An interview with Mick Fleetwood

By Eliot Van Buskirk
Senior editor, CNET Electronics
22nd July 2002

Note: Present during the conference call were Dave Chaimson, Sonic Foundry director of marketing; Jonathan Todd of SabreMark, executive producer of Total Drumming; and Adam Renfrow, Catapult PR-IR.

Mick Fleetwood: Hello, sir.

MP3 Insider: Excellent, how's it going Mick.

MF: I'm doing good, Eliot, thank you.

M: This [Mick Fleetwood's Total Drumming loop library] is a pretty innovative thing. How did this project come about? Who's idea was it, and all that stuff?

MF: All that stuff

M: Yeah.

MF: Well, my sensibilities have always been--hopefully at least--looking out for things that sometimes I don't understand but I find intriguing, and one of the things that is a constant with me, probably from the nature of having been a drummer for all these years, that the actual process of really sharing the experience is one I can't function without, so that whole premise comes very naturally to me. What I really look for are platforms and things in my world that bring people together and enable--I love to see things that are made possible--or made easier--for people because I have some of those basic frustrations by the nature of what I do. I don't play a chordal instrument, for instance, so I'm endlessly looking for ways to express myself. I really understand what that process is all about and how important it is, especially with young folk and creative folk that love looking for some platform that makes it easier for them to express themselves. Knowing that this is not just about that, but certainly that's one of the main appeals for me: seeing something like this grow into all the different areas that it can grow into. This format was brought to my attention by Jonathan Todd, and we've been loosely talking about doing this type of thing, and upon certain deliberations found that Sonic [Foundry] was in a league of its own with respect to some of the different entities out there that are doing similar types of things, or heading toward doing similar things. So that was the comfort zone.

M: Right

MF: in terms of how we got to Sonic. And upon having got there, the question I had was that, No. 1, the premise of doing this and sharing who I am and what I am musically doesn't freak me out at all.

M: [Laughs]

MF: because it's a natural thing by the nature of what I do; that's what I do, anyhow, I can't function without other people, and interpreting--being part of an interpretation process--that was something that came very easy to me and appeals to me. What was of concern to me was how it was done--the integrity of it. And that was something that immediately became apparent, because as I was about to open my mouth, Jonathan was very privy to some of the constraints and thoughts that I had in terms of, "I think this is a great idea, but it has to be done really well, and it has to be done this, and this, and I want to express myself, and I want my style to exist" ,all of the things that live and breath in these loops, in their finality, were things that I wanted to make sure really were there.

M: Right.

MF: But that worked incredibly well, and it made it very easy to really get into the nuts and bolts of the exciting part of "What are we going to do," to represent the real long--the fact that I am 55 years old and have been playing drums for my whole life--it offered up the obvious, and something that I welcomed, and they certainly were enthusiastic to do that and made me more enthusiastic about really digging into the body of work that I've represented through the years and the styles and the various forms of music that I've touched on. So I'm known--and actually so I'm unknown, you know, or relatively unknown, such as the stuff in Africa and the whole experience I had there. We got into a whole bed of hand drums, exotic drums that I had in my.

M: Yeah, I was going to ask that actually?

MF: which "et cetera," but it became--once the platform, the stage, was set--the rest was hard work, but it was fun, you know, it was artistic, all the things that I'd needed to know were in place were on the table in front of me, so I felt great about it, and I think, speaking for everybody, we had a ball doing it. A lot of care and attention was made, which was something that was very important to me, that it had the sense the way things were put down to the digital format, et cetera, was done in the very best of ways, meaning the quality of this thing was first-rate.

M: Oh, they [the drum loops] sound great.

MF: Oh doesn't it.

M: Yeah. How long did it take to do all those loops, what was it, about 500 loops or so?

MF: Uh I think there's actually a few more than that

Jonathan Todd: A little over 800.

M: A little over 800, sorry about that.

MF: So we were working away there for two, I mean the setup was the day before, in terms of getting the stuff [much of Mick's previously used drum equipment] there and getting the studio tweaked, all of those things were done before I arrived, but it was two very, very, long, full days.

M: Wow.

MF: [Laughs] Which uh you know.

M: That's incredible.

MF: The lads were very gracious in saying, "Well, you know, Mick"--in some instances 'Mr. Fleetwood' but mostly 'Mick'--those that didn't know me in the studio or something, that we'd planned to stop for dinner and this, that, and the other, well, the reality is we didn't stop for anything. We stopped for nut bars and stuff, because I was really on a roll, and when I'm playing, one thing leads to another, and I had all my equipment there, and we were getting great feedback from the studio, from behind the glass, and we just really buckled down and didn't even leave the building that I remember. A couple of guys that smoked cigarettes, Jonathan.

All: [Laugh]

MF: occasionally Jonathan would leave to have a cigarette, and that's about it.

M: Wow, so do you think, I mean, there's a lot of carping from certain artists and certain aspects of the record industry about, "Technology's stealing our livelihood, and technology is the enemy," and what I really like about this project is that it's a new way for artists to express themselves.

MF: Absolutely.

M: It's a new revenue thing, I mean, do you see other artists being as courageous about something like this, do you think this is a viable new model?

MF: I hope so, you know. I mean, for me personally, I'm always looking for new experiences in everything--and more and more and more and more so the older I get, so whatever story you want to tell about that, you can probably tell some deep psychiatric flaw in my makeup, but I like reaching out and doing things that [are] completely and totally about what the musical process is all about. It's all about allowing something creative to come out of something technical, and it's made possible by really cool things being put together, technical platforms it's so what I love to see happen. These are the stories that when the advent of digital and things were happening, and various platforms were being set up and people got maybe a little bit too carried away here and there, and it just depersonalized certain things with regards certainly to music this is so much not that. It's about taking something, it's about giving, it's about exchanging--it's like being at a swap meet, you know. [very quick] "What have you got? What are you going to show me? What can it do? How can we do it? We can do this." Or, "I can give you a lower price, a higher price, a lower note, stretch the note--whatever." All of these things add up to--not to beat the drum too loudly.

M: [Laughs]

MF: I do like the fact that this is so absolutely cool for young people entering the musical process, that they maybe don't have the experience, the natural abilities sometimes, and yet they have the yen to do something one thing that is precious to me is the fact that someone can grab this, and it takes them on a journey that they might not have dreamt of taking, you know, and I know how important that is, because I took it when I was a young man and did something that I love to do, which was to play music.