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IN THE STUDIO: LIAM GALLAGHERIn The StudioLIAM GALLAGHER: THE BIG PAYBACK
AS HIS SOLO LP REACHES COMPLETION, THE TIME FOR TALKING IS NEARLY DONE. NEARLY...
“I’M SURE NOEL’S RECORD IS GONNA BE GREAT, MAN, BUT I FEEL DOUBLE PROUD OF MINE.”
Liam Gallagher has not been hanging about. After announcing his now-imminent debut solo album, As You Were, with a Q cover story in June, he’s been back in the public eye for the first time since Beady Eye’s final shows in March 2014 . Clearly enjoying the return to the limelight, he has achieved a near-incandescent state of Liamness, which will have thrilled Oasis diehards.
“I’m on fire at the moment – on fucking fire!” he barks during a rare bit of downtime in Pasay City, Manila. The Philippines are the latest stop on a breakneck tour schedule which has taken in Glastonbury, UK club shows, New York, LA, Chicago, Canada and China. After tonight’s engagement in the Philippines, the itinerary rolls on through Japan and South Korea, before winding up at the Reading and Leeds festival.
“Now I’ve got the whole world ‘As you were’-ing me,” he enthuses. “Everyone’s saying it – people in China going, ‘Az yew waah!’”
If Liam has the wind in his sails currently, it’s largely down to the completion of As You Were. “It’s worth shouting about,” he says, “there’s some proper tunes on there. At the gigs everyone’s been buzzing off the new stuff. We did one with Richard Ashcroft, and he was going, ‘What’s that tune you played at the end, man?’ It was You Better Run. He goes, ‘It sounded like fucking gang music, like the Hell’s Angels booting the door open.’ There’s a couple of odd ones, too, and that’s the beauty of writing with people.”
To recap, on signing with Warners last year, Gallagher was hooked up with co-songwriters, including LA-based Greg Kurstin (Adele, Beck) and Andrew Wyatt from Swedish indie-pop act Miike Snow. Kurstin’s three contributions range from first single Wall Of Glass’s harmonica-squawking glam stomp, through to the Eleanor Rigby-style portrait Paper Crown, while Wyatt’s Chinatown stretches Liam’s voice into Jam ballad territory (think 1979’s bitterly soulful The Butterfly Collector). For What It’s Worth, written with Cherry Ghost’s Simon Aldred, meanwhile, has the anthemic sweep of Oasis’s Don’t Look Back In Anger, the Noel-led song Liam staked a claim for with a spellbinding a cappella version at Glastonbury.
Seven tracks were recorded at Snap! Studios in Finsbury Park, with producer Dan Grech-Marguerat (Lana Del Rey, The Vaccines). At that stage, Liam had no band so the music was mostly assembled by multi-instrumentalist Dan McDougall, sometime session drummer for Tom Odell and Ellie Goulding. Stripes earned, McDougall was signed up for Liam’s live band, which also includes Babyshambles bassist Drew McConnell, Kasabian and Beady Eye guitarist Jay Mehler, guitarist Mike Moore and keyboard player Christian Madden. For the final piece of As You Were’s jigsaw, this line-up piled into Abbey Road to cut the thunderous I Get By.
“It’s been good to be back at work,” he says, “singing songs to the people, who’re bored out of their fucking minds. It feels like there’s a new vibe there, so maybe the break’s done everyone good. Maybe they’ve realised how shit it is without me.”
As October’s release date approaches, Liam’s verbal sparring with his elder brother is reaching fever pitch – coincidentally, Noel’s third solo record is slated to appear soon after. Not one to miss a window for a dig, he dismisses Noel’s recent appearances with U 2 as “irrelevant – not playing new songs, not doing nish”, and his current band as “ Beady Eye Lite”, thanks to its recent incorporation of guitarist Gem Archer and drummer Chris Sharrock from Liam’s last band.
“It’s like we’ve come full circle,” he concludes. “We’ve slagged off every single fucking band in the universe, and now me and him are going head to head. I’m sure his record is gonna be great, man, but I feel double proud of mine, really confident. I do exactly what it says on the tin. I’m here to give the people what they want.” As he always was.
WHAT WE KNOW
Due: 6 October 2017
Title: As You Were
Producers: Dan Grech-Marguerat, Greg Kurstin
Song titles: Chinatown, Paper Crown, Doesn’t Have To Be That Way, I’ve All I Need, Come Back To Me, You Better Run, For What It’s Worth, Wall Of Glass, I Get By
Influences: John Lennon, early morning runs, Hell’s Angels, The Jam
ANDREW PERRY
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