{"id":3079,"date":"2011-08-03T15:40:08","date_gmt":"2011-08-03T22:40:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/?p=3079"},"modified":"2011-08-03T15:40:08","modified_gmt":"2011-08-03T22:40:08","slug":"alejandro-escovedo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/2011\/08\/alejandro-escovedo\/","title":{"rendered":"ALEJANDRO ESCOVEDO"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/h1>\n

ALEJANDRO ESCOVEDO<\/h1>\n

Finding himself again in songs about the mysteries of love<\/strong><\/h2>\n

After releasing two intensely personal concept albums\u20142006\u2019s\u00a0The Boxing Mirror<\/em>, about a near-fatal bout with hepatitis C, and 2008\u2019s Real Animal<\/em>, a detail-rich rock \u2019n\u2019 roll memoir\u2014Alejandro Escovedo needed a change. He and collaborator Chuck Prophet began writing what would become Street Songs of Love<\/em>, Escovedo\u2019s 10th solo album. What emerged was a record about love\u2014finding it, losing it and untangling its mysteries. \u201cAs hard\u00a0as I tried to get away from myself, this is probably the most autobiographical record\u00a0of any that I\u2019ve made,\u201d Escovedo says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe most personal, anyway.\u201d Escovedo reenlisted Real Animal <\/em>producer Tony Visconti, best known for his work with David Bowie, to make an album that mixes Escovedo\u2019s punk, country and roots-rock influences. We caught up with the Texas-born punk-turned-troubadour during a run of shows in New York City.<\/p>\n

How did you approach the new album?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The idea was to have a record that was just a collection of songs, because after The Boxing Mirror<\/em> and Real Animal<\/em>, I was exhausted with talking about myself. I wanted to get on with it and make a record of good\u00a0rock \u2019n\u2019 roll songs. It became an album\u00a0that was focused on songs of love. I was going through a breakup in the last year, and the songs took on a different\u00a0quality altogether.<\/p>\n

How was working with Tony again?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I knew right away if I had an opportunity to do it again, I would make another record with Tony. We struck up a very strong relationship all of a sudden, and I think it was just an easy, comfortable and inspiring place to be. What more could you ask for, as a writer and a musician? So it was perfect. If Tony was the only producer for me from now on, I\u2019d be very happy with that.<\/p>\n

You road-tested the new material. What effect did that have?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The live shows had lots to do with how the songs were shaped, how they were presented. I remember \u201cAnchor,\u201d the very first song on the record, was the very first song we played for the audience. I\u00a0remember people trying to sing along with the chorus. They didn\u2019t know the words. We didn\u2019t know all the words yet,\u00a0and yet they were trying to sing along.\u00a0So that\u2019s an incredible response, and\u00a0obviously it means we\u2019re onto something.\u00a0That, in a sense, helped shape that song\u00a0and helped solidify that song\u2019s position\u00a0on the record.<\/p>\n

\u201cDown in the Bowery\u201d is about your son, Paris Diego, a punk-rock singer.<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s funny, even though my son\u2019s into punk rock, the real music he identifies with is\u00a0hip-hop. And hip-hop has a real multicultural facet to it that\u2019s really interesting, and the music really speaks to him. It\u2019s a lot different now than when I was a kid. He loves graffiti. He\u2019s a graffiti artist. When I go check out what he\u2019s doing, there are all kinds of kids there: white kids, black kids, Chicano kids, Asian kids. They\u2019re all into it. There\u2019s this language they speak that\u2019s a common denominator. But when I was growing up, we didn\u2019t have that\u2014even in rock \u2019n\u2019 roll, we didn\u2019t have that.<\/p>\n

Would you encourage him to follow in your footsteps?<\/strong><\/p>\n

If someone is willing to really apply themselves, and it becomes their life. But unless you\u2019re prepared to make it your life, I don\u2019t know that it\u2019s a great thing to dabble in. It\u2019s a lot of hard work, and a lot of miles, a lot of disappointment\u2014and triumphs. It\u2019s not an easy suit to wear.<\/p>\n

<\/strong>\u2013Kenneth Partridge <\/strong><\/p>\n


\n<\/strong><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ALEJANDRO ESCOVEDO Finding himself again in songs about the mysteries of love After releasing two intensely personal concept albums\u20142006\u2019s\u00a0The Boxing Mirror, about a near-fatal bout with hepatitis C, and 2008\u2019s Real Animal, a detail-rich rock \u2019n\u2019 roll memoir\u2014Alejandro Escovedo needed a change. He and collaborator Chuck Prophet began writing what would become Street Songs of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[2291,623,10156],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3079"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3079"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3079\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3081,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3079\/revisions\/3081"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}