Dave
it felt pretty good to be able to acknowledge my appreciation while he was still
with us. And he did that shy look when I
Prince grew up on the North side of
Minneapolis, Pirner was reared on the
South side. “But he probably made his
mu
sic in a basement similar to the
one I did when I was growing up,” Pirner
reckons. “And he probably had similar
gear. You get your first four-track with a
cassette player, then you start buying
some effects and loops. I mean, he used a
lot more drum machines and stuff like
that, and of course he was incredibly
adept at it. But he also used a lot of real
standard consumer gear that everybody
uses. ‘Studio rat’ is what I call it. Me and
Michael are studio rats – we’d just as
08•2016
said it to him – it’s this thing that he does,
and it was just charming."
The surprise discovery got the songwriter thinking, though. He and Prince,
he believes, were both cut from the same
creative cloth. “And I think that the
model is very particular to Minnesota,”
he elaborates. “There are so many cold
months out of the year there that it’s not
uncommon for somebody that’s into
music to figure out how to do it all by
themselves, and you end up just
noodling in your basement.” Too frigid
for other musicians to drop by? No problem. “You just start learning how to
multi-track. So that’s been something
that I’ve been doing my whole life, and to
that degree."
12 illinoisentertainer.com august 2016
soon be in the studio, unless we’re playing onstage. That’s just where we’re comfortable. And that’s what happened with
Prince – Paisley Park just became his
playground for making music.”
The rocker’s prime directive is a variation on the sleazy realtors’ motto in
Glengarry Glen Ross – ABC, or Always Be
Closing. “Always Be Working,” he
chuckles. “Always have a studio at your
disposal so you’re able to make music
whenever you feel like it. And I think
that’s a work ethic that’s fairly,
well…Minnesotan, for lack of a better
expression. You’re always on the job –
that’s how I like to feel, because you
never know when inspiration is going to
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