Showing posts with label SXSW. Show all posts
Showing posts with label SXSW. Show all posts

Sunday, March 17, 2013

SXSW INTERVIEW: Stevie Nicks: 'When We Walk Into The Room We Have To Float In Like Goddessses' by ANN POWERS

Stevie Nicks: 'When We Walk Into The Room We Have To Float In Like Goddessses'
by ANN POWERS
NPR

The true rock legends change the game. Stevie Nicks, as a member of Fleetwood Mac, and later in her solo career, changed the game not only for women, but for what you could do in rock as a songwriter and a singer. While living in the male-dominated world of the very peak of the music industry in the 1970s, she wrote indelible songs that tell real, true stories, often about the bond between women, and about the life of an adventurer.

Nicks has stayed busy. In April, she'll join Fleetwood Mac for a world tour. In 2011, she released an album, In Your Dreams, produced by Dave Stewart of The Eurythmics, which was the basis for a new documentary that Nicks co-directed with Stewart. And at this year's South by Southwest, Nicks joined Dave Grohl on stage to perform as part of his Sound City players, a group of musicians who have all recorded at Los Angeles' famous Sound City Studios and later came together to make a soundtrack to Grohl's documentary about the history of the studio.

Earlier that day, NPR Music's Ann Powers spoke with Stevie Nicks in front of an audience at the Austin Convention Center. Over the course of a nearly hour-long conversation, Nicks talked about what it takes to sing harmonies, a recent movie that sparked both memories of her own complicated romantic history as well as creative inspiration, the three musicians who provided templates for her style on stage, which Fleetwood Mac rarity the band will perform on its upcoming tour and why, when she and Lindsey Buckingham were being courted by Fleetwood Mac, the band placed the ultimate decision in the hands of Christine McVie.


NPR: I want to start by talking about In Your Dreams, the new record. I feel that it's a culmination of the best aspects of your solo work. I know you have said that it's your favorite solo album, in many years at any rate, and it includes at least one song written in the '70s and some that you wrote it right there during the sessions. So for me it really is an apex. And it also shows, I think, the two sides of your songwriting process merged so beautifully. Many people talk about, "Oh Stevie Nicks, she writes about, you know, fairies and witches and all that." But to me you are one of the most realistic songwriters about male/female relationships especially. And about what it's like to be a woman in quote unquote man's world, especially of rock 'n' roll. And I wonder how in your writing process you bring those two sides of you together. The wild dreamy Stevie and the Stevie with so much wisdom?

Stevie Nicks: What a question. You know, I think that the best way to start the answer to that question is to say that, when I first joined Fleetwood Mac and met Christine I was later to find out that it was all up to her whether or not they would accept me into the band or not. They needed a guitar player. Bob Welch had just quit. They did not need another girl. They already had a girl. And what a girl. So we all had dinner at a Mexican restaurant on like the second day of 1975. Mick [Fleetwood] had called us on New Year's Eve night and said, 'Would you like to have dinner with us? We really want to talk to you about joining our band.' And you know, Lindsey wasn't really — and he doesn't get mad at me for telling this, 'cause it's really the truth. He wasn't really all that excited about it. Because we had already started our second Buckingham Nicks record. And we were making it on spec, which means that the studio, Sound City, was giving us free time. So if somebody didn't come in, you know, our producer Keith would call us and say, come down right now. There's five hours of empty time that you can have for free. So he was really excited about this record that we were making. And also, the [first] Buckingham Nicks album was, in its own weird way, starting to simmer back in the South, you know.

Saturday, March 16, 2013

VIDEO: Stevie Nicks and Dave Stewart at SXSW In Your Dreams Q&A

Stevie Nicks and Dave Stewart answer a few questions after the In Your Dreams documentary screening at SXSW in Austin!


Thanks John for capturing this!

Friday, March 15, 2013

SXSW REVIEWS: Stevie Nicks went into her signature whirling-dervish mode, arms outstretched, long blond hair whipping

Really great reviews on Stevie's performance last night in Austin
 during the Sound City Players gig at Stubb's BBQ.

SXSW 2013: Dave Grohl Leads Sound City Players in Last Show
Stevie Nicks, John Fogerty and Rick Springfield join in
by Eric R. Danton
RollingStone

Stevie Nicks was next, and she surrounded a somber new song, "You Can't Fix This," with more familiar fare from her own catalog and Fleetwood Mac's, including a version of "Landslide" with Grohl accompanying her on a 12-string acoustic guitar.

