Bill DeMain
As a music journalist, Bill DeMain has written for publications including MOJO, Classic Rock, Musician, Entertainment Weekly, Mental Floss and Performing Songwriter. He’s also contributed essays to several books, including The Beatles: Ten Years That Shook The World, The History Of Rock, The MOJO Collection and The Lexicon of Lounge, as well as liner notes for the Grammy-nominated box set The Look Of Love: The Burt Bacharach Collection.
He lives in Nashville, TN.
36 articles
List of articles in the library
Burt Bacharach: "Do you know the Way to Monterey? Santa Fe? Whitley Bay?"
Retrospective and Interview by Bill DeMain, MOJO, March 1996
Thankfully, Messrs. Bacharach and David got there in the end, polishing yet another pop gem and putting an unremarkable California city on the map forever. ...
Burt Bacharach: What's It All About, Bacharach?
Special Feature by Bill DeMain, Switch, June 1997
"WHERE IS that whistling coming from?" ...
Interview by Bill DeMain, Performing Songwriter, September 1997
FUNK IS one of those words, like cool or hip, that is difficult to define. In music, it's an amorphous thing, an attitude, a looseness, ...
Fountains Of Wayne: A Tossed Off Masterpiece
Interview by Bill DeMain, In Natural, September 1997
JAMES THURBER once said that what he strived for most in his humor pieces was a "tossed off quality." ...
Interview by Bill DeMain, Rock's Backpages Audio, 11 December 1997
America's foremost Utopian on the songwriter's job: on originality and plagiarism; the process of writing and realisation; on revisiting his old songs on With a Twist; on the emerging Internet and how it will change the way artists and songwriters work... and the tyranny of the long-form CD.
File format: mp3; file size: 34.2mb, interview length: 35' 39" sound quality: ** (phoner)
Aretha Franklin: Arif Mardin: A Man For All Musical Seasons
Interview by Bill DeMain, Performing Songwriter, July 1998
READING THROUGH the list of artists that producer/arranger Arif Mardin has worked with is like looking at a chapter of history from American pop music. ...
XTC: Andy Partridge: Lemons And Lemonade
Interview by Bill DeMain, unpublished, 1999
"I'M A LUDICROUS optimist," says Andy Partridge. "I'm in front of the firing squad and I've got the clown's makeup on and I'm telling gags ...
James Taylor, Linda Ronstadt: Peter Asher: A World Of Sound
Interview by Bill DeMain, Performing Songwriter, April 1999
"I ALWAYS found the studio a fascinating place," says producer Peter Asher, "and the process of assembling a track and figuring out what each musician ...
João Gilberto: Carnegie Hall, New York NY
Live Review by Bill DeMain, MOJO, August 2000
Set List: 'Doralice'/'Vivo Sohondo'/'Ecliose'/'Samba De Una Nota So'/'Samba Da Minha Terra'/'Voce Vai Ver'/'Bonita'/'Morena Boca De Ouro'/'A Felicidade'/'O Pato'/'Estate'/'Chega De Saudade'/'Um Abraco No Bonfa'/'Sem Compromisso'/'S'Wonderful'/'Wave'/'Triste'/'Eu Vim ...
Cheap Trick: Roxy Theatre, Atlanta
Review and Interview by Bill DeMain, MOJO, March 2001
THE GUY next to me is in his late thirties. He has a mullet and he's about one beer away from being legless. When he ...
Smokey Robinson: 10 Questions for Smokey Robinson
Interview by Bill DeMain, MOJO, April 2002
Bill DeMain speaks to Motown's legendary songwriter and singer about Billy Eckstine, Marvin Gaye, school plays and positive rap. ...
Elvis Presley: Enter The Dragon
Retrospective by Bill DeMain, MOJO, April 2002
In the early '70s, Elvis took on the beast of Las Vegas with a mean-assed backing group and a neat line in ludicrous stage-wear. But ...
Interview by Bill DeMain, Rock's Backpages Audio, 26 September 2002
Brother Ray on how he's matured as a singer; on keeping interested in old songs by improvising; finding his own voice at the end of the '40s, and meeting his hero Nat King Cole; writing because he had to, and stopping when he didn't; mixing gospel and blues; on dressing sharp, and singing about love.
File format: mp3; file size: 14.3mb, interview length: 14' 52" sound quality: *** (phoner)
Profile and Interview by Bill DeMain, MOJO, November 2002
Ken Nordine is the laird of language, the maestro of the monologue, the wizard of word jazz. Bill DeMain lends an ear. ...
Ray Charles: 10 Questions for Ray Charles
Interview by Bill DeMain, MOJO, January 2003
Meeting Nat Cole, crafting genius songs on the spot and tips on sartorial cool. Bill DeMain gets the word from the emperor of soul. ...
Interview by Bill DeMain, Rock's Backpages Audio, 3 March 2003
The Mac frontwoman talks about writing songs for their latest album, Say You Will; how 'Illume (9-11)' was the result of the twin towers attack; on her songwriting process and how she uses her journals; the volatility of the band and her relationship with Lindsey Buckingham; her friendships with Sheryl Crow and the Dixie Chicks, and she ends by going back to her first musical experiences.
