October 23, 2025 • 44 mins
David Gilmour is one of the most influential guitarists in rock history. Since joining Pink Floyd in 1967, his songwriting, vocals, and distinctive guitar tone have helped shape classic albums like The Dark Side of the Moon and The Wall.
In 1978, he began releasing solo material, and over the past four decades has recorded five solo albums. His most recent, Luck and Strange (2024), became his third solo record to reach number one on the UK Albums Chart—following On an Island (2006) and Rattle That Lock (2015). The album features lyrics by his wife and longtime collaborator, Polly Samson, along with contributions from their children.
One of those collaborations—with his daughter, Romany Gilmour—is particularly stunning, both on record and in live performance. Fans can now experience it on the newly released concert film David Gilmour: Live at the Circus Maximus and its companion live album, The Luck and Strange Concerts, available now on all major streaming platforms.
On today’s episode, Justin Richmond speaks with David Gilmour, who joined him over Zoom for a rare conversation about writing songs with Polly, mastering his latest album aboard his houseboat studio, and why he can never truly recreate a guitar solo—even when playing it note for note.
You can hear a playlist of some of our favorite songs from David Gilmour HERE.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:15):
Pushkin.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
It's no exaggeration when I say David Gilmour is one
of the most influential guitarists in rock history. Since joining
Pink Floyd in nineteen sixty seven, his songwriting, vocals and
distinctive guitar approach have helped shaped classic albums like Metal
Which You would Hear, Animals in a Momentary Lapse of Reason,
amongst many others. In nineteen seventy eight he began releasing
solo work, and over the past four decades has recorded
(00:42):
five solo albums, his last few albums starting with On
An Island in two thousand and six, on Too Ritter
Out Locke in twenty fifteen, All Feel of a Piece,
including his latest twenty twenty four's Luck and Strange, which
is also his third album to reach number one on
the UK album's charter. As usual, his latest album features
lyrics by his wife and longtime collaborator, Polly Sampson, but
(01:03):
this time also features substantial contributions from his children. One
of those collaborations with Roman and Gilmore is Astounding and
it was jaw dropping in live performance, which you can
now see for yourself with the release of the live
concert David Gilmour at the Circus Maximus and listening. With
the release of the Luck and Strange concerts now available
wherever you get your music. On today's episode, I was
(01:24):
offered thirty minutes or so on Zoom with David Gilmore
and how could you say no to a quick chat
with the Hero. I spoke with Gilmour about writing songs
with Polly, the experience of mastering his latest album on
a houseboat, and why he can never truly recreate a
guitar solo even when playing it. No for no, this
is broken record, real musicians, real conversations. Here's my conversation
(01:52):
with David Gilmore. I justin great to meet you. Say,
are you coming from your studio on the riverboat or
from home one of my vast collection of studios.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
This is just a little room in the house, got it.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
When I spoke with Townsend, I was from a river
boat or from a boat of some sort as well,
and so I wasn't sure.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
He was on a boat. Was he He was on
a boat. His studio boats just down the river from
my studio boat. Have you checked it out?
Speaker 3 (02:22):
Yeah, I've been in it several many times over. Yeah,
I haven't been there for a long time. It's got
to be a little precarious. No recording on a boat
or less than you would imagine.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
Less than you would imagine. It all works pretty well.
I mean mine is sort of moored very securely. It's
got a big poster at each end, and if the
river level goes up, it just slides up and down
the post perfectly. And the other great thing, of course,
the thing that you get on a boat is that
the road that's just nearby, there's no rumble. All that
(02:58):
traffic noise if you're floating doesn't happen. It doesn't reverberate
over it to you. It doesn't go through the ground,
you know, like in most buildings, there's always a bit
of rumble from something.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Was it you got the boat and became inspired to
create on it, or was it just was it a
novel idea you had and thought, okay, let me buy
a boat and convert it.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
What was the How did it come to be? I
was driving down the road, being driven in fact, and
I won't tell you why, and I just saw this
metal and glass thing over a wall, and I got
everyone's driving me to pull over, and we looked down
there and we saw this beautiful boat moored up against
the bank and I thought, that's gorgeous, lovely, And literally
(03:48):
the next week I was in the dentist's waiting room
and picked up a magazine and there it was for
sale in that magazine. And that was in nineteen eighty six,
eighty six, okay, And I rang up and said can
I see it? And I put in an offer the
same day. That's pretty furtuitous, And initially I didn't even
(04:12):
know that I was going to make it into a studio.
What of the new album Looking Strange was done on there?
The mixing. It's got a very big, lovely control room
and we did the mixing on there, and we set
up a Dolby Atmos mix room in another room at
(04:33):
the other end of the boat, so we could be
running two things at once. So all the mixing pretty
much and all the Dolby Atmos mixes were done in there,
and the other things we went off to various recording studios.
I have a studio myself in Brighton which works very well,
and we did some in another studio in Brighton called Salvation,
(04:56):
and we also did a lot of the stuff the
basic tracks with Steve Gadd and the other guys at
Mark Knopflith Studio in British Grog in London. Incredible.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
I saw one the shows at the Hollywood Bowl last
October and it exceeded expecting. I had not seen you
in the past. Somehow it deluded me, and it was amazing,
and your band was phenomenal, like a brilliant and I
didn't know Phil. I didn't know Phil, and Gaines was
playing with you.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
That was like a joy to see. And well, I've
known I've known Greg since the sort of middle till
late eighties when he was out on the road with
Michael Jackson and I was up on the road with
Pink Floyd and we got quite friendly, and I've always
wanted to find a time where he could join up
with my band, which he did actually in two thy
(05:52):
sixteen for a whole leg of the last leg of
my tw twenty fifteen sixteen to and I got him
back in this time.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
A lot of people tend to not meet up with
other musicians because they're on the road or you know,
friendships sort of saying some sort of stasis because you're
out on the rst. So how did you how did
that Pink Floyd Michael Jackson wound up in concentric circles.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
Well. Strangely enough, in nineteen eighty seven, Michael Jackson's tour
and ar tour was sort of following each other around,
you know, and we'd be you know, He'd be in
one city and we'd be in the same city three
days later, and they had a day or two oft
in between, so would just bump into people who were,
(06:39):
you know, and and I I think I first met
up with Greg in Paris when Michael and Pint Floyd
were all playing there within two or three days with
each other, and we just met up. What did you
make of their show? Brilliant show? But I saw that.
I mean I didn't see that show at that time,
(07:00):
and I saw it in the States I think probably
the next year or a few months later, when we
met up again and Greg invited us to one those shows.
So we legend Michael Jackson.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
Did Greg and Richard Bright have any sort of connection?
Both pretty incredible players.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
I don't think. I don't think I really properly met
I'm not sure to be honest.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
Okay, well, I brought that. I brought up that because
we're talking about looking strange. You know, you have Steve
Gadd on the record and so many other also incredible
players on the record. How do you decide who could
fit for any particular song when you're going to record something.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
Well, we started off we'd booked five days I think,
with Steve Gadd, who's the best, you know, the absolute
best drummer in the world. And I'd never worked with
him before. I'd met him a few times, but I
always wanted to, and I managed to get five days
of his time, and he flew over to London, and
(08:07):
and I had booked for the studio, and I got
the other guys in there, and we had some songs
we wanted to try, and we spent a very intense
week working on putting down those songs with Steve, with
Rob Gentry on keys and Guy Pratt playing the bass,
(08:30):
and yeah, what what songs did you do in those
those in those five days we did sings and Piper's Call, Darkened,
Velvet Nights, Scattered, what else? I mean, most of the
songs actually we got the basic tracks down. One or
(08:53):
two more we did a single Spark and one other
with Adam Betts on drums and Tom Herbert on bass,
and can't I remember now tried to remember all the
all the songs and the moments that final we had
(09:14):
and putting those tracks down.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
Was it that session or was it any particular session
if not that one that sort of clarified what you
were doing or clarified that in fact, you were actually
had something that could become an album.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
And we were going in there. We knew we could
hang out an album. We knew where we were going.