After Nicks finished with "Gold Dust Woman," given added heft by the Foo Fighters, she yielded to Chris Goss from Masters of Reality.

Full Review at RollingStone

Stevie Nicks helps Grohl's 'Sound City' play at SXSW
by Mike Snider

"There's not going to be too many shows where you are going to see these people who are onstage," Grohl told the crowd before bringing out Nicks for a "dream" duet of Stop Draggin' My Heart Around.

Before performing You Can't Fix This, a new song that appears in the documentary and on its soundtrack (both out earlier this week), Nicks dedicated it to a godson who died of an overdose. Grohl & Co. provided tight underpinnings for her performances of Dreams and Landslide and drummer Taylor Hawkins seemingly mustered up his inner Mick Fleetwood for his intense thrashing at the end of Gold Dust Woman.

Full Review at USA Today

Stevie explains the meaning behing "You Can't Fix This"

Stevie Nicks sprinkles some solid-gold dust at Sound City concert
Timothy Finn

The three-hour plus show featured several high-proflle artists, such as Stevie Nicks, John Fogerty, Rick Nielsen of Cheap Trick and Rick Springfield, plus Lee Ving of the punk band Fear. During a set by Chris Goss of Masters of Reality, Brad Wilk of Rage Against the Machine and now Black Sabbath sat in on drums,

After an opening set by Alain Johannes, a Queens of the Stone Age collaborator, Nicks took the stage.

She and Grohl launched into "Stop Dragging My Heart Around," with Grohl taking Tom Petty's vocal parts. After that, Nicks introduced a new song she'd written, "You Can't Fix This," a dour ballad that temporarily lost the crowd of about 3,000.

She got it back immediately with a few of her best-known songs: "Dreams"; "Landslide," which featured Grohl on 12-string acoustic guitar and which prompted a heartwarming sing-along throughout the huge venue; and "Gold Dust Woman."

That one ended with a long, raucous instrumental that brought out the beasts in Grohl and Foo Fighter drummer Taylor Hawkins.

Full Review at The Star

GOLD DUST WOMAN


SXSW: Dave Grohl's Sound City Players rock long
By Thomas Conner

After half a dozen songs bashed out with Johannes, Nicks stepped to the mic and proved to be more than up to the task of leading a bashing hard rock band.

She and Grohl pointed at each other as they sang the chorus of "Stop Dragging My Heart Around" (see, Grohl is his generation's Tom Petty!), and Nicks performed Fleetwood Mac's "Dreams" with the band and "Landslide" with Grohl alone on guitar. She sang excellent new song from the "Sound City" soundtrack, "You Can't Fix This" -- graceful and tuneful, with a leaning, weaving riff more akin to Waddy Wachtel than Lindsey Buckingham. Swinging her ribboned tambourine and wearing shades, Nicks was in great voice and moving with an ease I've not seen on stage in a long time, particularly when the band began a surreal, clanging opening séance to "Gold Dust Woman," as Nicks waved her scarf with her back to the audience and conjured her old witchy self. With the Foo Fighters cranked to 11, Nicks wailed and howled and raised the dead, holding her own with the muscled band all the way through the cacophonous conclusion.

Forget Grohl's "Sirvana" work with Paul McCartney -- let's have some Fleetwood Fighters!

Full Review at Chicago Sun Times

SXSW 2013 review: Sound City Players rock Austin
By Jim Harrington

Grohl's Sound City Players are a revue of this recording studio's alum, including both big names (John Fogerty, Stevie Nicks and, of course, Grohl and his fellow Foo Fighters), lesser-known talents (Johannes,Fear's Lee Ving and Slipknot's Corey Taylor, sans mask) and one retro favorite (Rick Springfield!).  Many of the key players took turns fronting the band, performing generous — in some cases, too generous — sets of songs. Grohl and other musicians (notably, his Foos) backed up the singers.

There was plenty of filler, but also some killer (moments). A number of them came early in the night when Nicks -- whose documentary film, "In Your Dreams: Stevie Nicks," was screened at SXSW earlier in the day -- was onstage.

Nicks' voice wasn't great, but most of the songs sure were. The band delivered fantastic versions of such Fleetwood Mac classics as "Dreams," "Gold Dust Woman" and, especially, "Landslide," which featured pretty much everyone in the house singing harmony.

