Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds
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"My manager asked me who the High Flying Birds are. They aren't anyone in particular. Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds is me and whoever is around at the time of whatever it is that I'm doing, a loose collective kinda thing".
So speaks Noel Gallagher, as he embarks on the latest step of his strange, twisting journey. Gallagher began his career in music by lugging amplifiers on and off tour buses for The Inspiral Carpets. Then he captured the voices, hopes and dreams of millions with Oasis, who went on to become the biggest band of the last two decades. Now he's fashioned a masterpiece that takes the Noel Gallagher trademarks - melancholic verse lines, euphoric choruses, a suggestion that everything's going to be OK when the rain clears - and thrown them out into the cosmos.
Gallagher has also made a second album with psychedelic DJ overlords Amorphous Androgynous, who nearly drove him to insanity when they made him spend five hours and ten minutes playing the same, single guitar line, but more of that later.
Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds takes off into directions Oasis could never have gone. From the New Orleans ragtime stomp of 'The Death Of You And Me' to the Ennio Morricone-inspired, string-laden drama of 'Everybody's On The Run' and the choral swell of '(I Wanna Live In A Dream In My) Record Machine', it's an ambitious, rainbow-coloured epic of an album. It's the product of an enquiring mind, fired up by new discoveries as much as a basic, unquenchable need to get a message out to the world.
"With this album, people are going to think it was a conscious decision to do something different," says Gallagher. "It wasn't like that. This is what just came out. I won't criticize anything about Oasis because I loved being in that band and I was in charge of it, but there was always the feeling: how will this go down in Wembley, with 70,000 people braying for good times? This time I didn't have to think about that. I've got a guy playing wine glasses on one song, a saw on another. This is not Oasis. I don't know what it is......yet."
The intricacy and craft of Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds, both musically and lyrically, puts paid to rumours that its creator entered into a state of inertia after the end of Oasis. "There was a review of the Beady Eye album - and fair play to Beady Eye, the reviews I've read have been pretty good - that said something like: 'while Liam's been hard at work, Noel's been wandering the streets.' It made it sound like I've been stumbling around North London, going through the bins. I've actually spent over a year in the studio, and it was beginning to drive me a little mad. Now I've got no more recording to do until I'm well into my 70s."
Work on the album proper began in February 2010, when Gallagher booked a session at State Of The Ark Studios in Twickenham, Middlesex with sometime Oasis engineer Paul Stacey and his identical twin brother Jeremy, a drummer. The plan was to then head out to Los Angeles for a couple of weeks to mix the tracks with producer Dave Sardy, but it didn't quite work out that way.
"Dave said to me, 'It's great but it doesn't sound like a band'. 'I ain't a band' says I. 'Then we have to make you sound like one' was his response. So we set about to re-recording some drums and cutting numerous overdubs, and as a result I ended up staying out in LA for a couple of months, all the while thinking: 'he can't beat what I've done'. But sure enough, what he came up with was amazing."
There's a tender sort of sadness to 'If I Had A Gun...', one of the most emotionally direct songs Gallagher has written since 'Wonderwall', with its theme of young lovers finding a way to be together. Then there is the descending-chord defiance of 'Soldier Boys And Jesus Freaks'.
It sparked the theme for the album: to find the melancholy in the happiness. "It's how I write songs. 'Some Might Say' by Oasis might sound like an uplifting tune but listen to the words. It's the Irish in me."
These themes; searching for beauty as one tries to survive the day to day grind, and the longing for escape, young love on the run if you like, are not just exclusive to 'Soldier Boys', but to the album as a whole, and have been with Gallagher for much of the last decade.
The ideal of young love also inspired 'The Death Of You And Me', one of the most remarkable and surprising songs on the album, and a world away from Oasis. After a stomping beat and a melody with a touch of mid-60s Kinks to it, jazzy brass blasts in halfway though and suddenly we're in New Orleans. "It's the same theme, the same idea that however good things are, a bit of anything will always be shit," Gallagher says of the song's message. "It's a British thing. The song has a touch of Vaudeville, but with the curtains pulled back a little. There's the line: 'I see another new day dawning, it was rising over me, with my mortality.' Yes, it's a new day. But I've just got a day older, a day closer to the end."
A more straightforward celebration comes with 'AKA... What A Life!' It edges close to being a dancefloor-filling disco classic. "It took me a while to convince myself about this one," says Gallagher. "But [early house classic] Rhythm Is Rhythm by Strings Of Life, which I loved from the Hacienda days, inspired the piano part, and I realised that the song carries the vibe no matter what that vibe is."
As for the forthcoming, as yet unnamed album with Amorphous Androgynous, it developed after Gallagher asked Amorphous's Garry Cobain and Brian Dougans to remix Oasis last single, 'Falling Down', and they came back with a 22-minute epic that replaced Gallagher's vocals with Alisha Sufitt's of 70s hippies Magic Carpet.
"Working with them was like nothing I've ever done before," he says. "We made the album at Paul Weller's studio, and in the past I've always worked hard at crafting a song before recording it. This time I would write a song, bring it in, and [Amorphous's avuncular front man] Gaz Cobain would say, 'Nah, screw that, we'll come up with something right now. Use your instincts and don't compare what you do to anything else.' I was on the verge of telling him to fuck off a few times, but the results made it all worthwhile."