We had Charlie Andrew as a producer, co producing with me,
and an engineer that he brought to the project called
Matt Glasby, who was just brilliant, brilliant and knew things
(09:51):
about pro tools and the recording process that I didn't
even imagine were possible. Yeah, and so yeah, Charlie Andrew
was pushing us forward and telling us how he saw
the way things might be and between us, Yeah, we
a lot done very quickly at that point.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
You know, at this point you've gone in the studio,
made a lot of records. What does working with the
producer bring to a project that would in otherwise?
Speaker 1 (10:22):
You know, you want someone there to help and to
push and to agree when it's something to agree with
and disagree when it's something to disagree with, which is
just as important, and to push the whole process forwards
and frankly take a lot of the weight off, you know,
(10:46):
the side of the process which is producing, which I
have done myself as well. But it's exhausting. I mean,
it's still quite exhausting when there's a producer there because
you but he is going to address things from a
slightly different angle, and he's going to make you think
about things and rethink about things, and he's going to
(11:08):
he's a snappy's fingers. I say, let's go, let's go.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
You know, is it hard because this is your first
record with with Charlie, you've done a couple or two
or three with film Men's Era before. Is it hard
when you're working with it? Somebody knew to find how
to be disagreeable in the moments what you need.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
To be well, you know, No, I've done, as you say,
a couple with film Mensonario, who's my great friend. Eytime
moves on. I felt we needed a new direction, not direction,
but just a new mind on it, a new opinion
(11:51):
on it. And my co collaborator, co writer who happens
to be my wife, Polly did a lot of research
because we were spending a lot of time talking about
which of the people that I had worked before we
might work with again, and thinking of who else we
(12:12):
could go to, who is new And Polly found an
album by a band called Old Jay and she liked
the sound and she had listened to this and we
liked it both. And Charlie was the producer, so we
had a good look at him from far and then
(12:33):
asked him to come down and meet up. So that's
where it all started, you.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
Know, because it is you know, kind of it could
become fraight rather easily, you know, to your point. You
have to agree when it makes sense and disagree when
you know something needs to maybe move forward or something's
not working, or you know, just find some sort of
common ground. Is it difficult to forge a new working
relationship with with with someone like that or is it
(13:01):
is it easy?
Speaker 1 (13:02):
Well, Charlie Andrew, as it has been widely said, you know,
didn't really know me all my music or Pink Floyd's music,
and he comes from a different sort of era of music,
and that sort of thing is invaluable. You want to
(13:24):
be pushed and you want him to if it's wrong
to tell you so. And it's one of the dangers
of having a fair amount of success that people get
very frightened of disagreeing with you with the one in
my position. And one of the lovely things about Charlie
(13:47):
is he had no such fear and just came straight
out with the questions and the disagreements, if there were any,
remarkably few, actually, it has to be said, but on
one or two occasions we changed the direction of things
around quite a bit, and it was all for the good.
(14:08):
Sometimes you need to kick out the backside, you need
to look at things from a different pangle, and he
was very, very good at that. That's great.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
You mentioned that you you collaborate quite often with your wife,
who's incredible writer. You also had your daughter on this
project and on the tour with you, and she's obviously
now in the movie, the concert film you guys are
putting out.
Speaker 1 (14:31):
Tell me about that.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
I mean, the first time you guys did anything, at
least publicly, was was the Ghost song?
Speaker 4 (14:37):
Right, yes, yes, I've said ghost yeah, yeah, Well the
yes I have Ghost song came about because of Polly's book,
because she writes novels and she had written a novel
based on an island in the Greek Island, and.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
When it got to the release of that book was
when COVID started and we were suddenly locked down, and
we had some events lined up that she was going
to go and do readings and quite q and as
and all those things, and they all got canceled. And
Chris Salmon, who works in this on something, said why
(15:16):
don't you just do it online? You know, this is
what people do these days. So he rigged up a
little studio online and we had a little set, a
little set that we were going to take out to
places which was on the front of a Greek cafe,
and we put that up in a barn and plugged
(15:36):
a microphone into a laptop like this and did the
first one. I didn't have an engineer or a soundman
or a lifsman or a cameraman. It was just me
sort of pressing in the buttons and getting checking that
it was actually going up, and then sitting back down
and doing the whole thing with a couple of glasses
(15:58):
of wine. We're each week as we went on, because
we kept it going for quite a while, every Thursday
night and had a great time and Polly's book was
based on the Street Island in the year nineteen sixty
when there were as an English and Australian and other
countries contingent of artists and writers, one of whom was
(16:22):
Leonard Cohen, who has a small role in Polly's book.
So one of the things we did was to do
some Leonard Cohen songs as part of these lockdown sessions.
We call them the Von Trapped sessions because we were
trapped and they got quite an audience. And one of
(16:43):
the songs we did was a new song I wrote
called with Polly of course, Polly's Lovely Words. She did
an audiobook as well, which she read herself, and we
thought it'd be good to do a bit of music,
incidental music here and there to emphasize what's going on
in the book, which is not the usual way of
(17:04):
doing an audio, but it's usually just the words that
I wrote a few little bits, and in one of
those things basically was yes I have ghost So yeah.
So Rony just came on and played her harp and
sang on that song and on everything else we did,
and just showed us what a great voice, how well
(17:26):
her voice blended with mine and that was a treat.
So when we got to this album and Polly suggested
we do this song called Between two Points from them
more Goldfield Brothers who got Romany to sing that, and
we thought she'd just come along and be a guest
(17:47):
for the one song on some shows, But as soon
as we got into rhearsals, she just kicked into gear
and it became very quickly obviously that she was going
to be coming on the whole tour and being part
of our vocal section all too play instruments as well.
In fact, funnily enough, the four girls women who were
(18:11):
on my tour have formed their own band themselves, which
they call Marshall Gilmore Webbs, and they've been doing shows
in London and they're great, so we're hoping that's take
on some legs.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
When I saw that they had formed that that group,
it didn't shock because when I didn't shock me because
they were like their section when they do great against
this guy is I mean, it's phenomenal, and the chemistry
between them is like palpable.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
Yeah, Chastry is great. Louise Marshall is just a beautiful
piano player, and you know Hattie on the Heart and
Romany on the Heart and Who when he plays guitar
and Charlie Webb plays guitar and ukulele, and they will
be percussion when required. They are a band while and
they're in they accompany themselves on these shows. They've been
(19:04):
doing us and they played their enormous part in all
the music, all the songs that we were doing on
the tour.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
When something's really like clicking like that and you're seeing
that chemistry exists within your group, is that inspiring to you?
Speaker 1 (19:22):
Does that?
Speaker 2 (19:23):
I mean, you've been around counts, played with so many people,
but I mean that that did feel like a pretty
special group you put together there that was really clicking
on all cylinders.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
It was really fantastic. These people are really good. They
they feel emboldened to add their own things, you know,
to be more experimental with the way that we're doing things.
I mean, obviously, if I want to, I can always
say after we've done something to someone, maybe we will
ring that back next time. I didn't think I really
(19:55):
had to do that at all, you know. And Roman
is enthusiasm on stage and brilliance and she just g
the whole band up into being a little bit more
extra and and exciting. So I can only thank her
and everyone else for what they gave to me in
(20:19):
that toll thing.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
Yeah, we'll be back with more from David Gilmour after
the break. I want to ask about the opening. I mean,
to your point about pulling things back a bit. I
was curious about two things, as it relates to your
own plane. When when you're doing something live, particularly this tour,
(20:43):
you open up with five Am, which is an incredible,
you know, really beautiful guitar song. When I saw you
guys at the Bowl, it was the most freezing fridgid
night ever and I felt almost nervous as you guys started,
because I was like, I don't know if I could
get my fingers working this in this sort of environment.
(21:07):
So so I guess I'm you're interested in both. How
do you on this how did you on this tour
gear up to open that way? And then my next
question I'll ask next is but it's how do you
pull yourself back throughout a gig when you feel yourself
maybe if drifting too far one direction or another, are
doing too much.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
I don't know. I mean, I have a desire to
get to set a mood before one gets into the
into the meat of the whole thing. I just want
to quieten the audience down, get them into a more
pensive and before bringing them back up into the excitement
(21:53):
of the moments that you're going to try and get
to later. It's hard to describe. And as for pulling
myself back, and don't really try to pull myself back too.
