Ed Masley

The Republic | azcentral.com

Roger Clyne is on his way back from a writing trip to Rocky Point with guitarist Jim Dalton when he checks in from the road to talk about the progress they’ve made making on the Peacemakers' first album since "The Independent."

“I like to go down there,” he says of Mexico, “where I don’t have email and the house phone, all that stuff, and strum and strum and see what I come up with.”

Dalton, he says, is “a very good sounding board,” adding, “He tells me when I can do better or when I should stop trying to improve on a certain thing that’s not bearing any return, so I trust his musical instincts. He’s good that way. And he’s a fun dude.”

More than a year of work

Clyne has been working on songs for a Peacemakers album for more than a year now.

"And it’s going pretty well," he says. "I think I’m approaching double digits as far as the number of songs. We’re gonna start rehearsing, and I think we’re gonna bring a few of them to the Talking Stick stage in early April here.”

It takes a certain type of song, he says, to earn that sort of first impression on the fan base.

“I went down to Mexico with the idea of re-familiarizing myself with some of the songs and seeing which ones I think will be best suited to that kind of introduction,” Clyne says. “There are different ways to introduce songs. And if you do it live first without people being exposed to it in any other way, via recording, it’s kind of a special sort of song you’ve got to choose. There are certain subtleties in some music that doesn’t translate well in a live venue. So we’re sort of looking for the ringers.”

He’s still not sure what kind of record this is shaping up to be.

“I wish I had gotten a better perspective on this trip,” he says. “But I focused on new stuff and didn’t look at it as a body of work. So ask me that question when we go into the studio and I’ll let you know my impression.”

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What he didn't want a new album to sound like

When we caught up in early 2015, he said he had a pretty good idea of the sort of thing he didn't want to write this time around. "I just need to keep writing, keep it fun and not write so many songs about growing old and death, but not necessarily focus too much on chasing skirts and drinking beer. Maybe I've painted myself into a corner. I know there's lots more I could write about."

Reminded a year later, Clyne laughs and says, “That’s a good quote. I wish I had said that. I do know that I’ve been trying to be as spontaneous as I can but also sort of looking at those parameters. I don’t want to just write songs about chasing skirts on the one hand and mortality itself on the other. I’m trying to find what’s celebratory, what’s fun, what’s entertaining, what’s engaging and what’s also enriching. So hopefully I’m hitting the mark. But like I said, I didn’t really look at the canvas, so to speak, this time. I was just working on a corner of it. ”

Asked if the process of celebrating the 20th anniversary of 'Fizzy Fuzzy Big & Buzzy' has had an impact on the shaping of his latest album, Clyne says, “Re-immersing myself in my earliest published material gave me a perspective. I look back at what I was doing melodically, what I was doing in terms of chord progressions, song structure and subject and I see it’s very honest. That was a very, very honest expression, ‘Fizzy Fuzzy.’ And I don’t want to try to replicate it but I want to try to stop myself from stopping habits.

"I as a writer have habits that come sort of naturally. And it’s good not to always lean on them but it’s also good sometimes, I think, to go ahead and say, ‘Well, this is signature.’ There are a few things that I think subconsciously I was avoiding in the writing process, that I didn’t want to become a parody of myself.

'I may deliberately cite myself here and there'

"And I look back and go, ‘I’ve think I’ve done enough of a body of work between ‘Fizzy Fuzzy’ and (2014's) ‘The Independent’ that was focused on working hard on the art such that I didn’t become a parody of myself, so that I didn’t overuse certain devices, that I may indulge in that. I may just go, ‘You know, that I-IV-V works and I like the minor sixth on the turn.' I may deliberately cite myself here and there.

"I may deliberately pilfer from my own catalog because it was fun, it was working and if I find that it’s a spontaneous, natural expression in my music now then I’ll probably try not to avoid it. And I’ll probably try to say ‘probably’ less in the next sentence. If in being spontaneous I find myself leaning on those old devices, I may just keep them in there rather than work so hard to change them.”

There is no working title yet for this new album, Clyne says, “because I don’t have a perspective on what the general theme of the album will be, but I’m sure something will emerge.”

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New album expected in 2017

As far as a timeline, he says, “Jim and I, we’re driving back from Mexico, and we were just talking about producers and when to start interviewing them and the time is actually now. So my next step is to look at the body of work that I have as a whole, get my impressions of it thematically, play it with the band to get all of our impressions and then go from there and see which songs make the cut, which songs don’t make the cut, how many more I need to write to make a complete albums. All those things happen sort of in order.”

Realistically, Clyne says it’s safe to expect a new album in early 2017.

“With a lot of luck,” he says, “we’d probably be recording by fall. No earlier than October or November because we will be on the road.”

More Yucca Tap Room shows possible

In the meantime, he’s not finished celebrating.

“We’re bringing ‘Fizzy Fuzzy,’ a commemorative concert, to the stage at Talking Stick," Clyne says. "We’ll be doing those songs track-by-track, top-to-bottom. No. 1, because it was really fun. No. 2, because the Yucca only holds a few people and a lot of people didn’t even know about it. So I’m hopeful that we’ll reach a lot of people who either didn’t know about it or simply couldn’t get in. So we’ll celebrate ‘Fizzy Fuzzy’ in our hometown on a big stage for as many people as we can get in there."

And the anniversary celebration may continue when they hit the road.

"There’s been a really popular demand that we do the same thing on tour," Clyne explains. "So I believe we’ll be opening our own tour by doing ‘Fizzy Fuzzy’ to start with and then finish up with Peacemakers songs. It’s gonna be a year of focusing on this album from every stage we play in every state we play. And who knows? Maybe if people haven’t had their fill of ‘Fizzy Fuzzy’ by the time we get off tour, maybe we’ll do one more stand at the Yucca. I love how much support we’ve gotten for it because it’s been fun to revisit.”

Roger Clyne & the Peacemakers

When: 8 p.m. Saturday, April 2.

Where: The Pool at Talking Stick Resort, 9800 E. Indian Bend Road, Scottsdale.

Admission: $30-$65.

Details: 480- 850-7734, talkingstickresort.com.