected album cuts ("Rebels," "Good Enough") and covers ("Baby, Please Don't Go," "Friend of the Devil"), appearing far more engaged in the process.
The Bonnaroo jam crowd (i.e. the festivalgoers with little concern for leaving early to beat traffic, open-minded music lovers who routinely abide Phish's AC/DC and Ween covers) would've let Petty and co. get away with omitting "Free Fallin'" and a few other overplayed workhorses. The crowd actually seemed to respond best to things like Mike Campbell's guitar fireworks during an extended, blues jam mega-climax on the otherwise drowsy Wildflowers single "It's Good to be King," a centerpiece highlight of last night's show.
Отправлено: 01.07.13 09:47. Заголовок: Review: Ageless Tom ..
Review: Ageless Tom Petty & Heartbreakers rock on at Target Center
He doesn’t have a new album to promote. He didn’t even bring any whiz-bang production with some awesome lighting and way-cool video. He didn’t even bring a particularly well-known opening act (remember the Smithereens?).
However, on Saturday night at jam-packed Target Center in Minneapolis, Tom Petty proved why, 37 years after releasing his debut album, he is still one of rock’s most exciting statues in concert.
How does he pull it off? Let me count the ways.
1. Yes, Petty barely moves onstage. OK, a little strolling around, a hand gesture here or there and tambourine on one song, but no dancing, intense body language or rock-star poses. There’s just one Tom Petty move: Sometimes, at song’s end, he stretches his arms wide, like Neil Diamond, with his eyes closed and the most satisfying smile on his face.
2. Petty sings with passion but never gets lost in his music, never breaks a sweat, never goes over the top. (The snarling “Refugee” was the only time he raised his voice.) Laid back is his style. It suits him and his music. He opted to take some songs in lower keys on Saturday but, for instance, on “Free Fallin’,” many of the 14,000 fans provided the high harmonies on what turned into a giant singalong.
3. The Heartbreakers are one of the best of the enduring bands in rock. Tight, forceful, spirited. There’s a good reason they’re in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with Petty. Driving drummer Steve Ferrone, who joined in 1994, is machine precise. Benmont Tench provides all those keyboard fills and filigree. And Mike Campbell’s guitar defines every song.
4. Campbell, he of the black dreadlocks, is a guitarist of many voices, moods and styles — whether it was the stinging slide Saturday on “I Won’t Back Down,” the blistering explosions on “Love Is a Long Road,” the soaring trippiness on “A Woman in Love,” the gentle moaning on “Tweeter and the Monkey Man,” the heavy bent blues on “I Should Have Known It” or the intense exchange with Petty’s guitar on “Mary Jane’s Last Dance.” Campbell elevates Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers to greatness.
5. Petty does covers that salute his influences. On Saturday, he opened with the Byrds’ “So You Want To Be a Rock ’n’ Roll Star” and also did the blues chestnut “Baby, Please Don’t Go,” even adding an amusing talking portion (about his bipolar gal) that wasn’t in Big Joe Williams’ original.
6. Petty doesn’t re-imagine his old hits the way Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen and Neil Young do. Petty is predictable — tried and true.
7. With no new album, this could have turned into a two-hour greatest-hits show. That’s not for Petty, who played plenty of hits but threw in some deep album cuts, including “Cabin Down Below” from his “Wildflowers” solo disc, an acoustic “Rebels” from “Southern Accents” and “Tweeter and the Monkey Man” from his Traveling Wilburys repertoire. (Petty’s phrasing and nasally voice sounded positively Dylanesque on this tune, which he cowrote with Dylan.)
8. Although he’s used state-of-the-art video cubes and special effects on previous tours, Petty used only a little stage fog and a red ruffled backdrop curtain on Saturday. Fans could summon their own visual extras from the many artful videos that Petty has made over the years. To be honest, it wasn’t practical for him to work with elaborate stage production on this limited 12-city U.S. summer tour, which included multi-night theater runs in New York City and Los Angeles, such major festivals as Bonnaroo in Tennessee and Summerfest in Milwaukee, and just a couple of arenas.
