Below is an extract from an interview with Noel Gallagher from Record Collector who talks about his new High Flying Birds album Council Skies and future plans.
It's been six years since your last album. What kept you?
"I was flabbergasted when I realised that. I put out an album's worth of music on three EPs and a lot of touring went on, so there was plenty going on and time just slipped by. When you get to this age, time tends to accelerate. It doesn't fell like six years, whatever that feels like now".
What was the initial impetus for this album?
"Those EPs were all written in the studio and the idea was to make an album reacting against that. But that was in 2019, and of course the pandemic changed everything. I'd planned on taking 2020 off, but I started writing a year early. I ended up writing three albums of material. Council Skies is the most reflective songs, summarising a period when I was sitting around the house with an acoustic guitar, wondering what was going to happen to the world".
What's going to happen to the other new songs?
"When I delivered this record, I carried on going to the studio every day. I recorded four songs, before thinking "What am I doing?" This record isn't out yet. I'd be insane to make another one, so I took some time off. Still, I know what the next two records are now. This one is grand-sounding and strings-y , so the next one will be more intimate. The songs are heartbreaking, which lends itself to being acoustic. But I say, "I'm going to make an acoustic album next" every five years, and then a 98-piece orchestra arrives".
The new issue of Record Collector is out now.