At this point in his career, any city would welcome Elvis Costello with open arms. That wasn’t the case at the beginning of his career.
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Costello joined Audacy’s Marty Lennartz for an extensive conversation as he touched on the difficulties that came with performing in America for the first time.
“The cities where we got welcomed early on were not numerous,” he said. “There was San Francisco, which was a little more welcoming even than Los Angeles. New Orleans more than some other places buried down south. Chicago, thanks to the history of XRT where it was one of the few stations we were ever allowed into.”
At one point, his manager suggested various locations for Costello and his band to set up shop in America. “Lots of mad schemes were entertained as we first came and realized exactly how vast America was and how very different the music scenes from different towns actually were,” he said. “Our view of America was formed by movies and where the records came from.”
As one of Rock’s great songwriters, Costello gave us an inside look at how he crafts songs. “When they’re written on guitar, they tend to come almost simultaneously,” he said. “Like, the words are being written out and the carriage of the music rhythmically is carrying at the same time.”
For Costello, it’s a process that he wants completed before he gets to the recording process. “You might do a second draft once you’ve got the rhythm or the idea of the rhythm,” he says, “but I’m not writing anything after we’ve started recording it.”
Watch their full conversation above.
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