Quick Q&A: Stew

photo: Steve Halin

I interviewed Stew recently; an abbreviated version ran at Theatermania last week.

What have you been doing since Passing Strange closed?

I’ve been really enjoying not having to be at a show eight times a week. I’ve been getting back to my rock and roll roots, writing a ton of music. I have a couple of records that will be out by the end of this year. In the next couple of months we’ll be re-issuing The Negro Problem albums for digital download and also turning them into vinyl, which has made a comeback with the listening cognoscenti. Heidi Rodewald, my collaborator, and I have this film we’ve wanted t make since 2005 that we’re gearing up for. I have a commission from The Public Theatre to write a new play with music, a musical, whatever you want to call it.

Will the new show also be semi-autobiographical?

No, it has nothing to do with me. I mean, I’m writing it so it has something to do with me, but the subject matter doesn’t. We’re having fun with a few historical figures and that’s about all I can say about it at this point except that it’s music-oriented. I have not cast myself in it because I now have the brains to know I won’t be able to get anything done if I am trapped in a play.

How did performing the show feel like a trap?

As a performer I like the freedom to do what I want when I want. One of Annie Dorsen’s strokes of genius with Passing Strange was that she really tried to make as many spots as possible for me to do what I do in my rock shows and be spontaneous. I’m thankful that she built as many of those as she could but for me it was still never enough. As a performer, I need something a little more loose. Still organized, but loose. I still want to write theatre, although I don’t necessarily want to be in it.

What did you learn from performing theatre that has stayed with you?

Precision. The ability to recreate great moments as opposed to just happening upon them, which is often what happens in rock and roll. Sometimes a magic happens in music where you have a really difficult time finding the equation that led to that magic. In theatre, things like timing are more under a microscope, what makes a line funny or not funny is more a science. I found myself on stage wondering how I’d lost a laugh on a particular line and then the stage manager would explain to get it back I only had to turn my head immediately to the left after I said it. In rock and roll we kind of don’t want to know what happened, we like having that mystery. So, with my thirty years of tricks as a rock musician on a theatre stage under that microscope, I learned a lot about myself as a performer.

photo: Michal Daniel

Considering how you value spontaneity, how did you feel about Spike Lee locking down one version of Passing Strange for the screen?

That’s the genius of Spike. I think he really got it, totally nailed it, and with his vision. I’m not saying he got the perfect Passing Strange on any given night – he wasn’t going for a filmed version of a play, he was going for a film. He didn’t make a movie of, do you know what I mean? I get really annoyed when people call this a documentary because that implies that somebody just set up three cameras and said “here’s the play!” and he really didn’t do that. As much as he likes to say that he just shot the play, it’s not true. I call him on this every time he says that and say “Man, that’s bullshit!” Every frame of it is his movie, it’s Passing Strange through his eyes only. Believe me, I am shocked at how much I love the movie because I am really critical, but I am really happy with it and the fact that it’s going to be on TV is insane!

What attracted you to writing music for A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Shakespeare On The Sound?

I had wanted to work with Joanna Settle, who is going to be directing the next play at the Public that Heidi and I are doing. And, of course, working with Shakespeare’s words is like a great vacation for me. I like nothing more than writing music. I don’t particularly like writing lyrics or books or prose but music is a joy for me. I’m like a kid with a basketball; it’s not really work. I love that people think it’s work, but the truth is it’s fun. Making words, that’s a job.

Do you start from an emotional or an intellectual place when approaching each piece of music?

I didn’t walk into Midsummer in a precious way, I went in like a bull in a china closet. I didn’t take what I would consider an intellectual approach at all. I wanted to put music to the words as I saw it. I would read the scene and Joanna would give me her input but ultimately I don’t like writing prescribed music. I don’t like being told that this scene is this and therefore the music has to sound like that. I’d rather write a song that fails and have the director tell me here’s what’s wrong. Joanna is open enough that I can give her something that might not even be right for the scene but she’ll try it. So it wasn’t a careful approach. I recorded this Shakespeare music the same time I was recording my next record and even though it’s very different music I really was going on instinct.

How did you decide on the instrumentations – for instance, using a flute for the Lovers song or horns for the Faeries song?

I actually don’t know. Maybe a musicologist could analyze and figure out at what point I bring in horns or violins or whatever. It’s like putting together a collage, really. Sure, Joanna would say it was a scene of two lovers in the forest, and I would clock that, but what is the sound of two lovers in the forest? It could be anything. The best thing to do is to respond instinctively to the text and start the critique after the music exists. I think a lot of the Hollywood film industry crap is about giving the person what they want instead of giving what you actually feel from your heart and brain that you want to create.

Are these songs “Afro-baroque” like your other music?

Come to think of it yes, absolutely! That term was thought up by a neighbor of mine in Silverlake more than twenty years ago. He thought my music contained what one might call African-Americanisms – sometimes I get gruff and bluesy with my singing – and the baroque was sort of a catch all for the English influences. I feel there are very few records of mine where both those things are not reflected. Putting a racial tag on music is a little suspect to begin with, especially these days when we’ve all heard everybody else’s music. That said I do know my music draws on Howlin’ Wolf as much as it draws on The Beatles and, since my career is not over yet, I’ve only begun to release the music that reflects everything that I’m interested in.

What are you listening to now?

I embarrassed myself recently when I told my daughter that I was enjoying the iTunes DJ feature. She said “You mean the Shuffle? You’re just getting into that now? Oh Dad, you are so yesterday!” I’m slow when it comes to computer stuff. But all the time I was trapped in the dressing room on Broadway I went amazon dot com crazy and bought every book I would ever want to read and all the music I could think of to listen to. I’m listening to all that now, all of it and everything, from Sly Stone to Beethoven.