What I'm more trying to push myself forward.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
Is there an internal monologue you're having with yourself during.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
A show constant? Yes, about is this going the way
that I wanted to? Is it going to lead on
into the next thing in the most perfect way? Again,
tough to explain how how those processes work.
Speaker 2 (22:27):
Yeah, I mean, is it more? I can't imagine you're
you're able to put into words in those moments on
stage exactly what might not be working or exactly what
you want to happen next to lead to the next thing.
But it must exist as a feeling in you right
that you recognize, Yes.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
It is really just a feeling, and you know, just
moving on into the next moment and hoping that everything
will stay as wonderful as it is.
Speaker 2 (22:54):
You know, I was trying to think about as I
was listening to to all your stuff again like kind
of what you know, not to just just to try
to get a sense of like my bearings of like
what the kind of like if there's anything close to
what you do and the closest I Again, this is
not to like butter you up or anything, but you know,
it's like it's almost like, you know, the way Miles
(23:15):
Davis approached music or played, where it's this both you're
able to craft and write these really beautiful lines but
then also do a fair amount of improvising but tastefully.
How have you honed those two skills? Like how do
you hone both crafting beautiful melodic lines but then also
(23:40):
going out and sometimes taking those to other places.
Speaker 1 (23:44):
Gosh, you ask tricky questions and you know, I'm just
hunting for magic and emotion And that is the same
process in the studio as it is on stage, you know.
But then you've got all the opportunities in the world
to go back and perfect things in the studio and
(24:07):
work until you think things are as you know, as
good as you're going to get them. But that is
then a decision and it's made and you've got there
and then when you get onto a stage, you can
use that as your template, but then just kind of
(24:29):
forget about it and just go off anywhere you want
to at any time and feel free to just play.
I mean, I've never well I did on this album
on one track, maybe two tracks, actually learning one of
my guitar sert's or a record. Never done it in
the past, you know, I never did it with comfortably
(24:51):
enim or any of those things. But you know, you've
got a template of how the solo's going to start,
and then your mind comes back to other lines you've
done and might be a line on the record, but
not a consistent solo from beginning to end. I leave
(25:12):
that to other people. But luckily I can just leave
that and be me, and that is that is a
great joy.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
Have you found there's a way to practice improvisation for
you or do you have to work yourself to a
place to be able to freely improvise, or are you
sort of.
Speaker 1 (25:31):
Just is that just how you are, that you're always
sort of that's just how I am. I mean, some
of some of the solos in the studios are pretty
much one take things that you just have to find
the right moment and just play it. And some of
them are put together in all sorts of different ways.
(25:52):
Sometimes you know, you do one, then you do another,
and then you find good bits on different tracks and
join them all together. Sometimes you sing a solo. Sometimes
I get the microphone and sing, and because your voice
can leap in leaps that are unusually you might not
(26:15):
quite get to on the guitar, then you kind of
learn them. There's a hundred different ways, and I still
haven't quite worked out one proper way of getting to that.
But once they're done and they've embedded themselves in your brain,
(26:36):
it's then a joy to play them live and to
be able to depart from them knowing that you can
find your way back into something that is both new
but familiar at the same time.
Speaker 2 (26:48):
Yeah, the singing is that is quite like I guess,
like a jazz player, you know, like an ascopeters along
and you know you can. I think that that is
an interesting way of sort of imagining how to approach
your instrument. Yeah, what made you want to learn note
perfect or close to note perfect a couple of the
solos on this particular record If you haven't done that before,
(27:11):
and there was I.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
Think between two points was one of the moments where
I was in my studio room a bit like this,
and I plugged the gut through a little box called
a zoom and that went straight to tape. And I
don't know how this works or how it happened, but
I felt I would write in the zone. And I
(27:35):
just played a solo once that was it and left
it on there, and I thought I really ought to
go back and do that, plug it through a proper
amp in a studio and do that, but I never
did that, and the one recorded with my little zoom
here replugged out through an amp in the studio later
was the final one. And I liked that solo so
(27:56):
much I thought I had nailed it. Didn't want to
sound overconfident, but I thought I'd nailed it, and I thought, well,
it's worth playing that one almost note from them when
I'm doing it live, so I do actually learn it.
And it's quite hard to learn and get them did right.
(28:17):
And I've better. I know it is I've tried.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
I've tried getting your solos note perfect before it's and
that's not easy. You know that idea of like, well
I should maybe I should record that better. I probably
could do that better if I put it, if I
go to a proper studio, or I use this amp,
or I like this particular sound if as a listener,
just as a listener and a fan, it feels like that's.
Speaker 1 (28:38):
A tricky decision to make so many great I mean, I'm.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
Thinking when you said that made me think of you know,
I guess the guitar line on like satisfaction for instance,
right like Keith put that down as like a demo
for horns. But then it's like, yeah, wait, why change that?
You know, And those kinds of decisions.
Speaker 1 (28:56):
Are if it's a perfect that invested it, but you know,
the the it's you've got to stick with when something
is right, and if there's something not perfect about the sound,
that's kind of secondary. I just think I could have
(29:16):
learnt that solo, which I eventually did anyway, and just
played it again for the record, but you'd always think
something about the phrasing or the way the tremula was working,
and the way this and that was not quite perfect.
(29:37):
I did it once on the Animals Out years and
years ago on on Dogs, where I did a solo
and for some reason it got a raised but I
had a stereo mix that I'd taken home because I
thought that's nice, really nice, so I could learn it
off that, and then I redid it. But I never
(30:00):
thought that I got it quite as good again, you know,
even though it's sort of note for note perfect, But
how can you describe that, that difference between note for
note perfect and original note for note perfect? You can't explain.
Speaker 2 (30:16):
Yeah, missing a touch, missing a feeling, missing, just something
that's not quite which is why I guess for you,
you don't find it necessarily worth it always to recreate
those things, you know, How do you go about I
was curious how you decide on a set list? You know,
you have such a deep catalog. There's things like, you know,
(30:37):
there's no way out of here right that I'm sure
you haven't played in a long time.
Speaker 1 (30:40):
Yeah, that I bet people would love to hear. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (30:44):
Do you it is it more you in your band
or just you picking things out? Do you consider what
the audience like? How do you decide what a set list.
Speaker 1 (30:55):
Or should be? Well, we had a big list of
everything that was reasonably possible, and that included all of
the new album, and and given that I want to
do some older songs, some from the seventies Pink Floyd.
Here are some from the eighties and nineties Pink Floyd era.
(31:18):
And we wrote all those songs down, a lot of them.
And you know, you just can't do everything. And in fact,
Polly kept saying to me, have you got your set
list yet? And I say, getting to it, getting to it,
and she say, have you got your set this yet?
I'm getting there. I'm getting there. And I said, one day,
(31:40):
have you got a set list? And she said, yep,
here he is, and pretty much her sett list is
what we did.
Speaker 2 (31:48):
That's great, that's that's useful to have a decisive decision maker.
Speaker 1 (31:53):
In the family. Yeah, it so it is.
Speaker 2 (31:57):
I'm so lucky when you say all reasonable songs are
on the table. That qualifier reasonable, what is that?
Speaker 1 (32:05):
And entail for you? Well, you know there are you
can I can play through my David Gilmour album from
seventy eight and my About Face album and I really
like them, but they feel like another lifetime to me.
I haven't managed to go back to either of those
two albums, although there's great tracks on there. But you
(32:25):
can only do so so much. And I suppose I
was thinking to some extent if they're that old, I
should be doing more from the pleasing the audience aspect,
from the pink Floyd eras of the day. You know,
it's a it's a tough question, but I hope we
(32:46):
got a good.
Speaker 2 (32:47):
Balance when you do revis well, I think you did
by the way I mean, like the the blend the show,
from the way the show rises and falls was quite spectacular.
