{"id":4285,"date":"2011-11-13T21:45:45","date_gmt":"2011-11-14T04:45:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/?p=4285"},"modified":"2011-11-13T21:48:34","modified_gmt":"2011-11-14T04:48:34","slug":"nick-lowe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/2011\/11\/nick-lowe\/","title":{"rendered":"NICK LOWE"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

NICK LOWE<\/strong><\/h2>\n

A rocker finds new magic by embracing change<\/strong><\/h2>\n

\u201cI\u2019m 61 years old now \/ Lord, I\u00a0never thought I\u2019d see 30,\u201d Nick Lowe sings on his new release, The Old Magic<\/em>. The subject of aging, and how to do it gracefully, is one that Lowe has given much thought over the last two decades. The British rock icon\u2019s solution has been to reinvent himself as a bard steeped in a timeless-sounding blend of classic country and jazz standards. We caught up with Lowe (who turned 62 in March) to talk about muses, million-dollar checks and the advice from onetime stepfather-in-law Johnny Cash that saved his career.<\/p>\n

How did you leave the pop world?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I laid low for a few years in the late \u201980s, contemplating my next move. I thought, \u201cI\u2019ve got to figure out a way of using the fact that I\u2019m aging in a business that doesn\u2019t value that at all.\u201d I used to hear old-timers say, \u201cJust be yourself.\u201d In fact, Johnny Cash himself said that to me. And I thought, \u201cWhat the hell does that mean? No one wants to see me. They want to see something magnificent on the stage.\u201d But that\u2019s exactly what you have to do. You must find a way of conversing with your audience in a naturalistic way. You never want to be looking over your shoulder to see that you\u2019re going to be called a phony. And it all suddenly made sense to me.<\/p>\n

Was that difficult? <\/strong><\/p>\n

I was quite broke at the time. Not in dire straits, but for me to show something new to the public required a certain amount of risk. This huge check I got for The Bodyguard<\/em> [which featured Curtis Stigers\u2019 version of Lowe\u2019s \u201c(What\u2019s So Funny \u2019Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding?\u201d] paid for a couple of tours, a decent bus and some good hotels\u2014ones where we wouldn\u2019t get our stuff stolen and we could have separate rooms. Also, I could pay the band. And I could start making another record. Without the check, I don\u2019t think it would\u2019ve happened at all.<\/p>\n

How has your writing changed?<\/strong><\/p>\n

When [frequent collaborator] Elvis Costello first encouraged me to start doing solo shows a few years ago, I had my doubts\u2014but people liked it. I found that people were really listening, which I hadn\u2019t felt before. It changed how I thought about writing, because I started thinking in terms of telling people something. Not just sloganizing away, which I\u2019d done when I was younger. I\u2019m not having a go at my early stuff. It\u2019s real good fun. But with this new thing, I always think about performing a song and how best to record it so it gets the story across.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve said your best songs are actually written by \u201cthe bloke.\u201d Who\u2019s that?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The bloke is a fantastic songwriter who shows me his songs and I claim them for my own. Sometimes the bloke doesn\u2019t come \u2019round for months, and I don\u2019t know how to get in touch with him. I\u2019ve seen him work so many times that I can do a very good impersonation of him. But I know the difference between my songs, the ones I write, and the ones the bloke writes.<\/p>\n

Sounds a bit like possession.<\/strong><\/p>\n

(Laughs<\/em>) You do sort of go into a trance when you get a good idea, with no memory of how the song was written. When you come out of it, there it is, sitting there. But I spend a lot of time weighing individual words, putting them together, setting them aside. It\u2019s very painstaking nonsense to achieve something that doesn\u2019t sound as if you\u2019ve taken any pains about it all.<\/p>\n

\u2013Bill DeMain<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u2018You must find a way of conversing with your audience in a naturalistic way.\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n


\n<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

<\/strong> <\/strong> <\/strong><\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NICK LOWE A rocker finds new magic by embracing change \u201cI\u2019m 61 years old now \/ Lord, I\u00a0never thought I\u2019d see 30,\u201d Nick Lowe sings on his new release, The Old Magic. The subject of aging, and how to do it gracefully, is one that Lowe has given much thought over the last two decades. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[2807,970,2615,2808],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4285"}],"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=4285"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4285\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4287,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4285\/revisions\/4287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}