Paul McCartney announced his upcoming album Egypt Station on Wednesday (June 20), his first record in five years. Ahead of its September 7 release, McCartney released two singles from the album so far, "I Don’t Know" and "Come On To Me." (listen the two new song here)
The Beatle sat down with DIY Magazine for an interview published Wednesday (June 20), and talked everything from the record to his work with Kanye West.
Working with Kanye was not what McCartney expected.
In 2015, McCartney teamed up with West and Rihanna to drop the smooth single, "FourFiveSeconds." When the Beatle and the rapper met up in the studio to create the song, Paul was surprised at how different their songwriting processes were. "With him, it was much more made up as we went along – so much so that I didn’t even realise that I was making songs," he said.
"I was tootling around on guitar, and Kanye spent a lot of time just looking at pictures of Kim on his computer. I’m thinking, are we ever gonna get around to writing?! But it turns out he was writing. That’s his muse."
Speaking of Kanye, the legendary Beatle loved My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.
While McCartney admits he's not much of a hip-hop head, he mentioned a few albums that struck his fancy, including Ye's 2010 record My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. "That was the record of his that I really envied," he noted. Jay-Z's Watch the Throne was also on the list, calling the two rap moguls' music "urban poetry."
I was gonna say before about [writing] ‘All Day’ with Kanye – just the other day I happened to look at the writing credits and there’s about 50 people! There were only three of them I knew and one of them’s Kendrick Lamar! I’m thinking, I’ve written a song with Kendrick Lamar?! I wish I’d met him! But that’s just the way they do it these days. The other day I was reading an article about this guy from Dirty Projectors who’s a band I like, and it says that his latest claim to fame was that he wrote the middle eight for ‘FourFiveSeconds’. Oh, so that’s how that happened! All these little mysteries, that’s how he pulls them together. It’s fascinating.
This record was made while you were compiling the 50th anniversary re-release of ‘Sgt Pepper’ – did going back through your old work start to influence you again?
Yeah, you’re right. Because there was so much on about it – the programmes about how we made it [etc]. I remember going up to the studio a couple of times with Greg and saying, oh well I was listening to this programme last night and I thought on ‘Penny Lane’ it was just one piano that I played but it turns out it’s eight! We were goofing around on that, and it inspires you and makes you think you can go anywhere. It’s still gonna sound like a piano, but sonically you can play with it. ‘…Pepper’ was a big influence.
TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE CLICK HERE
Egypt Station was recorded between Los Angeles, London and Sussex, and produced (with the exception of one Ryan Tedder track) by Greg Kurstin (Adele, Beck, Foo Fighters).
TONIGHT. On the Evening Show.@gordonsmart in conversation with the incredible @PaulMcCartney.
They talk new double A-side single I Don't Know/Come On To Me, his worst gig EVER and some colourful language...
DO. NOT. MISS. THIS. pic.twitter.com/UthPW1TOHV— Radio X (@RadioX) June 20, 2018
Speaking about his forthcoming new release, which was in part inspired when McCartney was compiling the 50th anniversary re-release of ‘Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’, he told us: “I remember going up to the studio a couple of times and saying, oh well I was listening to this programme last night and I thought on ‘Penny Lane’ it was just one piano that I played but it turns out it’s eight! We were goofing around on that, and it inspires you and makes you think you can go anywhere. It’s still gonna sound like a piano, but sonically you can play with it. ‘…Pepper’ was a big influence.”
Woo! @PaulMcCartney speaks to @MattEveritt on the @BBC6Breakfast show, this Thursday from 8.30am. Not that anyone's getting big headed about it… pic.twitter.com/bexjnwtkdV
— BBC Radio 6 Music (@BBC6Music) June 19, 2018
BBC FULL INTERVIEW HERE
Following a whirlwind week that saw his Instagram presence rebooted as he played one of the most intimate gigs of his storied career, Paul McCartney is done keeping the world in suspense: ‘I Don’t Know’ and ‘Come On To Me’, will be released tomorrow as a double A-Side single.
