Revising History: Rainbow Arabia On Neil Young’s Gold Rush, Kraftwerk’s Man-Machine

Feel disoriented, like you’re seeing a second new feature today? Don’t sweat. We do in fact have two - “Revising History” and “Cover Me” - and since they’re rather interconnected, we’re busting them out simultaneously. While in “Cover Me” we ask artists who they’d most like to see cover them, in this one we do kinda the opposite: We ask artists which albums they most wish they had authored.

Admirably, partners Danny and Tiffany Preston came fully prepared to talk about the records they most wish they had made. Extra endearingly, the close confidants hadn’t even shared their choices with one another prior to the interview.

Here goes …

[Haven't met Rainbow Arabia? Head here for our long-form introductory piece on them, plus free MP3s and more.]

Tiffany Preston: For me, it’s After the Gold Rush, Neil Young. Totally different than what I do, but it’s an album I put on at any point in my life - whether I’m happy, sad, celebrating or just cleaning the house. It’s always really spoken to me. He just has a way … his lyrics, he’s so honest. This is the ultimate album for me.

Even more so than Harvest Moon?

TP: You know what, I know that Harvest Moon is a wonderful album. And I love that album too, but one of the reasons why I love After the Gold Rush so much is that I had that album first. And I always listened to that more. So it’s just my favorite one. I love them all, but that’s the one that I always put on.

Isn’t that strange, how random it is that so many fans of a certain album consider it to be special just because they happened to pick it up at a specific time in their life, maybe when they were most ready to be impacted by music?

TP: Yeah, totally.

Danny Preston: Yeah, ’cause it goes along with a time in your life when you had it as well, so it was what you were playing that made you emotional or go through things, the most.

TP: Yeah, and Harvest Moon is amazing too. But I’m just going to go with what I listened to more because I had After the Gold Rush, and it’s just more sentimental to me. The songs, like “Only Love Can Break Your Heart.” How simple and wonderful. If I had said it, it would’ve sounded cheesy, but Neil Young says it, and you’re like, “Yeah, only love can break your heart.” He’s an amazing songwriter. His way, I love that - it’s simple and not contrived, and it just seems so honest and that it speaks to you. I couldn’t pick up an acoustic guitar and necessarily make that kind of music … I wish I was Neil Young. But I’m not. I’ve got to find my own thing.

DP: We just saw him for the first time, three years ago, was it?

TP: Yeah, two years ago. How timeless he is - he can play now, and you’re not like, “Oh, he’s this old man.” Granted, I didn’t get to see him in the ’70s or ’80s - or the ’60s, when he started - and I’m sure that would’ve been mind-blowing. But we saw him recently, and it was just powerful. It was really inspiring, because you realized how ageless music can be. He’s so passionate about it, you can feel it.

He’s really achieved that untouchable status, hasn’t he? We were talking with Jim from the Horse’s Ha the other day, and he said he jokes to people that he doesn’t like Neil Young, because they react so strongly. Neil Young is that revered.

[Everyone laughs.]

DP: Yeah, you’d better watch it, buddy.

TP: I had a friend who used to always go to the Bridge School Benefit up north. She would tell me how amazing it is. You go there, and you’re amongst Neil Young fans - you’re part of something. He has this magic about him, and when you’re there, how amazing it must be to be a part of it. Your integrity level goes up. Like, “Yeah, I’m a Neil Young fan.” He communicates to people in such a real way. Neil Young fans, it’s very personal to them. People talk about him, like, “Oh, Neil Young.”

Are either of you fans of CSNY?

DP: Yeah, I do like that.

TP: Oh my God, I love it. I’m definitely a fan. They toured what, five or six years ago?

Yeah, they played Staples for two nights. It was very much the Neil Young show, though. It was all about him. So Danny, what about you?

DP: I was down to two albums. The first OMD record, I was looking back on how awesome that was. The electricity. It was the beginning of the New Wave and had those crazy moody synth sounds. I actually use a synth in our sound that they use in almost all their recordings, a Korg M500. Those sounds and moody reverbs and really cool bass lines, all that. That album alone is a super-super album.

So I was stumped between that album and Kraftwerk’s The Man-Machine. How rad would it be to make that album, where they actually made all their drum pads, because drum machines didn’t exist then, in 1975 or 1974, when that album came out? [1978 -ed.] They used sequences that aren’t like sequencers now. It’s mind-boggling; it was more than making music, they were scientists on top of it.

Looking at it that way, an album I wish I’d actually created, that’s pretty awesome, because they created something that no one probably thought it would be possible to make. And listening to it now, it still sounds current. Like it’s electronic music. Their beat sounds are so now. They totally blow me away in that way.

The Man-Machine is the [Kraftwerk album] I like the most.

There’s a thread of timelessness between After the Gold Rush and The Man-Machine. Was there a more human element with The Man-Machine because they created much of the equipment?

DP: Well, because they did create those sounds - they did use the technology at the time; they were using what was out for synths. But them using sequencers and drum pads, the technology wasn’t even there, so them having actually made it makes it their own time.

You seem to be very intimate with the albums you’ve described. Do you see any places to improve upon them - or is that even too audacious to suggest?

DP: No, no. The two albums I mentioned, I don’t see how there could be any improvements upon them.

TP: Oh, yeah. It’s like, perfection. There are no flaws.

DP: You could go back and maybe find something that’s a “flaw,” but then that’s what makes it so perfect. If that flaw was there, especially with Neil Young, that’s what makes it perfection.

TP: Yeah. Lyrically, he’ll say things that are very simple, and then he’ll say something that’s a little complex and that you have to think about. It’s such a great balance. And how he delivers the lines, how he communicates to you - which is the most important. Sometimes you have to put all the technical stuff aside and realize how you communicate to somebody. Because that’s what you’re doing with music. And I think musicians sometimes - even myself - get caught up with, “Oh, how does this sound?” You forget that you’re communicating a message.

That’s a really good point. Do you keep that in mind as you’re going through the editing processes?

TP: For me, no. I get really down on myself about certain things, and I forget that you’re communicating a message. You should try to put yourself [in the footsteps] of the audience, like, “OK, what would I get out of this?” And not get caught up too much in the technical stuff. Like, “My vocals aren’t projecting the way I want.” It’s hard, because you’re responsible for all those things. Trying to get it to sound decent and all that. And also what you’re communicating. So there has to be a balance with that. I think one of my flaws is, I think, is that I get too caught up in, “Oh, let’s try to make it sound better, let’s try to make that better,” and I forget that, hey, this song should be fun, and I should communicate a message. I think it all comes from just growing. When you become competent … the more you’re recording, the more you’re playing out live, the more comfortable you can still be as yourself. The more you’re yourself, everything comes together, you’re more confident. It shows, and people feel it.

And with Neil Young, I feel like it feels like he’s being so himself.

Yeah, and he has complete control over what he puts out. He doesn’t even give Reprise much of a heads-up, he just hand-delivers whatever he wants to release, and they do it.

TP: Yeah, and that’s good. That probably takes a lot of pressure off him. Because he has such a big fanbase …

DP: Even Trans … he went a total different way. Probably didn’t please his fans. But it was still totally him. That was a great accomplishment.