The pandemic definitely hasn’t slowed Waterboys chief Mike Scott’s inventive output: They only launched All Souls Hill, the follow-up to 2020’s Good Luck, Seeker and their fifteenth album. Scott says the following Waterboys LP has already been recorded.
For All Souls Hill, Scott once more collaborated with producer Simon Dine, maybe greatest identified for cowriting and coproducing 4 acclaimed albums with Paul Weller. Scott despatched tracks backwards and forwards to Dine and the remainder of the Waterboys from his at-home studio in Dublin, and it was a course of he discovered fairly fulfilling.
“I am a little bit of a lone wolf anyway,” Scott tells UCR. “I like working by myself.”
In a number of methods, All Souls Hill is a snapshot of the final yr. It touches on political unrest, social justice — or lack of — and the cautiously optimistic hope that these circumstances can encourage.
Scott and bandmate Brother Paul Brown not too long ago wrapped up a brief sequence of acoustic reveals within the U.S., their first since 2019, with plans for a busy summer time head – together with an look at Glastonbury in June.
UCR caught up with Scott earlier than his return to the U.Ok. to debate the creation of All Souls Hill.
You have been performing these smaller, acoustic reveals with simply you on guitar and Brother Paul on keyboards. How have you ever discovered these? When was the final time you performed a live performance like that, with out the total band?
Properly, we by no means did two-man reveals with Brother Paul earlier than. My visa [to the U.S.] was very late in coming and we did not have the proposed rehearsal time, so it was fairly a rush to get every little thing organized, and we spent the primary three or 4 reveals actually fine-tuning the set.
On All Souls Hill, the tune “The Liar” takes goal at just a few totally different present American political figures, most notably former President Trump, his impeachment and the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol. Did you all the time have it in your head that you just have been going to jot down a tune about all that?
I attempted writing a tune about Trump a few instances — I had one known as “Eye Sweet for the Girls,” which is type of how he thinks of himself … and I really received the tune completed. Brother Paul and I wrote it collectively, however it was such a dry matter. It was simply no enjoyable and I did not need to do something with the tune. Then I had one other one known as “Portray America White,” which is a protest about what happened in Charlottesville. And I might have put that on the album, however it simply wasn’t topical sufficient anymore. So it is a bonus monitor. It is out there on a seven-inch single that comes with sure bundles. “The Liar” was a satirical tweet that I wrote. I used to observe this Twitter account known as Gollum [J.] Trump, who was somebody who posted in regards to the occasions of the day throughout Trump’s presidency, as if Trump was Gollum from Lord of the Rings and the presidency was the valuable, as within the ring. These have been very, very humorous posts that actually helped maintain me sane in the course of the nightmare of his presidency. The primary time he was impeached, I wrote “When Gollum Trump was peached,” on this kind of Gollum converse, and it was 4 or 5 verses over 4 or 5 tweets. When he was impeached for the second time, I assumed, ‘Oh, I am gonna return to that poem, flip it right into a tune.’ So I put it in common language.
Hearken to the Waterboys’ ‘The Liar’
I am interested in your producer on this album, Simon Dine. Had you labored with him earlier than?
I would achieved 5 or 6 tracks with him earlier than, one on a earlier album and I believe 4 which might be on the following Waterboys album, which have been recorded earlier than All Souls Hill.
And also you labored remotely?
Yeah. We have met. We have really met within the bodily world, however after we work, he sends me a ZIP file of possibly 10 or 20 brief instrumental mashups that he is created and I hearken to all of them. It’s kind of like opening a Christmas current. I hearken to all of them, and two or three of them will counsel melodies, or possibly remind me of a lyrical concept that I’ve had. … There will be a way in for me, after which I am going to work on turning them right into a tune. They do not all work out, however a few of them do.
[Late former James Brown saxophonist] Pee Wee Ellis performs a improbable solo on “Hollywood Blues,” which might be certainly one of his final recordings earlier than he died. How did you come to be related with him? Did you already know him?
