NOEL GALLAGHER’S HIGH FLYING BIRDS at Echo Beach (909 Lake Shore West), Sunday (July 10), doors 7 pm, all ages. $62.50, VIP $125. ticketmaster.ca.
Interviewing Noel Gallagher is always a wild ride. It doesn’t take much to get the notoriously opinionated UK rocker to go off on his former Oasis bandmates, the current state of pop music or his own brilliance.
Gallagher is currently about halfway through recording his next album with producer David Holmes, and says it’s the first time he’s ever gone into the studio with no songs written ahead of time. It’s also the first time he’s relying on drum machines, although he promises he hasn’t gone techno.
We chatted ahead of his High Flying Birds show at Echo Beach.
How would you describe the new album?
It’s certainly the most interesting music I’ve ever made. And I don’t really like interesting music, you know what I mean? People who say they like interesting music, I’d like to throw them in a vat of acid. Radiohead are interesting. Björk is interesting. Whatever.
Will you play any of the new material live in Toronto?
Maybe in a sound check. I don’t think I’d play the songs at a gig. Only because they’re too good, and people would be fucking blown away so much that they’d probably pass out. Nobody wants to pick their kid up from one of my gigs and have them look like they’ve seen a ghost. If the songs were shit, I’d play them, but as they’re not, I won’t.
Why do you prefer the Monkees over the Beach Boys?
Let’s put it this way: the Beach Boys have got six good tunes, I’ve got 16. Nobody calls me a fucking genius. Maybe if I wore a nappy around the house and started pouring jam over my head and shitting in light bulbs, I might be called a genius.
Does it bother you that everything you do is still compared to Oasis?
You know what? I sit in my back garden sometimes, looking at my swimming pool and my fucking big bastard house and my beautiful wife, and I think, ‘I’m really fucking upset’. No, I don’t at all.
Why was Liam Gallagher calling you a “potato” on Twitter?
I suppose you’d have to call him up and do an interview with him to find out, but as he’s currently residing in the fucking ‘where are they now’ bin, I’m not sure that’s ever going to happen.
benjaminb@nowtoronto.com | @benjaminboles
