SPOTLIGHT

’80s pop culture like John Hughes’ fi lms and U2’s cinematic sound during that era. “We were teenagers then, and a lot of the pop culture was about archetypes of what it was like to be that age,” Bush says. “And that’s what really inspired us to become musicians. A lot of the songs came from conversations about that.” While the powerful, anthemic sound of The Incredible Machine won’t surprise anyone who knows its origins, it might shock country fans used to more down-home sounds. But reinvention is

James Minchin almost as much part of Sugarland’s identity as any one genre. The group grew out of the Atlanta singer-songwriter scene but found immediate success in mainstream country PHIL COLLINS music with its 2004 multiplatinum debut, Twice the Speed of Life. “We’ve turned over A rock giant’s R&B labor of love might just be a whole lot of new leaves since starting this Stewart Volland band,” says Bush. NOVEMBER 2010the ISSUE last album he ever makes MMUSICMAG.COM NOVEMBER 2010 ISSUE The trio became a duo MMUSICMAG.COM when founding member Kristen Hall abruptly PHIL COLLINS HAS SOLD MORE THAN topped the charts six years later with “Two three subsequent operations have yielded Jennifer Nettles, Kristian Bush quit while Sugarland was still riding 250 million albums over four decades as Hearts,” a throwback collaboration with hit little improvement. “I still can’t feel the ends high on the first album’s success, both a solo star and as the singer and Motown tunesmith Lamont Dozier. Collins of my fi ngers,” he reports. “And drumming and some wondered if the shift would drummer for rock supergroup Genesis. He added an authentic touch to his latest effort … as soon as I started, the stick fl ew out upset the group’s unique chemistry.chemistry. But has earned seven Grammy awards, an Oscar, by inviting several other Motown veterans— of my hand. So I taped the stick to my hand SUGARLANDSUGARLAND NettlesNettles and Bush made the transitiontransition two Golden Globes and membership in the bass player Bob Babbitt and guitarists Eddie on these sessions and got through it. It was The country duo turns over another new leaf seamlessly,l l andd subsequent b albumslb haveh Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Now Collins Willis and Ray Monette—to bring their old- frustrating, but with computer technology proved so successful that they’re now claims that he is well and truly fi nished. He school magic touch to Going Back. and a great engineer, we got it right.” with its new album’s arena-rocking sound headlining arena tours—which comes with swears that Going Back, a new 18-track Collins insisted on playing keyboards Collins has also lost some of his hearing its own challenges. album of faithfully reproduced soul classics, and drums on the new album himself, which due to a viral infection several years ago. IF SUGARLAND’S NEW ALBUM, The result, “Wide Open,” appeared “Our touring and writing cycles have to is his last. “I wasn’t intending to make another proved a painful exercise given a recent spate Despite these challenges—or perhaps in part The Incredible Machine, sounds grand on AT&T’s digitally released Team USA happen at the same time, and that changes record, but this was always on my mind,” of health woes. A bout with neck problems because of them—the making of Going Back and full of ambition, that’s because its Soundtrack, and served as the jumping-off the process a little,” Bush says. “But you says Collins, 59. “I wanted to try and make began during a 2007 reunion tour with proved a satisfying full-circle experience for inspiration was, too. “We had gotten a call point for Bush and bandmate Jennifer Nettles realize you can be just as creative 30 the songs sound almost the same as they Genesis, the group he had left in 1996 after a London native who grew up adoring the about writing a song for a 2010 Winter to write much of the rest of The Incredible minutes before you go on stage as you can were done originally, and sing the songs that 25 years. “Somewhere a nerve popped out sounds of American R&B. “This is purely Olympics soundtrack,” says guitarist Kristian Machine. “We have always been really good holed up in some mesa in the Southwest. I never got a chance to.” and I had four vertebrae crushing my spinal a selfi sh stab at doing something that I’ve Bush. “So we started thinking, ‘If I were at writing for a specifi c emotion,” Bush says. Once you take that superstition away and This is familiar territory for Collins, who cord,” he explains. “I didn’t know anything always wanted to do,” he says. “It’s been a writing a song for a skier or snowboarder “We did ‘Wide Open,’ it felt good, and we realize you have the confi dence to create scored a Top 10 hit with his 1982 remake of was wrong, because it didn’t hurt.” An MRI lifelong ambition.” to play on their iPod before they competed, said, ‘Let’s do that again.’” They also drew anywhere, you will.” the Supremes’ “You Can’t Hurry Love” and following the tour confi rmed the worst, and –Nick Krewen what would it be?’” on some deeper-rooted inspiration: iconic –Katie Dodd

TRICKYTRICKY in England. “Growing up in my household, there was every kind of Not that Mixed Race is a rap album by any means—Tricky music,” says Tricky (born Adrian Thaws). “My uncle, who was white, also incorporates old-school dub reggae alongside French and Mixing things up with a renewed sense playing Al Green; his son playing Parliament, T. Rex, Gary Numan North African infl uences, in part a result of his penchant for inviting of enthusiasm and commitment and English radio when I was a kid.” He absorbed those infl uences interesting musicians he meets by chance into the studio to see so completely that he claims he’s typically all but unaware of them what happens. It’s a method that avoids a lot of the bureaucracy of FAME SWEPT OVER TRIP-HOP STAR TRICKY SO QUICKLY IN when making his own music. On Mixed Race, though, he was more planned collaborations arranged through management fi rms and the mid-1990s that he was barely able to catch his breath. He sat conscious of maintaining a vibe. “It’s a very urban album,” he says. labels. “When you’re feeling good about something, you’re vibed out much of the ’00s to do just that. “It was a way of catching up “It’s got stuff about street life. It’s the closest I’ve come to making a up, you contact someone and their manager doesn’t get back to with myself,” says Tricky of his self-imposed hiatus, during which he gangsta rap album.” Tricky was already making his name working with you for two weeks, it takes you off your vibe,” he notes. became a self-described fi tness nut. “I’m more comfortable now. electronica pioneers Massive Attack in the late ’80s when gangsta Although Mixed Race only recently hit the street, Tricky is I realized I’ve got a great job. I’m lucky to be able to do this. So I rap began its ascendance, but the impact was immediate. “When nearly fi nished with the follow-up already. He’s also considering a look at things differently.” N.W.A. came out, that changed everything,” Tricky says. “Eazy-E new collaboration with Massive Attack, their fi rst since the mid-’90s. He returned to recording with renewed creativity, resulting in wasn’t the greatest rapper, but he had a vibe. It was like he was “I fell in love with music again,” he says, “and now there’s so many Knowle West Boy in 2008. And now we have Mixed Race, a nod Dante Jack saying, ‘You can do this.’ Rakim was one of my favorite rappers, but things I want to do.” to his heritage and the music he absorbed during his upbringing he was almost too good. He was beyond my level.” –Eric R. Danton

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NOVEMBER 2010 M MUSIC & MUSICIANS MAGAZINE