Artist News

Laurie Anderson talks recording with husband and pets

By | Published on Friday 25 June 2010

Laurie Anderson has given a little insight into the recording process for her recently released new album, ‘Homeland’. Built out of material developed during various live shows around the world, she says that piecing it all together when she got back home only really got under way when her husband, Lou Reed, stepped in.

Anderson told Spinner: “I really would sit there all day, tinkering with a violin line, like two bars of it. I’m easily entertained. I’d still be doing that this afternoon unless he said, ‘I’m sick of your complaining'”.

She continued: “He would say, ‘Be there until you’re finished,’ and I was like, ‘Um, OK, I guess that’s good’. But it was fantastic, because really good producers can move you along. He’d listen to something and say, ‘That’s done. Let’s go on’. I’d say, ‘But this is not done’, and he’d say, ‘It’s done. Let’s move on’. It was really, really great working with him”.

As well as her husband, Anderson also spoke about contributions to the album made by their dog. She explained: “She’s a rat terrier and when she got very advanced cancer, we got someone to take care of her and she said, ‘I taught my dogs to play piano’, so I said, ‘Teach our dog!’ Our dog has been playing piano for a year, and she’s a fantastic player, actually. She does notes and chords. She kind of walks up and down the keyboard once in a while, which a lot of keyboard players don’t do”.



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