That's all from Paul
writeronthestorm asks:
Have you ever submitted, or would you submit, a Bond theme?
Guardian contributor I was trying to put forward one for this next film they've got coming up, something that me and Noel had written, but we never heard back. It was when Danny Boyle was gonna be directing it but I think he's dropped out now. Noel wasn't quite as convinced as me but I think we had a really good song for it. I thought we had a good idea for the song, I wanted someone like Ceelo Green to sing it, but it's just all in my head.
ID940740 asks:
Where in Britain would you like to play, but haven’t?
Guardian contributor I've played everywhere in Britain, pretty much. But there's lots of places I'd love to go back to but I don't know if the venues still exist. Malvern Winter Gardens, somewhere like that.
DWFan1 asks:
What’s your favourite Pixar film?
Guardian contributor Toy Story - 1 and 2 was good. I'm looking forward to 4 next year.
'Nostalgia's got no future, has it'
garythenotrashcougar asks:
You’ve had such longevity to your career, living through several eras such as punk, Britpop etc - what was your favourite time producing music, either as a band or solo artist?
Guardian contributor I've been very fortunate, I've had lots of favourite times. I loved the early days of the Jam before we really made it, driving around in a transit playing pubs, clubs around London, wherever we could get a gig. Great, carefree days. The first couple of years of the Style Council, 83 - 85 probably, great times. No rulebook at all, making it up as we went along - it was like a travelling youth club on the road, that was good fun. Then I suppose the last few years, last 10 years or so - like now is one of my favourite times. There's nothing I wish for anyway, really. I'm enjoying the place I'm at right now. Nostalgia's got no future, has it. I'm quite amazed at how nostalgic everyone's become culturally, in the last 10 years or so. I can only think it's people clinging to that in uncertain times. Maybe something to do with that. But in the past when we've gone through times like this it's normally thrown up new kinds of music as opposed to looking back - this is probably the first time in my life that we haven't done that. People find safety in what they grew up on. I can understand that to a point, but I just wanna hear new stuff as well. If all I had was listening to my old records - which I love - I'd be a bit disappointed really.
Updated
WistfulAmbassador asks:
If you hadn’t made it as a musician, what would you have done instead?
Guardian contributor I would have just been a failed musician. And I'd just be out doing clubs and pubs in the Surrey area. Weddings, Bar Mitzvahs.
FourString asks:
Which Small Faces song had the biggest influence on you?
Guardian contributor All of em. They're one of my favourite bands. Probably Tin Soldier, if I had to really pick one. I just love the arrangement on it, the singing on it is incredible. As a performer, his vocal performance - and I love the structure and the arrangement and the fact it was like a Top 10 hit back in the day with a song and arrangement like that is pretty incredible really. And the fact they were only like, 20 years old. Maybe younger. But in terms of maturity and sound, yeah.
MiLlA10 asks:
Where do you go to get your suits made? And any clothing brands in general you really like at the moment?
Guardian contributor Haven't got a particular tailor, to be honest, I've had them made all different places. As for brands, who do I like... I like Sunspel, Uniqlo have some good things sometimes. I haven't really got a favourite shop, I just like wandering around looking in shop windows, picking stuff up here and there. John Simon's I like, he's been doing it an awful long time.
Wilsonbeans asks:
What’s your favourite boozer in London?
Guardian contributor I don't drink any more so I don't really go in them any more! but my favourite pubs back in the day was whatever was the nearest one! Especially if they did after hours drinks as well, that's my criteria for a good boozer.
IainRiddell asks:
You have recently produced for Stone Foundation and Nia Wyn. What is your reading of the current UK soul scene and can you recommend any other particular artists who are on your radar?
Guardian contributor I dunno about a scene, but there's some great artists. I don't know if there's any scene any more. But there's some great singers - Jorja Smith, Sam Henshaw, Fredwave my daughter introduced me to.
ghuitson asks:
You have a beautiful collection of guitars, which is your favourite to play and do you have a preferred set up when playing live?
Guardian contributor I like all my guitars but my favourite and my baby is my 1968 SG. And as for my setup live, it's just regular, I just plug in the amp.
WacoKid asks:
Wild Wood is a fantastic album - and your new album shares some of the same folky, pastoral leanings. As your muse has taken you back to this sound, is there a chance you’ll ever tour the Wild Wood album again to play it in its entirety?
Guardian contributor No, absolutely no chance whatsoever, no. I wouldn't be interested in doing that, playing any of my records in their entirety. I've only done that with Sonic Kicks, which we played from start to finish but never again, I didn't really enjoy the experience anyway. You're stuck with that running order and however much it works on a record it doesn't always translate to live, where there's a different set of dynamics occurring and you need to be open to that, to swapping songs around. It's a bit limiting I find, really.
