Guitarist creates own chaos
Rusty Anderson has just released his first solo album, Undressing Underwater. The Southern Californian is currently touring as guitarist for Paul McCartney (below), who is set to play the Air Canada Centre on Monday night, plugging his new Chaos And Creation In The Backyard.
Of all the time spent performing as a member of Sir Paul's McCartney band in the past four years, Rusty Anderson cites having the former Beatle come in to work on one cut from the guitarist's own solo album Undressing Underwater — released two weeks ago — as a personal highlight.
"I was showing him the song (Hurt Myself, the disc's leadoff track), and as we're playing it he's sitting in the corner playing his bass and all of a sudden I hear this, 'Aw shit!'" Anderson says. "That was Paul getting annoyed at himself for making a mistake. It was so endearing."
Anderson probably has had untold moments like that himself during rehearsals for McCartney performances. Yet concert after concert the Southern Californian will churn out practically seamless riffs familiar to Beatles, Wings and solo McCartney fans — including those attending McCartney's Air Canada Centre show on Monday night.
Though Anderson will tell you he and drummer Abe Laboriel Jr. each had a blast playing on McCartney's 2001 album Driving Rain, he seems unfazed about the two — along with guitarist/ bassist Brian Ray, who joined the fold soon after — only getting to do one cut (Follow Me) on Chaos And Creation In The Backyard, McCartney's newest effort.
Much of that stemmed from Nigel Godrich, the one-time Radiohead and Beck producer who worked behind the boards on Chaos And Creation. "That was entirely Nigel's concept: asking Paul to back himself," says Anderson. "Nigel knew that Paul and the band (rounded out by keyboardist Paul "Wix" Wickens) get along really well, and Nigel wanted to challenge Paul by keeping him away from that safety zone.
"But we also did a bunch of stuff with (Driving Rain producer) David Kahne for another record. Hopefully that album will be released at some point, because there's lots of cool stuff on it."
Cool stuff applies to Anderson's own musical existence, too. In the 1990s, he served time in bands such as Ednaswap and Animal Logic (featuring ex-Police drummer Stewart Copeland, who guest-appears on Undressing Underwater) as well as playing session guitar for the likes of Elton John, Perry Farrell, Santana, Courtney Love and Ricky Martin (that's Anderson's guitar hook heard on Martin's Livin' La Vida Loca).Undressing Underwater track called
Ol' Sparky best sums up his days with Ednaswap with this ode to the van in which the band travelled around, "in the snow, arguing. A lot of fun, but some pretty intense moments, too," he says. Among the most intense may be the group's biggest claim to fame: once Australian singer Natalie Imbruglia got wind of their song Torn and made it into her ginormous signature hit known worldwide, much speculation arose as to why the band never was publicly credited.
"'It's bizarre, isn't it?"' was Anderson's only response before his nicely timed ringing cellphone rang.
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