British songwriting legend Paul Weller has spoken exclusively to ClashMusic about his new album 'Wake Up The Nation'.
With more than 30 years of music behind him, there is little Paul Weller has not done. Yet somehow the singer finds new ways to challenge himself, embarking on a series of unusual projects.
Following the lavish double album '22 Dreams' the singer returned to the studio earlier this year. Instead of his perfectionist tendencies Paul Weller decided to write the album in the studio, at the advice of producer Simon Dine.
"Generally speaking I always write a song at home on guitar or piano or whatever it may be and then bring it into the studio and knock it into shape" he explained.
"Whereas on this new record I didn’t do any pre work on it at all - I just went into the studio with Simon Dine, the producer, and just was cold on all of it; just went to it and reacted off the music and made up stuff on the spot; lyrics and melodies. It was a different way of working for me."
Continuing, Paul Weller revealed just how hard it was to give up his perfectionist tendencies. "Normally that would scare the fuckin’ life out of me to do that. It was a bit scary at times - just to go and do the vocals and not have any ideas at all, and just open my mouth and see what happens."
"It was good - after all these years and all these records - just to find a different way of working."
'Wake Up The Nation' was released to widespread acclaim earlier this year, following from the success of '22 Dreams'. An experimental set, '22 Dreams' gave Paul Weller the confidence to embark on new ways of working.
"The reaction was so good to ‘22 Dreams’, and there was stuff that people would associate with me musically, but there was also stuff on that record that I’d never been to before, so to get that kind of reaction and encouragement from people was definitely a spur" he explained.
"This new record is different to ‘22 Dreams’, but it kind of gave us that encouragement to go even further then."
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