It's official..."brilliant new album", incl. new interview , April 2018

Pretty self-explanatory
sweetest punch
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Re: It's official..."brilliant new album"

Post by sweetest punch »

https://www.thecourier.com.au/story/535 ... llo/?cs=36

I reject nostalgia, says Elvis Costello

The UK rock star - who turns 64 this year - has been performing for more than four decades and boasts an impressive back catalogue that he regularly explores in live performance.

But just because he still sings those tracks, it doesn't give him any sentimental affection for the past. Or so he argues.

"I'm aware of other people's nostalgia about particular songs but that doesn't influence the way I perform even those same songs," he continues, adamantly. "If I performed a song my view would be different to theirs, that's ok isn't it?"

Providing examples, he references last year's anniversary tour of his 1982, Imperial Bedroom, in which he opted to mix up the order and change the arrangement.

"People are inclined to make a big deal about decades aren't they?" he says with a sigh.

"We haven't so much. Last year we made a gag, 35th year since we released Imperial Bedroom. It was a satirical spin to it because obviously if we'd been doing it in a very straight faced way we would have done it on an a decade anniversary and we didn't."

There's a similar response to a question about his 40-year career. "I guess it is if you tell me it is. I don't count things like that," he says.

"I'm not saying I'm not playing the songs from the past, we do play them. The puzzle of all of this, the puzzle of time is for it to be something which propels you forwards rather than something that holds you back."

Born Declan Patrick MacManus in Paddington, London on August 25 1954, he became Elvis Costello in 1977 - the same year the slightly more famed Elvis died. As a teenager he moved to Liverpool with his mother before returning to the capital a few years later where he eventually exploded into the scene as a brash singer-songwriter.

His last solo album came in 2010 and he considered writing a new one a "fool's errand" before deciding he wanted to see what a record would sound like from Elvis Costello and The Imposters in 2018.

"I wanted a picture of this group, and songs that I came up with, once you've got a simple idea like that it's not hard to do."
Since you put me down, it seems i've been very gloomy. You may laugh but pretty girls look right through me.
sulky lad
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Re: It's official..."brilliant new album"

Post by sulky lad »

The reassuring comment for me is that Elvis says he wants it as an EC and The Imposters album which hopefully means he won't be using any of the "musical" songs on this !!
johnfoyle
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Re: It's official..."brilliant new album"

Post by johnfoyle »

The interviewer has told me via a private message via Twitter- 'the full interview will be in UK newspapers and on some websites over next day or two'.
johnfoyle
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Re: It's official..."brilliant new album"

Post by johnfoyle »

A longer version of that interview -

https://www.irishexaminer.com/breakingn ... 38060.html

Elvis Costello is all about the now

Thursday, April 19, 2018


ELVIS Costello doesn’t have a relationship with nostalgia. The rock and roll star — who is 64 this year — has now been performing for more than four decades and boasts an impressive back catalogue that he regularly explores in live performance.

But just because he still sings those tracks, it doesn’t give him any sentimental affection for the past. Or so he argues down the phone from New York City.

“I’m aware of other people’s nostalgia about particular songs but that doesn’t influence the way I perform even those same songs,” he continues, adamantly.

“If I performed a song my view would be different to theirs, that’s OK isn’t it?”

Providing examples, he references last year’s anniversary tour of his 1982 album, Imperial Bedroom, in which he opted to mix up the order and change the arrangement.


“People are inclined to make a big deal about decades aren’t they?” he says with a sigh.

“We haven’t so much. Last year we made a gag, 35th year since we released Imperial Bedroom. It was a satirical spin to it because obviously if we’d been doing it in a very straight faced way we would have done it on an a decade anniversary and we didn’t.”
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There’s a similar response to a question about his 40-year career.

“I guess it is if you tell me it is. I don’t count things like that,” he says.

“I’m not saying I’m not playing the songs from the past, we do play them. The puzzle of all of this, the puzzle of time is for it to be something which propels you forwards rather than something that holds you back.”



Born Declan Patrick MacManus in Paddington, London on August 25 1954, he became Elvis Costello in 1977 — the same year the slightly more famed Elvis died.

