Mike Scott’s band The Waterboys are back with a new album Modern Blues. Recorded in Nashville, the album has been described as a ‘electric, eclectic, soulful, bold and gloriously freewheeling rock’n’roll record.’ Sean Sennett caught up with Mike Scott on the eve of their current Australian tour to talk about the rigours of touring, writing a ‘hit’ and Prince

TOM:  First of all, the Modern Blues cover art is very striking. Where did that come from?
Mike: It’s an image I found on the internet on the website Tumblr. I just loved the image. When I decided to use it for the record, I had to track down whoever had made it. I put the JPEG of the image into an image search engine, and that very cleverly brought up all the instances where this image had been on websites in the past. By doing that, I was able to track down the creators of it, two artists from New York, called Kahn & Selesnick. We paid them for the rights to use it on the cover. They called the character the “King of Weeds.” To me, there’s a character in English folklore called the “Green Man,” so that’s who he is to me.
TOM: It’s funny you mentioned Tumblr. I follow you on Twitter. Do you like having that direct connection with your fans? Do you ever have to edit yourself before you get on there?
Mike: Yes, of course, yes. I try to be discerning because it’s a public place. Occasionally I’ll post something and think ten minutes later ‘no, I shouldn’t have said that. I’m going to delete that’.
TOM: Why did you decide to go to Nashville to record?
Mike: They’ve still got great studios in Nashville. Big studios where I can get the whole band assembled at the same time, with good eye contact between the musicians. I also wanted to make a record that had an American feel. I was going to use several southern American musicians. Nashville was a fairly obvious choice.
TOM: It sounds like it was made in America to me. I think I saw in the bio the fellow that played on “Respect” is on the record?
Mike: He’s not on “Respect.” I think that’s a mistake, but he played on lots of Aretha Franklin records. David Hood is his name. He also played with James Brown. He’s on “I’ll Take You There,” by the Staple Singers; “Still Crazy After All These Years,” by Paul Simon.
TOM: Why did you settle on nine songs for the record?
Mike: It was going to be eight. I don’t like albums to be too long. I think 45 minutes is a great length for an album. It didn’t do us any harm in the ’60s and ’70s when that was the length that people made. I was going to use just eight songs. I think it was about 46 minutes, and then we added one more. There’s no great rhyme or reason to it.
TOM: You did it right. You pick up something like Revolver, it runs for 40 minutes. There’s a lot of stuff on that 40 minutes. That’s all you need.
Mike: That’s right. And I’ve often bought CDs that are 75 minutes long and I actually never get to the end.
TOM: I was wondering about your creative process in terms of whittling it down to the nine songs that made it on the record. Do you record more than you need or do you tend to go in with what’s going to make the record?
Mike: I used to record more than I need to and then select, but I’ve gotten so seasoned to making records that I now know at the demo stage which are the right songs. We only recorded those nine.
TOM: What about sequencing in the CD age; is that as important to you as it was when you were putting out vinyl records?
Mike: It’s still important but it’s not as much fun. I used to love the positions of last track side one, first track side two. Those are wonderful hinge points in an album. Of course, that’s lost in a CD. With iTunes and so on, people can make their own playlists. They don’t really have to stick with the way the artist programs it.
TOM: What is your mental process now for programming CD? Do you think it starts at one, ends at nine, it has to be a journey? Do you think about those hinging factors you mentioned on the record?
Mike: I used to program because of the lyrics. It’s changed. I now program a record because of its musical changes, and rhythm, and key. It’s very important a key change between songs. If I have three songs in a row that are all in the same key, I think, at least in my opinion, it begins to sound the same. I like the jump of a key change, especially a key change down the scale. That always sounds better, for some reason.
TOM: I’m curious about your writing process these days. Did you find your best ideas come quickly, or can you labour on something for weeks or months or years?
