The former Oasis guitarist and chief songwriter has blasted artists like the ‘Shape of You’ hitmaker and his brother Liam for teaming up with a number of songwriters to pen their hits, and says it only ”fuels his arrogance”.
He fumed: ”I don’t do collaborations with producers. David Holmes was great but he can’t play an instrument so he’s a producer. No one gets a writing credit, I write my songs, I’m not interested in writing with anybody else, unless we’re going to start a new band.”
”I’m offended by singer/songwriters who when you scratch the surface don’t do any f***ing songwriting. As far as I’m aware if you scratch the surface of any solo artist in Britain and they’ve all got a team of songwriters behind them apart from me, Paul Weller and Johnny Marr, I’m struggling to think of anybody else. Richard Ashcroft, Our Kid (Liam) all the way to f***ing Ed Sheeran and the little fella from One Direction they’ve all got an army of songwriters behind them.”
”That’s alright, everyone has got to make a living and all that and it’s good really because it fuels my arrogance which is good for me. I think as a solo artist it’s important that it’s coming from you, otherwise what is it? It’s someone else’s melodies and someone else’s words but if that’s what you’re doing then fine make a living but don’t have a big mouth about it. It’s like my tune Dead In The Water, people have built careers out of that s**t, I’ve just given it away, you can have it, in that good.”
The ‘Holy Mountain’ hitmaker – who recently released his third studio LP ‘Who Built The Moon?’ – has compared songwriting to the buzz you get when you catch a fish yourself.
He told the Sodajerker podcast: ”I think the greatest thing for me, as a songwriter, is not coming up with the chords or the melody it’s being switched on and being aware that there’s something happening.”
”Keith Richards talks about the songs all being in the air, I liken it to go fishing and if you not at the river you’re not catching anything.”
”I can go there every day of my life, if I have an hour to spare I’ll sit and play the guitar watching the TV with the sound down, sometimes nothing will happen but next week it might.”
Source: Contactmusic
Image: Getty