SXSWORLD

SXSWorld February 2017

SXSWorld

Issue link: https://sxsw.uberflip.com/i/842058

Contents of this Issue

Navigation

Page 15 of 51

1 4 SXS W O R L D | F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 7 | SXSW.COM Doing the Next Thing with Nile Rodgers By DaviD MeNcoNi  For all the cool conceptuality, Chic didn't catch on until 1977's "Dance, Dance, Dance (Yowsah, Yowsah, Yowsah)," a song Rodgers claims to have written "out of frustration" because record companies refused to take a black rock band seriously. Made on a borrowed $3,500, "Dance" would be the first Chic single to crack the Billboard Top 10.  Chic's heyday lasted just a handful of years in the late '70s, but it included some of the disco era's most enduring signpost hits—"Le Freak," "I Want Your Love" and "Good Times" among them. The latter song was also the basis of the Sugarhill Gang's "Rapper's Delight," a song that launched hip-hop to the masses in 1979.  It took until this year for Rodgers to finally get into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, where he's set to receive the "Award for Musical Excellence" at the Hall's April 7 induction ceremonies. But the Chic braintrust of Rodgers and Edwards (who passed away in 1996) were producers and writers that everyone in the pop world wanted to work with. After overseeing Sister Sledge's career-making "We Are Family," they gave Diana Ross the biggest-selling album of her career (1980's Diana). Rodgers went on to co-produce David Bowie's commercial high-water mark, 1983's Let's Dance, as well as the Vaughan Brothers, Keith Urban, the B-52s and many others. Recent years have found Rodgers still at the top of the charts with Sam Smith, Christina Aguilera and Avicii.  "At least 95 percent of the records I do come about because I met someone somewhere," Rodgers says. "At a gig, in the club, back- stage. We'll talk and then it's, 'Let's try to do a record together.' Whether it's Bowie or Madonna or Disclosure or whoever. 'Meet our friend, Sam. Oh, you sing? Cool, let's write a song.' That was Sam Smith. And Daft Punk, they were big Chic fans and we met at the listening party for their first album. It took 16 years for us to get together, and when they came over to play some demos, what I remember most was the conceptual part of it. I was enthralled, because I'm that kind of guy." P eople are always asking Nile Rodgers the secret to breaking into the music business. And the longtime Chic leader— whose studio resume includes signature hits by the likes of Madonna, Sister Sledge, Daft Punk and scores more—has plenty of stories to tell. But he generally doesn't give out advice.  "If I were to say something masquerading as advice, it would be to learn to embrace failure because that's the one thing you can depend on," Rodgers says. "I feel like everything I do has potential, but the reality is most records fail—not artistically or spiritually, but commercially. So all I know how to do is just persevere. You want a hit, but you're gonna keep doing it either way. That's the story of my life. Just keep doing it."  Four decades after Chic broke Rodgers out to the mainstream, Rodgers remains in high demand across a wide range of pop styles. One big reason for that is he's always been a musical omnivore able to absorb and play pretty much anything, going back to his teenage years playing guitar in the Sesame Street touring band. Even while earning his funk and R&B bonafides in the Apollo Theater's house band, however, Rodgers was more interested in jazz.  "More than anyone else," Rodgers says, "Wes Montgomery was who I was trying to copy back then."  By the time he hooked up with his key collaborator, Bernard Edwards, and began forming bands of his own in the 1970s, Rodgers really wanted to be in a rock band. And he had a very spe- cific model in mind for what he was after: the fashionable flash of English art-rock band Roxy Music. Seeing the band live in London proved to be a formative experience.  "I'd been in all these bands where whatever clothes you put on that morning, you'd be playing in that night," Rodgers says. "But Roxy Music had couture clothing, very theatrical, and they had models and Playboy bunnies on their album covers. Very cool! So take Roxy Music's high-fashion class and combine it with the ano- nymity of Kiss, and Chic comes out."

Articles in this issue

Archives of this issue

view archives of SXSWORLD - SXSWorld February 2017