It's great, thank you very much for receiving us, Canal Jimmy, and we're very proud to meet you.
Bonjour Monsieur!
Bonjour Paul!
Bonjour!
Bonjour Sir Paul!
Bonjour... Sir Philippe!
On Writing and Recording the New Album
We'd like to ask you about your new record. It seems like it took a long time to write, then suddenly you decided to record it in a fairly short space. Can you comment on that?
What happens with me is I just make a song and then maybe a few days go by, and I write another song that I put as a demo on a little cassette. When I've got a lot of them, I think "ah, that's enough for an album." Then I think about the next step and ring someone up. What happened was someone in my office in New York asked "who's gonna produce your next album?" They knew I had a few songs. I said "I don't know." They said "can we give you some suggestions?" and they suggested a bunch of people. I listened to the music they produced and found this guy called David Kahne. I liked his stuff. So I met him and he said "well, let's go record." We went out to L.A., got three young American musicians, and I just went in and said "OK, the song goes like this, let's make a record." So it was quite fast.
But a producer isn't necessary, is it? You're Paul McCartney after all. You could produce yourself.
I could do. Sometimes I like to do that, but sometimes I don't. It's like going to a restaurant: a chef cooks for you. I can cook if I stay home, but sometimes it's nice to have somebody else cook for you. It's a different feeling. It's liberating. I just sit there, I just play bass, I sing, somebody else thinks about the record. Sometimes I wanna think about the record too, I wanna "cook" myself, but sometimes I like to go to the restaurant.
Run Devil Run to Driving Rain
Correct me if I'm wrong. With Run Devil Run, it was like "OK, something horrible happened to me, I don't know if I can still sing, so I'm gonna do some basic rock'n'roll." Now this one is like "OK, I know I can sing. That's the real me." He's a melodic, pop and very efficient Sir Paul McCartney at work doing everything he knows.
Yeah, I would say that's right. For me Run Devil Run was really just to make a release, like to say to do something. Just rock'n'roll songs, like "Well come into this house, stop all that yackety yak," you know, do some things like that, just get out and sing and shout. Then when I'd made that, like you said, I felt like "This is OK, I got that album in my system now. I'll take some songs in and I'll use a similar method, but this time with my songs, not old rock'n'roll songs." So I had a good time making Driving Rain. I enjoyed making it.
It's a record which talks about two women: one who disappeared sadly enough, and a new one. So it's got to be exceptional for a pop record.
Yeah, it's unusual. It's just my circumstances at the moment. I like to be very honest, so it's just what was happening to me when I lost Linda. I wondered if I would write any song again. The song on Driving Rain called Magic was written about when I met Linda, not when I lost her. So I go remembering in the positive, the night we met, you know. That's a good memory. And now that I met Heather, the new songs for Heather are romantic songs, love songs for her. For me, if I'm honest, the two important women of my life: one my wife who I lost sadly, but I'm lucky to find another. I didn't know if I could ever find another. Linda was such a strong woman. About fifteen months after she died, I started to feel like I was reborn a little bit. When I would go into my office, I would notice the perfume the secretary would wear. I said "it's a nice perfume," so I realized I was kind of wakening again to that kind of thing. Then I met Heather and fell in love.
Writing Around the World
Apparently you went on a trip around the world with her, because the songs are written in a lot of different places.
Yes, with Heather. Mainly we went to India at the beginning of the year and we had a lot of good time there. We were in Goa, so three of the songs on Driving Rain were written in Goa during that holiday. Then some were written in London, one in New York, and one in Los Angeles. They were written in various places. I wrote the first love song I wrote for Heather in New York. Do you want to hear a bit of it?
Yeah!
(Paul sits at the piano and starts playing)
"Loving Flame." It goes like that. I was in New York just writing this.
(Paul singing)
How can I hope to reach your love, help me to discover what it is you're thinking of, cos when we kiss, nothing feels the same, I could spend eternity inside your loving flame, oohohohoo.
(Paul stops playing)
That was written for her, you know. So a lot of emotions on the new album.
(Philippe, very affected)
I feel incredible. I feel very lucky to hear you singing for me!
Oh! I love playing music, you know.
Writing Partners
For two songs, your son is working with you. This brings a question: do you really need a sparring partner when you write songs, somebody to exchange the music before you give it to the public?
I don't need it, but it's good to have. Some songs like "Loving Flame" I just wrote on my own. Some songs like "Yesterday" I just wrote on my own. "Hey Jude," "Let It Be." But sometimes it's nice to have somebody. It's good to do things differently. So a lot of the time I write on my own. But the song you were talking about, "Back In The Sunshine Again," I happened to be just doing it.
(Paul sits at the piano and starts playing)
Here we are, back in the sunshine again, ohoh yeah, oh no more trouble, no more trouble, back in the sunshine again.
I'm doing that and I started to do this (a few more notes on the piano). My son started "du du du du" and joined in with me on the thing. He came out with a little bit "du du du du" and he started playing that on guitar. I said "hey, what's that?" So it came in the song, you know. I don't need to have a writing partner because I can do it on my own. But I like to do that. It's nice to bounce.
Why Make Music at All?
There is a question everybody asks when I say I'm gonna meet Paul McCartney. They all say "why is he doing a record? He's the richest man in the world. He's very happy." And people want to know: you and Mick Jagger release a record the same month. Why?
Because I NEED the money! I NEED the money!
(Philippe laughs)
I have no food! Please! No, the real truth is because I love it. I love to do it. You can see it. People talk about a gift with music, you know, they say "gift from God." I used not to listen to that. But now I start to think there is a gift. A very special gift. Not everyone can do that. I was told everyone can do it, but as you go on, you think "no, no, no." And so I think "wow, it's a special thing."