As a teenager he moved to Liverpool with his mother before returning to the capital a few years later where he eventually exploded into the scene as a brash singer-songwriter.

His last solo album came in 2010 and he considered writing a new one a “fool’s errand” before deciding he wanted to see what a record would sound like from Elvis Costello and The Imposters in 2018.

“I wanted a picture of this group, and songs that I came up with, once you’ve got a simple idea like that it’s not hard to do.”



As someone whose early music targeted British fascist leader Oswald Mosley, Margaret Thatcher and the British army’s role in Northern Ireland, it may be that Costello was inspired to write a new album by the global political upheaval of the last two years.

Not so, he says.

“The truth of it is I wouldn’t want to waste my breath,” he says at an agonising pace, to hit the point home. “It’s satirist sort of territory where we are right now.

“What would be the song we could sing about that really? It’s so transparent, there’s no poetry in it. And the whole process is mediocrity... why would I want to be that close to mediocrity? There are other songs to sing which are about the way people are, which outlast the immediacies of that nature, that’s what I want to do.”

An example of the legacy of such a story, he says, is A Face In The Crowd, a planned stage musical based on Budd Schulberg’s story originally published as Your Arkansas Traveler and adapted into the 1957 film A Face In The Crowd written by Schulberg, directed by Elia Kazan, and starring Andy Griffith.

The tale follows an an American singer, Larry “Lonesome” Rhodes, who rises through local radio to become a national television celebrity thanks to his wise-cracking salesman-like aura.

Eventually, however, he becomes more of a megalomaniac and tries not just to influence government policy but dictate it.

Costello has already written 18 tracks for the musical, on which work had begun the spring before Donald Trump declared his candidacy. Ever since, he says, people have mentioned it as some sort of parallel.

“The truth of it is that Schulberg was an extremely smart writer about human nature,” he says. “If he were to be alive today he would probably include social media along with television and radio in this story — the ability to shape opinion but similarly create monsters.”

Referring back to his apprehension of protest songs, Costello agrees they may lend power to people but says movements such as Time’s Up require vigilance and continued effort to really leave their mark.


“It’s not assuming once you’ve got your badge on that it’s taken care of because it’s not. It’s vigilance, it’s always the way.

“The cynical forces that arrange against vested interest will wait out the gesture that a march or a slogan when that becomes old news, cynicism can outlast it,” he adds.

“A song won’t fix that unfortunately. You can sing it and feel good about yourself but you have to do it every day.”

Costello remains a busy man. He has twin sons, Dexter and Frank, 11, with third wife Diane Krall who he married at the home of Elton John in 2003.

Would he ever follow in Elton’s footsteps who recently announced his retirement from touring to spend more time with his own children?

“I reconsidered my priorities about 10 years ago when I stopped neurotically looking for the next record contract to follow the last one,” he says.

“I knew I had to devote so much time to the road work because I could see the way the business was going.

“Beyond the new album there’s A Face In The Crowd, after I finish in the studio I go back into workshop on that.

“None of that sounds like anybody that’s looking to put their feet up.”

Elvis Costello And The Imposters tour the UK and Ireland in June and July. He plays Bord Gáis Energy Theatre on June 23, tickets from €66.45.
sweetest punch
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Re: It's official..."brilliant new album", incl. new interview , April 2018

Post by sweetest punch »

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/news ... um-w521644

Elvis Costello Sets Fall Tour Ahead of New Album

Rocker schedules 20-date trek in support of first album since 2010's 'National Ransom'

The 20-date, coast-to-coast "Look Now And Then...It's Elvis Costello & The Imposters" trek begins November 2nd in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and concludes December 4th in Vancouver, British Columbia. Prior to the tour, Costello has booked a gig at Chicago's Riot Fest in September.

Tickets for the tour go on sale June 22nd, with tickets to select shows purchased through Costello's official site paired with a preorder of his upcoming LP, his first with Concord Records.

News of the release date and title of Costello's new album, his first non-collaborative LP since 2010's National Ransom, is "imminent," the label promises.