And there are plenty of crowd pleasing moments for the
lay person, you know, who might just be coming to
you fresh and stuff that people you know like, you know,
(33:09):
stuff from your last couple of albums, and I think,
you know, people do want to hear and that are
you play beautifully and it's great.
Speaker 1 (33:15):
Well I felt on the tour, you know, I never
felt that there was a moment when the audience were
sort of sitting back, sort of griddling their thumbs, going,
what's you know, play something that we know a bit more?
You know, I never forgot that, and I always got
(33:35):
to the end of each of the newer songs and
thought that seemed to go really well from my standpoint
in the band's sound by and the audience standpoint. So
you can't want for more than that.
Speaker 2 (33:52):
One last break and We'll be back with David Gilmour.
Everyone you know at the show I was at was
thoroughly engaged, and you know, like I do think sometimes
the audience is willing to go where the artist is
confident taking them. You know, like I saw Dylan three
years ago for the umpteenth time, and its entire set
(34:14):
save for two songs were his last album, Rob and
Rowdy Ways.
Speaker 1 (34:20):
It was amazing.
Speaker 2 (34:21):
Honest, I wouldn't have wanted anything else. I don't at
this point, why do I need to hear? You know
how fifty one for the eightieth time.
Speaker 1 (34:28):
You know, it's like it was.
Speaker 2 (34:30):
Really interesting that he was as bought in on that
album as he was. He would just play every song
from it, you know, and you know, similar with with you.
It's like, you know, to your point, you could go through,
play the first Gilmore album, you could play the second,
you go back and do some voids, but it's like
it really felt like you were bought in. It felt
like the set list showed that too. It it just
(34:52):
showed that it was more about crafting a not a
narrative maybe, but you know, beginning, middle and end and
having these moments in between.
Speaker 1 (35:01):
That's trying to get some narrative into it. It's odd
to what it's all about.
Speaker 2 (35:07):
And I said that, but actually there is, yeah, and
there is some one one of them power. One of
the really powerful moments of the show, and I think
it comes through in the movie too, is when you
do in any tongue, how did you arrive at the
and maybe I'll let you explain, because don't think I'll
do a justice. How did you arrive at that stage?
(35:28):
Presentation for that song?
Speaker 1 (35:30):
Well, that's a lovely song and it's very it feels
very current right at the moment with words by Polly
brilliant and the video film is by an LA guy
called Danny Mdden. It's a brilliant piece of video. But
he did it for himself and he won a competition
(35:56):
and we had gone to him. A guy who does
a lot of artwork Will Repel, saw that and we
got him to do a video for another song from
All that look called the Girl in the Yellow Dress.
He did a beautiful video for that, but when we
(36:17):
saw this one he had already done it. Just well
that this would be so good for in any time.
You said, could we have that one as well, So
he said, take it, and it's as if it was
made for that song, but it actually wasn't. That they
marry together perfectly. It's shocking.
Speaker 2 (36:38):
It's almost shocking that it wasn't made for that song
because they do marry beautifully, and it's interesting that that
really is. Then when you think about it the stage presentation,
we think about the trajectory of the song. It's a
collaboration between you know, your wife, Polly with those words
marrying beautifully with your music married.
Speaker 1 (36:55):
So it's just that's a really.
Speaker 2 (36:56):
Interesting sort of triumphic collaborative thing that's happening. How did
that song come together? Was it her words first?
Speaker 1 (37:04):
Were you writing the music? And then she was in
spy because it is quite quite a powerful song. No,
I wrote the music first, and I don't remember quite
when I wrote it on the piano, and she came
up with that idea for that narrative and it's brilliant,
and all those pieces just came together separately and joined
(37:30):
together to create that thing Danny's video another thing together.
Speaker 2 (37:36):
Yeah, are you able to say, you know, working with Polly,
are you able to say, I don't know if that
one quite works for this, maybe we'd try something different.
Speaker 1 (37:47):
I don't really have to. I mean I would, we felt,
but I mean we've been writing songs together since nineteen
ninety four, and you know she has she takes a
big part in all of it, you know, and you
know she's there for most of the sessions. And you know,
(38:07):
back in the early days of Division Bill, she wouldn't
be at the sessions, but I take my day's work
home with me and play it on my speakers and
say what do you think? And she'd always have very good,
pertinent ideas about what we were doing. So you could
say she's a record producer as well. To some extent.
Speaker 2 (38:30):
Were you playing that album for her in order for
her to write something or were you just playing it?
Speaker 1 (38:34):
And then that started to happen. Actually, you're working, you're
working all day, and you're focusing on certain things, and
you can you can go home and have a glass
of wine and sit down and listen with a different perspective.
You know, you left the work there and now it's
(38:55):
you're enjoying some of the pleasure in it, but also
looking at it more externally and finding things that could
be better or could be slightly changed, and Polly was
enormously and always has been valuable. You know what.
Speaker 2 (39:15):
The album came out of the year or so ago,
and I listened to it a few times before I
realized one of the liner notes and realized that the
title track came from a jam you did with Richard
Wright from Pink Floyd back in two thousand and seven.
Can you tell me the story of that, like why
you guys got together then, how you rediscovered this jam?
Speaker 1 (39:38):
And well we did. We toured in twenty fifteen and
twenty sixteen on the back of the album back then,
and the band was so sort of cooking and hot
and great at the time, different bent and now mostly
that I thought it'd be good for us to re
(40:01):
gather together in a rule and put some ideas down.
And I had lots of bits of snippets of music
in my mind, and so we took the core band,
not quite all of the band, but most of the band.
And you know, when I'm working like that in the studio,
I'm usually the only guitar player on stage. Live, you
(40:25):
need someone to do some of the other parts and
do all the other bits. And when you've got Rick
Richard right as your keyboard player. You don't need the
other guy around for that. So and we gathered together
in a barn, greatly holes between the planks and the walls,
(40:47):
and howling January and February wind coming through. We were freezing.
We kept having to put bits of material up over
the cracks and put heaters on them and try and
get it going. But I think on the first morning,
first Monday morning of that, I started playing a little
(41:08):
riff and everyone was doing other things and thinking about this,
and they're all and gradually they hear, and gradually they
join in, and then they play that thing. It's only
just the one thing that's no court changes, is just
the basic riff, and that goes on for about twenty minutes.
(41:28):
In fact, we've put the original jam on the album
so that if anyone wants to find it, they can
hear where it started and where it went to. You know,
I had to hack it apart in pro tools and
write new sections using the same drums for the choruses
(41:51):
and the bridges, and yeah, and Rick's playing on it
is just nostalgic and lovely.
Speaker 2 (41:59):
So was the idea to, you know, maybe to do
another Floyd album at that time or now no, I don't.
Speaker 1 (42:06):
I think I was beyond thinking about doing another Floyd
album at that time. We just finished Rattle at Lock
album and tour and that whole thing that's up. But
you know, these things to our process that take three
or four years, and so I was just while the
band was felt like we were playing together, like glued together,
(42:30):
and because of the all the giegs we've done together,
we thought we'd do this, and we did. There's a
lot of stuff they're not much of which I've used,
you know. That's the only one of those that I've
actually properly used. Yeah, I have to have to let
you go.
Speaker 2 (42:45):
But just just to clarify, because I mean, Rick passed
before that album.
Speaker 1 (42:50):
On an Island album and tour two thousand and six,
it was in January two thousand and seven that we
had got together and played all this stuff, all these
all these other tracks and ideas for about a week
in a barn, and it took twenty years to get
back to that track. So Kneally, glad you did it.
Speaker 2 (43:13):
Sounds sounds great on the album, sounds amazing live too.
Thanks so much. I'm really really honor talking to you.
Speaker 1 (43:21):
Thank you guy much. In d.
