Neil Young‘s latest studio album with his frequent backing band Crazy Horse, Barn, gets released this Friday, and Young sat down recently with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe to chat about the project, which was recorded quickly this past June in a restored barn that Young owns in the Colorado Rockies.
During the interview, which was conducted at producer Rick Rubin‘s Shangri-La Studio in Malibu, California, Young explains why he feels Barn is one of his best albums.
“I’m very thankful for having made it,” he declares. “And I think it was a gift and everything in it works [for me], and it’s not often that happens…Everything felt right. So I feel great about it.”
Young says he contacted Crazy Horse’s members 10 months in advance and timed the Barn sessions to happen during the full moon.
“[W]hen we got set up, we started to play and then [the moon] got bigger and bigger and bigger until we recorded everything,” Neil recalls. “So that was cool. It was really cool.”
Regarding the actual barn, Young notes that it dates back to the 1870s, “and it was falling down and going back into the ground…So we took it and got a real master barn builder…and we rebuilt. Made it just like it was in the old drawings of it and old photographs.”
As previously reported, a film capturing the making of Barn, directed by Young’s wife, actress Daryl Hannah, will be included on a Blu-ray packaged with the deluxe version of the album, and also released as a standalone Blu-ray.
The documentary will get its theatrical premiere tonight at theaters in New York City, Chicago and Santa Monica, California. Visit NeilYoungArchives.com for more details.
Watch Young’s full interview with Lowe at Apple Music’s YouTube channel.
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