"When I work alone, my process is like painting. With Fleetwood Mac, it's more like movie making"
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Buckingham’s comparison isn’t just cute arts-talk; it’s a quiet power map of how creativity changes when other people enter the room. “Painting” suggests a solitary medium where the artist controls the palette, the pace, and the final image. It’s intimate, revision-friendly, and stubbornly private. He’s implying that his solo work is built on personal authorship: one sensibility, one set of instincts, no committee notes.
“Movie making,” by contrast, is collaboration with consequences. Films are expensive, scheduled, negotiated; they require a cast, a crew, and a producer hovering somewhere off-frame. Buckingham is telegraphing what anyone who knows Fleetwood Mac’s mythology already suspects: the band wasn’t just a musical unit, it was an ecosystem of competing visions, egos, romances, and veto power. You don’t “finish” a movie by perfecting your brushstrokes; you finish it by getting everyone to sign off, by cutting scenes you love, by accepting that the final product is a composite.
The subtext is also defensive, and maybe a little proud. Buckingham has long been cast as both perfectionist and lightning rod, the guy pushing takes, edits, and arrangements until the song becomes something bigger than any one member. Calling Fleetwood Mac “movie making” reframes that reputation as necessary production work, not mere control. It also hints at scale: the band’s records weren’t diary entries, they were blockbusters, made in public, with drama that became part of the marketing. The art wasn’t only the music; it was the credits roll of a very famous, very combustible set.
“Movie making,” by contrast, is collaboration with consequences. Films are expensive, scheduled, negotiated; they require a cast, a crew, and a producer hovering somewhere off-frame. Buckingham is telegraphing what anyone who knows Fleetwood Mac’s mythology already suspects: the band wasn’t just a musical unit, it was an ecosystem of competing visions, egos, romances, and veto power. You don’t “finish” a movie by perfecting your brushstrokes; you finish it by getting everyone to sign off, by cutting scenes you love, by accepting that the final product is a composite.
The subtext is also defensive, and maybe a little proud. Buckingham has long been cast as both perfectionist and lightning rod, the guy pushing takes, edits, and arrangements until the song becomes something bigger than any one member. Calling Fleetwood Mac “movie making” reframes that reputation as necessary production work, not mere control. It also hints at scale: the band’s records weren’t diary entries, they were blockbusters, made in public, with drama that became part of the marketing. The art wasn’t only the music; it was the credits roll of a very famous, very combustible set.
Quote Details
| Topic | Music |
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