Speaker 2 (43:25):
An episode description, you'll find a link to a playlist
of our favorite songs featuring David Gilmour along with his
newest album, Luck and Strange. Be sure to check out
YouTube dot com slash Broken Record Podcast to see all
of our video interviews, and be sure to follow us
on Instagram at the Broken Record Pod. You can follow
us on Twitter at Broken Record. Broken Records produced and
edited by Leah Rose with marketing help from Eric Sandler
(43:47):
and Jordan McMillan. Our engineer is Ben Holladay. Broken Record
is production of Pushkin Industries. If you love this show
and others from Pushkin, consider subscribing to Pushkin Plus. Pushkin
Plus is a podcast subscription that offers bonus content and
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for Pushkin Plus on Apple podcast subscriptions, and if you
like this show, please remember to share, rate and review
(44:09):
you listen your podcast app are theme music expY Canny Beats,
I'm justin Richmond
Speaker 1 (44:19):
M HM.
Pushkin.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
It's no exaggeration when I say David Gilmour is one
of the most influential guitarists in rock history. Since joining
Pink Floyd in nineteen sixty seven, his songwriting, vocals and
distinctive guitar approach have helped shaped classic albums like Metal
Which You would Hear, Animals in a Momentary Lapse of Reason,
amongst many others. In nineteen seventy eight he began releasing
solo work, and over the past four decades has recorded
(00:42):
five solo albums, his last few albums starting with On
An Island in two thousand and six, on Too Ritter
Out Locke in twenty fifteen, All Feel of a Piece,
including his latest twenty twenty four's Luck and Strange, which
is also his third album to reach number one on
the UK album's charter. As usual, his latest album features
lyrics by his wife and longtime collaborator, Polly Sampson, but
(01:03):
this time also features substantial contributions from his children. One
of those collaborations with Roman and Gilmore is Astounding and
it was jaw dropping in live performance, which you can
now see for yourself with the release of the live
concert David Gilmour at the Circus Maximus and listening. With
the release of the Luck and Strange concerts now available
wherever you get your music. On today's episode, I was
(01:24):
offered thirty minutes or so on Zoom with David Gilmore
and how could you say no to a quick chat
with the Hero. I spoke with Gilmour about writing songs
with Polly, the experience of mastering his latest album on
a houseboat, and why he can never truly recreate a
guitar solo even when playing it. No for no, this
is broken record, real musicians, real conversations. Here's my conversation
(01:52):
with David Gilmore. I justin great to meet you. Say,
are you coming from your studio on the riverboat or
from home one of my vast collection of studios.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
This is just a little room in the house, got it.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
When I spoke with Townsend, I was from a river
boat or from a boat of some sort as well,
and so I wasn't sure.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
He was on a boat. Was he He was on
a boat. His studio boats just down the river from
my studio boat. Have you checked it out?
Speaker 3 (02:22):
Yeah, I've been in it several many times over. Yeah,
I haven't been there for a long time. It's got
to be a little precarious. No recording on a boat
or less than you would imagine.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
Less than you would imagine. It all works pretty well.
I mean mine is sort of moored very securely. It's
got a big poster at each end, and if the
river level goes up, it just slides up and down
the post perfectly. And the other great thing, of course,
the thing that you get on a boat is that
the road that's just nearby, there's no rumble. All that
(02:58):
traffic noise if you're floating doesn't happen. It doesn't reverberate
over it to you. It doesn't go through the ground,
you know, like in most buildings, there's always a bit
of rumble from something.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Was it you got the boat and became inspired to
create on it, or was it just was it a
novel idea you had and thought, okay, let me buy
a boat and convert it.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
What was the How did it come to be? I
was driving down the road, being driven in fact, and
I won't tell you why, and I just saw this
metal and glass thing over a wall, and I got
everyone's driving me to pull over, and we looked down
there and we saw this beautiful boat moored up against
the bank and I thought, that's gorgeous, lovely, And literally
(03:48):
the next week I was in the dentist's waiting room
and picked up a magazine and there it was for
sale in that magazine. And that was in nineteen eighty six,
eighty six, okay, And I rang up and said can
I see it? And I put in an offer the
same day. That's pretty furtuitous, And initially I didn't even
(04:12):
know that I was going to make it into a studio.
What of the new album Looking Strange was done on there?
The mixing. It's got a very big, lovely control room
and we did the mixing on there, and we set
up a Dolby Atmos mix room in another room at
(04:33):
the other end of the boat, so we could be
running two things at once. So all the mixing pretty
much and all the Dolby Atmos mixes were done in there,
and the other things we went off to various recording studios.
I have a studio myself in Brighton which works very well,
and we did some in another studio in Brighton called Salvation,
(04:56):
and we also did a lot of the stuff the
basic tracks with Steve Gadd and the other guys at
Mark Knopflith Studio in British Grog in London. Incredible.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
I saw one the shows at the Hollywood Bowl last
October and it exceeded expecting. I had not seen you
in the past. Somehow it deluded me, and it was amazing,
and your band was phenomenal, like a brilliant and I
didn't know Phil. I didn't know Phil, and Gaines was
playing with you.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
That was like a joy to see. And well, I've
known I've known Greg since the sort of middle till
late eighties when he was out on the road with
Michael Jackson and I was up on the road with
Pink Floyd and we got quite friendly, and I've always
wanted to find a time where he could join up
with my band, which he did actually in two thy
(05:52):
sixteen for a whole leg of the last leg of
my tw twenty fifteen sixteen to and I got him
back in this time.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
A lot of people tend to not meet up with
other musicians because they're on the road or you know,
friendships sort of saying some sort of stasis because you're
out on the rst. So how did you how did
that Pink Floyd Michael Jackson wound up in concentric circles.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
Well. Strangely enough, in nineteen eighty seven, Michael Jackson's tour
and ar tour was sort of following each other around,
you know, and we'd be you know, He'd be in
one city and we'd be in the same city three
days later, and they had a day or two oft
in between, so would just bump into people who were,
(06:39):
you know, and and I I think I first met
up with Greg in Paris when Michael and Pint Floyd
were all playing there within two or three days with
each other, and we just met up. What did you
make of their show? Brilliant show? But I saw that.
I mean I didn't see that show at that time,
(07:00):
and I saw it in the States I think probably
the next year or a few months later, when we
met up again and Greg invited us to one those shows.
So we legend Michael Jackson.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
Did Greg and Richard Bright have any sort of connection?
Both pretty incredible players.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
I don't think. I don't think I really properly met
I'm not sure to be honest.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
Okay, well, I brought that. I brought up that because
we're talking about looking strange. You know, you have Steve
Gadd on the record and so many other also incredible
players on the record. How do you decide who could
fit for any particular song when you're going to record something.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
Well, we started off we'd booked five days I think,
with Steve Gadd, who's the best, you know, the absolute
best drummer in the world. And I'd never worked with
him before. I'd met him a few times, but I
always wanted to, and I managed to get five days
of his time, and he flew over to London, and
(08:07):
and I had booked for the studio, and I got
the other guys in there, and we had some songs
we wanted to try, and we spent a very intense
week working on putting down those songs with Steve, with
Rob Gentry on keys and Guy Pratt playing the bass,
(08:30):
and yeah, what what songs did you do in those
those in those five days we did sings and Piper's Call, Darkened,
Velvet Nights, Scattered, what else? I mean, most of the
songs actually we got the basic tracks down. One or
(08:53):
two more we did a single Spark and one other
with Adam Betts on drums and Tom Herbert on bass,
and can't I remember now tried to remember all the
all the songs and the moments that final we had
(09:14):
and putting those tracks down.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
Was it that session or was it any particular session
if not that one that sort of clarified what you
were doing or clarified that in fact, you were actually
had something that could become an album.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
And we were going in there. We knew we could
hang out an album. We knew where we were going.
We had Charlie Andrew as a producer, co producing with me,
and an engineer that he brought to the project called
Matt Glasby, who was just brilliant, brilliant and knew things
(09:51):
about pro tools and the recording process that I didn't
even imagine were possible. Yeah, and so yeah, Charlie Andrew
was pushing us forward and telling us how he saw
the way things might be and between us, Yeah, we
a lot done very quickly at that point.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
You know, at this point you've gone in the studio,
made a lot of records. What does working with the
producer bring to a project that would in otherwise?