9. He may be 62, but Petty looks almost ageless. He has the same hairdo (though his hair is more light brown than blond now) with a beard that is once again in style. He still opts for jeans, a sport coat and an untucked shirt.
10. Let’s face it: Tom Petty is forever cool. He was the only younger guy whom Dylan, George Harrison, Roy Orbison and Jeff Lynne asked to join the Traveling Wilburys. Forever cool, indeed.
Отправлено: 08.08.13 09:53. Заголовок: Новый альбом готов....
Новый альбом готов...
Q&A: Tom Petty Finishing LP 'Unlike Anything We've Ever Done'
"I always say this, but I'm tremendously excited for this one," says Tom Petty, discussing his upcoming 13th album with the Heartbreakers, which he expects out early next year. "It's not like anything we've ever done." In this exclusive interview, Petty opens up about the record, his meticulous songwriting process and his band's recent deep cut-packed tour. He also shares critical thoughts on modern country music, discusses his road peers Bob Dylan and Neil Young and plans for a new Mudcrutch record. Says Petty, "There's a lot to do!"
I saw two of the recent Beacon shows and Bonnaroo, and it seems like the band really stepped it up on the last tour. Yeah, I hear that from a lot of people lately. I think we have raised the bar a bit. We were saying on the plane [recently], "If we didn't feel this was getting better, we probably wouldn't be doing it." I think if we felt like we were sliding back a step or two, we wouldn't be as inspired about doing this. But we're in a good place right now mentally, and as a team we're all focused on the same goal and the communication musically is really fantastic right now. So yeah I think in many ways we have gotten better, yeah.
It was incredible to see you play songs by the Zombies, Paul Revere and the Raiders or "Green Onions." It's cool to see you guys going back to where you came from and doing them your own way. Yeah, well you've got to bring something to it or there's no point in doing it, really. So that's really just roots music for us. We came out of garage bands in the middle Sixties. I mean, I started to play in a group when I was 14. That was when I first started to get paid to play, and those are our roots. We learned Rolling Stones, Them, Paul Revere, all the Animals, Wilson Pickett, Sam and Dave, all that stuff was stuff you had to know how to play. And we were fortunate because it was a really good time in music.
And so in theory we were sort of learning the blues. But we didn't really know that at the time. From there, we discovered Muddy [Waters] and [Howlin'] Wolf and Little Walter and all that stuff. We just tried to assimilate that – and the Byrds brought us into country music, you know. Some of that came into the mix. And then you know we kind of went down that road for a while, so it's really just a big blend of American music that we're playing and we've kind of rolled it all into one thing that we can put our own stamp on.
I wanted to ask about the way you write hooks that seem headed in one direction, and then veer off somewhere else that takes the song to a whole new level, almost like a second chorus. Is that intentional? Well, I really focus on songs first. You know, you can have the best band in the world, but if you don't have material that's good, it won't matter. So really with us we're all focused on delivering a song first, you know, and I've always put a lot of care into writing. And when young musicians ask me what the most important thing is, I always say it's the song. You know, you can chrome a turd, but it's not going to do any good. You've got to have a song. So I put a lot of time into writing and a lot of care into it and hopefully you come up with something worthy of doing.
Does that come from playing it acoustically alone, honing it that way? Yeah a lot of it does. I tend to write on an acoustic guitar or the piano. I have kind of a rule: if I can't sit down and play this and get the song over, I don't take it to the band, because most any good song, you can sit down and deliver it with a piano or a guitar. So I just roll in, especially lately. We've never rehearsed for an album, we just meet in a studio, I play the song on the guitar, and they just fall in and we work it out there and usually the first few takes are the best.
That's the thing with the Heartbreakers. Their takes are usually the very early ones rather than the very later ones. But you know, it's just the way we work. We've never really hard rehearsals for records. It's gotten where it’s so instinctual. They're so ridiculously good. If I play them a song that I just wrote, they'll do the first take and it's suddenly a whole different thing than I pictured. And we usually go in and listen after one take and then we'll say "Okay, you should do more of this and you should do less of that." And in a few takes, we've usually got an arrangement.
