return to menu of Pretenders articlesMARK McEWEN reporting:
There is big-time buzz in the music world about something brand-new from one of my all-time favorite bands, The Pretenders. They're back with their first all-acoustic album called "The Isle of View." And they're backed up by a full-string ensemble with singer, songwriter and guitarist CHRISSIE HYNDE on lead vocals.
(Excerpt from "Sense of Purpose" video, courtesy of Warner Bros. Records.)
McEWEN: Boy, that's a good si--sound. Hynde founded the group back in 1978. The faces have changed over the years. CHRISSIE HYNDE joins us. The Pretenders will play for us just a bit later on. Ladies and gentlemen, CHRISSIE HYNDE.
Ms. CHRISSIE HYNDE (The Pretenders): Hi.
McEWEN: Good to see you, as always.
Ms. HYNDE: You, too.
McEWEN: Now you go in, this has a lot of old favorites re-dressed up. How do you dress them up? How'd you start?
Ms. HYNDE: Well, we really wanted to do a live album. So we thought, you know--and we' played with the Duke String Quartet last year. We did a cover version of "Angel of the Morning," and we just tr--wanted to think of how can we keep working with them, really, so we thought the live album acoustic would be a--with the strings. We just stripped the songs down and got string arrangements on them.
McEWEN: And they sound great as well. Now when you're playing a song over and over like "Brass in Pocket," "2,000 Miles," does it get old to you? I mean, do you say to yourself, 'Oh, here we go one more time'? Or...
Ms. HYNDE: Yeah, if you do it probably for a whole tour, by the end of it, you might have it. But actually, when you're doing it for an audience, you know, it's always new when you do that song. You know, you just get back into it. They're--they're easy to keep doing over and over again.
McEWEN: They're good songs, too. The Pretenders have had lineup changes through the years. You lost two of your mates early on drug overdoses. Martin Chambers is back on drums.
Ms. HYNDE: Yeah.
McEWEN: How has it been to--is it hard reassembling, or do you--how do you get The Pretenders to sound again like you want The Pretenders to sound?
Ms. HYNDE: Well, that's not really that difficult. People think that The Pretenders is really just me or they think that now because there's been so many lineup changes. But in the early days with--when we started the band, we sort of invented a sound, The Pretender sound, and it was not my sound by any means. So it's been easy for me to just try to carry it on in that tradition by copying what James Honeyman-Scott and Pete Farndon and Martin and I did in the first place. So I just refer back to our original premise and keep going. And now in Andy and Adam, we found players that are very similar. You know, they're--it's an English band and they've got the same sort of English pop sensibility for--for the music. So it hasn't been that hard.
McEWEN: You're from Akron. You're an Akron girl. You live in--in England. Have lived there for, gee--What?--25 years now? What does...
Ms. HYNDE: Yeah; 22, 20, 30, 40, I can't remember.
McEWEN: Fifty; who can tell? What does England have for you that the States doesn't have?
Ms. HYNDE: My band.
McEWEN: That's a reason to live there.
Ms. HYNDE: That's why I'm there.
McEWEN: Now here's a qestion for you. If you had to live back in the States...
Ms. HYNDE: Mm-hmm.
McEWEN: ...where would you live?
Ms. HYNDE: Oh, Cleveland, northeastern Ohio.
McEWEN: Why?
Ms. HYNDE: That's home.
McEWEN: That's a good place...
Ms. HYNDE: Yeah.
McEWEN: ...to be from.
Ms. HYNDE: Another kind of rehabilitating Cleveland. It's exciting.
McEWEN: I saw a documentary on the BBC where Bono from U2 said that you were a big influence on him. And you said, which was great, because all of your influences early on were guys.
Ms. HYNDE: Yeah.
McEWEN: Who were the guys that were influences on you?
Ms. HYNDE: Oh, all of them. You know, any--anyone who ever sang in a band or played guitar. Mainly it was my guitar heroes, Jeff Beck and, you know, all the guys I grew up with. But, you know, I knew I didn't have the aptitude to do that. And I was--but I suppose my favorite singers pro--I just was a rock fan mainly, so--I never found gender a problem. And I never understood what the fuss was. But...
McEWEN: Tell me about the quietness of working with strings.
Ms. HYNDE: This i--I have a reaction now against noise. I think it's an environmental stress thing--road work, traffic. And I--and I go to gigs now, it's just too noisy. You know, I like loud music, but it's just--everything's too noisy. So with the strings now, it's f--for me, it's become very soothing. I--maybe it's an age thing. You tell me. But, you know, it's just nice and quiet and easy to listen to. And they rock. So...
McEWEN: And they do rock. Stay with us. The Pretenders will perform right after this.
(Commercial break)
PAULA ZAHN, co-host: It's a day at the circus, the Big Apple Circus, tomorrow on CBS THIS MORNING.
McEWEN: It is 13 before the hour. W are back with some great music for you from The Pretenders, CHRISSIE HYNDE, Martin Chambers, Adam Seymour and Andy Hobson and the Duke Quartet, as requested by me because you told me to say that. Chrissie HYNDE and The Pretenders.
(CHRISSIE HYNDE and The Pretenders perform a song)
McEWEN: So cool. The Pretenders. So cool. We'll be right back with another look at--a final look at the news and weather right after this.
So cool. Thank you.
Program Time: 7:00-9:00 AM
Nielson Rating 3201440
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