Speaker 1 (10:22):
You know, you want someone there to help and to
push and to agree when it's something to agree with
and disagree when it's something to disagree with, which is
just as important, and to push the whole process forwards
and frankly take a lot of the weight off, you know,
(10:46):
the side of the process which is producing, which I
have done myself as well. But it's exhausting. I mean,
it's still quite exhausting when there's a producer there because
you but he is going to address things from a
slightly different angle, and he's going to make you think
about things and rethink about things, and he's going to
(11:08):
he's a snappy's fingers. I say, let's go, let's go.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
You know, is it hard because this is your first
record with with Charlie, you've done a couple or two
or three with film Men's Era before. Is it hard
when you're working with it? Somebody knew to find how
to be disagreeable in the moments what you need.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
To be well, you know, No, I've done, as you say,
a couple with film Mensonario, who's my great friend. Eytime
moves on. I felt we needed a new direction, not direction,
but just a new mind on it, a new opinion
(11:51):
on it. And my co collaborator, co writer who happens
to be my wife, Polly did a lot of research
because we were spending a lot of time talking about
which of the people that I had worked before we
might work with again, and thinking of who else we
(12:12):
could go to, who is new And Polly found an
album by a band called Old Jay and she liked
the sound and she had listened to this and we
liked it both. And Charlie was the producer, so we
had a good look at him from far and then
(12:33):
asked him to come down and meet up. So that's
where it all started, you.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
Know, because it is you know, kind of it could
become fraight rather easily, you know, to your point. You
have to agree when it makes sense and disagree when
you know something needs to maybe move forward or something's
not working, or you know, just find some sort of
common ground. Is it difficult to forge a new working
relationship with with with someone like that or is it
(13:01):
is it easy?
Speaker 1 (13:02):
Well, Charlie Andrew, as it has been widely said, you know,
didn't really know me all my music or Pink Floyd's music,
and he comes from a different sort of era of music,
and that sort of thing is invaluable. You want to
(13:24):
be pushed and you want him to if it's wrong
to tell you so. And it's one of the dangers
of having a fair amount of success that people get
very frightened of disagreeing with you with the one in
my position. And one of the lovely things about Charlie
(13:47):
is he had no such fear and just came straight
out with the questions and the disagreements, if there were any,
remarkably few, actually, it has to be said, but on
one or two occasions we changed the direction of things
around quite a bit, and it was all for the good.
(14:08):
Sometimes you need to kick out the backside, you need
to look at things from a different pangle, and he
was very, very good at that. That's great.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
You mentioned that you you collaborate quite often with your wife,
who's incredible writer. You also had your daughter on this
project and on the tour with you, and she's obviously
now in the movie, the concert film you guys are
putting out.
Speaker 1 (14:31):
Tell me about that.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
I mean, the first time you guys did anything, at
least publicly, was was the Ghost song?
Speaker 4 (14:37):
Right, yes, yes, I've said ghost yeah, yeah, Well the
yes I have Ghost song came about because of Polly's book,
because she writes novels and she had written a novel
based on an island in the Greek Island, and.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
When it got to the release of that book was
when COVID started and we were suddenly locked down, and
we had some events lined up that she was going
to go and do readings and quite q and as
and all those things, and they all got canceled. And
Chris Salmon, who works in this on something, said why
(15:16):
don't you just do it online? You know, this is
what people do these days. So he rigged up a
little studio online and we had a little set, a
little set that we were going to take out to
places which was on the front of a Greek cafe,
and we put that up in a barn and plugged
(15:36):
a microphone into a laptop like this and did the
first one. I didn't have an engineer or a soundman
or a lifsman or a cameraman. It was just me
sort of pressing in the buttons and getting checking that
it was actually going up, and then sitting back down
and doing the whole thing with a couple of glasses
(15:58):
of wine. We're each week as we went on, because
we kept it going for quite a while, every Thursday
night and had a great time and Polly's book was
based on the Street Island in the year nineteen sixty
when there were as an English and Australian and other
countries contingent of artists and writers, one of whom was
(16:22):
Leonard Cohen, who has a small role in Polly's book.
So one of the things we did was to do
some Leonard Cohen songs as part of these lockdown sessions.
We call them the Von Trapped sessions because we were
trapped and they got quite an audience. And one of
(16:43):
the songs we did was a new song I wrote
called with Polly of course, Polly's Lovely Words. She did
an audiobook as well, which she read herself, and we
thought it'd be good to do a bit of music,
incidental music here and there to emphasize what's going on
in the book, which is not the usual way of
(17:04):
doing an audio, but it's usually just the words that
I wrote a few little bits, and in one of
those things basically was yes I have ghost So yeah.
So Rony just came on and played her harp and
sang on that song and on everything else we did,
and just showed us what a great voice, how well
(17:26):
her voice blended with mine and that was a treat.
So when we got to this album and Polly suggested
we do this song called Between two Points from them
more Goldfield Brothers who got Romany to sing that, and
we thought she'd just come along and be a guest
(17:47):
for the one song on some shows, But as soon
as we got into rhearsals, she just kicked into gear
and it became very quickly obviously that she was going
to be coming on the whole tour and being part
of our vocal section all too play instruments as well.
In fact, funnily enough, the four girls women who were
(18:11):
on my tour have formed their own band themselves, which
they call Marshall Gilmore Webbs, and they've been doing shows
in London and they're great, so we're hoping that's take
on some legs.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
When I saw that they had formed that that group,
it didn't shock because when I didn't shock me because
they were like their section when they do great against
this guy is I mean, it's phenomenal, and the chemistry
between them is like palpable.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
Yeah, Chastry is great. Louise Marshall is just a beautiful
piano player, and you know Hattie on the Heart and
Romany on the Heart and Who when he plays guitar
and Charlie Webb plays guitar and ukulele, and they will
be percussion when required. They are a band while and
they're in they accompany themselves on these shows. They've been
(19:04):
doing us and they played their enormous part in all
the music, all the songs that we were doing on
the tour.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
When something's really like clicking like that and you're seeing
that chemistry exists within your group, is that inspiring to you?
Speaker 1 (19:22):
Does that?
Speaker 2 (19:23):
I mean, you've been around counts, played with so many people,
but I mean that that did feel like a pretty
special group you put together there that was really clicking
on all cylinders.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
It was really fantastic. These people are really good. They
they feel emboldened to add their own things, you know,
to be more experimental with the way that we're doing things.
I mean, obviously, if I want to, I can always
say after we've done something to someone, maybe we will
ring that back next time. I didn't think I really
(19:55):
had to do that at all, you know. And Roman
is enthusiasm on stage and brilliance and she just g
the whole band up into being a little bit more
extra and and exciting. So I can only thank her
and everyone else for what they gave to me in
(20:19):
that toll thing.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
Yeah, we'll be back with more from David Gilmour after
the break. I want to ask about the opening. I mean,
to your point about pulling things back a bit. I
was curious about two things, as it relates to your
own plane. When when you're doing something live, particularly this tour,
(20:43):
you open up with five Am, which is an incredible,
you know, really beautiful guitar song. When I saw you
guys at the Bowl, it was the most freezing fridgid
night ever and I felt almost nervous as you guys started,
because I was like, I don't know if I could
get my fingers working this in this sort of environment.
(21:07):
So so I guess I'm you're interested in both. How
do you on this how did you on this tour
gear up to open that way? And then my next
question I'll ask next is but it's how do you
pull yourself back throughout a gig when you feel yourself
maybe if drifting too far one direction or another, are
doing too much.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
I don't know. I mean, I have a desire to
get to set a mood before one gets into the
into the meat of the whole thing. I just want
to quieten the audience down, get them into a more
pensive and before bringing them back up into the excitement
(21:53):
of the moments that you're going to try and get
to later. It's hard to describe. And as for pulling
myself back, and don't really try to pull myself back too.
What I'm more trying to push myself forward.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
Is there an internal monologue you're having with yourself during.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
A show constant? Yes, about is this going the way
that I wanted to? Is it going to lead on
into the next thing in the most perfect way? Again,
tough to explain how how those processes work.
