13 QUESTION METHOD: LENI STERN

Born in Munich, Germany, Leni Stern started playing piano at the age of six and guitar at 11. At seven, she formed her own acting company. She has been recording as a bandleader for over 20 years, with each new release holding new surprises for listeners.

1. Which was the first record you bought with your own money?
The Beatles’ A Hard Day’s Night, I think. The Beatles, for sure.

2. Which was the last record you bought with your own money?
Ali Farka Toure — Niafunke.

3. What was the first solo you learned from a record — and can you still play it?
George Benson — “Eternally,” from It's Uptown. A minor blues. I can still play the first chorus, sort of.

4. Which recording of your own (or as a sideman) are you most proud of, and why?
The last one — Love Comes Quietly. Always the last one, since we try to improve every day. Even if sometimes it seems as if we don’t, as if we played better years ago, I believe we get better as we get older.

5. What's the difference between playing live and playing in a studio?
I like to take long solos when we play live. If I did that in the studio, my CDs would have only three songs on them. We all stretch when we play live. The songs sound different every time we play. Not always longer. It just depends on were the moon is, I suppose. In the studio I try to create something that you'd want to listen to more then once — a piece of music that has little surprises hidden in it that you discover as you listen for a while.

6. What's the difference between a good gig and a bad gig?
A bad gig is when don’t get to really play, for whatever reason. But actually every gig is a good gig, in a way, It's almost always better to play music then not to. Of course, getting shot at or yelled at or being very hot or very cold could be bad. Or having your guitar break and your amp. Having your bass player hate your drummer. I guess there are bad gigs.

7. What's the difference between a good guitar and a bad guitar?
A bad guitar hurts your hands, is out of tune, makes you work hard to sound decent. A good guitar is like a best friend. It makes you feel better when you’re down. It makes you sound great, even on a bad day.

8. You play electric and acoustic. Do you approach the two differently?
N/A

9. Do you sound more like yourself on acoustic or electric?
I feel more like myself on electric guitar, but I love my Collings steel-string and my Flip Scipio baritone acoustic. I guess I sound like me on both, just different mes — acoustic me and electric me.

10. Do you sound like yourself on other people's guitars?
For better and for worse, I do sound like myself. Wouldn't it be nice to suddenly play twice as good on some else's guitar? One time I played Ry Cooder's seafoam-green Strat, which was at my luthier's shop for refretting, and I thought I got a little Paris, Texas going, But it was probably just in my mind. One time I played through my husband Michael’s rig at a sound-check so that he could go into the hall and listen to his sound. His bass player started talking to me as if I were him — "You know, Mike, we should start the gig with...." Then he turned and looked at me like I was a ghost.

11. Which living artist (music, or other arts) would you like to collaborate with?
Andy Goldsworthy.

12. What dead artist (music, or other arts) would you like to have collaborated with?
Miles Davis.

13. What's your latest project about?
I recently played with a group of n'gony players in Mali, and I am working on writing music for our collaboration. I will return to Mali to start recording with Bassekou Kouyaté, "the prince of strings," as he is called over there.

Web site: hhttp://www.lenistern.com/