Friday, May 15, 2009
Bonnaroo / Interviews Bonnaroo 2009: My Conference Call with David Byrne, Elvis Costello and Steven Van Zandt
Posted by Adam Gold on Fri, May 15, 2009 at 3:30 PM
On Wednesday I was pleasantly surprised to receive an invitation to participate in a press conference (via phone) with David Byrne, Elvis Costello and E Street Band consigliere Steven Van Zandt--three Bonnaroo artists who I'd probably fellate if only they'd ask. Byrne, Costello and Van Zandt each, in succession, did 30 minutes of Q & A (all questions Bonnaroo-specific) with music writers across the country.
As any one of my Scene co-workers will tell you, I have an attention span that's shocking in its brevity. However, an hour and a half of David Byrne talking about avant garde dancers and cycling, Elvis Costello telling any one of his career anecdotes and making fun of Korn, or Van Zandt anatomizing Bruce Springsteen's set list changes are subjects that can pique my interest for a an extended period of time. I was fortunate enough to get questions in to both Byrne and Van Zandt, despite reserving my best world-colliding "gem" for Costello. I was going to ask him if he was planning on inviting Springsteen onstage during his Bonnaroo set to join him in singing "Temptation"--a song he wrote about meeting Bruce backstage at Nashville's Municipal Auditorium in 1978. Sigh. I would love nothing more than to post the entire transcript of the interview. However, it's 57 pages long. In the event that the good folks over at Big Hassle Entertainment--the publicity agency that handles Bonnaroo--post one on their site I will update this post to include a link. Until then, I'll include my brief moments with Byrne and Little Steven. Read on after the jump.
Nashville Cream: Hi David.
David Byrne: Hi.
NC: When the festival organizers decided to make you a stage curator, did they give you autonomy when it came to choosing the artists, or did you have to kind of choose from any sort of pre-approved list or anything like that?
DB: Well, I kind of self-imposed a little bit of restrictions. I mean, I said I want to pick acts that I've actually seen perform. I'm not going to pick something that I think is not going to work.
By work, I mean, there might be somebody's recording that's musically great, but I just might think--you know, outdoors on a hot summer night or late afternoon in Tennessee--sometimes the music is just not going to work, as much as you might love it.
So I kind of self, kind of edit it myself and said, "I'm going to try and think of what kinds of things would work in that venue at that time of the year, in that place...and I also was limited by things that I'd already seen, which kind of limits me quite a bit, actually.
NC: Hi, Steven.
Steven Van Zandt: Hi, Adam.
NC: You guys usually play to a cult audience that you've cultivated over the years and knows your material really well. In the 10 times I've seen you, you always mix it up with deap cuts like "Loose Ends" and "Thundercrack" and songs like that. How do you plan on tailoring the E Street show to the Bonnaroo crowd, which will include a lot more people who have never seen the band before than usual?
SVZ: I think that's one of the [most exciting] parts of the whole thing. I really look forward to that. I don't think you can change things too much. I mean, you are who you are. You know, in our case, I think we change things a lot normally. I mean, every night is different, every tour is different, there is a very wide range of songs that we've done over the years that Bruce has written over the course of whatever it is, 30, 35 years. There is a lot of stuff to pick from.
Every time he writes a new album, he is basically writing a new show. He is saying something with that particular album, and then we build the show around that you know with the other songs from the past, and then see what connects to it, what amplifies that idea, what complements that idea. So, we don't particularly change things according to who the audience is or not. We kind of do what we do, and then you just hope people dig it, you know?
And then on top of that, we build a certain amount of spontaneity right into the show. These last couple tours, in particular, we've been taking requests from the audience and really turning arenas and stadiums into clubs. And so last tour, people would come with signs [for] a lot of obscure Bruce songs. And this tour, there's been any kind of songs. [In] the last 2 weeks we've played Ramones, Clash, and Tommy James, you know I mean, "Wild Thing" and all kinds of fun sort of bar band type of songs.
It just loosens everybody up and keeps the thing fresh, and there's nothing like playing a song, you've never played before and never rehearsed before, before 20,000 people. It's just kind of an immediate sort of electric sort of joke that kind of keeps everybody very awake.
NC: Right.
SVZ: So to answer your question...won't change a thing. It's just we are who we are. I love the fact that we're playing to, I don't know, probably half of the audience who maybe never even heard of us; sort of certainly never heard us. And that's nothing but fun and nothing but exciting.
NC: Right. Are we are going to get Max Weinberg or Jay Weinberg at Bonnaroo?
SVZ: Now that's a good question.
Ken Weinstein (Bonnaroo Publicist): I hear Max.
SVZ: Let me think for a minute here. You know, I'm not sure. I'm really not sure. I mean, they're obviously both great and...We've been working to make sure he's had a chance to play every single song live before he takes over the entire show, which I think will probably be Holland....So I'm not sure about that actually.
NC: Thanks, Steve.
like
dislike
Vote here for best Band of the Week
Slideshows
Top Commenters