Full Review at Mercury News


John Fogerty, Stevie Nicks, Corey Taylor and a pair of Ricks join Dave Grohl in Austin
By Gary Graff
Billboard

Alain Johannes' artful variety gave way to Stevie Nicks' parade of Fleetwood Mac hits, including a moving "Landslide" and a powerhouse "Gold Dust Woman." Nicks also won cheers when she said she was so impressed with her first visit to SXSW that she plans to return next year and rent a place for three weeks to hang out.

Full Review at Billboard

SXSW 2013: Dave Grohl's Sound City Players go big (before going home)
By Mikael Wood
LA Times

"It's my life's greatest gift that I get to call up these people who I consider heroes and have them come onstage and jam with me," Grohl said.

Among those heroes was Stevie Nicks, who sang tunes including "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around," "Landslide" and (a very dreamy) "Dreams." She also did "You Can't Fix This," a strong new song from the "Sound City" soundtrack. But Nicks was best in a muscular rendition of Fleetwood Mac's "Gold Dust Woman," for which she went into her signature whirling-dervish mode, arms outstretched, long blond hair whipping around her.

In an onstage interview earlier Thursday with NPR music critic Ann Powers, Nicks said she'd taken ballet classes early in her career to learn how to use her body while performing. "I can captivate with my hands," she'd said, and she was right.

Full Review at the LA Times

Dave Grohl's Sound City Players Deliver Epic 2013 SXSW Performance
by Chad Childers

Shifting the bill a bit, Stevie Nicks, who had been closing shows, performed second, offering up the ‘Sound City’ soundtrack favorite ‘You Can’t Fix This’ alongside the minimal backing of ‘Landslide’ and a stellar set closer in ‘Gold Dust Woman’ with most of the Foo Fighters present.

Full Review at Loudwire

Dave Grohl Packs Multiple Shows Into Epic Sound City Players SXSW Set
The 'Sound City' director brings out Stevie Nicks, John Fogerty, Krist Novoselic and "Rick F-ckin' Springfield" for band's last show

At 64, age has counterintuitively improved Stevie Nicks' bourbon-and-cigarettes voice, as many of the first-half highlights went to her. The mournful hook of Fleetwood Mac's "Dreams." The first verse of "Landslide," which saw Nicks singing over Grohl's acoustic, 12-string guitar accompaniment, silencing a celebratory Friday night crowd. The extended jam in the middle of "Gold Dust Woman" saw Grohl barely hiding a huge grin throughout. "If there's one person who walks it like she talks it...," said Grohl of Nicks.

Full Review at Fuse TV

It’s not every day you see Stevie Nicks, Foo Fighter, Fear’s Lee Ving, Rick Springfield and John Fogerty on the same stage.
by L. Kent Wolgamott

In fact, it probably won’t ever happen again. That lineup along with Cheap Trick’s Rick Nielsen, Slipknot singer Corey Taylor, Rage Against The Machine drummer Brad Wilk, Nirvana’s Krist Novoselic and Chris Goss of Masters of Reality all were part of Sound City Players Thursday night.

Dave Grohl, who leads Foo Fighters and played drums in Nirvana, put together the Players for a documentary about a now-defunct Los Angeles recording studio, Sound City, then took the show on the road playing New York, London, Los Angeles and a 3 1/2 hour finale at Stubbs BBQ.

Highlights of the show, which included performers playing their old hits and songs from the documentary soundtrack:

Nicks joining with, essentially, the Foo Fighters for a handful of songs with Grohl unleashing his inner Tom Petty on the duet “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around,” a dreamy version of “Dreams’ and a dynamic “Gold Dust Woman,” a surprising choice for Nicks who was in good voice and full stage-witch persona.

Full Review at Journal Star

SXSW: Dave Grohl leads rousing Sound City performance
by James Hibberd

Grohl repeatedly noted how fortunate the crowd to see all these artists together on one stage, and it was tough to argue.

The emotional high point came early, during Nicks’ set, which included “Stop Draggin My Heart Around,” “You Can’t Fix This,” “Dreams,” “Landslide” and “Gold Dust Woman.” If you were sitting around at home you would probably never think to yourself, “You know what would be awesome? Having Stevie Nicks sing Fleetwood Mac songs with the Foo Fighters as her backing band.” But it was.