What's a song where the band really surprised you? I think all of Mojo surprised me, because I had no idea what the songs would sound like. I knew what they sound like with me playing them, but as soon as I show it to them, everyone naturally goes their own way. I've gotten where I don't really give out many instructions or try and write a part for anybody else. I just let them try to find their own way and they're very good. We've all recorded so much, we've spent a lot of time in the studio and they're really good at knowing what's too much and what's not gonna groove. It's all about grooves too, you know. You've got to lay down a groove and – I mean I feel like we've got one of the best drummers there is, you know, and he's just a rock. Like, he's unbelievable – we never play anything that doesn't feel good, you know? [Steve] Ferrone just gets better and better and better – he's amazing.
You've played "Free Fallin'" or "Mary Jane's Last Dance" a million times. But when you see 70,000 thousand people singing along at Bonnaroo, does that push you to play it with energy? Oh yeah, I mean that's very gratifying because some of those songs I've played many, many times, but every time we play it, you feel that joy in the crowd and it kind of re-inspires you to do a good job on it. In Indianapolis recently, there were times I was drowned out by the crowd – they were so loud, it was coming through my vocal mike through my monitor. But it's a wonderful feeling you know to just know that that has been around a long time and its been handed down and handed down you know there was a young girl in the front row at Bonnaroo and when we walked out she held out a big sign that said "I was raised on your music," and I thought, "That's really sweet."
How is the new music you've been working on? Have the songs developed on the road? We've worked on the album for awhile now. You know, I guess I always say this about the latest one, but I'm tremendously excited about this record and it's not like anything we've ever done. I think people are gonna like it. We're at a place where we're nearly done with it. I didn't play anything [live] because I've worked so hard on the sound of the record, I don't want people's first impression to be over YouTube, you know? We're nearly done with it so I would think early next year, it'll be out.
Do you have a title for it yet? I don't have a firm title yet, no.
And when you said that it's unlike anything you’ve ever done before, what do you mean? Well, you'll just have to hear it. I think we've kind of arrived at a style that is just different. The last album, we kind of went back into a blues. [This album] kind of started in the same place and then it moved into something that's morphed into something that's kind of like songs that we would've written maybe around [1994's] Wildflowers or [1979's] Damn the Torpedoes. But you know, it comes from a blues place and it's much more distorted [laughs]. But it's really got its own thing, and it's tremendously exciting for me, because I'm just so into it and I'm looing forward to getting back to the studio and finishing it. I just love recording. I just can't get enough of it.
One good thing about this point in life is that recording has gotten so much easier for us. We can really realize what's in our heads pretty quickly without a lot of stress, so it's tremendous fun recording. And Ryan Ulyate, who began as our engineer on Highway Companion has become like a member of the band almost, you know? He got promoted to co-producer on Mojo. He’s been a tremendous help to us. I looked all my life for that engineer partner in the studio that would be perfect, and we found him.
Are you listening to anything right now that you're excited about? I haven't discovered anything recently that I think is great, you know. I'm racking my brain right now I'm probably forgetting something.
Judging by your radio show, it still seems like you spend a lot of time listening to deep vinyl cuts. Yeah, I have a big vinyl collection and I still think it's the best sounding format apart from the one Neil Young's got in his car. If they ever get that Pono [Neil Young's super high-definition audio platform] thing up and working, that’s something I'm really behind. I think that if people realize that with an mp3, you're only getting five percent of the sound that's there. But when you hear the entire thing . . . I think it would save the music business. It's such a drastic change.
At the Beacon, you described some modern country music as "bad rock with fiddle." Well, yeah I mean, I hate to generalize on a whole genre of music, but it does seem to be missing that magic element that it used to have. I'm sure there are people playing country that are doing it well, but they're just not getting the attention that the shittier stuff gets. But that's the way it always is, isn't it? But I hope that kind of swings around back to where it should be. But I don't really see a George Jones or a Buck Owens or any anything that fresh coming up. I'm sure there must be somebody doing it, but most of that music reminds me of rock in the middle Eighties where it became incredibly generic and relied on videos. I don't want to rail on about country because I don't really know much about it, but that's what it seems like to me.