File format: mp3; file size: 70.1mb, interview length: 1h 12' 58" sound quality: ***
David Bowie: The Sound and Vision of David Bowie
Interview by Bill DeMain, Performing Songwriter, September 2003
PLANET EARTH is blue and David Bowie's beige. Dressed down in khakis, a light tan T-shirt and a matching ball cap, he looks more like ...
Bread, David Gates: Legends of Songwriting: David Gates of Bread
Profile and Interview by Bill DeMain, Performing Songwriter, December 2003
REMEMBER "soft rock?" You don't hear the term much anymore, but in the early 1970s, this musical genre floated onto the AM airwaves in the ...
Harlan Howard: Legends of Songwriting: Harlan Howard
Profile and Interview by Bill DeMain, Performing Songwriter, January 2004
THE TYPICAL songwriter who rolls into Nashville is an unknown hopeful with an acoustic guitar and a notebook full of half-finished songs and titles. When ...
Isaac Hayes: 10 Questions for Isaac Hayes
Interview by Bill DeMain, MOJO, February 2004
DO YOU remember your first week at Stax? ...
Interview by Bill DeMain, Rock's Backpages Audio, 29 March 2004
The great soul singer-songwriter talks about his classic band, the Watts 103rd Street rhythm section; about his childhood and the music around him; his late start, and his scepticism of the record industry; the magical, mystifying process of songwriting; and of growing old and the lure of daytime TV...
File format: mp3; file size: 33.3mb, interview length: 34' 42" sound quality: ** (phoner)
The Chi-Lites: Hello Goodbye: Eugene Record and the Chi-Lites
Interview by Bill DeMain, MOJO, April 2004
MARCH I960 ...
The Chi-Lites: Legends of Songwriting: Eugene Record of The Chi-Lites
Profile and Interview by Bill DeMain, Performing Songwriter, May 2004
IN 1969, WHEN The Chi-Lites scored their first hit with 'Give It Away', it was a well-earned triumph. ...
Bill Withers: Legends of Songwriting: Bill Withers
Interview by Bill DeMain, Performing Songwriter, July 2004
A BLACK MAN wearing faded jeans and an orange turtleneck sweater sits on a stool. He's hunched over his acoustic guitar. Eyes closed, sweat glistening ...
Elvis Costello: A Man with a Mission (In Two or Three Editions)
Interview by Bill DeMain, Performing Songwriter, Fall 2004
ELVIS COSTELLO is about to take over the world. No, he's not going to reveal himself as a nefarious arch-villain in league with Doctor Octopus ...
Sergio Mendes: Legends of Songwriting: Sergio Mendes
Interview by Bill DeMain, Performing Songwriter, October 2005
ON TIMELESS, the latest album by Sergio Mendes, there's a line in the title track that goes, "Kindness is timeless/Love is so easy." ...
Interview by Bill DeMain, Performing Songwriter, January 2006
WHEN DAVE Stewart and Annie Lennox formed Eurythmics in 1980, they drew up what they called "a manifesto." A list of their intentions, along with ...
Interview by Bill DeMain, Performing Songwriter, July 2006
When Don Kirshner hired Jeff Barry as a producer and writer for the Monkees, then the Archies, he knew he was getting a guaranteed hitmaker. ...
Paul Simon, Simon & Garfunkel: Surprise Surprise: Paul Simon
Interview by Bill DeMain, Performing Songwriter, September 2006
"THE TRUTH is flexible and complex," says Paul Simon. On the eleven songs that make up his latest album Surprise, the legendary songwriter sizes up ...
Jimmy Webb: Legends of Songwriting: Jimmy Webb
Profile and Interview by Bill DeMain, Performing Songwriter, March 2007
"SOMEONE LEFT the cake out in the rain." No single lyric is more infamous in pop music than the one Jimmy Webb wrote forty years ...
Herb Alpert: Legends Of Songwriting: Herb Alpert...
Profile and Interview by Bill DeMain, Performing Songwriter, July 2007
...plus an interview with Dolores Erickson, the lady beneath the Whipped Cream ...
Legends of Songwriting: Diane Warren
Interview by Bill DeMain, Performing Songwriter, September 2007
ASKED WHETHER she could ever love a person as much as she loves songwriting, Diane Warren doesn't miss a beat in answering an emphatic "No." ...
Retrospective by Bill DeMain, Nashville Lifestyles, March 2008
For six weeks during the summer of 1974, Music City was home to a former Beatle. ...
Interview by Bill DeMain, MOJO, November 2009
Master musician, recording pioneer, inventor of the solid-body electric guitar, Les Paul changed the face of popular music. Bill DeMain pays tribute to a great ...
David Bowie: Turn and Face The Strange: David Bowie and the Making Of Hunky Dory
Retrospective by Bill DeMain, Uncut, April 2011
JANUARY, 1971. There was trouble in outer space. Major Tom's signal was growing fainter by the day. And Ziggy Stardust was still an undefined blip ...
Prince: The Making of Purple Rain
Retrospective and Interview by Bill DeMain, Classic Rock, 8 October 2014
How the self-contained, reclusive genius learned to play nice with others, how to rock and in the process found his world-conquering groove. ...
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