Lindsey Buckingham: A Time To Every Purpose (NPR Interview)

Music Interview: 

Lindsey Buckingham helped make Fleetwood Mac one of the biggest rock bands of all time. He works mostly solo today, and his sixth solo album, Seeds We Sow, just came out.

Buckingham takes the "solo" designation seriously: He wrote, produced and engineered the album himself, as well as playing most of the instruments. He tells Weekend Edition Saturday's Scott Simon that the effects of that approach come through in the music.

"You work in a band, and it tends to be more like moviemaking, I think. It tends to be more of a conscious, verbalized and, to some degree, political process," he says. "I think when you work alone — the way I do it, anyway — you could sort of liken it to painting, where there's sort of a one-on-one with the canvas. And you get different results."

For Buckingham, those results are a little esoteric. He says Seeds We Sow does have a central theme of karmic choices and consequences, but there's no concise message you could slap on a bumper sticker.

The full interview here at NPR 

by NPR STAFF

Audio from this interview should be available shortly here

Lindsey Buckingham Fends Off Mac Attacks

Q&A: Lindsey Buckingham on his new album, Fleetwood Mac plans



BY THOMAS CONNER Pop Music Critic
Chicago Sun Times

Lindsey Buckingham solo albums have been rare treats for rock fans — until recently. After averaging eight-year interims between albums throughout the ’80s and ’90s, the Fleetwood Mac singer-guitarist has delivered three new albums in the last five years.

“There was a time when I was the Terrence Malick of rock in terms how the projects were spread out,” Buckingham told the Sun-Times during a recent interview.

It’s not that he’s suddenly more prolific. He’s simply been able to keep Fleetwood Mac’s grubby paws off these batches of songs. Several Mac albums started as Buckingham solo projects, including 1987’s “Tango in the Night” and the 21st-century comeback studio set, 2003’s “Say You Will,” which is virtually the Buckingham solo album it started out to be plus a few harmonies and Stevie Nicks songs.

The new album, “Seeds We Sow” (Buckingham) [★★★ ], finds Buckingham not only solo but independent — self-releasing the record after ending a three-decade relationship with Warner Bros. We spoke with Buckingham about the new album, new personal challenges and new plans for Fleetwood Mac:

Q: We last spoke amid the Fleetwood Mac’s Unleashed Tour in 2009. You described the experience then as “hang time” for the band and “a proving ground.” What came out of the experience, what was proven?

Video: The highly sought after live performance of Lindsey Buckingham Triple A Conference

Lindsey Buckingham recorded live August 13, 2011 in Boulder, Co at the FMQB Triple A Conference

Review: Lindsey Buckingham Live in Denver 09/14

Live review: Lindsey Buckingham @ the Newman Center

Touring in support of his third solo album in five years, the excellent, self-released, “Seeds We Sow,” Lindsey Buckingham brought lush pop to the Newman Center at Denver University on Wednesday night.

The venue, a beautiful theater with stunning acoustics, was an ideal setting, particularly for Buckingham’s first section of the show. The first five songs were performed solo, voice and guitar only, each utilizing a different acoustic guitar. Buckingham’s stellar picking created a lot of sound over slower, dramatic interpretations of “Go Insane” and “Trouble,” two early ’80s solo tracks. Despite the lack of additional players, the acoustic set was anything but sparse; Buckingham’s voice was in fine form and his playing was riveting.

Get the rest of the review PLUS a gallery of 24 photos from last night at heyreverb.com

Lindsey Buckingham "Seeds We Sow" 'A decent collection of polished tuneful folksy tunes, with mesmerizing guitar playing'

Don't Lose the Magic

Lindsey Buckingham's latest album is pretty good and all, but it can't match the drug-fueled mania of his best work.

Fleetwood Mac is firmly associated with middle-of-the-road 1970s radio rock. In addition, every song Stevie Nicks has ever written meanders into the same plodding New Agey groove. And, in addition to that, Christine McVie writes extremely accessible melodic pop. Put these factors together, and the result is that if you’re not watching for it, it’s possible to listen to Fleetwood Mac and miss the fact that Lindsey Buckingham is completely fucking off his head on cocaine.

Buckingham’s spastic is-he-really-not-well-or-is-that-genius is on display throughout Fleetwood Mac’s oeuvre. You can see it most consistently on 1979’s Tusk, where on songs like “What Makes You Think You’re the One,” Buckingham alternates between shouts and whispers while the music staggers along like a constipated calliope being buffeted by high winds.