In addition to Neil, you have Paul McCartney, the Stones, Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan touring this summer. Is it crazy for you to think that everybody is still on the road? Well, we certainly didn't think we would way back when. The good thing is that you can grow as a musician, and if you keep some dignity about it, it's a viable thing. I can go see those artists and expect them to really give me something. It isn't going to be a rehash nostalgic evening.
Are you going to tour next year off the new record? I think so. I want to do a Mudcrutch record in between there, so my next move is to get back with those guys after this.
You guys never played the East Coast, right? That would be amazing. No. I saw Tom Leadon recently and we were talking about that, going to the East Coast with Mudcrutch. So there's a lot to do.
Отправлено: 20.08.13 14:28. Заголовок: Оказывается слова То..
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some modern country music as "bad rock with fiddle."
вызвали некий ажиотаж в прессе.
Rosen: Does Tom Petty Hate Tom Petty Music?
At a concert at the Beacon Theatre this past May, Tom Petty called contemporary country music “bad rock with a fiddle.” Asked to elaborate in a recent Rolling Stone interview, Petty offered a slightly hedged version of the critique. “I hate to generalize on a whole genre of music, but [country] does seem to be missing that magic element that it used to have,” he said. “I'm sure there are people playing country that are doing it well, but they're just not getting the attention that the shittier stuff gets … I don't really see a George Jones or a Buck Owens or any anything that fresh coming up. I'm sure there must be somebody doing it, but most of that music reminds me of rock in the middle Eighties where it became incredibly generic and relied on videos.”
Petty is right that today’s country is rock-oriented, with old-timey instrumentation, like fiddle, slapped on as a folksy ornament — a little tip of the Stetson to tradition. He’s also right that George Jones and Buck Owens have lost their grip on the imaginations of today’s country artists, who look to other influences. Chief among them: Tom Petty.
The fact is, modern country is flamingly, shamelessly Pettyesque. At Rhapsody.com, the critic Chuck Eddy compiled an excellent playlist of Petty-influenced contemporary country, including several covers of the great man’s songs by the likes of Taylor Swift. You can hear Petty in Nashville’s favored hybrid of tune and crunch — pop melody crossed with southern rock power chords. Check out songs like Jake Owen's “Wide Awake,” Thompson Square’s “Are You Gonna Kiss Me or Not,” and Eric Church’s “Two Pink Lines ” — and, especially, the Eli Young Band’s No. 1 hit “Even If It Breaks Your Heart,” the most brazen Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers pastiche you’ll ever hear.
In his heyday, Petty was lumped in with Bruce Springsteen, Bob Seeger, and other “heartland rockers.” But Petty is from Gainesville, Florida, and he’s audibly Dixie. Country stars like Keith Urban — Nashville’s favorite Aussie — mimic Petty’s nasal drawl; Music Row songwriters channel the sun-drunk beach-greaser vibe of early albums like Damn the Torpedos. Petty even offered a model for that country staple, the pugnacious Southern pride anthem, with his 1985 ballad “Southern Accents.”
Petty has long been one of pop’s grumpiest declensionists, convinced that kids today are running everything, and pop is going to hell in a handbasket. (Cf. “The Last DJ.”) Has he now grown so dyspeptic that he even hates Tom Petty music?
It’s Benmont Tench of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ Yearbook Photo!
Yes, it’s Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers keyboardist Benmont Tench, who has been with the group since its foundation in 1976, and has performed on all 12 of their albums.
In addition, Tench has performed on albums from a long and diverse list of artists including Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones, Johnny Cash and many, many more. Wanna be impressed? Check out his credits over at AllMusic.com. Petty and the Heartbreakers are currently putting the finishing touches on a new album, their first since 2010′s ‘Mojo.’
Отправлено: 20.10.13 20:23. Заголовок: У Тома сегодня День ..
У Тома сегодня День рождения, с чем его и нас всех поздравляю. Ждём новых альбомов и европейских турне и даже надеемся на "ближе" Ну и счастьев-здоровьев ему!!!!
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