"Working in a band is a lot like what I imagine making movies is like," says Lindsey Buckingham. "It's political and it takes a lot of verbalization to get from point A to point B. When I work alone, it's more like painting. You are one with the canvas and it's a subconscious, meditative process."
Recording his new disc Seeds We Sow (out September 6th on his own label) in his home studio, Buckingham really worked alone: producing, engineering, singing and playing nearly every instrument. "Most days I'd wake up, have my coffee, do my crossword puzzle and get there by 10:30 a.m.," he tells Rolling Stone. "And work through dinnertime. I didn't come up for air unless I had to."
Buckingham says that he didn't begin consciously writing the songs on Seeds We Sow with any sort of a theme in mind, but when he finished the disc he discovered a common thread running through his lyrics. "The songs are all about the accumulation of choices that we make everyday and the karmic part of that - which is where the title Seeds We Sow comes from," he says. "In my own life I've made a lot of choices that weren't always popular with people around me. Only in the last few years have I been able to look at them with the perspective of time." (The only non-original track on the album is the Rolling Stones' 1967 deep cut "She Smiled Sweetly.")
Buckingham is kicking off a 50-date theater tour this fall, mixing songs from the new disc, hits and lesser-known gems from his career. "People would probably run me out on a rail if I didn't do a few Fleetwood Mac songs," he says. "We'll do 'Big Love,' 'Never Going Back Again,' 'Tusk' and we gotta do 'Go Your Own Way.' That's about it though."
And Fleetwood Mac are likely to hit the road again next year. "We're doing something for sure," Buckingham says. "I wouldn't be shocked if it was a tour and possibly an album. We'll have to wait and see. Nothing is on the books right now. With Fleetwood Mac, there's a lot of landmines out there politically and it's hard to get everybody on the same page at the same time - but I think this might be one of those years where everyone will want to do the same thing. Whatever that is."
In addition to a tour, Fleetwood Mac fans have been long hoping that Lindsey and Stevie's 1973 LP Buckingham Nicks eventually will be released on CD. "We keep talking about that," says Buckingham. "It's been a victim of inertia. It's funny, I spent a lot of time with Stevie this year when she was finishing her album and we were getting along great. We have every intention of putting that album back out and possibly even doing something along with it, but I can't put any specifics on that."
Might they tour as a duo again? "I think that would be great!" says Buckingham. "I wouldn't do anything other than speculate at this point, but I think it would be tremendous fun and a different kind of thing for both of us. And it would certainly be something circular in that we'd be meeting up right where we started."
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