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Paul Weller talks about new album 22 DreamsArticle from: Herald Sun
Kathy McCabe
August 21, 2008 12:00am
THERE are music icons whose fame and status is announced by a single name. Then there is the Modfather, the enduring moniker of the very British Paul Weller.
It's not hard to see why the pseudonym has stuck to him decades after the musical stylings which inspired its acquisition have been usurped by the artist's desire for change.
In short, Weller, at 50, is still cool.
Sitting in a small studio just off Oxford St in London, the co-founder of The Jam, creative controller of The Style Council and master of his own domain through nine solo albums, looks like a man at ease.
His most recent musical offering, a double album called 22 Dreams, has once again seen him celebrated as one of the UK's finest craftsmen.
Weller turned 50 in May and the record appears to celebrate his eternal middle youth rather than announcing a mid-life crisis. He agrees that the rock'n'roll life sustains youth in outlook, if not in looks.
‘‘You live the life, yeah, and you're always looking forward to what you're doing next, the next record ... so that keeps you young mentally, I think,'' he says.
22 Dreams wasn't so much Weller's attempt to keep his music ageless as much as the creative expression of a songwriter -- and his mates -- who adopted the stereotypical arrogance displayed by most twentysomething males in bands. I'll do whatever I want, thank you very much.
The 22 songs on it throw up every musical influence, nuance and fleeting flirtation he has explored throughout his four-decade career, but without coming off indulgent, which is no mean feat. Weller says the prospect of turning 50 gave him licence to do as he pleased.
‘‘It all tied in with me being 50 this year as well, which is a bit of a monumental thing at this stage in my life,'' he says. ‘‘So I thought f... it, just go for it and really try to push yourself this time.
‘‘The more surprises that happened in the studio, the more I thought we could achieve. There aren't any limits really. It was quite indulgent really and it can be quite dangerous to be that self-indulgent because at the end of the year after, you have to play it to other people and see what they think as well. Fortunately, people seem to like it.''
The album was recorded at his home near Woking, Surrey, where he grew up and where he sometimes lives with his partner Sami and their two young children, Stevie and Jessamine, when they're not in London.
Weller and his mates -- producer Simon Dine, his long-time guitarist Steve Cradock and engineer Charles Rees -- took their time, watching the seasons change through the always opened studio door which looked out on a picture-postcard English country lane.
The completion of each day's session would be marked by booze and tunes.
‘‘I think the eclecticism is born out of what I listen to, which is across the board, and that every night, after a session, we would get on the piss and everyone would play tunes. You're hearing new stuff every night and getting turned on all the time,'' he says.
‘‘I'm still a fan. If I'm not playing it or doing my own music, I'm listening to someone else's and that's never changed in 40 years and I can't imagine it changing now.''
Weller also has three older children -- Nathaniel and Leah from his marriage to Style Council singer Dee C. Lee and daughter Dylan from another relationship after he and Lee had divorced -- and says they are often a source of musical inspiration.
‘‘My eldest son Nathaniel, he's really into his own thing, I can't really follow what he's into. Into a lot of Japanese rock. But my eldest daughter Leah, she listened to the Arctic Monkeys and she listened to The Beatles and she won't think they're old and they're new. She's just, ‘I like this', and that's it. Which I find quite refreshing really,'' he says with pride.
‘‘So she'll put me on to things, play me tracks and say, ‘What do you think of this?' The Yeah Yeah Yeahs she turned me on to, I really like them. And I play her stuff and made her CDs in the past as well. She just loves music.
‘‘My son's doin' some demos and he's goin' out to Japan to meet some producers over there and trying to put a band together.
‘‘And Leah, she's really, really musical naturally. She can really sing. My next daughter down
Dylan, she's 12 and she's got band practice tonight. Three of her mates have got a band and she's gotta do an audition. I had my son on stage, we did Hammersmith about a week ago and he came on stage and played guitar with us and it was really good. Yeah, it's good.''
Weller says The Beatles fuelled his life's one and only desire: to be in a band and play music.
‘‘That was it, no other options or thoughts,'' he says. ‘‘Just seeing The Beatles on Top Of The Pops when I was a kid. I don't think you can change the world but The Beatles changed my life, to be honest with ya. I was obsessed with it, and I still am obsessed with it.
‘‘I think it's so rare to have your dream come true, your wishes come true in life. And if they do, you've really gotta f...in' grab hold of it and run with it. I've worked for what I've got and have put the time and dedication into it but I still realise I'm really fortunate to do what I do.''
Weller, the fan, has had a chance to thank one of the architects of his destiny, Paul McCartney. The 50-year-old becomes the awkward teenager when asked if he professed his fandom to The Beatles legend.
‘‘I've met Paul McCartney three times. I was really nervous but I did have a chance to tell him. He was really, really lovely. He told me, ‘Oh yes, it was the same for us when we met Little Richard back in whenever it was, so that was quite cool but he was really sweet, really nice.
‘‘I met Ray Davies (The Kinks), who's another massive hero for me, I've met quite a few actually.''
His long-suffering Australian fans finally get their chance to celebrate their adulation of Weller this week as he begins his first Australian tour in more than two decades.
He promises there will be some old favourites, songs he would flatly refuse to play in the UK.
"I'd get lynched otherwise,'' he laughs. ‘‘People know I don't do the greatest hits.
‘‘But some of them I like anyway, some of them are great tunes.''
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,24212936-5006024,00.html
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