And the singer from Vampire Weekend.įrom the old day, there are so many … We’re in Chicago right now, so I’m thinking of Howlin’ Wolf and his original guitarist, Hubert Sumlin. Of contemporary singers, Sam Smith I really like. Who are some of your favorite singers, new, old or whatever? The instrumentation behind you has changed a lot over the years, but your singing style has been consistent for a long time now. Now I just enjoy the use of words, the rhythm of the words. It’s like those political songs I wrote back in the ‘70s and ‘80s – they came naturally. With politics, you need to find a new language for it. Is it difficult to translate your political point of view into songs? I don’t know if it really makes any difference which party comes in. Is this a new step backward, or the same old song? The Tories won a big unexpected victory in Britain lately. Whenever there’s an economic crisis, the people on the lowest rung get hit harder. But writing about politics … anything I write will be the same thing I wrote 40 years ago. Politics and social class were an important part of your early music – does that stuff still matter to you? When you pick up a new guitar, you play differently. I used them mainly because I wasn’t familiar with them. On this record I used a lot of new guitars – Gibson guitars, a Danelectro, and a Vox Teardrop. What kinds of guitars and amps are you using these days? I wanted something different, but didn’t know what it was until I heard it. I had two or three books of songs I’d been working on for a few years. Once I got the band and the producer, I wanted a big drum sound and more grooves. Your new record is expansive and forceful, with some psychedelia, some soul, some love songs … What kind of style or sound were you going for with this one, and did it change much as you went along? The Modfather is currently touring behind his new album, “Saturns Patterns.” Salon caught up with him around the time of his sound check in Chicago. In fact, that and the two that followed – “Setting Sons” and “Sound Affects” – are as close as any band has come to matching the consecutive triumphs of the Beatles and Bob Dylan. That’s part of the reason it’s startling to hear him saying that today’s musical and economic climate is so tough on young bands that if they were coming up today, the Jam would never have lasted long enough to make its third record, “All Mod Cons,” which marked the beginning of the band’s mature state. He continues to love old music but is neither a Luddite nor a nostalgist. Weller is known for digging what he’s up to at the time and refusing to look back. (When Weller broke up the band, he formed the Style Council, an R&B-and-cappuccino kind of group that moved in a very different direction.) But for many, he’ll always be the singer, guitarist and main songwriter for the Jam, the mod revivalists and punk-rock band that lasted from 1976 to ’82 and helped bring British rock back to guitars, craftsmanship and tight, ‘60s-influenced songs. Paul Weller is a popular, much decorated solo star in the United Kingdom and regularly shows up on the cover of Mojo and other smart British magazines for his recent work.
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