(...)
Since you put me down, it seems i've been very gloomy. You may laugh but pretty girls look right through me.
sweetest punch
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Re: It's official..."brilliant new album", incl. new interview , April 2018

Post by sweetest punch »

Promo interview for the concerts in Barcelona and Madrid contains info about the new album: https://www.20minutos.es/noticia/337176 ... o-leyenda/
It will be released in October and they have recorded about 20 songs!

Elvis Costello, de gira por España: "Soy un músico, no una leyenda"

Bajo unas gigantescas gafas de pasta (y manteniendo un perfil bajo) se esconde uno de los mayores músicos de las últimas décadas, el mismo que se atrevió a tomarle prestado el apodo al intocable Rey del Rock para acompañarlo de su apellido materno: el siempre inclasificable Elvis Costello.

Con más de cuarenta años de carrera musical a la espalda, el compositor pisará España como parte de su gira con dos actuaciones: el miércoles estará en el Palacio Real de Pedralbes (Barcelona) y un día después visitará la capital como parte del ciclo Noches del Botánico.

Una tarea para la que Costello confiesa estar preparado, pase lo que pase: "El directo dependerá del público y de la atmósfera que se respire en el momento", explica en conversación con 20minutos.

El artista improvisará sobre el escenario junto a The Imposters, formación que ha tomado el relevo a sus antes inseparables The Attractions. "Hemos logrado una complicidad que nos deja espacio para tener un setlist abierto", detalla el músico de 63 años, que actuó en España por última vez hace dos años.

De este reencuentro, espera que sea "muy enérgico, el público de aquí es muy cariñoso y a la gente le gusta los temas de mi repertorio clásico".

Declan Patrick MacManus (Londres, 1954) se inició en la escena pub rock de su ciudad natal a mitad de los años 70 y publicó su primer álbum, My Aim Is True, en 1977. Desde entonces, ha desarrollado una fructífera e incansable trayectoria en la que los discos se cuentan por decenas.

Ahora, el músico desvela que en octubre saldrá a la venta su nuevo trabajo: "Quería plasmar la afinidad que tengo con The Imposters sobre el escenario", señala, por lo que juntos han grabado un álbum con una veintena de temas. "No tiene sentido fijarse en el pasado. Lo importante es el aquí y ahora, y el ahora me pedía grabar este disco", asegura tajante.

Las "visiones" inspiracionales

Empujado por ese carpe diem que se ha convertido en su estilo de vida, Costello continúa subiéndose al escenario guitarra en mano y coqueteando lo justo con el pasado: "Cuando toco algo negativo en directo, convierto esas experiencias en música y ya no son más que eso".

Tras más de cuarenta años exponiéndose en sus letras, el compositor se niega a mirar con recelo a ninguna de sus canciones: "Si me censuro a la hora de tocar algunos temas es solo porque no creo que vayan a funcionar en una atmósfera específica", aclara.

Ese viaje al Costello más agresivo y rudo de sus inicios ya lo recorrió en sus memorias, Música infiel y tinta invisible (Malpaso, 2016), en las que aborda su aparente fuente de inspiración imparable: las "visiones".

"Me vienen de forma instantánea. Cuando las siento, tengo que dejar todo lo que estoy haciendo para ponerme a escribir canciones. Sin ellas, no podría seguir haciendo música", ilustra el cantante.

"Soy un músico, no una leyenda"

Esos torrentes de inspiración y su amor incondicional por la música le han llevado a explorar multitud de estilos, haciendo casi imposible clasificar su carrera. Un rasgo del que Costello se enorgullece: "Siempre he hecho lo que he querido, nunca me he etiquetado ni me he encasillado en un estilo, ni he dejado que me digan lo que tengo que hacer".

La libertad creativa es uno de sus rasgos definitorios pues, a día de hoy, continúa haciendo gala de su maestría para fusionar estilos a golpe de banda con una personalidad única.

Considerado una leyenda de la música, Costello enmudece halagado cuando se le considera así: "Nunca he pretendido serlo. Solo me dedico a hacer música, eso es lo único que me importa. Llevo tantos años en el oficio porque es lo que quiero seguir haciendo y lo que el cuerpo me pide. Soy un músico, no una leyenda".

