THE INTERVIEW
Some 35 years since the release of his debut LP, for his 12th record, Blue Electric Light, Lenny Kravitz is back again with equal doses of vigour and vibes, using vintage guitars and the purest valve amps
With his well-loved ’53 Les Paul Goldtop slung over his shoulder and apair of designer shades resting in place, Lenny Kravitz is the epitome of cool. Of course, having acache of iconic songs at his disposal doesn’t hurt his reputation, either. You’ve heard them before –cuts like Are You Gonna Go My Way, Fly Away, It Ain’t Over ’Til It’s Over and Again are just afew hits that have seen Kravitz become an icon of guitar and akey member of the cultural zeitgeist. But what truly sets him apart, as he prepares to unleash his 12th studio record, Blue Electric Light, is his open ‐mindedness. “I hope I’m remembered as someone who served the music. And also, for not having boundaries,” he tells Guitarist.
“Whatever style, or whatever works for the song, you know, for the landscape of the song, I’m just open. Aguitar is aboundless instrument; to shackle yourself would be adisservice,” he continues.
Kravitz’s latest record –which he states came to him via acombination of dreams, jam sessions and mental downloads –is refreshing. It’s far too easy to get caught up in reinventing the wheel. But not Kravitz, who relishes guitar-into-amp vibes and keeps it pure.
“If I’m going to make apoint” he says, “if I’m telling you something, an emotion, Ican talk at you for two hours and give you alecture, in which case you’ll lose. That’s because if I’m talking and talking and talking, I’ll lose you .Or Ican say asentence that could change your life [and it] took just five words. It’s the same thing with music…”
Did the title track, BlueElectricLight, set the tone for this project?
“That song actually happened at the end of the record. Ihad no idea it was coming; Ihad no idea Iwas going to name the album that. Iwoke up one night –Idreamt the song, as Ido –and Iwent in and recorded it in the morning. And Ithought it would be agreat ending for the album and sequence.
“Then Craig Ross, the engineer of the album, was recording me and he said, ‘You know, that’s the title of the album…’ I thought, ‘Really?’ because Iwas thinking about some other titles and had some things going around. But after anight of listening to the record with that song, I realised, ‘Yes, that’s the title.’ It was the last thing that happened, as it [tends to be] in alot of cases.”
Like most of your records, Blue ElectricLightblends different genres, and with that, it probably has a lot of themes, right?
“Well, the first tra
