Features & Interviews
'Crazy ideas are the best'
Dave Stewart is known
as one of the most
talented songwriters
and musicians. In an
exclusive interview,
Deborah Johnson
finds out why the
Wearside-born legend
believes it's cool
to be crazy.
I'M in Dave Stewart's hotel room in
Gateshead, on one of his handful of
annual returns to his native North-
East. He's wearing sunglasses sitting
at his laptop, busily checking emails,
breaking off only briefly to warmly shake
my hand as I walk in.
A guitar and keyboard lie in the middle
of the floor, and a proof of his yet-to-be-released
Songbook - a guide, in words and
photographs, to the inspiration for his
most famous songs - is neatly placed on
the coffee table.
After a few seconds, he leaves his computer,
which is surrounded by an array of
his trademark glasses, and walks over to
his lavish leopard-print sofa, initially
sprawling out full-length - "I could pretend
I'm on the psychiatrist's couch," he
says - before sitting up straight, clasping
his hands together.
"Sorry about that, I'm always on the go
y'know. I think I've probably got about 50
projects on at the moment," he says, his familiar
Wearside accent still firmly intact
despite the fact he's lived in a pad in the
shadow of the iconic Hollywood sign in
Los Angeles for the past ten years. "You
can ask me anything you want."
And there's certainly a lot to discuss.
Aside from the fact he made his name as
one half of the Eurythmics, notching up
over 75 million album sales worldwide, he
has gone on to win a host of awards including
Best British Producer four times,
Best British Songwriter five times, and a
Golden Globe for his composition of the
music for the remake of the classic movie
Alfie.
Currently, he's working on a musical
version of the film Ghost for Broadway
and London's West End, an updated version
of Cirque du Soleil, and is in the
process of writing a new musical - Zombies
on Broadway - which he admits is a
bit "out there".
Add to that the fact he's also a worldrenowned
artist, film-maker and photographer,
who runs several international
businesses and has been appointed as a
change agent' by Nokia to help identify
new technology trends, and you're left in
no doubt that Dave is truly one of the
showbiz legends of our time.
But despite his obvious talent and determination
to succeed, he credits his success
to not being afraid to express his
creativity.
"I think I was born creative. I'd always
wanted to be a songwriter, I didn't want to
get a job in a factory or something like
that, I didn't want to get stuck in something.
I always wanted to get out," he says,
remembering his early teenage years in
Sunderland.
"I listened to my brother's Bob Dylan
album and played his guitar when he wasn't
there. I wanted to do anything that
would help with the creative process. Creativity
is something you can't help, it's in
your mind all of the time. You don't really
know what's happening, you just feel a bit
weird.
"Everything I do, everything I've
worked in, is creative - the process of creating
songs is quite similar to constructing
a business. You need the melody and
then the harmonies follow around that.
The more I started to work outside music
the more I realised that. I don't sit at the
piano thinking what to write, I know something
will come to me, it's like joining the
dots to put all the ideas together."
And often, says Dave, the most unconventional
ideas prove to be the most
successful.
"When you have crazy ideas, people
don't understand they can often be the
ones most likely to succeed."
"I have always wanted to be the first person
to have zombies on Broadway. So I
thought, why not? I've now written the
score to Zombies on Broadway, which is
about New York being overrun by zombies.
There's one scene where the mayor of
New York is in the shower and sees a zombie
drooling through the shower curtain,
it's really effective," he says excitedly,
walking back to his laptop and loading a
trailer of the production, which truly is as
bizarre as it sounds, but captivating
nevertheless.
"It's been a lot of fun, and no one should
be afraid of throwing mad ideas into the
mix. That's how great things come about
- it wouldn't be a group of people who
came up with the idea for Newcastle
Brown Ale," he says, spotting the bottle in
the corner in his room. "It would have been
just one person, and it may have seemed
radical or something the others didn't like,
but it worked.
"I was in the car with my eight-year-old
daughter the other day and she said When
the traffic lights turn green, why doesn't
it flash up a message telling people to recycle?'
I thought that was a really good
idea, especially from an eight-year-old. It's
something that could work and that's how
great things come about."
As we conclude our interview, Dave
picks up his guitar and begins to strum,
eyes closed, nodding his head and tapping
his feet to the rhythm. I thank him for his
time and bid my goodbyes, but I'm not sure
if he's really paying attention anymore.
Lost in his creative thoughts, he could
well be composing his next masterpiece
to add to the already extensive collection.
2:46pm Monday 2nd June 2008
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