I did not know him. Considered one of our two keyboard gamers, James Hallawell, had been within the J.B.’s with Pee Wee Ellis and Pee Wee lived — earlier than his demise – he lived within the West Nation in England. I believe possibly he ended up there after working with Van Morrison, that might be my guess. And so James steered Pee Wee for the sax solo and recorded him in London.
Hearken to the Waterboys’ ‘Hollywood Blues’
“In My Goals” is one other nice monitor on the album. It name-checks all these nice musicians – the Rolling Stones, David Bowie, Amy Winehouse. Is that true? Have these folks all appeared in your goals?
Oh, yeah, in fact. Each night time I dream about musicians. … The Rolling Stones are in my goals virtually each night time. I do not know why.
What do the Rolling Stones do in your goals?
Hang around and … I do not know. My goals are all the time in kind of infinite summer time vacation, overseas nations, cities … and there is all the time Mick [Jagger] and Keith [Richards], or [recently retired Waterboys violinist] Steve Wickham or different musicians. They’re all the time in my goals. [Laughs.] I do not know why.
You have received an excellent cowl on the album of Robbie Robertson’s “As soon as Had been Brothers,” however you’ve got edited the lyrics to be a bit extra hopeful than the unique. What made you decide that tune particularly?
I like the tune very a lot. I would heard it on the documentary in regards to the Band of the identical title, after which I purchased Robbie’s album Sinematic so I might play it at house. I assumed it was a really stunning tune, however I needed he’d written a bit extra. … The emotional tone of the tune was such that I felt after the bridge part, the “we already duked it out” part — it appeared to me that the emotional arc of the tune was main in the direction of a ultimate, possibly double size, denouement verse earlier than the decision of the final refrain. However Robbie did not try this. He went straight out of the bridge into the final refrain, and I discovered myself writing the verse that I needed had gone there. I sat on it for some time, pondering I would by no means be capable to do something with it, however finally, I appreciated it a lot I requested my supervisor to speak to Robbie’s staff and ask if we might use it and Robbie gave us permission.
Hearken to the Waterboys’ ‘As soon as Had been Brothers’
You additionally wrote some new lyrics for [Dick Blakeslee’s 1948 folk song] “Passing By” [which has been recorded by Pete Seeger, Leonard Cohen, the Highwaymen and others]. Your model works as much as present-day issues with the demise of George Floyd. It is actually highly effective because the closing tune on the album. Are you able to speak a bit about how that tune got here collectively?
I heard that tune 50 years in the past on a Leonard Cohen reside album, Stay Songs and even when Leonard did it, it was an outdated tune. … I liked the premise of the tune. I liked the primary verse about Adam leaving the backyard. I assumed that was sensible, and the refrain, however I did not like a lot the opposite three or 4 verses within the tune. There was one about him assembly Jesus on the cross and also you hate mankind for what they’ve achieved to you, and Jesus provides us not the Messiah’s reply, not a luminous reply, however type of a standard particular person’s reply. It is simply not so good as the refrain. There was a verse about Franklin Roosevelt; I wasn’t shopping for that both. Over time, I wrote my very own verses for it. … The Martin Luther King and Hank Williams verses have been written possibly 15, 20 years in the past. And the remaining have been written final yr once I was recording it. So every little thing besides the primary verse and the refrain was written by me – and the tune, in fact, is the unique.
All Soul’s Hill is the fifteenth Waterboys album. What would you say is the most important distinction in your strategy to songwriting since your early albums?
I do it on a regular basis now — properly, I did it on a regular basis then, I suppose. The most important distinction is that I can document at house. It was that I must go to the man on the document firm and say “Look, I’ve received some new songs I would wish to document,” and he’d need to hear them first earlier than he spent the cash. Then, I would have to barter with them about how a lot studio time I might get, after which he’d need to come all the way down to the studio. … I would be working with an engineer who is likely to be taking a look at his watch and should filter every little thing by means of the engineer’s sense of music, and I would by no means have met him earlier than. All these issues have gone now that I am working by myself. There’s nothing between me and the act of recording.
What are you able to inform us in regards to the subsequent Waterboys album?
It is a theme document. All of the songs are telling one story. It is virtually completed, and it’ll in all probability come out subsequent yr.
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