SW's comments in official promotional material:
(Keyboard Magazine, May 97)

Narada Michael Walden:
"He was a member of The Mahivishnu Orchestra and The Weather Report,
which both best used extremely complicated jazz theories. And he now
produces Whitney Houston. Such his musical development and variety is
incomparable to mine. I thought he was the best person to my music, which is
probably in the middle of the two. Also he himself is a musician and that's what
I wanted the co-producer of this project to be."

Lenny Kravitz:
"His concert at Wembley was the best live concert I saw last year. I visited him
back stage and found him a perfect Traffic fan."

Traffic and solo:
"Traffic music became so close to mine that I wanted the two to be completely
separate through the production of this solo work. Needless to say I will
concentrate on my individual activity for a while. But when I want to seek
sounds I cannot make on my own, what I will choose as a vehicle can be
nothing but Traffic. Traffic is so important to me."

Live concerts:
"They will be special events because this time I will stay away from bigger
halls and focus on smaller clubs so that I can have closer relationship with
audience. In addition, the album has so energetic sounds that I will be able to
give hot performances at the stages. Yes, just like back in the old days."

 

An Interview with Steve Winwood
by Charles Shimiz (Keyboard Magazine, May 1997)

SW: Hello, Charles! Nice talking to you today.

Q: Nice talking to you too. Thank you very much for your precious time when
you are busy.

SW: No, I am not so busy today because it's still early in the morning.

Q: Oh, what time is it by your time?

SW: It's eleven A.M. No, it's not so early! (laughs)

Q: First of all, would you tell us where the title of the new album came
from?

SW: Junction means crossing or intersection. I mean that's where this
time I crossed Narada and the other collaborators and co-writers. And this is
my seventh solo album. So I added 7 on the end. The image of the figure 7 is
good in my mind. I feel it has some kind of complete strength.

Q: How did you work with the co-writers?

SW: The roles they played are different track by track, but basically I and
Narada did the music part and Jim and my wife helped us with the words. I and
Narada asked Jim for his advice on music we wrote the words he wrote. So
actually we did not have distinct roles but instead we proceeded talking a lot to
each other.

Q: I think this album has a wider variety of sounds than ever. Take organ for
example, a track features a distorted rock organ sound of B-3 Hammond and
other track has a southern soul sound. As to the latter in particular, I never
dreamed of listening to such a mellow sound on your record.

SW: You mean the second track 'Angel of Mercy,' which sounds like Al Green?
That's was Narada's request. He told me to use glissandos as often as possible.
It sure is one of the styles I did not have before.

Q: On the next track 'Just Wanna Have Some Fun' you played a keyboard solo
in that unique, warm synth sound which is already one of your patents. But it
sounds a bit different to me than in the past. Did you play Moog this time?

SW: No, I played Kurzweil this time. As you say I often played Minimoog in
the past. Or DX7.

Q: Which one of Kurzweil?

SW: It's called K2500.

Q: What synthesizers or sound modules did you use other than that?

SW: It's not me but Narada often used Roland D-50.

Q: I hear you used to use Fairlight. How about this time? Did you use one?

SW: No, I mainly used Kurzweil this time. Well, of course I mixed other sound
modules with it, though.

Q: The sound you used for the synth solo on the track was programmed by you?

SW: No, I think it was one of the preset sounds on a copy of the ROM which
was Kurzweil's accessory. Or maybe I used other sound module in the end. I
can't remember how the patches were. But I don't dislike programming itself
though I sometimes leave it to other people. Recently I use MARK OF THE
UNICORN's Performer [a programming software for Macintosh] and a
Macintosh as my main tools when I do it. However, as to the sounds of such
vintage instruments as Wurlitzer's electric piano and Hammond organ or of
such effects as wah wah, I use real ones more often than programmed ones. But
this does not mean that I defy sound modules and sampled sounds.

Q: On this album a lot of guitar solos are featured. A copy of the material I was
given previously says Lenny Kravitz and Nile Rodgers guested on the fourth
track 'Let Your Love Come Down' and the ninth track 'Family Affair'
respectively. Who played guitars on the other tracks?

SW: Lenny played only that impressive cutting part on 'Let Your Love Come
Down..' All the guitar solos on the track and the opening track are all mine. I
did most of the rhythm guitars. The wah wah part is not mine.

Q: Is that it? I thought the solo on 'Let Your Love Come Down.' was by Lenny.
Sure I thought it was so bluesy that I sounded more like Albert King than him.

SW: (Laughs) It was mine too. But I used Fender Stratocaster, which is not a
vintage one but a recent model. As I told you about synthesizers, I don't care
about that. For example, some organists okay only old B-3's, but I am not that
kind. In fact, I use new Hammond Suzuki. In short, my basic idea is that
instruments are just tools and no matter how old or new they are I can create as
many interesting sounds as possible from them depending on the way I use
them.

Q: Did the idea reflect on your recording style this time?

SW: What do you mean?

Q: You have already started multiple recordings [recording track by track on
your own] about twenty years ago. In those days music created in that way was
in most cases rather mechanical focused on the sequenced parts. To the
contrary your sound was very human, but it was different from sounds recorded
at a time by a band. That was fresh to me and was what I sympathized with
about your music.

SW: Yes, that's one of the points I have always been conscious of. To put it
extremely, even when I make music all by myself, I have not intended my
music to be such technical sounds as Craft Works'.

Q: What was your motive for starting to record on your own?

SW: Because I broke up the band. In other word, I could not find so soon other
fellows to make music with that I made up my mind to do by myself. When I
started, there was no computers and even no sequencers. So I put rhythm loops
into analog tapes and while running them I recorded other parts. Even when I
make the loops, I sometimes played drums myself to avoid monotony of drum
machines. So when I look back, it was very tough but it was a lot of fun as
well.

Q: To what degree was the music sequenced this time?

SW: Probably more than half. Take the bass parts for example, normally I play
ones by keyboards, but this time except the two songs I played ones by organ's
bass part on and some other songs a bassist did on, I left almost all the bass part
programming to Narada. However I did really various kinds of ways this time.
On a track after making a rhythm frame by the computer, we added real drums
to it. On the seventh track, we recorded everything live at a time. But this time
again I paid much attention to keeping good balances between the mechanical
parts and the other parts as a whole.

Q: Oh, I was surprised by the seventh salsa track. I never imagined I could hear
Latin sounds on your record.

SW: I have been long interested in Cuban music [since The Fania All-Stars?]
and I have wanted to make that kind of work some day.

Q: Did you play the Latin piano?

SW: No, that was by a Cuban female pianist, Rebeca Mauleon-Santana. But the
basic piano riff itself is my idea and I asked her to play like it. All the
musicians were Cuban on the track.. That was cool.

Q: One of the new aspects which were not on your albums in the past is a
cover. You dedicate it to Bernard Edwards, who died a sudden death on the
next day of the last show of Nile Rodgers' concerts in Japan last year which you
guested on. I wanted to touch on this matter in this interview because I saw the
concert. Why did you choose Sly & The Family Stone's classic 'Family Affair'?
From the title it sounds suitable for a memorial song for Bernard.

SW: Oh, you saw the show too? It was a real shock. It caused me a great deal of
pain in my heart. Actually while I was doing this project, it was weighed on my
mind and I talked to Narada some times. And then he approached me with this
song. I loved the song so much myself that I had no objection to it. We decided
to call Nile and arrange it a la CHIC to express our feelings more clearly. So,
on this song Narada intentionally played on his keyboard bass a bass line which
Bernard would play if he was alive.