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The moment Stevie Nicks stopped being a “selfish” songwriter

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Stevie Nicks is a legendary singer-songwriter whose output spans decades and has had a profound influence on the music business. Fans all over the world have been enthralled by her contagious tunes, and her particular singing style has distinguished her as a truly original singer.

When it comes to songwriting, she is known for her ability to combine elements of folk, pop, and rock into her lyrics. She has a devoted following thanks to her contemplative and narrative composing style. She has a good eye for detail and frequently uses vivid imagery and emotions in her songs to add depth.

However, Stevie Nicks has always preferred to write solo. Even though she had committed herself to the band, Fleetwood Mac. She has described that her songwriting has always been ‘selfish’ which was something she wanted to change. And she revealed that after her collaboration with Dave Stewart from The Eurythmics she changed.

She talked about her experience of writing In Your Dreams with Stewart. She revealed that the collaboration was a big part of her life and it was something that transformed her house into a studio. She said, “It was a blast, the best year of my life. The songwriting process for me, I’ve always kept to myself, I really was very selfish about it; I never really wanted to write with anyone. And Dave, differently, right when I first called him in January, I sent him a book of poetry – of about 40 pages of poetry – and then I’m thinking later, what did I think I was just going to send him this book of poetry, and he was going to read it? Then what did I think he was going to do? Just make some musical tracks and bring them over and leave?”

For Nicks, working with Dave was “easy”. For someone who has never worked with others in such a way, she says that the process of writing with someone else for the first time was easy, and it was a shock. She explained the whole process to the song ‘You May Be the One’ too. She recalled,

“He said to me, ‘Well, you sent me the poetry, so I like this poem,’ and, just in a situation like you and I are right now, ‘I like this poem, let’s start here.’ I’m like to myself, ‘He doesn’t really think that we’re going to actually write a song here, in this room, in the same room together.’ He just starts playing guitar, and we have microphones, and in five minutes we had written the second to last song on the record that’s called ‘You May Be the One,’ and this was a serious heavy-duty song. This was not just a fun little dumb song; this was a serious song.”

Even with routine, Dave was very flexible. Nicks revealed that she was worried about the routine but when it came to working there was no problem. She explained that the process was very easy and said, “People who schedule writing dates and say, ‘Okay I’m going to sit down and write with this person from 2 to 3 and then 4 to 6, and then I’ll have dinner and work from 9 until…’ Well, I just could never do that. I probably wouldn’t be inspired under pressure. I would just sit there and stare at people and say, ‘This isn’t really working for me.’”

For Nicks, there were certain elements that worked out. She said that she had never sat down and written songs together. Not with Lindsey, not with anyone else. For Nicks, Dave was a person who had no ego, and working with him was very easy. She revealed that he knew what to do, just after looking into her eyes. She also said that she understood the meaning of working together in a pair, and why duos like Lennon and McCartney wrote songs together.

Listen to ‘Moonlight (A Vampire’s Dream)’ from In Your Dreams down below.

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