Liam Gallagher: Beady Eye Is 'The Best Band On This Planet'

Noel and Liam Gallagher rarely backed away from proclamations of genius as the guitarist and lead singer of Oasis, and the latter still speaks in absolutes when discussing his new band, Beady Eye.

"I feel I'm in the best band that is on this planet, right here today," he tells Billboard.com.

Fortunately for Gallagher -- who formed Beady Eye with three of his former Oasis bandmates -- the feedback on the band's debut album, "Different Gears, Still Speeding," has been nearly as favorable as his own assessment. Released Mar. 1 on Beady Eye Records/Dangerbird, the album debuts at No. 3 on the U.K. albums chart this week. The band is currently showcasing their first set of songs in Europe and will play a trio of North American shows in June at Chicago's Metro (June 18), Toronto's Sound Academy (June 20) and New York's Webster Hall (June 23), with tickets going on sale this Friday.

"We are excited," Gallagher says. "We want people to fucking like it as much as we like it, but realistically, not everybody's gonna like it as much as we do. We're interested to hear what people think about it. But it's not gonna make or break our day."

Gallagher wasted little time getting the new band together after playing with Oasis for 18 years and spending most of that time publicly feuding with brother Noel, who quit the group in August 2009. Liam says he never considered halting his musical output or retiring.

"I retired the day I joined the band. I retired the day I left school," Gallagher says. "I said, 'I ain't working for that bullshit. I'm gonna join a band.' I am retired. I've never worked in my fuckin' life. I've been in a band… It ain't about 'What are you gonna do when you retire?' Do fuck-all and sit there like a vegetable? Don't think so man. I'm gonna keep moving."

Calling on guitarists Andy Bell and Gem Archer, with whom he had played in Oasis for 10 years, and drummer Chris Sharrock, who toured with them in 2008, the group began demoing in London in fall 2009 and had six songs completed by Christmas.

"By that time, [producer] Steve Lillywhite called our management," recounts Bell. "He called almost straight away when [Oasis] broke up and said, 'Look, what's happening?' He heard we were getting a band together and said, 'I want to do an album or at least put my name in the hat.'"

Bell says they played Lillywhite demos of "Beatles and Stones," "Millionaire," "The Roller," "Kill For A Dream" and "Bring The Light," and the famed producer (U2, Dave Matthews Band) liked what he heard.

"And we liked him," says Bell. "So we said, 'Look, when we go in we'll go in with you.' We went back in to our demo studio and did the rest of the demos. We did 13, put them in the right order, and then when we went in with Steve we just recorded in that same order."

Some of the lyrics on "Different Gear" -- "You go your way and I'll go mine," from album closer "The Morning Sun," for example -- could be interpreted as referring to Gallagher's relationship with his brother. While Gallagher says that he just hopes the album "means something, if [listeners] get it wrong or they get it right," Bell doesn't think the album dwells on their frontman's fraternal strife.

"There's more to life than Liam and Noel's soap opera," Bell says. "There's bigger things to worry about, things that are actually life-and-death important. That's more what I hope, that someone that is having a bad time in their own life can listen to it too and it's going to uplift them. That's what I hope for it."

So does Gallagher ever get tired of having a public feud with his brother?

"No," he says. "I kind of like it, actually."

Source: www.billboard.com

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