Mark Stevens was gracious enough to allow us to publish excerpts from his recent interview with Dave Stewart, and now he has kindly agreed to share his recent Q&A with Thomas Lindsey with us as well.  Lindsey is 1/2 of Stewart Lindsey, the post-modern blues duo comprised of himself and Dave Stewart of Eurythmics.  Their new album “Amitié” has just been released.  In this candid Q&A, Lindsey discusses the new album, how he came to work with Dave Stewart, his musical influences, and his favorite band Eurythmics and which songs by them he loves the best.  

Mark:  Thomas, thank you for taking time to speak to me today.

Thomas:  “I’m actually at work. Well, I’m working from home, so it’s not that dramatic.”

So this is your job when you’re not making music. What do you do?

I work in IT.

How old are you?

I’m 32.

I lived in Lafayette, Louisiana, for about three years, off and on, so not too far from your hometown of DeRidder.

“This feels like more East Texas. When people think of Louisiana, they think of New Orleans, but the only place in Louisiana that looks like New Orleans is New Orleans.”

So tell me how this all began with Dave Stewart.

“I reached out to him on Twitter.”

And then what happened?

“So I started writing songs in 2010. I had never written songs. I always sang songs, but I had not written songs. And I love music, and Eurythmics is my favorite band. And I was listening to a lot of blues and jazz, and I had a boss, who’s a dear friend of mine, who told me that I should write songs. But I said, ‘I can’t write songs, I don’t play any instruments.’ We probably fought about it in his office for probably an hour, but I went home that night and wrote a song. … And it’s like it opened a gate, and then I started writing a whole bunch of them. My friends would tell me they were good, but I didn’t know if my friends were just being nice to me because they were my friends or if the songs were really good songs.”

Didn’t trust your friends …

“But about that time, in 2012, Dave had just worked with Stevie Nicks and I remember reading how Stevie said she sent him a book of her poems and he would come over and play guitar and she would sing those poems. And I started thinking, I could write that way. And I knew Dave had written and played with so many people and people always had good things to say about him, and that he loved the Blues, because he had done a Blues documentary, and I thought where if I’m ever going to send my music to anyone and believe what he had to say about it, then Dave would be the only one to do it. So I thought, I’ll just tweet him, and my friends said, ‘You can’t just do that. You can’t tweet somebody like that. You have to go and play bars for 20 years and pay your dues.’ But he replied! And he said, ‘These are really good,’ and I was like, Really? And he said, Keep it secret, but I’d like to work with you.’ ”

That’s amazing.

“And then I thought, ‘Oh God, I’ve opened the door! And is this a door I want opened?’ And that sort of scared me. I’m not into traveling, which I’m sure Dave has told you already. And I knew it meant I had to do that in some capacity. I had never been outside the Louisiana-Arkansas-Texas area. I had never been on an airplane. I was scared to death to go. I’m such a home body to be totally ripped and disconnected from your world and everything you know and plopped down in the middle of California, and he asked me to go and sing two of my songs live before he went on stage, and I said, ‘But I don’t play instruments; I write all my songs a cappella,’ and I felt like I needed to apologize. And Dave said, ‘No, no, no, no, you don’t apologize. You’re an artist, just because you don’t play an instrument doesn’t make you less of an artist. He said Ella Fitzgerald never played an instrument.”

So Dave Stewart wants you to perform with him?

“I was terrified, and I thought, will the people of California like my music? What will they think of me singing the blues? But they liked it a lot and were really kind to me. I didn’t think I could go that far west and they wouldn’t think I’m some kind of heretic playing the Blues. I didn’t know. I was scared. But it was great.”

So you had never been that far from home?

“My first trip to Califorina, I was scared to death. Second trip, I was a little bit scared to death. The third, we were doing rehearsals. Well, it was when the TV show ‘Once Upon a Time’ was on, but on this particular day, it was the season finale that night. We were in rehearsals and I was looking at the clock, and it hit 8 o’clock. I ran out of rehearsals and down Hollywood Boulevard and about half way to the hotel, I realized across six lanes of traffic, ‘Well, boy, you’re not scared of California anymore, are you?’ It was nighttime. Anybody could have taken me into an alleyway, but I didn’t care, I was running down the street. … I couldn’t miss the show. We had rehearsed since 8 in the morning. We were tired anyway.”

