11.09.2018
COSTELLO: WHEN IT COMES TO MUSIC, I DON’T HAVE A PLAN. IN THE END, EVERYTHING VANISHES
Corriere Della Sera: Sandro Veronesi: 10th November 2018
Elvis Costello returns, after 8 years, with an album of unpublished works. Sandro Veronesi makes four playlists of his songs, and asks him about all of it
SANDRO VERONESI —It has been eight years since «National Ransom» came out. If I am not mistaken, that was the last album you released. The world has changed a lot since then. Have you changed too?
ELVIS COSTELLO — In 2010, I started to think the stage was where my songs should live. Steven Mandel and Questlove had other ideas and the result was «Wise Up Ghost». A couple of year later T Bone Burnett called to see if I wanted to be part of a group setting and recording a file of unpublished Bob Dylan lyrics. Such invitations have a way of changing your mind.
SANDRO VERONESI —The record is absolutely spot-on, with some of its tracks going straight to my «The very Best of Elvis Costello» playlist, but we will talk more about that later. What was your inspiration for the record?
ELVIS COSTELLO — Partly, the realisation that «now» was the time for a record of which I had been dreaming on for twenty years or more. «Now» was also the time illustrate all that The Imposters could bring to the studio and this group of songs.
SANDRO VERONESI —The title of the record is «Look now,» but it does not have a title track. There is, however, a song called «Don’t look now.» What is it that we should or should not look at now?
ELVIS COSTELLO — The album title is a call to attention as in, «Here we are, now» but it also refers to a collection of glances coming to and from the people in these songs. There are looks of admiration, estimation, calculation, desire, judgment, and event ill-intent. It is for the listener to decide what they see, what they hear, and all they feel about it.