———————————————
Google translation:


Elvis Costello, touring Spain: "I'm a musician, not a legend"

Under giant goggles (and keeping a low profile) hides one of the greatest musicians of recent decades, the same who dared to borrow the nickname of the untouchable King of Rock to accompany his mother's name: the always unclassifiable Elvis Costello.

With more than forty years of musical career behind him, the composer will visit Spain as part of his tour with two performances: on Wednesday he will be at the Royal Palace of Pedralbes (Barcelona) and a day later he will visit the capital as part of the Noches del Botanical.

A task for which Costello confesses to be prepared, whatever happens: "The live will depend on the audience and the atmosphere that is breathed at the moment," he explains in conversation with 20minutes.

The artist will improvise on stage with The Imposters, a formation that has taken over from their previously inseparable The Attractions. "We have achieved a complicity that allows us space to have an open setlist," explains the 63-year-old musician, who performed in Spain for the last time two years ago.

Of this reunion, he hopes that it is "very energetic, the audience here is very affectionate and people like the themes of my classical repertoire".

Declan Patrick MacManus (London, 1954) began in the pub rock scene of his hometown in the mid-70s and published his first album, My Aim Is True, in 1977. Since then, he has developed a fruitful and tireless career in that the discs are counted by tens.

Now, the musician reveals that his new work will be released in October: "I wanted to capture the affinity I have with The Imposters on stage," he says, so they have together recorded an album with about twenty songs. "It does not make sense to look at the past, the important thing is the here and now, and now he asked me to record this record," he says emphatically.

The inspirational "visions"

Pushed by that carpe diem that has become his way of life, Costello continues to climb the stage guitar in hand and flirting justly with the past: "When I play something negative live, I turn those experiences into music and they are no more than that".

After more than forty years exposing himself in his lyrics, the composer refuses to look askance at any of his songs: "If I censor when it comes to playing some songs it's only because I do not think they'll work in a specific atmosphere", clarify

That trip to the most aggressive and rude Costello of his beginnings already ran through him in his memoirs, Unfaithful Music and Invisible Ink (Malpaso, 2016), in which he approaches his apparent source of unstoppable inspiration: the "visions".

"They come to me instantaneously, when I feel them, I have to stop everything I'm doing to write songs, without them I could not continue making music", the singer illustrates.

"I am a musician, not a legend"

These torrents of inspiration and unconditional love for music have led him to explore a multitude of styles, making it almost impossible to classify his career. A feature that Costello prides himself in: "I've always done what I've wanted, I've never labeled myself or typeed in a style, nor have I let them tell me what I have to do".

Creative freedom is one of its defining features because, to this day, it continues to display its expertise to merge styles with a unique personality.

Considered a legend of music, Costello is silent flattered when he is considered like this: "I have never pretended to be, I only make music, that's the only thing that matters to me, I've been in the trade for so many years because that's what I want to continue doing. and what the body asks of me, I'm a musician, not a legend. "
Since you put me down, it seems i've been very gloomy. You may laugh but pretty girls look right through me.
bronxapostle
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Re: It's official..."brilliant new album", incl. new interview , April 2018

Post by bronxapostle »

LOOK NOW


http://www.elviscostellofans.com/phpBB3 ... =2&t=11157

Question...ARE OTHER FORUM MEMBERS PERMITTED TO CHANGE MY ECFF THREAD TITLE? I know THIS is not my wording??? :twisted: :twisted: :twisted:
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verbal gymnastics
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Re: It's official..."brilliant new album", incl. new interview , April 2018

Post by verbal gymnastics »

BA - All forum members can change the title.
Who’s this kid with his mumbo jumbo?
bronxapostle
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Re: It's official..."brilliant new album", incl. new interview , April 2018

Post by bronxapostle »

verbal gymnastics wrote:BA - All forum members can change the title.
Thanks VG...i never knew that. All forums have different ways. Wouldn't think title change of a thread possible. Thanks for clearing that up. Anyway, glad this post has indeed rung true and near to fruition. BRILLIANT NEW ALBUM coming soon. I know we are ALL well pleased. :D
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