All signs are pointing that Nick Lowe will be producing Elvis Costello's next album with the Imposters. Costello appeared on his longtime keyboardist Steve Nieve's webcast and heavily intimated he's asked Lowe to do the honors for the first time in over 25 years.
Nick Lowe, arguably, produced Costello's greatest works — including 1978's This Year's Model, 1979's Armed Forces, 1980's Get Happy, and 1981's Trust before returning for 1986's Blood And Chocolate, and 1994's Brutal Youth.
Variety reported Costello and Nieve had recently recorded with various musicians in France back in February — and had time booked at London's legendary Abbey Road Studios last month before the world closed down. Costello then went on to hint as to what fans can expect from the upcoming album, saying, “So I called up a pal of ours. And I ain’t gonna say his name. But I said to him, 'Would you come and produce this session for us?' And he said, 'Well, y'know, old chap, I don’t really do that kind of thing anymore.' And I said, 'Yeah, but you know that I know that you can.' And one of these days we’re all gonna be back in the studio with that gang of people. And maybe it won’t be too long. It’s the way everybody feels right now: When is life gonna get back to normal?”
Costello added that “You can probably guess who that person is if you’ve followed our career. He then underscored who that special someone producing the session would be when he and Nieve launched into a virtual rendition of Costello classic cover of Lowe’s “(What’s So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love And Understanding.”
Critics have long tried to categorize Elvis Costello's music throughout the decades. He told us that pigeonholing any type of art ultimately saps it of any originality: “All these labels — when they called it 'jazz,' originally, they weren't saying a good thing. Y'know, they were actually denigrating the music. They called it 'rock n' roll' — it was slang for something that was taboo, but it was also used to denigrate the music. Y'know, sometimes the labels that are attached to things are a way of confining it. When I started out, they wanted to say what we were doing as distinct from punk was 'new wave.' It meant nothing to me because I never identified myself with such an idea, y'know?'
