GUITAR WORLD: Mike, Stone always said he wanted to get you writing
songs. You did three on the new album, including the music for the
single, "Given To Fly." Has your relationship with Eddie changed as a
result?
MIKE McCREADY: Definitely, yeah. I used to be afraid of him and not
want to confront him on things. I felt I was always walking on eggshells
around him. Now I just feel more confident and comfortable with myself,
and maybe the mutual respect comes out of that. We talk more now,
and hang out and stuff.
GW: Jeff, you had told me that, in the beginning, you were all getting
passive-aggressive with each other and not communicating because
of the stress. Yield implies you're going with the energy rather than
trying to fight everything that comes up. Or fight each other. That's
what destroyed great bands like the Clash and the Police.
JEFF AMENT: Yeah, I think we've finally arrived at the calm in the
middle of the storm. Now we realize that so much more gets done-
even in terms of creating more good energy-by giving in and flowing
with it. I think we've all learned how to leave our egos at the door when
someone else has an idea, or has a song to work on. For me that
particularly was important in terms of dealing with Stone and Eddie.
They're amazing talents, but their energy and their egos could be
so strong-willed that sometimes it was hard to break through. I didn't
always know how to approach it. Sometimes I was too aggressive,
or let things build up to much. We've learned to take a step back
and really have a heartfelt conversation with each other. For example,
I don't even play bass on a couple of songs on the new album. Stone
played on them, and I didn't think I could improve on them. That would
have been much harder for me to do three or four years ago.
GW: It sounds like one person wrote the lyrics and music to everything.
Yet you wrote the complete music and lyrics to "Pilate" and "Low Light,"
and Stone did the same for two songs. So everybody was both yielding
and stepping forward. What sparked that?
AMENT: When we were making No Code, Ed said, "It would be great if
everyone brought in more complete songs and ideas next time." And
everybody stepped up to the challenge. We hadn't been together for
a couple of months , and when we got together and played each other
demos of songs we'd been working on it was amazing how musically and
lyrically we were all coming from similar places. Before, we'd bring in
fragments of music, and it often took a few hours before Eddie could
have something to try and sing with.
Now we were all able to work off each other's demos and begin to
hammer something out after 20 minutes or so. It was so much easier
to approach these songs as "our," as opposed to "my," song. When
everybody got excited about a few of my songs, including the lyrics,
that was a huge relief for me. I've been putting pressure on myself for
years to come up with complete songs and lyrics that Eddie would be
excited about singing, and wanting Stone to be into playing the guitar
parts I wrote. For those guys to let down their egos and get into it, to
sit playing bass in the studio and watch Eddie put his heart into singing
lyrics that I wrote, was an experience I can't put into words.
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