Speaker 2 (22:27):
Yeah, I mean, is it more? I can't imagine you're
you're able to put into words in those moments on
stage exactly what might not be working or exactly what
you want to happen next to lead to the next thing.
But it must exist as a feeling in you right
that you recognize, Yes.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
It is really just a feeling, and you know, just
moving on into the next moment and hoping that everything
will stay as wonderful as it is.
Speaker 2 (22:54):
You know, I was trying to think about as I
was listening to to all your stuff again like kind
of what you know, not to just just to try
to get a sense of like my bearings of like
what the kind of like if there's anything close to
what you do and the closest I Again, this is
not to like butter you up or anything, but you know,
it's like it's almost like, you know, the way Miles
(23:15):
Davis approached music or played, where it's this both you're
able to craft and write these really beautiful lines but
then also do a fair amount of improvising but tastefully.
How have you honed those two skills? Like how do
you hone both crafting beautiful melodic lines but then also
(23:40):
going out and sometimes taking those to other places.
Speaker 1 (23:44):
Gosh, you ask tricky questions and you know, I'm just
hunting for magic and emotion And that is the same
process in the studio as it is on stage, you know.
But then you've got all the opportunities in the world
to go back and perfect things in the studio and
(24:07):
work until you think things are as you know, as
good as you're going to get them. But that is
then a decision and it's made and you've got there
and then when you get onto a stage, you can
use that as your template, but then just kind of
(24:29):
forget about it and just go off anywhere you want
to at any time and feel free to just play.
I mean, I've never well I did on this album
on one track, maybe two tracks, actually learning one of
my guitar sert's or a record. Never done it in
the past, you know, I never did it with comfortably
(24:51):
enim or any of those things. But you know, you've
got a template of how the solo's going to start,
and then your mind comes back to other lines you've
done and might be a line on the record, but
not a consistent solo from beginning to end. I leave
(25:12):
that to other people. But luckily I can just leave
that and be me, and that is that is a
great joy.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
Have you found there's a way to practice improvisation for
you or do you have to work yourself to a
place to be able to freely improvise, or are you
sort of.
Speaker 1 (25:31):
Just is that just how you are, that you're always
sort of that's just how I am. I mean, some
of some of the solos in the studios are pretty
much one take things that you just have to find
the right moment and just play it. And some of
them are put together in all sorts of different ways.
(25:52):
Sometimes you know, you do one, then you do another,
and then you find good bits on different tracks and
join them all together. Sometimes you sing a solo. Sometimes
I get the microphone and sing, and because your voice
can leap in leaps that are unusually you might not
(26:15):
quite get to on the guitar, then you kind of
learn them. There's a hundred different ways, and I still
haven't quite worked out one proper way of getting to that.
But once they're done and they've embedded themselves in your brain,
(26:36):
it's then a joy to play them live and to
be able to depart from them knowing that you can
find your way back into something that is both new
but familiar at the same time.
Speaker 2 (26:48):
Yeah, the singing is that is quite like I guess,
like a jazz player, you know, like an ascopeters along
and you know you can. I think that that is
an interesting way of sort of imagining how to approach
your instrument. Yeah, what made you want to learn note
perfect or close to note perfect a couple of the
solos on this particular record If you haven't done that before,
(27:11):
and there was I.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
Think between two points was one of the moments where
I was in my studio room a bit like this,
and I plugged the gut through a little box called
a zoom and that went straight to tape. And I
don't know how this works or how it happened, but
I felt I would write in the zone. And I
(27:35):
just played a solo once that was it and left
it on there, and I thought I really ought to
go back and do that, plug it through a proper
amp in a studio and do that, but I never
did that, and the one recorded with my little zoom
here replugged out through an amp in the studio later
was the final one. And I liked that solo so
(27:56):
much I thought I had nailed it. Didn't want to
sound overconfident, but I thought I'd nailed it, and I thought, well,
it's worth playing that one almost note from them when
I'm doing it live, so I do actually learn it.
And it's quite hard to learn and get them did right.
(28:17):
And I've better. I know it is I've tried.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
I've tried getting your solos note perfect before it's and
that's not easy. You know that idea of like, well
I should maybe I should record that better. I probably
could do that better if I put it, if I
go to a proper studio, or I use this amp,
or I like this particular sound if as a listener,
just as a listener and a fan, it feels like that's.
Speaker 1 (28:38):
A tricky decision to make so many great I mean, I'm.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
Thinking when you said that made me think of you know,
I guess the guitar line on like satisfaction for instance,
right like Keith put that down as like a demo
for horns. But then it's like, yeah, wait, why change that?
You know, And those kinds of decisions.
Speaker 1 (28:56):
Are if it's a perfect that invested it, but you know,
the the it's you've got to stick with when something
is right, and if there's something not perfect about the sound,
that's kind of secondary. I just think I could have
(29:16):
learnt that solo, which I eventually did anyway, and just
played it again for the record, but you'd always think
something about the phrasing or the way the tremula was working,
and the way this and that was not quite perfect.
(29:37):
I did it once on the Animals Out years and
years ago on on Dogs, where I did a solo
and for some reason it got a raised but I
had a stereo mix that I'd taken home because I
thought that's nice, really nice, so I could learn it
off that, and then I redid it. But I never
(30:00):
thought that I got it quite as good again, you know,
even though it's sort of note for note perfect, But
how can you describe that, that difference between note for
note perfect and original note for note perfect? You can't explain.
Speaker 2 (30:16):
Yeah, missing a touch, missing a feeling, missing, just something
that's not quite which is why I guess for you,
you don't find it necessarily worth it always to recreate
those things, you know, How do you go about I
was curious how you decide on a set list? You know,
you have such a deep catalog. There's things like, you know,
(30:37):
there's no way out of here right that I'm sure
you haven't played in a long time.
Speaker 1 (30:40):
Yeah, that I bet people would love to hear. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (30:44):
Do you it is it more you in your band
or just you picking things out? Do you consider what
the audience like? How do you decide what a set list.
Speaker 1 (30:55):
Or should be? Well, we had a big list of
everything that was reasonably possible, and that included all of
the new album, and and given that I want to
do some older songs, some from the seventies Pink Floyd.
Here are some from the eighties and nineties Pink Floyd era.
(31:18):
And we wrote all those songs down, a lot of them.
And you know, you just can't do everything. And in fact,
Polly kept saying to me, have you got your set
list yet? And I say, getting to it, getting to it,
and she say, have you got your set this yet?
I'm getting there. I'm getting there. And I said, one day,
(31:40):
have you got a set list? And she said, yep,
here he is, and pretty much her sett list is
what we did.
Speaker 2 (31:48):
That's great, that's that's useful to have a decisive decision maker.
Speaker 1 (31:53):
In the family. Yeah, it so it is.
Speaker 2 (31:57):
I'm so lucky when you say all reasonable songs are
on the table. That qualifier reasonable, what is that?
Speaker 1 (32:05):
And entail for you? Well, you know there are you
can I can play through my David Gilmour album from
seventy eight and my About Face album and I really
like them, but they feel like another lifetime to me.
I haven't managed to go back to either of those
two albums, although there's great tracks on there. But you
(32:25):
can only do so so much. And I suppose I
was thinking to some extent if they're that old, I
should be doing more from the pleasing the audience aspect,
from the pink Floyd eras of the day. You know,
it's a it's a tough question, but I hope we
(32:46):
got a good.
Speaker 2 (32:47):
Balance when you do revis well, I think you did
by the way I mean, like the the blend the show,
from the way the show rises and falls was quite spectacular.
And there are plenty of crowd pleasing moments for the
lay person, you know, who might just be coming to
you fresh and stuff that people you know like, you know,
(33:09):
stuff from your last couple of albums, and I think,
you know, people do want to hear and that are
you play beautifully and it's great.
Speaker 1 (33:15):
Well I felt on the tour, you know, I never
felt that there was a moment when the audience were
sort of sitting back, sort of griddling their thumbs, going,
what's you know, play something that we know a bit more?
You know, I never forgot that, and I always got
(33:35):
to the end of each of the newer songs and
thought that seemed to go really well from my standpoint
in the band's sound by and the audience standpoint. So
you can't want for more than that.
