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Dave Stewart

David A Stewart

Article from One Two Testing, February 1985


What was your favourite instrument of 1984?

"It was the guitar. Hah! The guitar. I've discovered it again."

Haven't you always been fairly prominently a guitarist though?

"No, I sort of lost it a bit for three years. But I got back to it mainly because of listening to Stax soul music, that clipped Telecaster sound. And getting me Bond guitar — I've just got the actual one. I kept getting bits of prototypes. I still love me old Gretsch, too."

Why has it been so long, do you think, the Bond? You first told me about it a year ago.

"I think they kept having problems with what they were making the body out of, and the factories that were making that. I think the problem was getting them manufactured to the standard that they wanted. I'd tell them things about the prototypes, like the jack plug socket I thought should have been a Cannon socket on such a high-tech guitar.

"I also liked the Korg Super Section in '84, I bought that in Japan. I've written about eight songs with that so far. You choose a rhythm and it plays a rhythmical chord pattern and a bass line at the same time. It has buttons for all the diminisheds, the minors, the major sevenths and so on, and everything jumps into what you've just touched. It's difficult to describe, but if you've got a tune in your head you can put down drums, bass, chords, whatever, on to your Walkman, without carting around synths, drum machines and Portastudios. Sometimes I eq it into me Portastudio, mix them all into one sound — say the bass drum, snare and bass line all into one sort of 'donkadonkadonkadonka' sound — and use that as one sound. I think, actually, every instrument I've ever picked up has had some use. Even the old castanet.

"I bought a Coral sitar-guitar, which I've used on the song I wrote with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, 'Don't Come Round Here No More'. All the way through America I was scouring ads and music shops till I found one — I think it was in Atlanta, eventually. Somewhere like that. Also, I bought a little octave guitar, a single-octave six-string, everything up an octave. Some guy brought it to a gig. It's nice for playing sort of ringing sounds — the solo on 'Right By Your Side', say, that high-life, zingy sound."

What would you like to see developed in 1985?

"Now, how do I describe it? It's a new video concept where you start off with a normal film on the screen. You have a box that goes with it, and using that you can enter into the film and change its course. It's being invented: a friend of mine, Adam Williams, has got British Telecom investing money in it. You make decisions on where you want it to go next. It's half biological, and half chips. It's a bit like 'Tron', only you don't climb into the TV set. So you have videos, and instead of seeing them three times and getting sick of them, you never see the same thing twice. I guarantee it's true."

What about something in the instrument line?

"Oh. I'm a frustrated saxophone player, so I'd love to see something where you could blow in and by using the fingerboard of the guitar or something you'd get brass sounds. With breath, the slightest change really makes it sound different. But I don't think anyone could invent one that'd sound like a real brass instrument unless you could play it with a reed.

"And I'd quite like the return of some acoustic instruments. I'd like some people to develop exciting acoustic music. All types of instruments have their place, of course, but the acoustic music I've heard lately hasn't quite got the edge of some other records. I think somebody's going to come out with something acoustic shortly that's as exciting as, say, the first time I heard the 'Astral Weeks' LP and I was about 16. I'd like to see a lot of air and space in recordings."


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Previous Article in this issue

Mark King

Next article in this issue

Philip Oakey


Publisher: One Two Testing - IPC Magazines Ltd, Northern & Shell Ltd.

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One Two Testing - Feb 1985

Frankfurt Mix

Interview

Previous article in this issue:

> Mark King

Next article in this issue:

> Philip Oakey


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