Mike: I get both. Sometimes I wrote songs that come very effortlessly, very quickly, in not much longer time than it takes to write it down. At the same time, often I’ll write a song and I’ll have it brewing for years, even decades. “Beautiful Now” on this album, the first verse or at least a rough version of the first verse was around for about 25 years.
TOM: What about ‘I Can See Elvis’, was that a recent edition?
Mike: That is a recent one. That was inspired by something an Aussie drummer said to me. A chap called Damon Wilson who was the Waterboys drummer about seven or eight years ago. He and I were having a conversation about near-death experiences. Those accounts of people who come back from a car accident or some other traumatic injury, and they report that they seemed to be going through a tunnel and a white light at the end of the tunnel.
We were talking about this phenomenon, and Damon started to act out the part of a guy going through the tunnel, and getting to Heaven at the end. And he knew that he was in Heaven because he could see Elvis. And I have this very distinct memory of Damon walking around the room like a sleepwalker going “I can see Elvis!” Which made me laugh. I thought it was very funny, but I also thought it was a great line. I thought that’s got to be a song title.
TOM: What about “The Girl Who Slept for Scotland,” where did that come from?
Mike: That’s a true story. That’s an old girlfriend of mine.
TOM: With romantic experiences, do they still kind of spring forth great songs?
Mike: They do, yes. Both successful and failed romances.
TOM: Do you get better songs out of the failed ones?
Mike: I suspect you do, really.
TOM: What did you think about Prince covering “Whole of the Moon”?
Mike: Fantastic, I was absolutely thrilled he did it. Although I haven’t heard it because I guess if it were almost any other artist we’d be seeing it on YouTube. But Prince is so determined to get things taken down that they’ve never been up there.
TOM: Do you remember writing that song?
Mike: I remember bits of the process. I remember beginning it, and certain moments in the journey of that song.
TOM: When you finished it, I’m assuming you would never guess how much that song would resonate with an audience afterwards?
Mike: No, I didn’t. It wasn’t until after it was recorded and I heard it playing back in the studio, in an almost finished version, that I began to think people are really going to love this one.
TOM: You’ve made a lot of records now. Does it ever get to the point where you might hear an old record and can actually have critical distance as if somebody else made it?
Mike: Yes, I think so. I think I’ve got fairly good respect of my work. I have to have. I’ve compiled the boxset version of Fisherman’s Blues that came out 18 months ago. I had to have a lot of distance from that music just to process it, because there was so much of it. Over the years, I’ve got there.
TOM: A lot of people say you have to wait for inspiration to turn up; then when it does, you have to be prepared. Do you ever just go to your desk, wherever you work, just with a blank page, and say I’ll just see what happens today?
Mike: No, I don’t. Only if I’ve got a feeling inside that something is going to come.
TOM: Ellie Goulding has covered you recently as well.
Mike: Yeah. It was the song “How Long Will I love You” which was featured in a movie called About Time which came out about 18 months ago, directed and written by Richard Curtis. Richard is a big Waterboys fan, and he wanted the song for the movie. I’m not certain of this, but I think he might have got Ellie to record it to use on the final credits of the movie, and then he decided it had to be a man’s voice for some reason. But she used her version anyway for her own record. I think that’s the story.
TOM: How do you cope with the rigors of the road these days? Is it something you’re very used to?
Mike: Yes, it’s my day job. And I’ve a thousand tricks to make it comfortable. Fortunately, I’ve got great tour managers, great management. We’ll be travelling in comfortable tour buses and so on. I stay in good hotels. I’ve got it down to a fine art, really.

Tour dates:

ASTOR THEATRE, PERTH

WEDNESDAY MARCH 25

RECITAL CENTRE, MELBOURNE

FRIDAY MARCH 27

ASB THEATRE, AUCKLAND

TUESDAY MARCH 31

SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE, SYDNEY

THURSDAY APRIL 2

also appearing at the Byron Bay Bluesfest on Saturday April 4

For complete tour and ticket information, visit: 

www.mikescottwaterboys.com & www.livenation.com.au