Throughout his career, Paul
Weller has dabbled in cover
songs, but they were usually
delegated to European-only
B-sides. Not anymore. The former
Jam and Style Council frontman's
latest solo effort, Studio
150, is composed entirely
of re-workings of other artists'
tunes -- some well-known (Bob
Dylan's "All Along the
Watchtower"), some obscure (Noel
Gallagher's "One Way Road").
Weller used Studio 150
to "recharge his batteries,"
and, after he and his band --
guitarist Steve Cradock, bassist
Damon Minchella and drummer
Steve White -- spend the winter
touring their native Britain, he
plans to get started on original
material.
What made you decide to
record a covers album?
Well, I've been talking about
doing it for ten or twelve year
and never got around to doing
it. And now it seems as good a
time as any. Also, I needed a
break from writing.
Besides, you've always
done covers for B-sides . . .
When we've done covers in the
past, it's just been us sort of
jamming on a favorite tune after
we've finished the sessions.
This album was more thought
about. They're not my all-time
favorite songs, but they're good
songs -- songs that I thought we
could do something else with.
Any songs you attempted,
but didn't make the cut?
The only other tune we tried,
which didn't work out, was "Gimme
Shelter" by the Stones. We've
done about eighteen songs
altogether: twelve on the album,
and the other six we'll use for
B-sides and stuff.
What are the B-sides?
We did a Lovin' Spoonful song
called "Coconut Grove"; "Corrina"
by Taj Mahal; "Don't Go to
Strangers" by Dinah Washington;
"Let It Be Me," which is an old
French tune; "Needles and Pins"
[by Sonny Bono and Jack Nitzsche,
a 1964 hit for the Searchers];
and "Family Affair" by Sly and
the Family Stone.
Some of the renditions
on Studio 150 stay
close to the original, while
others differ -- how did you
decide?
I think the ones that are
closest to the originals are
probably ones that are our
favorites, and songs I knew
well.
Neil Young's "Birds"
sticks pretty close.
I think we brought out a more
gospel thing in it -- I could
always hear in the melody or
chord shapes, a kind of church-y
thing in it. Things like Aaron
Neville's "Hercules" we were
playing in the set ten or twelve
years ago, so we're quite
familiar with that song.
You named the album
after the studio where you
recorded the album. Tell me
about the place.
It's in the center of Amsterdam.
It's not state-of-the-art, just
a nice, little funky place, and
we had a fantastic engineer, a
Dutch fellow called Joeri [Saal],
and it was kind of low-key, in a
nice way. It was our little home
for that period of time. It
worked out well for us, but I
suppose it was nice just to feel
that we were going away from
England, and doing something
special.
With such a large amount
of songs to choose from at this
point of your career, how do you
choose a set list when you play
live?
I suppose I do tend to pick
songs that I can still relate
to, if we're talking about old
songs -- Jam, Style Council --
even though I realize there are
probably other songs people
would like to hear. Unless I can
find a personal connection with
them, I find it hard to play
them. Otherwise, it's just like
going through the motions.
So it has nothing to do
with what you think the fans may
want to hear?
Well, for instance, people would
love to hear [the Jam's] "Going
Underground." I like the song,
but it's not "of the time" for
me. I mean for me, the words are
still relevant, but as a
personal thing and as a
musician, it's gone for me.
What was the first album
that moved you?
The first album I ever bought
was Sgt. Pepper by the
Beatles. I bought it a year
after it came out -- it took me
a year to save up for it. I
don't know if it remained my
all-time favorite, but at the
time, I would just play it over
and over again. I thought it was
amazing. Up until that time, I
probably bought a couple of
singles -- my mum had been
buying singles, I suppose -- so
to have this album, to
have the sleeve and to read the
lyrics, was just amazing to me.
Let's close with some
politics: There's much talk of
an anti-Bush sentiment in
Europe. How is he perceived in
England?
I would say pretty much "anti-,"
yeah. I think people are just
really disappointed,
disappointed with Blair as well,
who's just like Bush's lapdog. I
think everyone's just
disillusioned with politics in
our country, and it must be the
same in your country. To me,
there's this false veneer of
democracy -- I suppose we have
our say and our votes and all
that, but to no avail really. I
mean, they made their minds up
that they wanted to march into
someone else's country, and
they're going to do it, with
their agendas, and that's that.
There were millions of people
out on the streets in America
and all over the world last
year, and it didn't make any
difference.
And what about Blair?
He's on his way out, I think.
He'd be very, very lucky if he
survives much longer.
