Author Q & A (in which said author delivers both the Q and the A)
What do you mean by “the threat to new music”—in the book’s subtitle? What’s the threat?
The threat is this: The more we only want artists to play the hits in concert—and show little interest in hearing any new music—the more artists will stop recording new music and just exist as a live entity. On one level, I am definitely referring to older bands who have a lot of albums. Increasingly, though, I think that trend is already taking hold for newer artists and is more of a reality for bands that haven’t been around for decades. At some point, I think we just got way too focused on wanting to hear the same old songs. But there are also exceptions to what I’m saying. Andre 3000, formerly of Outkast, put out a new album in 2023—the first new album by him in 17 years—of flute-driven instrumentals! And he has since added to dates to his summer tour! Now that gives me hope.
When you argue that we increasingly don’t want to hear new music anymore, do people scoff? Get irate? Or do they easily admit that that’s how they feel?
I do get a range of response to that idea, but for the people that aren’t involved in music in any way for a livin—musicians, music writers, people working in some capacity related to the industry—I’d say that the majority centers around admitting that new music just doesn’t appeal anymore—not so much actual new music, but more the idea of new music. But I certainly know people—my age, older, and considerably younger—who are continually taking in new music. It’s just that my experience in reporting the book has shown me that that’s a smaller group.
And do you not want to hear new music anymore yourself?
I very much do! I’m always trying to take in new music—that is, balancing that with the music I already know and want to hear. That might be new music from an artist I’ve loved for a long time or also much older music that I’ve never heard for one reason or another—if it’s new music to me, I consider that new music. It’s true that I listen to new music from new artists a bit less, but that’s still something that can be really thrilling for me when I make what feels like a great discovery.
What did you learn by following a Journey tribute band around—about Journey, about what we want from music today? About life?
What I saw firsthand in spending time with the band Never Stop Believin’ is that people love all those Journey hits, and when they’re played so identically to the actual versions they’ve known and loved for much of their lives, they really revel in that experience. It’s not the same hassle as seeing the real Journey—tickets are a fraction of the price; there are no long lines at the bathroom; no $18 for a beer; no parking issues—and their level of enthusiasm isn’t, from what I could witness, more muted because it’s not the actual band. It’s a fun night out for folks who really love Journey. (And also, remember, the real Journey, at this point, has one more original member than Never Stop Believin’.)
There are plenty of people who are not going to go see a tribute band, but increasingly I think a stigma being associated with tribute bands has mostly gone away. High-end tribute have become a very notable part of the industry’s touring reality.
As for Never Stop Believin’, they get a great deal of gratification from playing music that makes people happy. Every one of those musicians felt fortunate to have that gig and to have so many people coming to hear them. So I found that very inspiring!
Are music holograms really the future of live music?
For a while I was less convinced about that. The Whitney Houston hologram was no big hit, and the Dio and Frank Zappa shows played to pretty modest audiences. But then the ABBA show, featuring avatars, has been a huge success, and I think that gave the hologram industry a very needed boost of momentum. I do think that increasingly we’re going to be seeing more and more of those shows, as other hugely popular acts continue to retire or are stopped by deaths of band members. I think the love for the bands that define the “classic rock” era really continues to a major aspect of the music industry, and until the fans that grew up on that music are dying off in big numbers, I think holograms will continue to be a viable concert experience.
In your book you speak to such iconic musicians as Steve Howe of Yes, Nancy Wilson of Heart, and Jonathan Cain of Journey. Each of those bands have had incredible highs, some fallow periods, and also remarkable comebacks, commercially speaking. Did they have very different takes on the state of our relationship to new music? On whether people want new music from them?
One theme that was consistent in all of those interviews is their deep sense of gratitude that they have catalogs of music that fans have always wanted to hear, even though that almost all of the songs those bands now perform in concert are from the 20th century. They don’t play much new music in concert, even though Yes and Journey have recently put out new albums, but none of those three musicians had any sense of bitterness or resentment over that. Jonathan did lament that the new Journey album, put out in YEAR, didn’t do much business, and he wondered if the band was done making new music. Nancy was hopeful about making new Heart music, and Steve was very happy with the new album that was about to come out when I spoke to him. He was hopeful about how it might be greeted, but he also knew the chances of the album being a big hit, too. Really, all three musicians talked in very pragmatic terms about what it is to make new music now.
Nancy and Jonathan both cited musicians today whose new music they really admire—Taylor Swift and Ed Sheerhan, respectively.
What’s the best new music you’ve heard recently?
A couple of weeks ago my wife and I went with friends to see a band from Africa called Tinariwen. I had not really heard them myself, but what I was so knocked out by was the opening band. They had the lamentable name of Basic, and even worse, their debut album, which wasn’t out yet, was called “This is Basic.” The implication of those choices is that it’s virtually impossible to find them through Googling. But this band, made up of two guitarists and a percussionist who played electronics while banging things, was absolutely incredible, and I was so knocked out. All instrumental music. They sounded like ‘80s-era King Crimson, which is some of my very favorite music. Anyway, Basic was exhilarating from the first note to the last.
Great new music like that might not be around every street corner, but there is an abundance of it all around us. Seeking it out is only part of it. Some luck is part of that, too. But really what it’s about is a willingness to truly, fully listen.