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Noel Gallagher On Songwriting And How It Took Him Eight Years To Write Oasis' 'Let There Be Love'


Noel Gallagher has spoken about songwriting and how it took eight years to write Oasis' Let There Be Love to the new issue of Music Week.

Congratulations on your BMI Award. Does the fact it’s for songwriting make it more meaningful to you?

“Yeah, because it’s such a personal thing. Have you ever read Isle Of Noises? This guy [Daniel Rachel] interviewed 30 British songwriters, from me to Ray Davies, about the process of songwriting and what’s fascinating about the book is there’s no hard and fast rules. Everybody’s got a different way of approaching it. So when you get an award for your songwriting, you’re asked to define it and I find it difficult because it’s such an instinctive thing to me. I’ve never received a musical lesson in my life, I’ve just got a fucking talent for getting a tune out of anything and the enthusiasm to see ideas through, and I really love what I do. But as for the actual how you do it, I don’t know. They fall out of the sky.”

But what usually comes first – the verse or chorus?

“The one constant is that the words will always come last. I’ll have arranged the entire song, then I’ll just wait for the words. The first line is usually the hardest and then they get progressively easier. Some songs can take 10 minutes to write; eight years is the longest I’ve ever spent on a song.”

Which song was that?

“It was off [2005’s] Don’t Believe The Truth... Let There Be Love. That took eight years to write. This Is The Place [took] four or five years because, ‘That bit didn’t work, I’ll have to write a new bit for that and then that bit worked’. But I find it difficult to talk about; it’s just something that’s always been there for me. I’ll have to get up and make a speech [at the BMI Awards] and no doubt I’ll fucking upset somebody while I do it, because I’ve got nothing to say [laughs].”

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