“Stop Draggin” and “Gold Dust Woman” were amplified into hard arena jam-rock anthems (aided heavily by the Foos’ Taylor Hawkins on drums). Then the band mostly stripped down to Grohl and Nicks for an intimate take on “Landslide.” “To play this song with you…” Grohl started, by way of introduction, then didn’t finish the sentence and fans got the message that there were no words to describe what it meant to him, and Nicks pleased the locals by noting that she was so impressed with Austin she wanted to move there.

Fulll Review at Entertainment Weekly

Five Cool Things Witnessed At SXSW 2013: Thursday, March 14
by Lyndsey Parker

1) Dave Grohl Totally Fanboyed Over Stevie Nicks
What makes Dave so likable--nay, lovable--is the fact that he's as big and dopey a rock fan as anyone you might find in the front row of his concerts. When he introduced the fabled Fleetwood Mac frontgoddess on Thursday, he was grinning the grin of all Cheshire Cat grins as he declared: "We're so lucky, people, that we can invite heroes onstage tonight!" Stevie then sailed out in all her white-magic witchery finery for a mini-set that included a "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around" duet with Dave and Fleetwood's "Dreams," "Gold Dust Woman," and the gorgeous "Landslide," the latter of which had me reaching for the Stubb's quintuple-ply BBQ napkins to dab at my teary eyes. Dave positively raved about Stevie, telling the audience, "When she writes a song, it's 100 percent Stevie. She doesn't care if she going to make you freak out or cry." Honestly, I did a little bit of both at Thursday's show.

See the rest at Music.Yahoo.com


Stevie Nicks on 'In Your Dreams,' Fleetwood Mac's Tour and Longevity Secrets At SXSW

Stevie Nicks on 'In Your Dreams,' Fleetwood Mac's Tour and Longevity Secrets At SXSW
By Gary Graff, Austin
Billboard


Stevie Nicks was on hand at South By Southwest to screen “In Your Dreams,” the Dave Stewart-directed documentary about the making of her latest album of the same name, and to play a killer set with Dave Grohl’s Sound City Players. But you can never limit the always-engaged Nicks to just one or two things, so when she sat for one of SXSW’s celebrity interviews on Thursday at the Austin Convention Center, she had plenty to say. Here’s five things we learned during the nearly one-hour session:

She’s Still Devoted to Her Band: Nicks recalled that while she was making her first solo album, “Bella Donna,” the other members of Fleetwood Mac “were terrified that I would do that record and then quit. And I said to them, ‘You guys…’ I wanted to go around and hold each one of their hands and say, ‘Listen, loves, I am never going to leave you. I just need another vehicle. I have trunks of songs…that are never going to be heard. But it’s never going to beat Fleetwood Mac.' What I do is the Lear Jet; they’re the 738. I really did convince them I’m not going anywhere. ‘I love you guys and I love my band. I would never break up Fleetwood Mac, ever. I just take their vacations, that’s all.'”

The Mac Is Ready to Get Back (On The Road): “I’m in rehearsals with them now. We go from ‘Go Your Own Way’ to ‘Sara’ to ‘Never Going Back…’ to ‘Landslide.’ This time we’re actually doing ‘Sister of the Moon,’ which we haven’t done since 1979 or 1980. And it’s dark; (sings) ‘Intense silence as you walk in the room,’ and people are like, ‘What does that mean?’ That’s me talking to me, talking to my alter ego and the person that’s having a hard time being a rock star…Twenty-four songs is what we’re doing. I’m sitting there looking at the board going, ‘Oh my God, we’re only halfway through. We have 12 songs to go and we’ve been playing for six hours!’"

Tom Petty’s Ex-Wife Gets an Assist on “Edge Of 17:" “I asked his wife when she met him – his first wife, Jane – and she said in her very Florida, swamp accent, ‘I met him about the age of 17,’ and I thought she said ‘the edge of 17,’ but she said it’s the age of 17. And I went like, ‘Oh Jane, that’s fantastic,’ and I just wrote it right down. And I told her I was going to use that in a song and she said, ’Oh, that’s fantastic. Go write a hit.’ I was really good friends with her, so she dug it.”

She Has a New Song in the Works: “I just saw a movie I was going to write a song about that I was inspired by in a very strange way – ‘Anna Karenina.’ I’m watching this movie and I’m really riveted by the fact that she was happy in her marriage and it was fun…and then she meets this mom who asks her, ‘Have you ever really been in love?’ What a question! And she’s like, ‘What is love, really?’ and thinks about it. Then she meets her son and it happens. I never jumped in front of a train, but what obsessive love can do to people, I’ve seen it in my own life and I saw it in that movie and it really affected me. I’ve been there and I don’t want to be there again. So now I’m just walking around with this in my head, and I’m so ready to go to the grand piano with white candles and (write)."