'I still get angry when I see the upper-class establishment, with their floppy fringes and cut-glass accents'
richgart asks:
What of the many causes you have supported has energized you the most? And which of your political songs are you proudest of?
Guardian contributor It's hard to say cos they're all important, the things we've been involved with from the miners' strike in the 1980s to Shelter, whatever it may be, up to now. Couldn't really single one out. They're all important. As for political songs, I've written some rubbish in the past when it comes to that sort of subject matter but there's a few songs I got it right on. A lot of them I wrote in the Thatcher years, so between 79 up to the mid-80s, probably, with varying degrees of success. But I couldn't single one out at all, no. They're both good songs. I liked a song called Homebreakers from 85 on the Style Council album that me and Mick Talbot wrote together. But probably, think of something like the Jam song Eton Rifles from 79, that still seems as relevant today as ever to me, that the country's run by all these posh kids from fucking public schools and nothing really changes - we've still got that establishment that's at the heart of this country with the upper class and the royal family, it seems so antiquated to me, such an anachronism in this day and age to still be ruled by these fucking idiots. When I see their floppy fringes and cut-glass accents that still makes me angry. Whether it will ever change I don't know.
Updated
rick35kt asks:
What’s your favourite London venue?
Guardian contributor Probably Hammersmith Apollo. That's probably one of my favourites anyway. I also like the old Town and Country - the Forum in Kentish Town. They both have good sound, as I remember, although backstage is a little bit tiny. I've always had good gigs at both of them places. And on a smaller scale, probably 100 Club. I've got good ties with them going way back.
'I'd like to collaborate with Pharrell'
Shannamy asks:
Is there anyone you haven’t already collaborated with that you would like to – living or dead?
Guardian contributor Pharrell Williams. I never will do but in a fantasy world I'd like to work with him. He's so clever, musically, and I reckon we could do something good together.
TheStormdog asks:
Your influences have been spoken about many times, but is there a piece of music you never tire of and is there one that makes you want to turn off when you hear it?
Guardian contributor I never, ever get bored of hearing the Beatles. Whatever period and don't matter how many times I've heard the songs, which I have thousands of times over, listening since 1963, but in particular Tomorrow Never Knows, the last track on Revolver, I still think is the most forward looking and sounding record ever made. I think it sounds like so much that has come in the last 50 years but it's still out there on its own, it's like it's from another realm. I'm always hearing new things in that. But that probably applies to most of their music for me.
One that makes me want to turn it off... I don't really listen to any records I wanna turn off. I'd be more inclined to turn the radio off in the car. Or don't have it on at all and listen to your own music.
byrnzey asks:
What’s the last ‘new release’ album you listened to from start to finish?
Guardian contributor There's been quite a few actually - Gaz Coombes's record, Villagers, those two definitely I listened to start to finish. I really love Mr Jukes's album from last year. Erlend Cooper's Solan Goose, I like the Coral's new album.
texavery asks:
If you were just starting out today, what kind of music could you we expect from you?
Guardian contributor Firstly I'm really glad I'm not starting out now. I'm very thankful I started out at the time I did and was born into the time I was cos it's so tough out there now for young artists. I dunno what I'd be doing... It'd definitely be guitar-based still. I imagine something sorta soulful or R&B I think. Who knows... Probably just be playing in a pub around woking, dodgy covers in some pub with Enzo, the hairdresser. In fact that'd be a good name for a band, the Hairdressers.
'It's taken me a lifetime to feel at ease with myself'
puggy67 asks:
You seem to be much more content these days. Does domestic bliss impact on your writing?
Guardian contributor I think being more comfortable in myself has more of an impact on my writing. I guess it's the same thing you're talking about. But it's taken me a long time - the best part of a lifetime - to really know myself and feel at ease and comfort with myself. So I guess that has some impact, anyway. It certainly has an impact on my generally and how I view myself and the world, so I'm sure it would affect my writing as well.
VerulamiumParkRanger asks:
What inspires and drives your seemingly never-ending quest to create relevant and challenging music?
Guardian contributor The music itself inspires and drives me. That's the biggest inspiration of all, really, for me, and hearing other people's music whether it's stuff I've grown up with or hearing brand new things or old tunes I've never heard before, it could be whatever, really, from any time, they're the things that inspire me to make music still, the music itself, the way it can move and inspire people and help you think outside the box and all those things. That's my main drive, the music itself. The new Villagers album, that did that for me - The Art of Pretending to Swim. I thought that's amazing, and the level of songwriting on it, he's raised the bar with that, they're the things that inspire me.
jrhale asks:
You mentioned a while back you were planning on making a record with Johnny Marr. Any chance this could come to fruition?
