Rigml11111111111 "Restrain Ourselves," Maclean Says

the other day that some of the heaviest beats I've ever sung with DON FELDER on are on this record-just because it's a drummer playing them doesn't really mat- ter," Orton says with a laugh. Don Felder spent most of his life as a musician's musician, a guitarist/songwriter best-known for "Sometimes I find people 27 years with the Eagles that included hits like "One of These Nights," "Hotel California" and "The namby pamby about, 'Oh, it's Long Run." There's much more, of course. An alumnus of the Gainesville, Fla., scene that produced a female singer/songwriter re- the Allman Brothers Band, Stephen Stills and Tom Petty, Felder's session credits indude work with cord.' No one namby fucking Stevie Nicks, Bob Seger, Boz Scaggs, Diana Ross and Barbra Streisand. Though he's 64, Felder is pambyed on this record. They certainly shy of retiring. On Oct 9, in fact, he releasesRoad to Forever,his second solo album (and just poured into it." first in 29 years). It's a soul -baring affair on which he's joined by all-star friends as well as family, Orton will take the songs including daughter Leah on the title track. BETH ORTON will on the road with a solo acous- head out on both a tic tour that began Sept. 20 at 1 So, where have you been? Oh, yeah. As a team ... it was definitely the best solo acoustic Nashville's Belcourt Theatre [Laughs] I never really stopped, to tell you the work any of us have done. The sum of its parts and full -band tour for Sugaring Season. and continues through Oct. truth. I had a pause. In 2000, I went through a is greater than any of the individuals involved. 23, when she'll wrap at Los divorce, and then I left the Eagles in early 2001. So And despite the friction and tension and argu- Angeles' El Rey. A return en- in a 12 -month period I wound up going through ing and daily tug of war that went on, the end and Brian Blade that ultimately And I thought, 'How lovely!" gagement featuring a full band a complete life change of all the suits that I had product was work of an amazing caliber. There became Sugaring Season. It was Though songs like "Mag- is also in the works. worn-being in a rock band, a husband, a fa- was always a great deal of strife and tension and shortly after the album was fin- pie," "Something More Beau- Though she steps a bit out- ther, a family man. They all were stripped away. frustration in the studio, but the combination of ished that Anti- came onboard tiful" and the haunting closer side of her known niche on Sug- It took me a few years to find myself, who I was everybody's individual strengths produced some as Orton's new label with sur- "Mystery" capture some of aring Season, there may still be and how I got there. phenomenal work. prisingly little fuss. Orton's richest vocals and ar- another electro-folk album in "It was strange-for the last rangements to date, the album Orton's future. 2You also wrote the revealing "Heaven 5 will it be odd for you to watch the six years, I've had the chance to ironically started to find its "I would love to work with & Hell" book in 2007. What role did that group celebrate its 40th anniversary next actually sit with what I do and voice when Orton reteamed [Trailer Park producer] Andrew play in getting you back on track? year without you? see many ideas through," Orton with the Chemical Brothers' Weatherall again. I talked to That really started out as a very cathartic process I've reached out numerous times and tried to says over lunch at Manhattan's Tom Rowlands on "Call Me the him and I still hope we're going to try and understand how I had gotten from a at least wind up with a handshake or a hug or a Antique Garage. "I didn't have Breeze." The wistful, shuffling to make music together. Those little dirt road in Gainesville, Fla., to where life had pat on the back. After 27 years you can't help but a record deal either at that folk song bears little sonic re- doors are not shut to me," she taken me ... and what I needed to do to re-create have a brotherly affinity for these people, but the point, so it was lovely when semblance to previous collabo- says. "They are my friends, the myselfand go forward. In the process ofreviewing only response I ever get back s from the lawyers. Anti- came along and said, rations like 'Alive Alone" and people I started out with. I feel experiences in my life, those highly emotionally Whether we ever walk onstage together again, I 'Oh, we don't need to know "Where Do I Begin." really proud that we started driven stories and experiences in the book got doubt that will ever happen. You never say never, anything, you're Beth Orton.' "It's funny-someone said working together." translated into songs. I was constantly singing but at this point I haven't heard anything. and writing and playing ... taking these ideas and seeing if I couldn't breathe life into them. One interesting footnote in your career is that you were Tom Petty's early guitar ated more attention than the four What kind of conclusions did you reach teacher in Gainesville. What are your mem- Scots had ever expected. Too through all of this soul-searching? ories of that? much, in fact. "We were scut- Well, "Give My Life to You" is a song in which I re- I spent so much time at the music store they fi- tling around under the radar," alized the single force that had driven me through nally gave me a job teaching. Tom Petty came in Maclean says. "I was quite happy all the paths of my life was the love of playing one day, and he must've been 12 or 13. He had for the buzz to go away. I wanted music. Whether starving on the streets of New been playing bass in this band called the Rucker the heat off, for people to forget York or working in a studio or putting up with Brothers and wanted to play guitar. I went to see about us." the complex struggles of the Eagles, the one thing him play and ... he just had such a commitment Yet the online clamor instilled I realized I had to do was give my life to music. and power and energy onstage that he sold you a sense that the band was onto on what he was doing. And that was when he was something, and the group spent 4After your abrupt and unexpected dis- doing covers, not even writing his own songs. the following years honing an missal from the Eagles, are you able to have He went on to be a really great songwriter, and a original sound carved out of the DJANGO DJANGO'S debut pride in what you accomplished with them? pretty good player, too. wild imaginations of three paint- album was first released online in August. - ers and an architect. Though it's easy to call the album "psyche- delic pop," the members had to timing of Django Django's U.S. debut may be rigml11111111111 "restrain ourselves," Maclean says. "This albumskewed-the band's North American tour wraps is us taming and channeling these influences just before the physical album's release-but the into one sound." stars are still aligned. Shows at this year's South The 13 -track album fuses elements of rock- by Southwest were successful, and the album abilly guitar, Beach Boys melodies, shambling hit No. 1 on iTunes' electronic chart upon its garage rock, Middle Eastern grooves, the shad- online -only release in August. owy early psychedelia of the 13th Floor Elevators, "That [chart -topping status] doesn't happen thumping jungle rhythm and house beats. It's the if there aren't people waiting for it," Lebus says. sound of a collage (Madean's choice medium as "The goal is for the band to tour here and make an artist) and his mind -set mirrors the band's people happy. Pleased people will do the rest, eclectic approach. I hope." The video for the jittery, electronic -swathed On Oct. 9, U.S. fans will finally hold in their single, "Default," is black and white and uses hands a tangible, comprehensive product. The stop -action footage, with Madean's paintings cov- Maclean -created album cover-a swirling, mov- ering and layering each frame. It was "an excuse ing mass over a simple sand -dune landscape-is, to get back into my studio and paint," he says. he says, "what the music would look like if it were Ribbon label head Morgan Lebus believes the a physical thing." SEPTEMBER 29, 2012 I www.billboard.biz 27.

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