#ng interview

Noel: I meet people and they always say to me "you seem very well ajusted, you seem really nice" and I always think "do I?" because I know me and— I've lived with people and they never get to know me. And it's me that switched off the light and that, but I don't think I'm well ajusted at all, sometimes I sit down and I think I'm a bit of an asshole, but I meet other people and they say "oh you're really..." And I think they're talking about someone else. But then, I'm a gemini, so.

Q: It's interesting that you said that they could live with you and still don't really get to know you (...) Are you afraid that we really got to know you, maybe we wouldn't like you?

— Noel on "Duo Benezra", Montreal (2002)

Noel: [Cast No Shadow] is about songwriters in general but Richard, and people like Richard, tend to bare their souls in songs and when they've given everything they got inside, then — I had this idea when I was out of it — they become transparent, they become hollow, and they cast no shadow. And that's why I don't write personal lyrics, because uh, y'know, I can't be bothered.

Q: maybe because you've been so opinionated and so fortight with what you feel, people also assume that it's not easy to hurt you. Are we right on assuming that? Or is it easy to hurt you?

Noel: Well I don't cry. I cried when my daughter was born (...) But no, it's not very easy to hurt me. If I felt emotionally scarred by anything I'd write it down in lyrics, I wouldn't— See, if you were to hurt me, I'd never let you know that you hurt me. You'd be the last person to find out. Y'know, because, again, it's being male, Irish and from Manchester. You don't show your feelings.

Q: and yet though, in your lyrics... They're so tender.

Noel: well, that's where it all comes out, you see?

Noel: Someone was saying "Is it difficult for me to have somebody trying to express my songs?" I think it must be more difficult for [Liam], knowing his big brother is still behind the control room. And he's got to express my songs, I think it's more difficult for him than it is for me. But nah, he does a great job.

Noel on TalkSport today talking about writing new songs! (April 20, 2026)

Noel: I'm in the studio, noodling away.

Q: Noodling away about anything in particular?

Noel: Well you know I'm a musician. I write songs for a living.

Q: So you're currently writing new songs, that's what you're saying?

Noel: Yeah, yeah. That's what I'm doing, that's what I do.

Q: Is that for Oasis or High Flying Birds?