Paul McCartney discusses Lennon, songwriting and the need to keep working in new interview
Paul McCartney has discussed his creative process in depth in a new interview, where he's also revealed just much he misses working with John Lennon.
The legendary songwriter opened up about his past and present methods of writing music, as well as the varying levels of confidence he has in his own ability. McCartney, who released a new box set, 'Pure McCartney', today, gave a candid assessment of his experiences of songwriting over his long and prestigious musical career.
In this new interview with NPR for their All Songs +1 podcast, McCartney said that, with songwriting, "You never get it down. I don't know how to do this. You'd think I do, but it's not one of these things you ever really know how to do."
He also opened up about missing John Lennon in a creative sense, saying that he hasn't changed his method of songwriting since he first devised it with his fellow Beatle. "If I was to sit down and write a song now, I'd use my usual method: I'd either sit down with a guitar or at the piano and just look for melodies, chord shapes, musical phrases, some words, a thought just to get started with," McCartney said. "And then I just sit with it to work it out, like I'm writing an essay or doing a crossword puzzle. That's the system I've always used, that John [Lennon] and I started with. I've really never found a better system and that system is just playing the guitar and looking for something that suggests a melody and perhaps some words if you're lucky."
By: Sam Moore
Source: NME