“I wouldn’t know how to write a hit these days, but then I’ve never known that. Otherwise it’s too easy to get caught in a cycle of doing the same things over and over again.” But it’s a question of setting yourself a certain amount of challenges, too. Sometimes you get there, sometimes you don’t – and sometimes you end up with something that isn’t what you set out to do, but is something else again, and something that surprises you because you didn’t realise you could go there.
“I might have an idea, however vague it is at the time, of where I want to try and take the music. To coincide with the release of True Meanings, Paul Weller talks us through his songwriting process, touching on collaboration and creative exploration along the way. While his humility means he’s loathe to act as a songwriting sage (“Other people’s business is up to them!” he says), he admits that, “at whatever age, there’s always something else to learn”. When that stops… who knows if it ever stops! You’ll probably go to your grave thinking you could’ve done more.” “I just want to keep finding new things – new ground.
“I couldn’t do that stuff,” he says of the reunion circuit. A wistful, placid and thoughtful record from the man who once defined the 70s’ bolshy Britishness, it finds the star taking a more settled approach, linking up with a who’s who of young British musicians throughout, the likes of Lucy Rose and Villagers’ Conor O’Brien only helping to further Weller’s still sky-high creative ambition, at a time when many of his old-school peers are relying on nostalgia. True Meanings, Weller’s newly-released solo album, is yet more evidence of evolution from the icon. A musical polymath, no two Weller records are the same: from the punchy punk of The Jam, through the soulful Style Council, and multiple solo albums since, he’s proven himself a master of songwriting over a near half-century-long career. Though his ‘Modfather’ nickname might precede him, Paul Weller has long since left those days behind.
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