After announcing the dates of his Australian tour, Noel Gallagher have had a long by phone interview with Australian publication Music Feeds, during which he talked about music, Oasis, Band Battle, family and much more!
MF: Last year, a YouTube user put together a super-cut of your commentary on each of Oasis’ music videos that you did for the Time Flies DVD back in 2010. One can safely assume that your stance on making clips for your songs hasn’t changed in the wake of your solo albums?
NG: On the day that I wake up and get an email telling me I have to get a taxi at 4:45am to a video shoot, I truly wish I was doing anything else with my life. I mean, don’t get the violins out just yet – I am loaded, so it’s probably the least of my troubles. With that said, standing in front of a fucking green screen all fucking day is not what I got into the fucking music business for.
It’s a necessary evil, though, so I try and be as clear with the directors as humanly possible. “Look,” I tell ’em. “You don’t wanna be here. I don’t wanna fucking be here. Let’s make this as fucking easy as possible. Play the track.”
As for the YouTube thing, I didn’t even know that had gone viral on the internet until people kept going on about it to me. I had no idea what they were talking about. I got around to watching the video and I did have a good laugh at it, if I do say so myself. I fucking hate all of Oasis’ videos. I fucking hate them all.
MF: At least the ones that you guys weren’t the central focus were a little better – there was one with Rhys Ifans that was in black and white, from about ten years ago…
NG: …oh yeah! The Importance of Being Idle! I was actually watching that just the other day, actually. I wanted to rehearse that song to play on the next tour, because I haven’t played it in awhile and I couldn’t remember the fucking words. That is a pretty good one, actually. I should get in touch with that director [Dawn Shadforth] and see if she’ll make another one for me.
MF: You might even be able to strike up a deal where you don’t have to be in your next video at all…
NG: If I don’t have to be in a video at all, that’s fucking brilliant. If I absolutely must be in a video, though, I don’t really want to be playing along to the song. That’s just boring. The videos I did for my first album [2011’s Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds] were all directed by this American guy, Mike Bruce. They were shot in the desert, and it was nice and hot, so you were getting a tan while you were working. That’s just great. The ones I’ve been doing for this record [Chasing Yesterday], though, have been fucking awful. Just shit. But there you go.
MF: What do your kids make of all of it? The music and the fame, specifically. They’d be getting to an age where they have a better comprehension of what it is that you do now…
NG: Yeah, I’ve got a 15-year-old girl, an 8-year-old boy and a 5-year-old boy. My daughter’s very much aware of it all. She’s never really asked any questions about it, though. The boys don’t ask questions yet because they’re not allowed on the internet.
Once they’ve got their own mobile devices – or whatever the fuck the term is – I’m sure they’ll be Googling their old man and saying to one another, “Geez, he was a fucking wildman, wasn’t he?” I can just imagine them walking into my office with a confused look on their face: “Dad… what’s ”avin’ it’?” I can’t wait for that. “Sit down,” I’ll say. “Strap yourselves in, ’cause this could get gory…”
MF: That would be a birds-and-bees talk for the ages.
NG: It fucking would! We’ll find out soon enough, I suppose. My kids are pretty fucking cool, as it goes.
MF: You’ve been playing music and have been in the public eye for over 20 years now. Do you feel that you have different motivations behind making music and performing now as to when you were first starting out? Or do you feel it’s more or less the same?
NG: I was never an idealistic young man. I didn’t really want to change the world. I just had a knack for songwriting. When I got a record deal, though, something twigged. I wanted to be the best. Once we became the biggest and the best, the motivation kind of went. I felt like we’d proven ourselves.
With all of that behind me, though, I’ve come to approach music like this: I write all the time. When I write something that I think is good, I record it. Once I’ve got 12 together, I’ve got an album. Once I’ve got the album, I go and play it to the people – and, quite frankly, try and sell them some fucking t-shirts.
Then, I shall count the money when I get home, go on holiday for six months and start the process over. I don’t feel like I have to be the best anymore. Everything I ever wanted to achieve from being in a band, I was able to achieve in about six weeks.
MF: Does that mean you feel as though you’ve got nothing to prove anymore? That the record speaks for itself?
NG: Look at bands like U2 and The Rolling Stones. They’ve been around forever. People always ask, “Why do they do it? They don’t need the fucking money!” They do it because they love doing it. A song that wasn’t written yesterday will be written today – and one day it’ll be sung by some fucker somewhere and thousands of people in a stadium will sing along. That, in itself, is a really special thing.
In light of the things that have gone on in Paris recently, it makes it even more special. These fucking animals are trying to take that shit away from us. They hate musicians. They hate women. They hate music. That’s all I love. It’s even more important to put more music out there in the world – to protest that, to counter that. That’s the way I see it.
Source: Music Feeds