Willie Nile has been making the kind of rock music that makes you think, smile, dance, and fall in love for over 40 years. His new record, The Great Yellow Light, not only continues his tradition of high quality music, but could be one of his best records to date. Recently, Willie took some time to talk about the new record and what it means to him.
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On working with his live band in the studio – They’re a great band and Johnny Pisano on bass and vocals, Jimi Bones on guitar and vocals, Jon Weber on drums. There is a real chemistry there. When we record, we’re all in studio. There’s Jon, the drummer is in the main studio because he’s so loud. Johnny and Jimi were in the control room with the engineer and the co-producer. I’m in this other room with a vocal mic and I’m playing guitar, electric, the cable goes to another room. We record every track all at once. When we get a take, obviously there’ll be some guitar overdubs, background overdubs, some percussion, maybe some keyboards. But basically, it’s what we get when we say “That’s it”. In this particular case, every single song on the record, the vocal, while I’m singing and playing, I didn’t do any overdubs. It was no vocal overdub. We got lucky and every song that works. So it really is the four piece. The energy you can capture when you’re all playing together is only something you can capture when you’re all playing together. It’s so much fun. We had a great time doing it, and they are a great band.
On the title The Great Yellow Light – it’s one of my favorite recordings I’ve ever done. I love the song, and the recording just came out so special, it stands on its own. The whole record does. But that song, just the way it came out, the title of “The Great Yellow Light” comes from, van Gogh’s letters to his brother. Vincent van Gogh, when he moved to the south of France in 1888, the light there was so strong and so stunning. It really inspired him. He wrote his brother all the time, Theo, and he referred to it as a “great yellow light”, and that struck me. So I always remembered that. So some years later, I wrote a song with that title. The song has nothing to do with van Gogh, but it has to do with awe and wonder. That’s where it came from, van Gogh’s letters.
On if he still keeps his optimism with everything going on in the world – I still have it. It’s pretty challenging these days, but I try to, life is hard for everybody. People die, people get sick. Terrible things happen, and music can pick us up and lift our spirits. It lifts mine, you know? It’s an upbeat record, this one. My shows are feel good shows. It’s just a feel good record this album. I will always try to accentuate the positive and try to find those places where people can agree on things and get along, and neighbors can be neighbors. I still try to, I still believe in that and fight for that. Hope for that.
If you could sing a song, I could do a song like “Holy War” or “Cell Phones Ringing in the Pockets of the Dead”, two older songs. So I, I’ll write about all kinds of things, the good, the bad, the ugly. But at the end of the day, I want the music to pick people up. So I make sure that that happens on, as it does on this album. It’s a feel good record. There’s strains of the undercurrent of what’s going on in the world today. But I don’t stand on a soapbox and bang my head against the wall about it. So I’m still a little optimistic, although it’s getting harder and harder.
On having Steve Earle on “Wake Up America” – Steve’s great. I love him and I respect him so much. He lived around the corner from me for 15 years. Literally two or three buildings away, 15 years. So we became friends. We’d see each other on the grocery store, on the street. He’d be coming from a Yankee game, whatever, with his son. We became friends and when I wrote that and was recording it, it’s the second time he’s done a duet with me. “Blood On Your Hands” on the last album, the previous album The Day The Earth Stood Still, he did a duet. I wrote him, I sent him a copy of “Wake Up America”, to see if he wanted to sing on it, and five minutes “I’m in”. His voice, the street the grit, the street rawness that he brings to it, really for me, helps bring it to life. It’s the grit, his voice. I love Stevie. He’s a really good guy and it’s an honor to have him sing on it, for sure.