But if you really want the full force of Buckingham’s chemically-induced derangement, you need to check out his first couple of solo albums. Law and Order, from 1981 is one of the most freakishly ADD albums in existence. Buckingham’s hindbrain spends the entire 36 minutes trying to crawl out through his nostrils. The first song, “Bwana,” starts with jungle noises and a hint of bongo before that’s abandoned and we get Buckingham shouting, mewling, and yodeling up and down his range almost at random until the back half of the song gets into what sounds like a series of raucous kazoo solos, because jungles are well known for kazoos. Other highlights include a slowed down, cabaret-singer-on-a-bender version of “September Song,” and “That’s How We Do It in L.A.” where Buckingham spits bile so enthusiastically he appears to be in danger of burning a whole through his tonsils. The whole thing has a queasy fey energy, like a truckload of fairies strung out on… well, strung out on cocaine.

Go Insane, Buckingham’s next album from 1984, is his New Wave exercise, which makes it marginally more stylistically grounded. It’s still pretty nuts though, with drum loops jerking as Buckingham uncorks spiky guitar blasts that scrape and wail and wander into the corner to die. On the title track, a chorus of multi-track Buckinghams intone menacingly about his loss of mental health. It’s the music Hal from 2001 might perform if he were to ingest a staggering amount of coke.

In light of these predecessors, Buckingham’s just released latest effort, The Seeds We Sow, is surprisingly restrained. Specifically, it’s an entirely decent collection of polished tuneful folksy tunes, with mesmerizing guitar playing. At times it seems like he’s turned into Sufjan Stevens or Devandra Banhardt—and in so doing, he demonstrates convincingly why classic Lindsey Buckingham was a much, much more entertaining performer than Sufjan Stevens and Devandra Banhardt put together. Fey and pretty is okay, but fey and batshit crazy is better.

There are some signs of the old Lindsey. “Rock Away Blind,” for example, shifts dynamics in a way that suggests the manic dementia of old. “End of Time” has an over-carbonated drumbeat threatening to bash its way out of the lyrical guitar line and catchy chorus. “One Take” sounds like it could be a Tusk outtake.

Best of all is the electric version of “Seeds We Sow.” For the concluding track on the album, Buckingham abandons the drifty hippie persona, and uncorks squiggling keyboards, unhinged multi-tracked choruses, and pilled-up drums. The song is a burping, staggering, quivering mess—finishing up with a totally badass rock star guitar solo. Eat your heart out, Eddie Van Halen.

Noah Berlatsky
Splice Today

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Lindsey Buckingham at the Vic | Concert preview

Buckingham’s new Seeds We Sow proves that his genius isn’t limited to the Mac. 

By Steve Dollar

Timeout Chicago

Pop’s greatest soap opera has been in reruns for ages: Erstwhile supergroup Fleetwood Mac last toured in 2009, reviving the backstage drama and ex-flame flameouts that made 1977’s Rumours one of the biggest phenomena in recorded music history. Guitar wizard Lindsey Buckingham gets credit as the band’s sonic mastermind, but his solo career never gets its due. And that’s plain silly. As Buckingham’s new, stellar Seeds We Sow makes evident on track after track, his genius isn’t limited to the Mac’s contrapuntal “heartbreak and revenge” dynamic.

At his best, the lifelong Californian combines the ambitious, folk-inspired chops of a Richard Thompson with the symphonic imagination of a Brian Wilson. Now on a rare tour—his last solo go-round was three years ago—Buckingham brings a satchel of masterful three- and four-minute tunes. They may begin as delicately as “That’s the Way Love Goes,” with a simple harpsichord-driven melody, but they quickly build into buoyant epiphanies of sound: Buckingham’s urgent falsetto multitracked as a guitar solo keens high above, before everything cascades down the scales to a whisper.

It will be fascinating to see how the singer pulls off his complex arrangements outside a studio. Though any trade-off will definitely favor electric spontaneity and emotional intensity, Buckingham can conjure a torrent of drama with just his voice and a guitar.

Must Read: "In Defense Of Stevie Nicks"

This was a good read:

I’m a fan of Stevie Nicks. And that hasn’t always an easy thing to admit, at least not publicly.

But, today, with many of her songs (“Landslide,” “Leather and Lace”) rightfully acknowledged as modern pop standards, and as a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Ms. Nicks is being more and more recognized as a true rock legend. But for many years, as she airily floated about, she was far too close to punchline and parody for even the most die-hard of fans to ably defend her fully. Hence, our frequent silence. Even the truly devoted among us, who secretly worshiped every aspect of her gothic crystal vision, often had to wonder if she wouldn’t be taken a bit more seriously, by audiences and critics alike, if just once she’d toned down some of her Enchanted Forest fever.

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