That in itself is such a great story in your really great story. Think about it, you’re doing something you’ve only been able to dream about, and it’s now happened but you are desperate to go down the street to watch a show called “Once Upon a Time,” and those are how so many great stories start out. “Once upon a time …”

“It’s weird. When I went to Los Angeles the first time and went to rehearsal, it just felt so normal. It was like I was walking into a garage with friends and I was playing music. I never hit me that I was with these people who are bigger than life, but I respect Dave’s art. I don’t idolize people, because I realize that people are just people. We all have emotions, feelings, and we are all paying bills and getting in our cars trying to find something to eat. It’s just life. But I treasure Dave’s art. It’s just like my friends locally, I treasure them. That’s why I had the confidence to reach out to him, because I treasure his art, and I knew he would get me. … He’s been such a great friend to me, musically. I can pull this Nina Simone song from my head, and that I don’t think anyone would have hard this deep cut, but he will know it! And he will understand when I say I want that same kind of feeling. He will play a chord, and we will be connected.”

And it all happened because of a Tweet to Dave.

“It’s weird for me. People told me you can’t just tweet somebody, and I thought, ‘I’ll just tweet Dave.’ I didn’t know you couldn’t do it, so I did.”

What gave you the confidence to do that?

“I believe God put us on this earth to dream, and if you’re not having big dreams, then what are you doing with the life He gave you. I don’t think you should ever limit yourself with you can’t do that, because it’s not done. You can’t reach out to somone. Why not? Because that might be your blessing.”

So how many people live in DeRidder? Is it a small town?

I don’t know, really. (He takes a moment and does a Google search.) It’s apparently 23,000 people.

Do people in town know that you’ve recorded an album that went to No. 1 on the Amazon and iTunes Blues charts?

“Not really, no. I stay in my home. I work in the next town over, Leesville. When I go into stores or whatever, they don’t know. The Blues isn’t really big here, because we are so close to Texas.”

Are people there more into country-western music?

“I love old country – George Jones, The Judds. You will hear influences in my music from those artists.”

Getting back to Dave. When he asked you out to California to play with him, did you know you were going to do an album?

“I thought, OK, maybe he wants me to do a show with him or maybe we would do a song. I never thought we would do an album. I didn’t even know I could do a whole album. I was intimidated by that. I wondered if this could happen or if I was capable. It’s like when you start a new job, for the first time six months, you think you’re going to get fired, you know?”

How did it come about that you were not just going a live show and just a song, but you were, in fact, doing a whole album?

“Dave said, ‘We are going to make an album,’ and so we started. I remember he sent me a track where he played the guitar and asked me, ‘What do you think about this?’ And then I wrote some lyrics and recorded and sent it back. And that was the first one, and then we started another one. At some point, I would send him an a cappella song that I would record in my bathroom and send it to him, and he would play to that. So it was back and forth like that. And at the end of it, there were 12 songs. We connect musically. If you can find someone you connect with, they just get you. Dave has listened to the Blues, probably more than I have, and I love the Blues and soul music.”

How has the music you love influenced you?

“I love to sing. I listen to voices. Because of where my vocal range is, I’ve gravitated to female singers. When I was very, very young, the first person I really loved was Reba (McEntire) and then Cher, because her voice and my voice was in a similar place. I discovered The Judds, and then I found Eurythmics. And all these became my favorites. I think it’s in your teenage years where you find your favorites. Before that, you’re just kind of listening, so when I found Dave and Annie, it was boom! It became my cornerstone. And from them, I found their influences — Stevie Wonder, who I love, and Aretha Franklin, who I adore.

“When I found Nina Simone, that’s when I feel in love with jazz. Growing up, I thought jazz is what you heard in an elevator, you know just calm and instrumental. But when I found Nina Simone, I found that that there was a whole other world of jazz that I didn’t know about, and I felt totally ignorant that I had missed out on it for all those years. It’s listening to Nina, I found my writing voice. It’s weird, but I discovered I could write in the Blues style. I didn’t know that. But then I morphed and went to Lucinda Williams and Sam Phillips and took a more singer-songwriter way. At the end of the day, you get all these different voices and writing styles that influence you and you put them into a big blender. Growing up, you try to imitate these people but then you become an adult, you become more comfortable with yourself and blend it together subconsciously. On this new album, it’s that way. A lot of the lyrics are very singer-songwriter-ish, but the melodies will be very much in the style of the Blues. I love that it took all those things I love and put them together. It’s the quilt of America, isn’t it?”

The new album is titled Amitié, which means friendship. Did you know you were making an album about friendship?

“A lot of my friends were moving away when we wrote the album, so I was talking about that. A lot of people have come into my life and taught me a lot of things, and then they go away, and you get another circle of friends. But you carry your friends with you, always. So a lot of the songs are about that — friendships and the treasure that it is. Friends become family.”

Do your friends and co-workers know about your success in music?

“They know because I sing at work constantly. I’m at my desk singing; it doesn’t stop.”

Do they know how you go to Los Angeles to perform with Dave?