On “An Irish Goodbye” – Well, for those who don’t know, an Irish goodbye is when if you’re at an event, you leave without saying goodbye, kinda slip out the door. You just don’t go through the formality of saying goodbye. And it’s not meant to be offensive in any way. When you Irish goodbye somebody, just, some people just make a quick exit. But I was writing about the big Irish goodbye, mortality. My daughter, I’ve got four kids, my daughter Mary went to Ireland with her two kids and her husband. She’s all things Irish. She loves it, she plays Gaelic football, and when she came back, she gave me a shout. We were talking about it. Then later that evening, the phrase, “an Irish goodbye” just came into my head and I thought right away, wait, stop in my tracks, because I thought, “That’s a song”. And I thought about it for a bit and sat down and it came bursting out.
I was writing about the Big Irish goodbye. But it’s a celebration. Paul Brady, he’s a icon in Ireland. He sings on it with me, does a duet with me, Paul’s a great singer. Great, great musician. It’s an honor to have him on it for sure. That song came out, like when I play it, people sing along. I love singing and love playing it. Most of my ancestors come from Ireland. That song just came out like that, inspired by my daughter’s trip. At least the thought came to mind.
On writing by himself vs. with his partner Frankie Lee – Over the years, when I first started writing, I was just always writing by myself. 95% of the time, I just write my own songs, and I met Frankie in ’92 and he’s a dear friend and a great songwriter. We’ve written a lot of songs over the years. I generally, I just write on my own. On occasion Frankie will gimme a shout and he has an idea. He’ll bring ideas to me. If I have an idea, I’ll usually just finish it. Frankie will bring a number of ideas, and I’ll say, “Let’s work on that one”.
It’s really a pleasure and a joy to work with Frankie, he’s one of the masters. Do I have a preference? I think my main thing is I just write by myself. On the occasion one I write with Frank. It’s just, it’s always a pleasure and always fun. “We Are, We Are” the song on this record, which we made a video of, Frankie brought that over one day, and said, “I have an idea”, and I started playing it, and I started laughing. I said, “This is gonna be fun to play live”, which it is. We finished it together and, and it’s a thunderous, “We Are, We Are. Also “What Color Is Love?” Frankie brought that to me and I loved it right away.
We each have our strengths. Frank’s a great melody guy, I love writing with him. It’s always fun. He’s a sweet man and a, and a great songwriter…Oh, I forgot. There’s one more “Fall On Me”. I love “Fall On Me”, the band too. Johnny and Jonn, that’s their favorite. Frank and I got together. We spent a few weeks a couple years ago, just for fun, trying to write songs for Mick and Keith of the Stones. “Let’s write a song for the Stones”. And we wrote about half a dozen just for fun, and that was one of ’em. I thought that song would fit perfectly on this record. That was just us having a good time. If you hear “Fall On Me”, you think of The Stones because that’s where, that was the inspiration for it. We always do it. It’s fun. It’s a great, fun live song. Stone stuff is always fun, it’s always feel good, it’s always sexy, whatever. That one, it’s a ball to play.
On the track “Washington’s Day”, written with The Hooters – The Hooters, Rob, Rob Hyman and Eric Bazillion are dear friends of mine. I met them, we were both on Arista records back in the early eighties, and we were friends from back then. They’re immensely talented guys from Philadelphia. I signed a Columbia Records in 1988 and they were working on a record for Columbia. The producer produced us both. Rick Chertoff, I called him up. I just signed a Columbia. I called him up. I wanted to play him a new song I wrote, and he said, “Come by the studio. I’m mixing a Hooters song”.
It’s me and the engineer come by. I went by the Record Plant here in New York City and I sat in the back while they were working on the mix, and he said, “The song is called “Washington’s Day”, but we have no lyrics for it”. They were in a rush to finish the record, they had a whole tour. When I go in to make a record, I don’t go in until all songs are written, I don’t have a luxury of going in and putting songs together. They’re written when I go in, they’re done. I’ll rehearse with the guys a couple days beforehand and then we go, so in this case, I’m sitting in the back of the room while they’re mixing “Washington’s Day”, and it blew me away. It was like hearing “Let It Be”. I went, “This is stunning piece of music”. Words started coming and I started, I took my pen and notebook out and writing down. And after a bit I told ’em, I think I got some. So I wrote the lyric for the song back then in 88 or 87, it might even have been, I forget.
