As a man who's been in the music business for over 50 years, Timothy B. Schmit, is still finding new trials to blaze and never runs short on passion for his art. I caught up with the artist as he prepares for his solo performance at the Three Rivers u2 european concert tour Arts Festival tomorrow, June 6. Best known for his work as a member of the Eagles, Schmit opens up about expanding as a solo artist, going back to his roots as a folk musician, and balancing both acts.
Oh yeah, many times. I've been going there on and off with two different bands, Poco and the Eagles, since the early '70s. Most of the time, I don't get to spend a lot of time in one place, but I do remember the audiences being really great, and I always like to go there.
I'm on tour as a solo artist, and I've been playing at very small places. I did start this tour with a music festival in Texas. That was different too because I had never really played anything like that as a solo guy. Festivals are always more of a relaxed feeling. Sound wise, depending where you are and what the sounds system is like, can be challenging, especially from the on-stage aspect. But it's all good; I just like to see people out there.
It's great. I really didn't start doing solo shows until really late in my career. A couple years ago, after this last album came out, I waited because I didn't really feel like I was complete as an artist yet. Even recording wise, it was not until this last album that I finally thought, "Now I've got the heart of the show, and now I can put in parts of my history as well."
There was a part of the '60s when I first started picking up drumming instruments when folk music was becoming very popularized and my other musician friends and I really took to that and that's how we learned our craft. Later on, we got a drummer and started playing electric music and kind of evolved that way. On my solo album, I really just started every song with acoustic guitar and vocal, which is sort of a folk thing right there.
This is the first album I've produced completely and wrote everything myself. My past albums, I did a lot of writing collaboration. When you collaborate u2 european concert tour with somebody or if you're in a band for that matter, it's always a series of tradeoffs. Having been in a successful band has allowed u2 european concert tour me to do whatever I want with my solo stuff. I really just decided to do it myself, take as long as it would take to put an album together, and see what happened, and I'm extremely pleased with it.
I have the best of both worlds. I definitely u2 european concert tour feel connected with the band; I've been with them for so long. But solo wise, it really is all me, that's the big difference. I suppose on a more personal level that I'm more connected with the solo stuff, u2 european concert tour but I still feel very engaged with the band as well.
Because of the Eagles schedule, even when its heavy, we take a lot of breaks, so I hope to do both. The solo thing is still pretty new to me, and I'm really enjoying it, so I want to keep doing that. I have friends who are talking about retiring and that is not in my brain at all. There's no need to retire as long as I'm mobile, creative, and functioning, and I hope to be for a long time. I've been doing music for most of my life, and I'd like to continue to do it till the end.
No comments:
Post a Comment