Essential 8: Wesley Stace

Credit: Shervin Lainez

Hitting the scene in the late ’80s, Wesley Stace, then professionally known as the singer-songwriter John Wesley Harding, scored some early musical success with songs like “The Devil in Me,” “The Person You Are,” and an unlikely cover of Madonna’s “Like a Prayer.” More than 20 albums and collections later, he tends a multi-faceted career as a novelist, singer-songwriter, professor, book reviewer, and variety show host.
 
On May 18, Stace will release Greatest Other People’s Hits featuring tunes from artists like Bruce Springsteen, Madonna, Serge Gainsbourg, George Harrison, Roky Erickson, and Pete Seeger, among others. In advance of the release, Stace answered his Essential 8 where he briefly spoke about songwriting, the album, and more.
 
Stace notes, “You can write quite as good and accurate a narrative of a musical career through the covers sung as the songs written. Often, I’ve found people like the covers more, which may speak for itself, but I’ve always found it a compliment: covers are my strong suit."

Did you have a musical mentor? If so, who was it and how did they influence you?
Not an actual person, but my friend’s older brothers record collection was a real influence on me. He had very good taste, and somewhat unusual for England at the time. I have a couple of friends who continually inspire me: Scott McCaughey is one.

With any particular song, was there an “a-ha” moment when you knew the song was completed and perfect?
I have never known this about a song! But the honest answer is: when I’ve reached the end of the third verse (unless it needs one or two more.) I very rarely go back and change anything.

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Is there a story behind your album’s title?
Well, it’s an album of cover versions, and people call their Greatest Hits records “Greatest Hits”, and since I haven’t really had any ‘Hits”, I thought “Greatest Other People’s Hits” would be on the money. And Like A Prayer is on there and that actually was a hit. Also, I wanted the cover to be a cover of a cover, since the songs are all covers. So it’s a cover of ABBA Gold.

Why did you chose to anchor the album with the songs you did?
See above. Omnivore came to me with the idea of a compilation of my own songs, but I thought a comp of covers was a nice idea. And it was so much fun that now I’d be happy to do a compilation of my own songs.

Where do you draw inspiration from when writing? 
Conversations. Phrases.

When/where do you do your best writing?
On trains.

Do you write about personal experience, the experience of others, observations, made-up stories, something else or a combination?
All of the above. Just like everyone. Even the people you think write only narratives/satire/etc are really writing about themselves.

What’s the best advice you have ever gotten from another musician?
Don't leave your wallet in the dressing room.

What’s the best advice to give to a musician just starting out?
Only do it because you want to. If you’re happy doing what you do, that’ll be enough, and you won’t be disappointed. 

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