But and they recorded it on an album way back then. Great song, and I’ve always wanted to record it over the years, but just never got around to it. And for some reason, it fit on this record. I tend to follow my instinct as instincts as much and as best I can. In this case, that just came to me that this is a perfect song to put on this record, and I thought it’d be a great closing song. The chorus is, it’s an open-armed, It’s like Romeo and Juliet in Arlington National Cemetery. Washington’s Day is July 4th, independence Day, and all the ramifications that that implies. The second verse gets deeper.
This song ends the album. After you’ve gone through this journey of different songs, different feelings, rockers, ballads, and “Wake up America” especially, and in the depth of that. Then it finishes with this open armed embrace… It’s just as embrace, and I thought, I knew that that would be a great way to finish this album. I’m really thrilled with how this album came out. I’m thrilled with the songs on it, the production, the playing, the great musicians on it. So, “Washinton’s Day” came from that. I wrote the lyrics for a Hooters song that they had with no lyrics for, and I finally, I found the perfect place to put it on one.
On the striking cover art from Cristina Arrigoni- It’s a small circus in the Italian Alps, a one-tent circus. There’s a little boy peeking through, underneath this clown’s arm. Very Charlie Chapman. There’s this fire breaher, the great yellow light, and there’s a couple clowns and a security guy and a mother and a child, and it just really for me, captured (the record). She took this photograph in 2013, she took her son to the circus and took a bunch of pictures. The back cover, it’s incredible. There’s a fire with a flame about to explode out of his mouth and in one of his hands, in his palm he’s got a flame. Cristina’s an incredible photographer, and when I saw that picture back in 2013, immediately, like instantaneously, I said, “That’s a record, that’s an album cover.” She didn’t think so I go, “Oh no, that’s an album cover”. I’ve always had it in mind. When I wrote “The Great Yellow Light” and I was putting this album together, I knew right away what the cover would be. She had her doubts about it, but it’s stunning.
On his dad being 107 and how long he will continue – I haven’t stopped and dad’s amazing. I mean, he’s 107 and I think some 270-some days, he’ll be 108 in November. There’s, there’s 107 and there’s 107. You can be absolute mess, but he still lives at home. One of my brothers lives with him. He gets around with a walker and he does crossword puzzles, takes no medication, takes no naps. He is funny and he’s with it. I mean, it’s not easy being 107, but he never complains. He’s doing great. He is the 36th oldest man in the US. There’s a site you can go to, and he was 44th a month and a half ago. Now he’s 36. I’m flying there next Friday and I can’t wait to get there. Really every day is a miracle because, I hope he is there when I get back. He’s fine, but you never know.
So do I expect to continue? Yeah, I do. I’m still writing, I love playing shows. I love making records. Songs are still coming to me. I don’t make records just to make ’em, I don’t make records, “Oh, I need to put a record out”. I only do it when I feel I have a collection that is a hundred percent I can get, that I believe in every single song. I don’t put filler on the record. I put songs that I believe in, and I think that’s why the fans are so devoted and supporting my work. I don’t put out junk. Knock on wood, I’ll go as long as I can and until I drop probably.
On the status of his upcoming documentary – We’ve been working off and on and COVID really put a knock on it, but over six years we’ve been working on it, on and off the director’s in Austria and we’ve done a lot. They’re gonna start at October, November, start editing it and doing a rough cut. There’s only two or three things we need to shoot. It’s coming after all these years, it’s about to be edited, so I’m optimistic and hopeful that it’s any good. Hopefully it’s not a piece of junk. We put a lot of work into it. There’s a lot interesting characters to say the least in it. And my dad’s in it a bunch. He’s the star of it.
