Send To Friend

Ahead of the release of his latest album, Paul McCartney popped in to talk to us about his new material, performing at Live 8, why he still loves touring and more.

On the title of the album, working with producer Nigel Godrich, why making the album was a challenge and the story behind the track 'Riding To Vanity Fair'.
"...There's no point in me just working with a producer and saying, 'Now you shut up and I'll just tell you how it's gonna be,' because you might as well not work with them, I can get anyone in who I can do that with so there were moments during the making of the album, you know, where Nigel would just say 'Well I don't like that'...and it would be disappointing because I'd be delivering it for it to be liked." [Listen]

On playing most of the instruments on the album and why 'Fine Line' is the first single.
"...Nigel started to say, 'Look I'd like to hear you play drums on this one, play some guitar, and then once I did he said, 'That's what I'm looking for"...it wasn't something I intended to do, it just grew out that way." [Listen]

On his on-going career, why he still loves playing live and how he spent the four years between his latest and previous albums.
"It's been one of those things, you know, you don't ever see the red light to tell you to stop, you know, you just sort of think, this is still fun, I enjoy it..." [Listen]

On 'ligging' at Live 8, rehearsing with U2 and deciding on his Live 8 setlist.
"Eventually we got on and we just did our bit. We were going to put in one new song off the new album which is called 'Follow Me' but, at that point, after seeing how everyone was and how the spirit of the day was, I thought, y'know what? Let's not get clever, let's not do that, let's go with the hits..." [Listen]

On Make Poverty History, writing 'Jenny Wren' and who she is, and using an Armenian flute on the track.
"I had a feeling to write something in the style of the old Beatles song, 'Blackbird', which is a finger-picking style, and I hadn't kinda visited that style since Blackbird. So I just thought, yeah, it would be nice to go back to that area again....so I started doing that and what happened was I then started to get lyrics and an idea of this character called Jenny Wren, whose heart has been broken by something..." [Listen]

On his singing style and recording the 'sleeper' track 'A Certain Softness'.
"I don't have any great knowledge about singing...I never come to songs with any sort of pre-conceived idea, I just sort of think, OK, I'm going to  try and sing it and see what happens and then you find your way through into a style." [Listen]

On busking in London for his film 'Give My Regards To Broad Street' and what inspired the tracks 'How Kind Of You' and 'English Tea'.
"For me ('English Tea') reminded me of something that Noel Coward could have sung...it was really just a tongue in cheek thing that I just got into so much that it kind of wrote itself." [Listen]

On writing a children's book, 'High In The Clouds'
"So what (illustrator) Jeff (Dunbar) and I were going to do was mock up our story as a children's book - just get one little mock up book made - and then put his illustrations in it, write the story all out like a kid's story and then just slip it on the desk of a mighty film producer and say, that's the film we want to make." [Listen]

On collaborating with Madonna, not being keen on collaborations, whether, if the rest of the Beatles had been alive, they would have reunited for Live 8 and how the recent London bombings have affected him.
"(Madonna) certainly hasn't rung me up so I suspect it's not true. It may be but I haven't heard anything about it...I'm not very keen on doing collaborations normally unless there's something inspiring behind it...if it was true with Madonna, if she had some great idea, that's what's likely to intrigue me. It wouldn't just be the idea of singing with someone - yeah that's a good idea but what do we do? That can ruin it. It's like, 'let's do one of my old hits' - No! (laughs)." [Listen]

On living in London and the South Coast, touring, how 'This Never Happened Before' is a love song for his wife Heather and how he lent the song to a bride to be.
"Touring is something I've done since I was a kid. It's something that's in my blood, something I do and it comes naturally to me...the big thing is playing the music which I still love and getting the feedback from these great audiences. It is just something that I love to do." [Listen]

On the album closer 'Anyway'
"Some songs just kinda write themselves and you don't approach them with any particular idea and I was just sitting at my piano and goofing around with some chords which sounded to me, they reminded me of the south of America, I was getting feelings of Charleston and Savannah and plantations, I don't know why...and it's really about someone getting in touch with somebody...it's just that reach out song." [Listen]