By Isaac Hamlet
You’ve probably heard Nick Lowe’s music, even if you haven’t heard of him.
The 67-year-old British pop artist’s biography asserts he’s the “songwriter of at least three songs you know of,” and at 8 p.m.Friday Englert Theater, 221 E. Washington St. will welcome Lowe to Iowa City.
Since breaking into the music industry in the 1970s, Lowe has been a producer (for Elvis Costello and the Pretenders, among others), a songwriter (“[What’s So Funny ’Bout] Peace, Love, and Understanding?”), (“Cruel to Be Kind”), and a performer.
“[My own music] is very simple,” Lowe said. “There’s nothing particularly original, but I’ve been doing it for so long it’s like a snowball — you pick stuff up from different artists as you go. You end up with a sort of soup of what you love.”
Into this soup, Lowe has stirred ingredients from roots, folk, and pop. Starting with his début record in 1978, he’s managed to put out 16 of his own albums.
“You have to please yourself first,” he said. “I’ve written a lot of songs that aren’t very good, but you have to wade through those kinds of songs to get to what is good. The best songs are the ones that sound like they’ve got nothing to do with you.”
Interestingly, some of Lowe’s best-known songs are covers that other artists — Johnny Cash, Curtis Stigers, and Wilco included — have recorded.
Lowe has also written pieces solely for other artists to perform, including, most recently, “The Other Side of the Coin” for Solomon Burke. Contrary to convention, however, Lowe was not commissioned by Burke for the song; instead, Lowe — a fan of Burke’s work — recorded the piece on his own accord.
“Writing a song for someone else is like making a suit,” he said. “Fitting the jacket, measuring the pant leg — you can get it wrong, but it’s great fun.”
Although to date he’s released work at an average rate of roughly one record every three years, Lowe isn’t certain he’ll release another album.
Drummer Bobby Irwin had been a big part of Lowe’s album recording process. After Irwin’s death last year, Lowe felt he was “sort of through” with albums for the time being.
“I’ve still got some pretty good songs in my live show,” Lowe said. “Making albums the way I know how is incredibly expensive, and I don’t feel the need to tell people things [through an album] right now.”
While his enthusiasm for recording has been dampened, he still gets a kick out of touring. Even with a loyal and devoted fan base from his generation, he loves playing for students in college towns.
“I’ve been keen on not just performing for people who’ve known me for years and years,” he said. “I’m interested in performing for young people. [While touring with another band] I played for a lot of people in their late-20s, early 30s, where as my fans are a lot of the time in their late-60s, early 70s. When you’re able to get that diversity of people in a room together, it’s a wonderful thing.”