Oasis: Dig Out Your Soul

Can the last great apes of rock pull out another rabbit from their velvet swag bag?

Liam Gallagher has been bounding around the old boozer like a young chimp, his jaunty swagger giving way to near scampering as he ascends and descends the rickety stairs with quad-pedal aplomb. His brachiating calms as he approaches the lounge where Real Groove is already ensconced with Gem Archer and Andy Bell, though it would seem things are off to a bad start as I’m sitting in Liam’s seat. Deferring to the alpha male I shuttle myself over to the couch.

It’s media time for Oasis as studio album number seven prepares to hit the shelves and the band prepare to hit the road. Noel has been putting in radio time including a hilarious still-drunk after two hours sleep interview on BBC1, whilst Liam’s appearances have been mainly sedate dinners out with his wife and friends. The younger Gallagher was once cannon fodder for the media; they hunted him like a wild animal and he usually responded in kind, issuing forth a barrage of wordy insults, occasionally fisty ones. These days his responsible Dad-ness keeps him out of trouble, though with another Oasis tour about to begin that’s likely to be subject to change.

Fourteen years into their career, the brothers from Manchester have seen their fair share of squabbles and band instability to counter their incredible success. 2005’s Don’t Believe The Truth saw the band back in top form after a slump that many a critic would say had been present since Be Here Now, the lacklustre follow up to What’s The Story…

“The magic is in town man and I know it can sound mad and that but I know that there’s magic around,” enthuses a frank Liam. “It was waking up on Don’t Believe The Truth and I know it’s back in town and I’m embracing the whole mother-fucking shit man. I know it’s there and I know when it’s not there and that’s how I know it’s there.”

There is a wonderful bare knuckled charisma that pours out of Liam, one that draws you in to comments like this and has you believe that there may just be benevolent sorcery afoot. The enthusiasm of all three band members is compelling, such is the passion they all display for what they do.

Although Oasis will always be the Gallaghers, it looks like Andy Bell and Gem Archer will be fixtures for some time yet. Both have contributed songs for the last couple of albums, and have done so again on the new album Dig Out Your Soul.

“Standing On The Shoulders Of Giants was only me and our kid,” explains Liam (he refers to Noel as our kid). “The band vibe was literally not there; we didn’t have a fucking band. But Heathen Chemistry we got a band together again and with Don’t Believe The Truth we were getting on it. But making music with people you don’t fucking know, it ain’t going to happen man, you know what I mean? Like Don’t Believe The Truth was the first album where we knew each other spiritually, and I don’t mean like…”

“I use the word telepathy man,” offers Gem.

“Yeah, and this one now we’re like all over each other, right in each others pockets and the next one will just be amazing. But Standing On The Shoulders Of Giants weren’t happening.”

For all the spiritual bonding between band members there remains a missing block from the puzzle that is taking longer to plug. After the recording of Dig Out Your Soul drummer Zak Starkey (Ringo Starr’s son) announced he would be leaving to return to The Who. Replacing him is Chris Sharrock, ex-drummer for The La’s and also Robbie Williams.

“Zak’s his own little entity,” states Liam. “You know he was never in the band, he was a session musician like. He had things with The Who and I knew for a fact he was a Who head right and we always said that whenever they call that’s your gig, you know you were brought up by them. I mean we all dig him, there was no bad vibes there.”

“I mean the thing is I think he played with John Entwistle for nineteen years,” explains Andy. “It really is his family you know.”

“We all knew when the time came and he got the call he’d go,” continues Liam. “The call came and he went but you know he wasn’t just a session musician, he was on our record and he’ll stand the test of time. It just so happens that - and I don’t mean this in a bad way, but this ain’t no fucking hobby with us you know what I mean? If someone has to leave then they have to leave, I ain’t going to mourn that. Fuck I’ll drum if I have to. I’d probably be shit but I’ll have a go.”

The album was recorded at Abbey Road and partly in Los Angeles at producer Dave Sardy’s studio. Liam explains that the band have a very hands-on approach to the production, watching over Sardy’s shoulder the whole time, and says that he’s a producer they’d like to make more albums with. Sardy had previously helped out on Don’t Believe The Truth after a stalled start by Death In Vegas saw the band lolling about without purpose.

