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Post by webm@ster on Nov 25, 2002 15:24:56 GMT -5
Oasis Is Dead, Long Live Oasis  Oasis' Noel Gallagher talks about brawls, breakup rumors, and his band's "fantastic" new album. By Kevin Raub CDNOW Contributing Writer It was Morrissey who once sang, "Reissue! Repackage! Repackage! Re-evaluate the songs." Although it does not have on its hands a dead star, as the song presumes, Oasis has done just that. The fallout of 2000's train-wreck of an album, Standing on the Shoulder of Giants, was ugly. The band lost two of its founding members, Paul "Bonehead" Arthurs and Paul "Guigsy" McGuigan, during its recording and nearly lost henchman Noel Gallagher when he walked out on the band for several months during the European tour that followed. All this has been de rigueur with Oasis, which has become known as much for its rock-and-roll hooliganism as for its music. But when Standing was met with less than glorious reviews and paltry sales, it left fans and critics on both sides of the Atlantic wondering if Oasis was more slush than substance. Heathen Chemistry, the band's fifth studio album, lays those concerns to rest. Rejuvenated by its two newest members, Ex-Ride/Hurricane No. 1 guitarist-turned-bassist Andy Bell and ex-Heavy Stereo guitarist Gem Archer (re-package!), Oasis is no longer a one-man show. The fall of Noel Gallagher's dictatorship has produced a songwriting flurry surrounding Chemistry (Bell, Archer, and both Noel and Liam Gallagher author tunes). Gone is wide-eyed production of 1997's Be Here Now and the studio tomfoolery of Standing (re-evaluate the songs!), replaced by a coarser sonic offensive more reminiscent of the band's 1994 debut than anything since. Tack on two instant anthems -- "Stop Crying Your Heart Out" and "Little by Little" -- and Oasis is back here now. CDNOW: You say in the Familiar to Millions DVD documentary that Definitely Maybe is the Oasis album that all others should be judged by. How does Heathen Chemistry stack up? Noel Gallagher: Second. If this was 1994 and this was our first album, it would happen all over again for us. This would be our Definitely Maybe. There are no two ways about it. It's equally as good an album. It's got the same attitude, the same spirit, and the same sound, but we're not a new band so that shaves a bit of the edge off of it. But if it isn't it, I don't mind. I've had all this before, anyway. There's nothing that's going to happen to me in the next five years that hasn't happened to me in the last five years. Put it that way. "We'll call it a day when Liam loses his voice or his hair. I won't let him get up there if he's bald." How pissed off were you that this album leaked onto the Internet so many months before its release? I can't be bothered. I'd be pissed off if they'd leaked and I knew they weren't very good, but there's no denying it; the songs are fantastic. So it's just giving people a taste, really. It's ended up working in our favor back in England because everyone wants to review it first, and they've all reviewed it, and they'll all said it was great, so it just heightens the anticipation of the record. If everyone had reviewed it and said, "Actually, it's rubbish. Don't buy it," I would have been pretty pissed. But I can't stop it, so there's no point in me having an opinion about it. Who cares anyway? It's like some kids are getting music for free. So what?
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Post by webm@ster on Nov 25, 2002 15:26:11 GMT -5
PART : 2
Did you make a conscious effort to scale things back in the studio and just concentrate on the songs this time around?
The only agenda that we went into the studio with was to not use a producer because we felt that with two new people in the band, people were going to have to find their own place within the band. So I didn't want an outside influence taking sides and saying, "You should do that. You should do this." The band was at too delicate a stage to have some overpaid idiot coming in and saying we should make an electronic record.
How has three additional songwriters helped revitalize this band?
It was great. Everybody's writing songs. Fantastic. Some days I don't wanna be in charge. Most of the time, I'm pretty much hands-on. I like to direct things, because that's the role I naturally take. But some days it's like, "It's your song. You tell me what to do."
Taking "Little James" into consideration, how surprised were you that Liam came up with "Songbird" and "Born on a Different Cloud"?
I'm not surprised at all, and that's not me being arrogant or flippant. He's been in a band for 10 years, and he's been playing guitar for three or four of those years. He's going to pick it up from somewhere. It's obviously in the genes in our family, because I got it from somewhere. I'd be amazed if he didn't have it. So I wasn't surprised that they were good, but they were unexpectedly great.
"Stop Crying Your Heart Out" is the most gorgeous song you've written since the What's the Story days. When it came to you, what was your initial reaction?
I knew immediately from just sitting down and playing the chords. It was like, "Ooohhh … That sounds good." It was one of those songs where you drop everything that you're doing and concentrate on finishing that song. As soon as I'd nailed the lyrics and got to the point of writing "… and stop crying your heart out …" I thought, "He's still got it. Here we go."
The song seems very personal.
The song's actually about a person saying to another person, "Alright. You may have fucked up, but that's gone now so stop worrying about the past and get yourself together." It's a song about redemption. You can't change the past so stop crying about it, and let's just get on with today, and we'll see where tomorrow takes us. So it's just about onwards and upwards. It's actually a true story, but I don't like to exploit other people's sorrow for my own gains, because I've slagged Eric Clapton off enough about it. At the end of the day, it's only a song that I wrote.
On another personal note, when you first played "She Is Love" for your girlfriend Sara, what was her reaction?
I can't remember.
That's not very loving, is it?
No … I'm trying to think …of course she loved it. Of course she fucking loved it. But I'm not the kind of guy that would sit there and go, [in rock star voice] "Hey babe, I've written a song for you …" I played it with my back to her because I couldn't sit and sing it to her. She was going, "Wow, that's beautiful." And I was like, "Swell." So I think she likes it.
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Post by webm@ster on Nov 25, 2002 15:27:46 GMT -5
PART 3 :
Are you at all miffed that David Bowie has called his album Heathen?
Nope. I didn't know that. Is that true? Well, I bet he's going to be pissed that his will be fucking grossly overshadowed by mine.
You're playing in front of 120,000 people at Finsbury Park in July. Will it be worth it for your American fans to fly over?
Yeah, if you can get a ticket. It is a special atmosphere at an Oasis concert in England. When it's outdoors, with that amount of people, I've been told at these gigs there is very little chance of you hearing the band. It's all sang word for word from the minute we start until the minute we finish. I've done gigs in England, and I've got to the chorus of "Don't Look Back in Anger," and even I can't hear myself sing, and I've got 10 grand worth of audio equipment blaring it out. It's just the working classes coming together, drinking, seeing their favorite band play live.
"There's nothing that's going to happen to me in the next five years that hasn't happened to me in the last five years. Put it that way."
Do you think Oasis has matured to a point where mid-tour walkouts and backstage brawls are a thing of the past?
I don't know. Depends what happens. I wouldn't like for it to happen again, because it's embarrassing more than anything. The fans don't give a fuck. I think they enjoy the reality of it all. I think the people who are waiting for the band to split up are sharpening their knives and waiting. Everybody wants to write the epitaph. The British press have got it. It's all done. They've got the photographs and the lies. All they wanna do is fill in the last sentence and, "I, there, present you, the summing up of Oasis in one nifty little 14 line poem for you." That ain't gonna happen. We'll call it a day when Liam loses his voice or his hair. I won't let him get up there if he's bald.
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Nov 4, 2024 5:04:30 GMT -5
Nov 4, 2024 5:04:30 GMT -5