Making a solo album also forced Gallagher to do something he had, remarkably, resisted so far: buy a computer. "I had never gone near one before. Gem [Archer] used to load up the iPod for me so there wasn't any need. But then someone told me there were kids on YouTube finishing songs that I hadn't even written yet, because somebody had filmed me feeling them out during soundchecks. I didn't mind, but I decided I needed to buy a computer and find out what was going on. It was like the moment man discovered fire. I was staring at the thing, my tongue sticking out of the side of my mouth as I hit it with one finger."
Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds, with its psychedelic tinges, eternal
themes of love, loss and hope, and wine glass and saw solo sections,
pushes its creator towards places he has never gone before. "You've got
to try, haven't you? Look at The Fabs. It's a short time between
Strawberry Fields and Mr Moonlight. All the great bands stumbled on
something they didn't know was there before, and ended up doing their
own thing. And ultimately, you're searching for 'it', whatever 'it' is.
If you're switched on you can find it - regularly."
Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds
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24 Oct, 2014
Noel Gallagher: Joins Johnny Marr Onstage In Brixton
Noel Gallagher joined the former Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr onstage at O2 Academy Brixton in London last night.
The pair played Iggy Pop's 'Lust For Life' and the Smiths, 'How Soon Is Now'.www.nme.com/news/johnny-marr/80616
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23 Oct, 2014
Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds: New Single & Video
Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds release their new single 'In The Heat Of The Moment' on 17th November. The video premiered exclusively on Noisey.
The track is taken from the forthcoming album 'Chasing Yesterday', which comes out on 2nd March 2015, on Sour Mash. -
23 Oct, 2014
Noel Gallagher: NME Cover Star
Noel Gallagher is the cover star of this week's NME. Inside he talks about his forthcoming album 'Chasing Yesterday' & his sell-out UK tour.
www.nme.com/magazine/issue/noel-gallagher-the-chief-is-back
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18 Oct, 2014
Noel Gallagher: UK Tour Sells Out In 10 Minutes
Noel Gallagher's UK & Ireland tour of March 2015, has sold out in 10 minutes.
www.nme.com/news/noel-gallagher/80453
plus the track listing for the deluxe edition of his forthcoming album 'Chasing Yesterday' has been announced.
www.nme.com/news/noel-gallagher/80448
plus Noel also appears on 'Celebrity Gogglebox' along with Kate Moss & Naomi Campbell.
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14 Oct, 2014
Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds: New Album, Single & Tour
Today, October 13th, Noel Gallagher announced the completion and release date of the brand new Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds album, 'Chasing Yesterday' on Sour Mash Records. The announcement was made during a live Q and A streamed on Facebook and hosted by BBC 6 Music's Matt Everitt.
'Chasing Yesterday' is released on March 2nd via Sour Mash Records, available on CD, Deluxe CD, vinyl and digitally. The album can be pre-ordered from today.
The first single from the album, 'In The Heat Of The Moment' is released on November 17th digitally and on limited edition 7" inch vinyl with B side entitled 'Do The Damage'.
Noel also announced his band Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds will embark on a run of arena dates in March to coincide with the album release.
'Chasing Yesterday' marks a new chapter and sound for Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds. It's the first album to be produced as well as written by Noel and features a much broader array of instrumentation than ever before; the result is a rich, expansive and multi-layered record, drawing from a range of disparate influences - from west coast rock to classic rock'n'roll and even some space jazz (!) - whilst still being very obviously a completely cohesive body of work. On producing the album, Noel said:
"It was a major pain in the arse. It's not that I've ever had people telling me what to write or what direction to go in, but managing sessions from one end of the week to the other proved extremely difficult. I had all these people looking at me and saying: 'right, what are we doing today?' I was making the whole thing up as I went along."The first single to be taken from the album will be, 'In The Heat Of The Moment'. This hypnotic track was inspired by a documentary in which an astronaut said that going into space for the first time feels like touching the face of God. "If that's not an opening line for a song I don't know what is" said Mr Gallagher.
The beautiful opening track 'Riverman' is an expansive song with several guitar and saxophone solos. Noel said of the track:
"We made a demo of Riverman and we knew it was amazing,"
"And then I was listening to [sax-laden one-hit wonder from 1974] 'Pinball' by Brian Protheroe and thought: Shall I actually get a saxophone player? And what if I get him to play not one but two solos? I know I'm going to be accused of sax crimes. But fuck it. There's nobody to tell me not to do it. And when you listen to that saxophone, please, don't think about the guy from Spandau Ballet."The record's emotional closer, 'Ballad Of The Mighty I' sees Johnny Marr join with Noel on guitar duties.
"I tried to get him to play on the last album but it never happened," said Gallagher. "So when I put this track together and knew he would be perfect for it I called him and asked if I could send him the rough mix. He said: 'No, I don't want to hear it. I'm just going to react to it on the day.' He didn't even want any pointers.
Well, that was brave of him. He just arrived with two guitars and a bag of effects pedals. And I have to say, he's unbelievable. He's way up there, on another level to the rest of us. The result is a burst of energy that helped make 'Mighty I' one of the best songs I've ever written."This album follows the huge success of the double platinum eponymous debut album that has sold 770,000 copies to date in the UK alone, and a live schedule that saw Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds visit 32 countries and play 143 shows over a 15 month touring period.
All European live dates are listed on his artist page.
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14 Oct, 2014
Noel Gallagher: Announces New High Flying Birds Album
Noel Gallagher has announced the release of his new High Flying Birds album, entitled 'Chasing Yesterday', which is out on 2nd March 2015. One track features special guest Johnny Marr on guitar.
Preview the first single 'In The Heat Of The Moment' here.UK tour dates for March 2015 are on his artist page.
www.nme.com/news/noel-gallagher/80349