#songrwiting

The one continuum that is throughout my writing is a real simple, spiritual search. Everything that I seem to have written, in some way or other, keeps refocusing on the idea that in the late 20th century, we are without our God. That what we’re heading for is an era where we have to completely demobilize our religious organizations and reinvent God in some form … in our own new way of life to give ourselves another form of spiritual sustenance. And everything I’ve written is about ‘Who is my God? How does he show himself? What is my higher stage, my higher being?'" But, Bowie goes on to say, “looking for something outside of ourselves for sustenance, can only lead to depression, I think. We have to find that sustenance within ourselves.”

I was about to fail fucking high school, I had to go to summer school, and I didn’t graduate on time. I was that kid who was fucking belligerent. I was not ever trying to be there, because I realized at a certain age that I knew myself, better than a lot of other kids my age did. I knew what I loved—in fact, fuck what I loved—I knew what defined me, and that was music. I said fuck school, and I packed my bags in Berlin and moved to LA. I said I was gonna do it, I was gonna do music, and I did it. A year later, I have a Rihanna single. [You can’t really argue with those results.] I know how much work I’ve put into music as a child, and I know how well I know music. So, not working wouldn’t even be a rational thought to me. Some people think doing music or art is an unrealistic goal, but for me music is my reality. In my mind, going to college is what’s unrealistic, that didn’t make sense to me. I knew this would eventually pay off. It’s about trusting yourself enough to be yourself.

I never know what I’m going to write about, so I think there is a psychological aspect; just what mood you’re in. [...]  To tell you the truth, though, I never think about it now. It’s sort of just the mood I’m in that day. [With ‘Tug of War’ track,] ‘The Pound Is Sinking’ - god, I’ve just read that there’s a recession or something. I’d start with a joke, “the pound is sinking/ the peso’s failing,” you know, whatever. I don’t actually start by thinking, ok, this is going to address a dark mood or subject. I find myself just putting what’s in me into the song. Often, sometimes, I don’t know what I’ve written. [...] I mean, I wrote the song ‘Yesterday,’ and years later someone said to me, that’s probably about your mum dying ten years before. “Why she had to go/ I don’t know she didn’t say.” I never thought that, but now, I think, it might be. All this psychological stuff finds its way into your songs. Because I don’t think them out too much, I let them just fall out, sometimes this stuff is in there without me knowing.

Most bands wouldn't throw songs of this caliber away on B-sides, but Noel Gallagher followed the example of his heroes the Jam and the Smiths, who released singles where the B-sides rivaled the A-sides.

[Are you happier working by yourself?] Oh, fucking infinitely, yeah. I always have been a loner, man. When I was growing up, I never ran with a gang of lads, not for any other reason than I like the peace and quiet. The other side of that coin was Liam. He can't stand being by himself: he has to be surrounded by chaos, and I get that. Not everybody's the same. If everybody was, it'd be fucking boring.