We’ll Have Her to Kick Around for Many Years to Come: Since finding a vocal coach in 1997, Nicks said she’s in good enough shape to last a lifetime. “Opera singers plan to sing into their 80s. I plan to not be doing 190 shows when I’m 85, but I do plan to be out there singing when I am a seriously older woman, ‘cause I think my voice will still be pretty good because I’m not gonna let it go. The people that can’t sing anymore that had great voices are people that went away for five years and just decided to come back. You can’t just come back. You have to keep singing – or dancing."


Stevie Nicks Sees Women's Rights Slipping, 'And I Hate It'
At SXSW talk, she addresses feminist gains and losses, heroes from Janis to Jimi
Photo by KUTXAustin
by Dan Rys
RollingStone
March 15, 2013 10:55 AM ET

"The true rock legends truly changed the game," said NPR's Ann Powers by way of introduction Thursday at SXSW Music. "Stevie Nicks definitely changed the game."

Powers conducted a Q&A with the very busy Fleetwood Mac singer – in addition to performing with Dave Grohl's Sound City Players at SXSW, she has a new tour and is set to release a new solo album. The talk ran down the story of Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham joining Fleetwood Mac, her regimen for keeping her voice in shape even at the age of 64 and her myriad performing influences. But it opened and closed with a discussion about feminism – not only in the largely male-dominated world of rock & roll, but in society today.

"We fought very hard for feminism, for women's rights," Nicks said in response to a question from the crowd. "What I'm seeing today is a very opposite thing. I don't know why, but I see women being put back in their place. And I hate it. We're losing all we worked so hard for, and it really bums me out."

Nicks and bandmate Christine McVie were strong female figures in an industry where many male musicians were hero-worshipped by fans across the world, and Nicks said they worked to change the perception of women within the rock & roll circles of the Seventies. "I said to Chris, we can never be treated like second-class citizens," she explained. "When we walk into a room we have to float in like goddesses, because that's how we wanted to be treated. We demanded that from the beginning."

Nicks also recalled her days in San Francisco in the late Sixties and early Seventies, when she and Buckingham opened for headliners from Janis Joplin to Jimi Hendrix. "Flamboyance and attitude from Janis, humbleness and grace from Hendrix, and a little bit of slinky from Grace Slick," she said. "Those were the three people who I emulated when I was on stage."

And while it's been more than 30 years since she took up her place in Fleetwood Mac, her voice – bolstered by a vocal coach she has worked with since 1997 – isn't letting her down yet. "Opera singers sing into their 80s," she said. "I don't plan to be doing [hundreds] of shows when I'm 85, but I do plan to still be out there singing when I'm a seriously older woman."

Check out RollingStone comments section on this article.. Stevie's started a great debate!


SXSW Interview: Stevie Nicks
Austin Convention Center, Thursday, March 14
REVIEWED BY ABBY JOHNSTON
Austin Chronicle

"I will always be a witch." Sure, she was talking about a Halloween costume, but that statement toward the end of Stevie Nicks' hourlong interview summed up many lingering notions about the Fleetwood Mac songstress. Like her mystery, her flamboyance, and yes, her entanglements with the male libido. NPR's Ann Powers posed questions, but the verbose Nicks needed little prompting. She wound in both her solo career and time with the fabled band, at times erring to a sleepover-style boy dish. Continual jabs at Lindsey Buckingham ("Oh, Lindsey likes to lock himself in a studio and make records no one hears.") and waxing about Dave Stewart seemed to miss the point. For an icon to many women, this kind of quintessential trait might have disappointed, but the fire in her eyes when she ripped off her sunglasses for the first time only came when she talked about the feminist movement. The phrase "woman in a man's world" popped into Powers' questions repeatedly, but it has less to do with Nicks' existence in a music business dominated by men than with the world she created for herself – magical, mystical, and maybe a little narcissistic. And that's the way we like her.


SXSW: Stevie Nicks name drops Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix and Grace Slick, plus Fleetwood Mac, during historical interview session

By Mario Tarradell
Pop Culture - Dallas News

AUSTIN – Stevie Nicks name dropped Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix and Grace Slick during her SXSW Interview Thursday afternoon with moderator Ann Powers of NPR. From Joplin, she got the flamboyance and the attitude. Hendrix gave her humility and grace. Slick provided the slinky elegance.

