MusicRadar

Buckingham is back to his best

View in gallery

"Rumours was like climbing Mount Everest," says Fleetwood Mac's Lindsey Buckingham. "Once you've done that, you can't go any higher. You just have to find other places to go."

And in the three decades since the release of that worldwide favorite (which has racked up sales of over 30 million copies), Buckingham has indeed followed his own erratic muse. There have been band breakups, reunions, solo albums, and a general understanding that Fleetwood Mac will only come together when the mood is right.

"We've been through it all," Buckingham says. "I think the fact that we're still standing is proof of how strong our bond is. It's taken a while to get to this point."

Buckingham states that 2009 will be a Fleetwood Mac year, but before he reunites with the band he's on the road to promote his strongest solo effort in years, Gift Of Screws.

Back to the amps

Unlike 2006's Under The Skin, which was a largely acoustic work, Gift Of Screws is a more rocking affair. "It just felt right," says the guitarist. "For me to put out Under The Skin II wouldn't have made any sense. It was time for me to amp things up again."

While the new album is resplendent with moments of ethereal beauty and intensity - and virtuosic fingerpicking that will drop jaws to the floor - there are also cuts that recall the Fleetwood Mac at their most rhapsodic. Not surprisingly, on these songs, Wait For You and The Right Place To Fade, Buckingham is backed by one of the finest rhythm section in rock, Mick Fleetwood and John McVie.

Lindsey Buckingham recently sat down with MusicRadar to discuss Gift Of Screws and to give us the lowdown on Fleetwood Mac.

"It's been a twisty little road for the band," Buckingham admits. "But nowadays things are a little easier and the line is a lot straighter. To be in this place is quite a relief."

Lindsey Buckingham: Q&A

How does Gift Of Screws relate to your last solo album, Under The Skin? Could you have released this one without having released that one first?

"I could have. In fact, Warner Brothers would have much preferred this one. [laughs] When I turned in Under The Skin, their general response was 'Yeah we'll put it out, but don't expect us to do too much.' But Under The Skin was an approach I'm very interested in, which is to take the kind of energy that a single guitar and voice have and apply the manner in which they succeed on stage in a studio situation.

"So I would use one or two guitars and have them do the work of the bass and drums and lead guitars pretty much throughout. I was very happy with that album. In retrospect, it functions as an opening act for Gift Of Screws."

You went through many years between solo releases, but Gift Of Screws and Under The Skin happened in rapid succession. Is this the sign of a new wave of productivity?

"To some degree. Some of that is reflective of my personal life, and a certain stability that I have been able to find, having gotten married and having had children. But it also is about the fact that I put a three-year boundary in terms of Fleetwood Mac. I basically said, 'Guys, I need these three years to do solo work and tour. But the band has had a pattern of coming into the picture anyway. [laughs]

"That's happened several times, the most recent being when I was poised to release a solo album and the band wanted to record, and so almost all of my solo material got folded into the 2003 album Say You Will. And I've just kind of made it under the wire here because I think Fleetwood Mac may start rehearsing some time in January."