Interviews
The US band play a one-off show in London, where they formed 48 years ago.
Best known for their worldwide 1972 hit Horse With No Name, America have had an up-and-down career as middle-of-the-road stalwarts. Singer/guitarist Dewey Bunnell, one of two original members in the line-up (Dan Peek passed away in 2011) talks anniversaries, George Martin and his relationship with fellow mainstay, vocalist/keyboard player Gerry Beckley.
2018 marks the forty-eighth year the band have been going. How does that make you feel?
It’s snuck up on us, that’s for sure. The last two decades have been a blur, not for any particular reason except that time appears to speed up the older one becomes.
It’s not commonly known that the group were born here in the UK.
That’s right. All three of us were sons of servicemen, and we re-formed our high-school band in Ruislip, West London. Those were such great days. I saw this new band called King Crimson, and Jimi Hendrix.
Having a hit as huge as Horse With No Name right off the bat can be a blessing and a curse.
Yeah. We were in our late teens and things clicked so fast. We really hadn’t put in a lot of groundwork. “Oh, a number-one record – this is going to be easy.” Little did we know the amount of ups and downs that lay ahead. How much of an inf luence was producer George Martin on America’s early to mid-period?
George was very important. He came in for our fourth album [1974’s Holiday] and really helped to pull together our scattered ideas. We made seven albums together, and he and Geoff Emerick [engineer] became great friends of ours.
The band’s creativity dried up as the 1990s drew to a close.
Yeah, we really started to lose our place. The band had set such lofty heights at a young age, but things were changing around us.
James Iha of Smashing Pumpkins and Adam Schlesinger from Fountains Of Wayne helped America to rediscover their mojo with the Hear & Now album in 2007.
That’s true. Unbeknown to me, Gerry had been communicating with Adam – both of us were fans of Fountains Of Wayne – and one thing led to another. He put us together with some current writers and artists, which was a lot of fun and exerted a great effect on the band’s career.
Since then you’ve released a covers set, Back Pages, and Lost & Found, which mixed fresh material with out-takes. Is it time for something all-new?
Without a record company to issue deadlines, I myself do very little as far as new music, though I keep an ongoing journal of my ideas. Gerry, on the other hand, is a studio guy – hence his solo records. I can tell you that we have unearthed some stuff that will be useful for the fiftieth anniversary. At the very least, that will be heard.
After a lengthy fallow period during which you once admitted the band “couldn’t get a gig in London”, America have worked hard to regain a foothold in this country.
English music has been so fundamental to our band so that was important, and I’m so glad we’ve got this show at the Palladium. It’s always a joy to come back to England.
Tell us about your relationship with Gerry Beckley. For example, what kind of things do you argue and agree about?
Because we’ve grown up together and we both have very defined roles, we’re still remarkably compatible. Whoever makes their point the best in a disagreement always wins. There’s no need to go to the mat and scrap.
America play London Palladium on October 19.