“Those are the three people that I emulated for who I was going to be onstage,” said Nicks in her trademark black attire and dark sunglasses as she sat inside the Austin Convention Center.

She wanted to mix feminine and masculine attributes without forgetting to be elegant. For an hour Nicks conversed with Powers as a packed room watched and listened attentively. The legendary female rocker, one of the most influential women in music of the last four decades, has been especially visible in the last two years. Her 2011 solo effort In Your Dreams spawned a tour that stopped at Verizon Theatre in Grand Prairie. She also has a documentary of the same name that chronicles the recording of the majestic disc with producer Dave Stewart. Plus, she’s in SXSW keynote speaker Dave Grohl’s labor-of-love documentary Sound City: Real to Reel.

But the gist of the Nicks interview was historical. She talked about Fleetwood Mac, naturally, particularly about the harmonious artistic blend of Christine McVie, Lindsey Buckingham and herself. There were each intent on harmony, working diligently to develop the three-part harmony that characterized the modern-day Mac sound. They each approached songwriting differently, which in turn proved mutually complimentary. There was plenty of time devoted to her solo career, particularly her pivotal solo debut 1981′s Bella Donna. Nicks approached her solo album as a way to give a home to her compositions that didn’t fit the group dynamics. But she admits that her band mates were nervous that she’d find success alone and then exit stage left.

“They were so terrified that I would do that record and then I would quit,” she said. “I really had to convince them that I’m not going anywhere.”

She’s still with Fleetwood Mac 32 years later. The band comes to Dallas’ American Airlines Center June 4. And what’s the secret of Nicks’ longevity, the magic potion that keeps her voice sturdy after nightly abuse during the heady ’70s and ’80s? Vocal exercises. She demonstrated by doing nonsensical vocalizations that sounded like on-pitch baby gurgling.

Even elegant rockers need to keep training.

Thursday, March 14, 2013

Stevie Nicks Ends Whirlwind Day at SXSW with Rocking Sound City Performance!


Sound city Players at Stubb's, 03.14.13

Stevie Nicks blew into Austin and SXSW like a bird in flight today to promote two documentaries - "Sound City" and her own "In Your Dreams". She attended the IYD screening, spoke to the audience a bit afterwards with Dave Stewart, was quickly whisked off to her own one on one interview in front of a packed house at the Convention Center with Ann Power of NPR. Then capped off the night at Stubbs BBQ where she joined Dave Grohl and the rest of The Sound City Players and rocked the out-door venue.  Her set came a little earlier tonight then normal.  In the past she closed out the usual 3 hour event... But the girls busy! She's gotta plane's waiting! She needs to high-tail it back to L.A. and Fleetwood Mac rehearsals to brush up on Sister of The Moon! Fleetwood Mac are Live in Columbus, Ohio in exactly 3 weeks from tonight!

Here are a couple of twitter pics.  First two are by Ultra5280 which I think are kinda cool!  As you can see Stevie changed up the on stage outfit vs what she previously wore during the Sound City Live shows.  Looks like the same outfit she wore on Letterman last month.  Her set was the same as in previous Sound City shows:  Stop Draggin My Heart Around | You Can't Fix This | Dreams | Landslide | Gold Dust Woman.

Next event for Stevie... Oprah's Masterclass on the 24th!


Photo by Kim Martin Bannerman
Photo by Nadia Neophytou
Photos by Jay Janner - Austin 360


Landslide

Video | Pics: Stevie Nicks Austin Interview at SXSW

SXSW interview with Stevie Nicks
By Chad Swiatecki
Austin360

If you’re an interviewer you don’t keep famed rock singer Stevie Nicks on a short leash. The better move is to think of a question or topic like a stick thrown to a dog; she’ll chase after its general direction but the chances of the stick being retrieved are about 50/50. Thankfully, there aren’t many interview subjects who are as interesting to watch wander as Nicks, as National Public Radio journalist Ann Powers learned Thursday evening during an talk that saw the singer cover the early days of Fleetwood Mac, her relationship with Lindsey Buckingham, her songwriting partnership with Christine McVie and Buckingham and how she came to work with Dave Stewart on her new album “In Your Dreams.”

