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In the studio, it’s been the Danelectro lately. When I think of the quintessential Paul Weller guitar, I can't help but picture your sunburst Epiphone Casino with the trapeze tailpiece. I used that and an old Telecaster.ĭo you happen to know the exact model of the Danelectro? It’s got a nice sort of crunchy, earthy, dirty sort of sound to it. Guitar-wise, I used a Danelectro on a lot of tracks on the album. What guitars and amps did you stick to when recording Sonik Kicks?Īs far as amps, I used my little Marshall combo a lot. It comes from playing together for all that time. I think we just instinctively know what to do, really. And Steve is very good at listening he listens out for what I’m doing and plays off that. But we’ve been working together for 20 years or something like that, and I think there’s a certain amount of mental telepathy involved. We kind of discuss - not in too much detail, maybe - what kind of style each song should be. Steve Cradock plays a lot of stuff on the album. But yeah, he hasn’t played with me for about five years.
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How do you and Cradock divide guitar duties in the studio? I know Steve White - your longtime drummer, starting with your Style Council days - isn't around anymore, but Ocean Colour Scene guitarist Steve Cradock is still in your band and is featured heavily on Sonik Kicks. We tried as much as we could to keep the sound warm and not too digitized, trying to keep that depth and warmth.
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So it’s a mix of technology and old-school playing, all done on Pro Tools. In some cases, we recorded loops with drum machines, but we replaced them with real drums.
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There are some loops and samples, but generally speaking, it’s pretty much all live playing. How were the rhythm tracks on the new album recorded? I was trying to kind of incorporate some of that into pop music, really. I was just interested in the textures some of that music made. Things even going back to the late 1930s and ‘40s. I’ve been listening to a lot of early electronic works, I guess it's loosely avant garde stuff, if you can call it that. What was the inspiration for the album's electronic sound? So it’s a very exciting time for me right now. And I’m very, very open to experimenting with different people and trying to find different methods of writing and making music. I just think there are endless possibilities musically, really. I don’t think about what I can’t do or what I shouldn’t be doing. I think that actually started with the 22 Dreams album from 2008, which is now two albums back. Sonik Kicks sounds more electronic than anything you've ever done does it mark the start of a new phase for you? ĭuring your solo career - in fact, during The Jam’s timeline as well - there's been the theme of change from album to album, tied to the phases of your musical evolution. Is life any different with those two newcomers in the picture? GUITAR WORLD: First of all, congrats on the twins. We caught up with Weller - who has a new set of twins, a new line of high-end clothing (opens in new tab) and a new album, of course - earlier this week. Weller is, again, pushing his personal envelope.
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via Yep Roc Records, Weller continues on his courageous, exploratory course, serving up a disc full of electronic sonic excursions peppered with jazz-soul-reggae grooves, backwards guitars, swathes of whining synths and other effects.
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With his new album, Sonik Kicks, which will be released March 27 in the U.S. Weller's knack for experimentation peaked with 2008's cinematic 22 Dreams and 2010's jagged Wake Up the Nation. Enter solo Paul Weller, an artist whose sound has undergone vast twists and turns over the course of 10 critically acclaimed albums, including the modern classics Wild Wood and Stanley Road.
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