“We were in the wrong studio for the start right,” says Liam of the matter. “Personally I think we had the songs. Noel begs to differ that we didn’t have the songs but I always think we’ve got the songs and if we haven’t got them we’ll fucking get ‘em. So we were in the wrong studio and it was a bit lethargic I felt from the producers point. And there was a lot of nodding and a lot of playing records and smoking spliffs. You know if you’re going be grooving it should at least be in a proper studio. So the plug got pulled but it wasn’t because of personalities or nothing, we just needed to do something”

Personalities have of course been an issue in the past for the brothers. Whether it was the personalities of former band members, Robbie Williams, reporters and photographers or even each other, they’ve never been known to pull their punches. Liam and Noel allegedly stopped talking for a long time after Liam made remarks about Noel’s child with Meg Matthews not being his. However, one mention of the possibility of there having ever been any bad blood between the two is met with a stiff retort.

“There haven’t been any shaky times between me and Noel, it’s all media bollocks man. We don’t have to speak and that’s just that fucking telepathy. I don’t need to speak to our kid because there’s no fucking reason to speak. When a bum note goes down then we turn around and say ‘hey don’t do that’ and that’s all we need to do. I know he’s cool and he knows I’m cool. The minute I know he’s not cool then we’ll have a chat because that’s what real people do you know what I mean? He lives his life and I live my fucking life, you know we don’t go out and have popcorn at the cinema. And the quicker people fucking realise that we can talk about the album.”

So back to the album then. The songs were all written separately by the band without each other’s influence, then they came together to record. Listening to the album a few days before the interview I was struck by something that Gem mentioned during our chat. There is a theme running through the album of spirituality, of redemption and of the apocalypse hinted at on the album’s sleeve. Evident on the album is the connection the band spoke of - yes, the magic. Sprinkled liberally on to the eleven songs are the sum total of their influences too. The Kinks, The Doors, The Stones, The Stone Roses and of course The Beatles. Long has the music of Oasis been embroiled in debate over just how much they are influenced by the Beatles and how healthy that influence is.

“What have we borrowed from The Beatles?” challenges Liam. “We put little messages in there and we put little secrets in there because that’s showing our appreciation, whether it’s wizardry or just pure foolery, but we’re writing it. They didn’t invent the fucking word ‘magical’. Do you think that we’re not well aware right, when Noel turns around and he’s plays that one from the new record that it doesn’t sound a bit like The Doors. Or that we’re not aware that people make those comparisons. We’re not ripping off, it’s our album, we can do what the fuck we want. We’re just putting a little nod in there - I don’t know why, we don’t get money from it.”

Does Mr. Gallagher think perhaps in another forty years people will have the same reverence for Oasis as they do now for The Beatles?

“Yeah why not, yeah. The Beatles are dead, right, they’re not making any music. But why can’t people live on with that style of music? Because I sure as hell am going to do it. I know for a fact I’m not ripping them off. I’m making similar music that reminds people of it and is that such a fucking problem? Cause if that’s a fucking problem you need to go buy a Dizzee Rascal record.”

Keen to save themselves irreparable beef with the grime scene, Andy and Gem both quickly state that wasn’t meant as a dig at Dizzee, and Liam, laconically wriggling a beetled brow, concurs.

Fourteen years on from the first strident steps of Oasis and they are still the outspoken progenitors of that link to the sixties. They are also one of the last unabashed rock and roll bands with loud, cocky rock and roll stars at its helm. With all members emphatically stating that they’ll keep on keeping on without or without a label for the foreseeable future I wonder what it is about Oasis that so endears them to their fans?

“We’re a melodic and spiritual continuation from The Beatles and that’s what they like about us,” says Andy.

“We’re using the music that we love to make the music that we love in a really transparent way, saying this is what we like and this is what we do. We’re not trying to be futuristic and people respond to it,” ventures Gem.

But as ever Liam has the last word: “People like us because we’re the fucking bollocks. And you can’t say that these days because you’re an arrogant cunt if you do. We’re a good band. We’re not a good little band, we’re a fucking good big band man.”