On she and Buckingham joining Fleetwood Mac: Nicks (whose all black ensemble and sunglasses lent to her mystical reputation) said the band based its decision on bringing she and Buckingham on board on whether McVie approved of Nicks. Talking about the entire group’s introductory dinner at a Mexican restaurant, she recalled a pair of Cadillacs pulling up outside with the FM members and entourage pouring out, contrasted against she and Buckingham being dirt poor. “Christine and I got on like thieves… babbling like a gaggle of geese.” Soon after she and McVie started rehearsing for the group’s next album - 1975’s self-titled bestseller - with Nicks and Buckingham making the then astronomical sum of $200 a week. “We hit the road in June and by October we each were millionaires.”


Above Photos by: Mindy Best

On fitting into the male-dominated world of rock: “I said we can’t be treated like second-class citizens. When we walk into a room… we have to float in there like goddesses. It worked. The boys never went anywhere without us and we were always invited to the party.” Later, Nicks took her most serious tone of the hour-long talk when discussing the control many female artists have ceded to handlers and label directors afer she and other female artist spent the ’70s and ’80s fighting to have their own say. Removing her sunglasses to make her point clear, she talked about her burgeoning desire to get actively involved in women’s equality on a political front.

On working with McVie and Buckingham as songwriting partners: Powers astutley described the three writers’ roles as McVie being the maternal one, Buckingham being the “weird alpha male” one and Nicks serving as the bridge between the two. The singer agreed, saying McVie was responsible for hits like “Hold Me” and “Say That You Love Me,” with Buckingham doing what he could to rough up those pure pop creations with his rocker proclivities. “I sequenced ‘Rumours’ so that one side is creepy and eerie and the other side is more poppy, to have two different experiences.”

On drawing inspiration from literature and film: In one of the more interesting and revealing segments of the talk, Nicks talked about seeing her own life through the lens of works by Edgar Allen Poe (when she was a teenager), the classic tale of Beauty and the Beast and the recent film adaptation of “Anna Karenina,” its lessons “about what obsessive love can do” about how after seeing it she was “ready to go to the grand piano with white candles. I’m not Anna. I’ve been there and I don’t want to be there again. It got me misery, unhappiness, two or three years to get over it and bad karma. You learn; don’t mess with a married man.” Later on she offered, “I’ve already written about that and I will write about it again.”

 

 Couple of brief clips of Stevie and Dave speaking after the film and before her sit down interview with Ann Power... Thanks to Mike Bise for the quick upload!

SPOILER: Stevie Nicks Reveals Fleetwood Mac Upcoming Tour Setlist Details at SXSW

Gary Graff, a journalist, is at the SXSW Interview with Stevie Nicks... He just tweeted this bombshell!

RT @GraffonMusic: .@StevieNicks says @fleetwoodmac doing "Sisters of the Moon" on tour for first time in 3 decades. 24song setlist total #sxsw

AWESOME!!!!!

Stevie Nicks - Austin... #SXSW "In Your Dreams" Screening


 Stevie and the two Dave's






TODAY at #SXSW: Stevie Nicks "In Your Dreams" Screening and Interview + Live w/ Sound City Players

SXSW Music Thursday highlights

Dave Grohl Keynote:
His “Sound City” documentary played Wednesday night during SXSW Film, and Thursday, Grohl delivers the 2013 Music keynote at 11:00 AM CDT in Ballroom D of the Austin Convention Center. It’s open to badgeholders but will be streamed live at sxsw.com and npr.org. Check sxsw.com for updates or changes in the schedule.

Sound City Players:
Meat Puppets, Dave Grohl, and the Sound City Players, 8pm, Stubb's - It's time for rock's friendliest superstar to invite the Meat Puppets to open and then for Stevie Nicks, John Fogerty, Nirvana's Krist Novoselic, Rick Springfield, Fear's Lee Ving, Cheap Trick's Rick Nielsen, Rage Against The Machine's Brad Wilk, Slipnot's Corey Taylor, and more to play at what is the festival's craziest, most star-studded concert. If you end up having grand kids  you'll be telling them about this one.

SXSW Stevie Nicks Interview:
The Fleetwood Mac chanteuse is everywhere this year. She’s in her own documentary, “In Your Dreams,” and in Grohl’s “Sound City.” She’ll talk Thursday with NPR’s Ann Powers. 5 p.m. in Room 18ABC in the Convention Center. This interview is open to all Music and Platinum badges as well as Artist Wristbands.

