Forty-five years as the Pretenders’ sole constant member have done nothing to shake Chrissie Hynde’s faith in the band or music. On Relentless, she and co-guitarist James Walbourne lead the group through territory familiar and new.
BY MARK McSTEA
YOU CAN SAY this: Relentless (Parlophone), the 12th and latest studio album from the Pretenders, is aptly named. Since forming 45 years ago, in 1978, the group has endured deaths — the melodically gifted lead guitarist James Honeyman-Scott, in 1982, and bassist Pete Farndon, in 1983 — as well as lineup changes and the vicissitudes of popular culture. Through it all, frontwoman and guitarist Chrissie Hynde has remained the sole constant force behind the group.
But since 2008, she’s had an equally persistent partner in guitarist James Walbourne, who has served as Hynde’s musical foil. Walbourne is not only an astounding guitarist but also Hynde’s writing partner, co-penning the band’s last two albums with her. On Relentless, Hynde and Walbourne combine familiar elements of the band’s past work with some unexpected twists and turns, which makes for quite a different-sounding album from its predecessor, 2020’s Hate for Sale. As it so happens, the change in direction was not at all unintentional.
“We did want to have a punchier, punkier sound on Hate and we were looking toward a different approach for this record — something a little more low-key,” Hynde tells Guitar Player. “We used keyboards on a lot of the songs when we recorded it. Having said that, after the initial recording, I got James to re-do a lot of the bass lines. It was almost too lightweight and soft. At the end of the day, we are a rock band, so things did toughen up somewhat when we actually recorded the songs.”
Chrissie, you were always primarily a solo writer. How did the two of you start writing together, and how does the collaborative writing process work for you?
CHRISSIE HYNDE I had such a great live relationship with James — he’s such a fantastic player and a great showman as well — and I think I was slightly nervous about writing with him. I was worried that if I tried writing with him and it didn’t work out, it might jeopardize the good thing that we had going.
JAMES WALBOURNE It took us over 10 years to write a song together. The first song was “You Can’t Hurt a Fool,” from Hate for Sale. The floodgates opened after that, but it was so nerve wracking when I sent her my first ideas, knowing how great she is as a writer.
HYNDE With Hate f