“They do. They’re fine it. They’re very grounding for me. They know that it’s part of me. That it’s my art. I’ve never seen myself as just a person who loves to write music. I think every song is a gift from God. I never sat out to write songs. If they come to me, they are a gift. And I’m like, where did that come from? It’s a totally emotional and spiritual thing.”

How often do you find yourself writing music, creating new art?

“Sometimes, I’ll go months without writing a single word, and I’ll think, well, maybe I’m out of things to say. But then something happens, and it comes out again. I don’t think you can force it because it’s not real, and people can feel that. You don’t plan it; it’s part of your being.”

A lot of the songs on the new album are very short. The majority of the songs are less than two minutes. Was that on purpose?

“If the words come, then the words come. If it’s only two verses, then so be it. Why add a third verse when you don’t have anything else to say? Because then you’re just padding it.”

Talk to me about some of the songs on the new album.

“ ‘Hold On’, well I had a lot to say there. I tend to write sad ballads, but I’m not a sad person, don’t get me wrong. But I guess that’s why I like the Blues, because it’s very soothing to me. If I’m having a bad day, I can put on BB King and when he sings, ‘Nobody loves me but my mother, and she could be driving, too.’ Oh, that verse, oh my. And I think, OK, maybe BB had it worse than me. But, you know, I don’t want to diagram my songs for people. I want people to get what they want out of the song for themselves. … When we made the first album, I took it my boss who was the guy who told me to start writing, and I asked him, ‘Can you tell too much about me in these songs?’ And he said no, and I said, ‘Good, then we can release it.’ I don’t want to share too much. I don’t want it to be too biographical or anything, because you want people to be able to interpret the songs.”

One of my favorite songs on the first album is “Alcohol.” That is such an amazing song.

“Alcohol” was written because I had a lot of friends who were struggling. And one day, I just went in the bathroom and hit record, like I do, and I just started singing that song freeform, and that’s what came out. I sent it Dave, and he said he liked it. It’s not really a song about alcohol. It’s whatever it may be that a person can’t give it up and something is holding them down and they just want to let it go.”

What’s your favorite song on the new album?

“You’re mean for asking me that.”

I’m sorry. My wife always makes me play the favorite game. I don’t like to pick favorites either, sometimes.

“Well, if I had a favorite song, if I had to pick one that has meaning for me, it would be …  ‘Hold On’ because it ended being up exactly the way, from start to finish, in what I wanted to say in that moment. It explains everything I want in that moment. But favorite? It’s hard, you know. You can’t pick your children. They’re all special, right? ‘I Know How You Feel’ is the first song Dave and I ever wrote together, and it’s on the new album. We remembered that we had recorded and never put it out … and now it’s finally on the second album, isn’t that crazy?”

You said earlier that you never expected to even write one album, let alone two.

“Yeah, it all just happened. I thought while we were making the first album, you better pour everything that you have, vocally and lyrically, into this, because this is what you wanted. You wanted to make an album, and you wanted to make an album with Dave. So this is it, this is your manifesto. So I thought that was going to be it. And I didn’t think there would be second album, but then Dave said, ‘Let’s write another album.’ I didn’t know if I had anything else to say. I didn’t know.”

Explain the process of how you and Dave work together.

“I’m constantly sending him things, and anytime I write a song, I send it to him and ask him what he thinks. But he was in Paris, and he was playing and he sent it to me and said, ‘Here. Let’s try this out, and then he sent me another one. Then we were making an album, so we were off.”

What are your hopes for the new album?

“I’m an artist, so I want people to hear it. I’d be lying if I I didn’t say it. When people do hear it, I hope they feel like I felt when I wrote it and when we made it. I hope that it bring people some joy and solace when they’re sad and all the things I get out of music when I listen. I hope that they feel that. A lot of these songs are about friendship and the friends that moved away. ‘Liberation’ talks a lot about topics, and I hope people will feel empowered by that song. At the end of the song, it says it all: ‘Social media shows life, but I’ve watched it kill.’ That one is pretty obvious. When you make music, you hope that you’re not just contributing more noise. You want to feel like you are putting something out there that’s meaningful. With ‘Liberation’, we wrote it last year, and I was fed up with the media, and everyone selling something. People go on Instagram and they feel worse about themselves. I was thinking, can it please just slow down for 5 minutes? I was thinking, could God liberate me from this? I’m going to be liberated from feeling likes this. It gets vary dark in the world. You have to hang on, because you can see others go down the drain.”

Your music means a lot to you, doesn’t it?