In Your Dreams:
The movie “In Your Dreams” about recording Stevie's new album will premiere at 2:30 p.m. today at the Paramount Theatre.


Monday, March 04, 2013

Stevie Nicks Set To Perform at SXSW With Dave Grohl and The Sound City Players

Billboard
Presented by Citi Private Pass, the "Sound City Players at SXSW" show will feature John Fogerty, Stevie Nicks, Rick Nielsen, Rick Springfield and more

The Austin jam session is the latest in a series of performances this year that began at Sundance, with Citi sponsoring additional events in Los Angeles and New York. Confirmed performers include Grohl, Stevie Nicks, John Fogerty, Rick Springfield, Lee Ving of Fear, Rick Nielsen, Brad Wilk of Rage Against The Machine, Corey Taylor of Slipknot and Stone Sour, Chris Goss of Masters of Reality and Alain Johannes. The Meat Puppets will be the opening act.

THIS EVENT IS SOLD OUT


Tickets for the event will go on sale Tuesday, March 5, at 4 p.m. ET to Citi consumer credit and debit cardmembers as a complimentary gift with a $25 purchase of the "Sound City" feature documentary Blu-Ray on CitiPrivatePass.com. Purchases will be limited to two per Citi member on a first-come, first-served basis. Select admission will be available to SXSW badgeholders via lottery. All attendees will also receive a complimentary copy of the soundtrack, courtesy of Citi.

Full announcement at Billboard

Friday, March 01, 2013

Stevie Nicks: Starring in 2 SXSW Film docs. + will guest in Grohl’s as-yet-unnanounced Sound City showcase

Rumors Confirmed: Stevie Nicks at SXSW
Fleetwood Mac frontwoman stars in two SX Film docs and more
The Austin Chronicle
by: Raoul Hernandez

There's a good chance you'll be able to
see or hear Stevie's interview via these
SXSW sites.
 Like Green Day on Monday, another South by Southwest confirmation came yesterday in Stevie Nicks, who bewitches the music conference in an interview with Ann Powers on Thursday, March 14, and also stars in a pair of SXSW Film docs.

The Film spread in this week’s Chronicle, both ours and SXSW’s, spilled a wealth of information as far as music’s concerned. The Fest’s “24 Beats Per Second” music series revealed inside looks at Austin’s Gourds (All the Labor), New Oreleans piano prince James Booker (Bayou Maharajah), and Detroit’s black punk siblings Death (A Band Called Death), among many others, including free Auditorium Shores Mexicans Molotov (Gimme the Power).

Nicks’ In Your Dreams, made by her and Eurythmics seer David Stewart during a 2010 collaboration on her album, also screens in the “24 Beats Per Second” round-up, Thu., March 14 at the Paramount Theatre. The night before, Wednesday, catch her in Dave Grohl’s Sound City, which throws back the curtain on an L.A. studio that birthed Nirvana’s Nevermind and Fleetwood Mac’s Rumors.


Tie-ins there are three: Nicks will guest in Grohl’s as-yet-unnanounced Sound City showcase; Fleetwood Mac’s new tour begins in April (with stops in Dallas on June 4, and then Houston the next day); and Rhino Records just reissued Rumors. Nicks’ appearance locally thus follows her Rumors co-star Lindsey Buckingham’s sold-out show at Antone’s last August and Rumors producer Ken Caillat in October for the Texas Book Festival.

Sound City clusters in SX Film’s “Special Events,” which features more music tie-ins in Asleep at the Wheel Then and Now and Mabon “Teenie” Hodges – A Portrait of a Memphis Soul Original. I’ll never forget a newly-sober Chan Marshall (Cat Power) gushing in my ear about working with the Hodges brothers in 2006. Only because she already swung through the Moody last month is Cat Power not coming to SXSW this year like everyone else.


NEW SXSW Stevie Nicks 'In Your Dreams' Film Trailer

Check out the new SXSW trailer for Stevie's film that will be screened at the Music and Film Conference on March 14th.  There are new scenes in this 3 minute piece that haven't been shown before... Mick and Lindsey are seen recording at Stevie's home, plus I love the live footage included that was shot at 'In Your Dreams' CD Release Event at the Wiltern in Los Angeles in May, 2011. Hopefully that show was captured in it's entirety... Was a pretty exciting night!


Check out More Screen Captures uploaded to Facebook