How to write a classic song

David Walliams: When do you think you wrote you first great song?
Noel Gallagher: ‘Live Forever’, in 1993. That changed everything. Before that everything sounded indie.
DW: You’ve written standards and that’s something not many people get to do. By that I mean that a busker could sing ‘Wonderwall’ and it would still sound great.
NG: We call them one of ‘those’ songs and I have been lucky enough to write a couple of ‘those’ songs.
DW: What would you say those ones were?

NG: ‘Don’t Look Back in Anger’. ‘Wonderwall’: that’s virtually every bird between the ages of 30 and 36’s favourite fucking song.
DW: Do those songs come really quickly? When Matt and I write sketches the best ones are the ones we write really quickly. The worst are the ones we labour over and re-write and re-write.
NG: I’ve played ‘Live Forever’ so many times, but when I get to the guitar solo I still think, ‘Fucking hell, that’s pretty good, that.’
DW: I think ‘Let There Be Love’ from the new album might be one of ‘those’ songs.
NG: I’m not too sure about that one. It took me seven years to write that song. I kind of didn’t want to put it on to the album as it’s a ballad.
DW: I prefer your ballads. I’m not so much into the rock thing.
NG: They’re easy to write. I have got half a dozen great slow, huge songs, but I kind of get bored of playing them live.
DW: How easy was it to let other people in the band write songs? You’ve only written five for the new album.
NG: I never sat down and decreed that suddenly everyone else was allowed to write songs. The door was always open. But for the first 10 years, everyone else was completely uninterested. I do think it is important that everybody feels that they are contributing to the direction of the band. I used to get pissed off with people going ‘what a fucking wanker!’
DW: You started working on this album with Death In Vegas as producers. Were you going to make a more -experimental record?
NG: I didn’t want to go into the studio -without a producer. When I’ve co-produced I’ve got sick of being sat at a mixing desk and the rest of the band being sat on the couch behind you being half-pissed. I thought: ‘I want to be in a band. I can’t be arsed being a producer any more.’ Liam hates producers but he had worked with Death In Vegas on one of their records. So it was like something out of Star Wars – we had to get Liam to think that asking them to produce the record was his idea.
DW: But you scrapped those sessions?
NG: We just didn’t have the songs at the time. Richard [Fearless of Death In Vegas] said that ‘It’s all about the vibe’, but I knew the vibe would only last us about six weeks. We called a meeting to tell him, and when he walked into the pub, Liam said: ‘Oh, is that my phone?’, and walked off. I had to tell Richard we were going to call it a day. Told him that we needed to write some new songs – and then we weren’t able to re-convene. But there’s something there for a box set or something.
DW: Are you the natural leader and -decision maker?
NG: I always assume that role. I’m solutions provider for this band. Liam drives it. If we were in a car, Liam would be driving and I would be reading the map.

The Guardian