“Nina (Simone) said in one of her concerts, ‘I hope this brings you some kind of something,’ and I felt that just sums it up. … People are just going through live surviving. They’re not living, and that’s heartbreaking. We have to live so fast. Everything has gotten so caught up in materialism. You see people and their health is failing, because they are disconnected. Where I’m from (in southwest) Louisiana, this is basically like East Texas, but I’ve often felt like an alien. There’s a song by Della Reese called ‘A Stranger on Earth’. I felt like that growing up. What I was listening to in high school, nobody around me was. I would be listening to Blues or a jazz track from the 1940s. So I didn’t connect. Even Eurythmics, people didn’t know. So I’d have to tell them, you know the people who did ‘Sweet Dreams’. If I listened to The Cranberries or Alanis Morissette, they knew.”

Alanis Morissette is a big Annie fan. I remember she stood up and applauded when Annie won her Grammy for “No More ‘I Love You’s.’

“Really? I didn’t know that. That’s great. You know, I first saw Eurythmics on TV when the PeaceTour was going on. I hate I wasn’t there when all their other albums came out and I could have bought them at the time. But I remember seeing Annie at the piano singing ‘Sweet Dreams’ and Dave on the guitar (most likely, the Brit Awards ceremony where Dave and Annie performed in 1999). And I instantly thought, ‘This is great!’ Then I got the Peace album, and then I imported the Eurythmics box set. I had the PeaceTour DVD, and I played it until I wore it out. I loved them live so much, and that tour had a gospel and Blues sound. So all of 1999, I’m wearing camo as much as I could.”

So I know I promised I wouldn’t ask you for your favorites, but I’ve got to ask what you favorite Eurythmics song is.

“Oh, my. It has to be ‘You Have Placed A Chill In My Heart.’ I just love when they do it live, too. I loved all of Annie’s solo work, and Iove Dave’s song ‘Heart of Stone’. Obviously, I love ‘Why,’ that’s obvious. And if it’s not obvious, I guess it would be ‘Loneliness’ from the Bare album.”

You have very good taste, Thomas. “Loneliness” is one of my favorites too. Five years, Annie released her last album, Nostalgia, which was her take on American Songbook classics.

“When I heard she was doing that, I basically, said, ‘Just take my wallet. I didn’t have to hear it or a single track. This is the American Songbook. This is Annie. Just take my money.”

But Eurythmics started it all.

“The last time I went to Los Angeles, Dave was doing a show at The Roxy. And he asked me if would do two Eurythmics songs, and I said, Yeah! Of course, I would love to! I was just so disappointed that I didn’t have any camo to wear, because I would have totally brought the PeaceTour back. I performed ‘Missionary Man’ and ‘Love Is a Stranger’. I love them both. It was so fun. I was probably cheesing on stage from ear to ear. I was having a blast. I love writing and recording music, but I have such an appreciation for other peoples’ music and songs. When I go around the house, I’m not singing my own songs, I’m singing other peoples’ songs because they influenced me and I connect with them. It’s weird, I think all artists are like that, right?”

You seem to have an appreciation for all types of music.

“I do. I love dance music or electronic music. I tried (singing) it once, though, and it was a disaster. You never know. I’ve written country. You never know.”

It’s wonderful you’ve done so well.

“Have I done well?”

Well, you’re about to have your second album with Dave Stewart. I would think that’s doing well.

“Oh, right. That thing!” (Thomas laughs)

What do you want people to get from the music you’ve written?

“I want people to know that you can’t be restricted. You can’t let people tell you can’t do something. I was told I couldn’t message an artist I loved, but I did it anyway. … I didn’t listen. You can’t listen to the status quo when it comes to your dreams. If you feel you can do it, you have to do it. Who cares if it falls apart? Who cares? If you follow the same path as everyone else, then you get the same thing as everyone else got. Challenge the sense of normal. Live and thrive. Don’t just exist.”

We’ve been talking a long time, but I want to ask you about the videos you’ve done with Dave. You’re recording one for each track on the new album, right?

“Yes! That petrifies me, too. (Laughs). The music videos not so much, but I don’t like see myself on camera. I think I look very awkward and that I move awkward. I guess everybody feels that way — no one likes seeing themselves on camera, right? But I got comfortable with doing videos, but Dave wanted me to do some talking pieces on camera. And I’m like, ‘No! No! Will people be able to understand me with my accent? I have such a thick accent. (Laughs) People are going to say things about me, and Dave was like, ‘No. You’re talking voice is great.’ But I eventually did it. You have to step outside your comfort zone sometimes, so I did it. But I’m getting more comfortable with it. You know when I went to New York with Dave, they were really chill about my accent there. That was really funny.”

Thomas, it’s been so great talking to you. Thank you. I hope you have great success with the new album, and you do many more.

Thank you!