Speaker 2 (33:52):
One last break and We'll be back with David Gilmour.
Everyone you know at the show I was at was
thoroughly engaged, and you know, like I do think sometimes
the audience is willing to go where the artist is
confident taking them. You know, like I saw Dylan three
years ago for the umpteenth time, and its entire set
(34:14):
save for two songs were his last album, Rob and
Rowdy Ways.
Speaker 1 (34:20):
It was amazing.
Speaker 2 (34:21):
Honest, I wouldn't have wanted anything else. I don't at
this point, why do I need to hear? You know
how fifty one for the eightieth time.
Speaker 1 (34:28):
You know, it's like it was.
Speaker 2 (34:30):
Really interesting that he was as bought in on that
album as he was. He would just play every song
from it, you know, and you know, similar with with you.
It's like, you know, to your point, you could go through,
play the first Gilmore album, you could play the second,
you go back and do some voids, but it's like
it really felt like you were bought in. It felt
like the set list showed that too. It it just
(34:52):
showed that it was more about crafting a not a
narrative maybe, but you know, beginning, middle and end and
having these moments in between.
Speaker 1 (35:01):
That's trying to get some narrative into it. It's odd
to what it's all about.
Speaker 2 (35:07):
And I said that, but actually there is, yeah, and
there is some one one of them power. One of
the really powerful moments of the show, and I think
it comes through in the movie too, is when you
do in any tongue, how did you arrive at the
and maybe I'll let you explain, because don't think I'll
do a justice. How did you arrive at that stage?
(35:28):
Presentation for that song?
Speaker 1 (35:30):
Well, that's a lovely song and it's very it feels
very current right at the moment with words by Polly
brilliant and the video film is by an LA guy
called Danny Mdden. It's a brilliant piece of video. But
he did it for himself and he won a competition
(35:56):
and we had gone to him. A guy who does
a lot of artwork Will Repel, saw that and we
got him to do a video for another song from
All that look called the Girl in the Yellow Dress.
He did a beautiful video for that, but when we
(36:17):
saw this one he had already done it. Just well
that this would be so good for in any time.
You said, could we have that one as well, So
he said, take it, and it's as if it was
made for that song, but it actually wasn't. That they
marry together perfectly. It's shocking.
Speaker 2 (36:38):
It's almost shocking that it wasn't made for that song
because they do marry beautifully, and it's interesting that that
really is. Then when you think about it the stage presentation,
we think about the trajectory of the song. It's a
collaboration between you know, your wife, Polly with those words
marrying beautifully with your music married.
Speaker 1 (36:55):
So it's just that's a really.
Speaker 2 (36:56):
Interesting sort of triumphic collaborative thing that's happening. How did
that song come together? Was it her words first?
Speaker 1 (37:04):
Were you writing the music? And then she was in
spy because it is quite quite a powerful song. No,
I wrote the music first, and I don't remember quite
when I wrote it on the piano, and she came
up with that idea for that narrative and it's brilliant,
and all those pieces just came together separately and joined
(37:30):
together to create that thing Danny's video another thing together.
Speaker 2 (37:36):
Yeah, are you able to say, you know, working with Polly,
are you able to say, I don't know if that
one quite works for this, maybe we'd try something different.
Speaker 1 (37:47):
I don't really have to. I mean I would, we felt,
but I mean we've been writing songs together since nineteen
ninety four, and you know she has she takes a
big part in all of it, you know, and you
know she's there for most of the sessions. And you know,
(38:07):
back in the early days of Division Bill, she wouldn't
be at the sessions, but I take my day's work
home with me and play it on my speakers and
say what do you think? And she'd always have very good,
pertinent ideas about what we were doing. So you could
say she's a record producer as well. To some extent.
Speaker 2 (38:30):
Were you playing that album for her in order for
her to write something or were you just playing it?
Speaker 1 (38:34):
And then that started to happen. Actually, you're working, you're
working all day, and you're focusing on certain things, and
you can you can go home and have a glass
of wine and sit down and listen with a different perspective.
You know, you left the work there and now it's
(38:55):
you're enjoying some of the pleasure in it, but also
looking at it more externally and finding things that could
be better or could be slightly changed, and Polly was
enormously and always has been valuable. You know what.
Speaker 2 (39:15):
The album came out of the year or so ago,
and I listened to it a few times before I
realized one of the liner notes and realized that the
title track came from a jam you did with Richard
Wright from Pink Floyd back in two thousand and seven.
Can you tell me the story of that, like why
you guys got together then, how you rediscovered this jam?
Speaker 1 (39:38):
And well we did. We toured in twenty fifteen and
twenty sixteen on the back of the album back then,
and the band was so sort of cooking and hot
and great at the time, different bent and now mostly
that I thought it'd be good for us to re
(40:01):
gather together in a rule and put some ideas down.
And I had lots of bits of snippets of music
in my mind, and so we took the core band,
not quite all of the band, but most of the band.
And you know, when I'm working like that in the studio,
I'm usually the only guitar player on stage. Live, you
(40:25):
need someone to do some of the other parts and
do all the other bits. And when you've got Rick
Richard right as your keyboard player. You don't need the
other guy around for that. So and we gathered together
in a barn, greatly holes between the planks and the walls,
(40:47):
and howling January and February wind coming through. We were freezing.
We kept having to put bits of material up over
the cracks and put heaters on them and try and
get it going. But I think on the first morning,
first Monday morning of that, I started playing a little
(41:08):
riff and everyone was doing other things and thinking about this,
and they're all and gradually they hear, and gradually they
join in, and then they play that thing. It's only
just the one thing that's no court changes, is just
the basic riff, and that goes on for about twenty minutes.
(41:28):
In fact, we've put the original jam on the album
so that if anyone wants to find it, they can
hear where it started and where it went to. You know,
I had to hack it apart in pro tools and
write new sections using the same drums for the choruses
(41:51):
and the bridges, and yeah, and Rick's playing on it
is just nostalgic and lovely.
Speaker 2 (41:59):
So was the idea to, you know, maybe to do
another Floyd album at that time or now no, I don't.
Speaker 1 (42:06):
I think I was beyond thinking about doing another Floyd
album at that time. We just finished Rattle at Lock
album and tour and that whole thing that's up. But
you know, these things to our process that take three
or four years, and so I was just while the
band was felt like we were playing together, like glued together,
(42:30):
and because of the all the giegs we've done together,
we thought we'd do this, and we did. There's a
lot of stuff they're not much of which I've used,
you know. That's the only one of those that I've
actually properly used. Yeah, I have to have to let
you go.
Speaker 2 (42:45):
But just just to clarify, because I mean, Rick passed
before that album.
Speaker 1 (42:50):
On an Island album and tour two thousand and six,
it was in January two thousand and seven that we
had got together and played all this stuff, all these
all these other tracks and ideas for about a week
in a barn, and it took twenty years to get
back to that track. So Kneally, glad you did it.
Speaker 2 (43:13):
Sounds sounds great on the album, sounds amazing live too.
Thanks so much. I'm really really honor talking to you.
Speaker 1 (43:21):
Thank you guy much. In d.
Speaker 2 (43:25):
An episode description, you'll find a link to a playlist
of our favorite songs featuring David Gilmour along with his
newest album, Luck and Strange. Be sure to check out
YouTube dot com slash Broken Record Podcast to see all
of our video interviews, and be sure to follow us
on Instagram at the Broken Record Pod. You can follow
us on Twitter at Broken Record. Broken Records produced and
edited by Leah Rose with marketing help from Eric Sandler
(43:47):
and Jordan McMillan. Our engineer is Ben Holladay. Broken Record
is production of Pushkin Industries. If you love this show
and others from Pushkin, consider subscribing to Pushkin Plus. Pushkin
Plus is a podcast subscription that offers bonus content and
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for Pushkin Plus on Apple podcast subscriptions, and if you
like this show, please remember to share, rate and review
(44:09):
you listen your podcast app are theme music expY Canny Beats,
I'm justin Richmond
Speaker 1 (44:19):
M HM.
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