Guardian contributor Well me and Johnny been talking about it for a long time now, trying to do something together, but it's just timings, really. We're always busy. But who knows, it could happen maybe.
Wellerfan1990 asks:
One of my favourite songs of yours is Brand New Start. Was it inspired by an actual new start in your life?
Guardian contributor I think it was, I was doing a charity concert for Shelter, I think it was, a homeless charity anyway, so I kinda wrote that song cos I was gonna be playing this concert and I was thinking about homelessness and that as a song about that, really. That's how I kinda read it, anyway.
theuniversal asks:
What music have you been listening to lately and did it influence True Meanings?
Guardian contributor Anything I've listened to recently wouldn't have had any bearing on True Meanings - I've been listening to a lot of R&B and none of it had any bearing at all. I don't often do that - if I'm making a record I'm more inclined to listen to something that's the opposite of what I'm working on. So for instance, I wouldn't have sat down with a load of acoustic singer-songwriter records, I would have been listening to something completely different. I really like John Martyn, Nick Drake, Pentangle, some folk rock, and they would definitely feed into anything I do, but not directly, not as obvious as that.
KarenStephen asks:
Your song Kind Revolution really got me thinking. If there is one thing we could all do to bring that revolution about, what do you think it is?
Guardian contributor That was the name of the album, but I think you're talking about The Cranes Are Back. I think that's down to us as individuals - the real revolution could only really come from within all of us. And that is to think outside of our egos and see that we're all part of one thing, of the earth, of the universe, and to submit our egos, to see that we're just part of this ongoing journey, really. That would be the greatest thing we could do towards a real revolution, to see outside of ourselves more.
motley1970 asks:
What is your most treasured piece of vinyl?
Guardian contributor I've got a couple. My entire collection of Small Faces picture sleeves from all over the world - I've got a massive box of them, they're probably my most treasured. Then I've got some really old Blue Note records, Into Something by Larry Young, that's probably mid-60s, and it's really rare, but that's probably one of my favourite rare records.
beesotted1 asks:
You mentioned you’ve had Gravity written for about five years, but it didn’t fit into any of the newer albums. Did you write the the others over the five-year period, or after finishing A Kind Revolution, when knowing what style you wanted?
Guardian contributor Well, Gravity was the first song I wrote, five or six years ago probably, so I'd been collecting ideas and some songs over the course of those years, but then a lot of the rest of it, I kinda wrote or finished off last year. I was kinda stockpiling some ideas, not necessarily finished songs, over those years, and not doing too much with them, just storing the ideas away until I was ready to make the record, which is normally how I work. I'll have lots of little ideas I store on my phone, and I save up until I've got enough to put into a song or make a record.
SantiagoSalvador asks:
Do you consider that with True Meanings you have opened a sound path through which to walk from now on, or is this more delicate proposal a stop along the way?
Guardian contributor It's just my new record, really. I don't think of it as - it's certainly not a new direction. Just a new album. So I don't think it's opened up anything different for me because I've done tracks like it in the past, which were acoustic and orchestrated, but I've never done a whole album of it. I hope I do something completely different next time. It was always intended as an acoustic record, right from the word go. So I guess in those terms it was much more thought about than other records.
SantiagoSalvador asks:
Considering the important place you occupy within the world of music, do you feel more responsibility when you release a new album or do you feel as free as when you started?
Guardian contributor I don't ever think about it in those terms, I just do what I feel is right at the time. I don't worry about what effect it will have. I can't think like that. Once I finish something I hope that people will like it but there's absolutely no way of knowing that at all until you put it out, so it couldn't really be a consideration for me because it'd be too baffling to try and do that. You've no idea what connects with people. Sometimes it can be the most unexpected songs, so I just do my best and what I feel is best at the time and hopefully people like it.
TownCalledMalice asks:
What song always makes you smile – is there a song that has brought you to tears either through words or the performance?
Guardian contributor Happy by Pharrell Williams, that always makes me happy... and a song that has brought me to tears... I don't really get tearful any more, I don't know why, so it's hard for me to answer. But something I find emotional - probably something like Arabesque by Debussy. If I could cry, that would make me cry - possibly.
Paul Weller is with us now
(Sorry for the slight delay - it will be worth it, we’re sure!)
Post your questions for Paul Weller
While his peers are often content with a life of nostalgia tours and reined-in expectation, Paul Weller continues to push his songwriting uphill. Still best known for his Mod-influenced punk and new wave with the Jam in the late 1970s, he has since done everything from yacht rock (with the Style Council), Britpop (Stanley Road), symphonic psych (22 Dreams) and cosmic rock (Saturns Pattern) – all of it powered by his earthy yet steel-tipped soulboy voice.
After two releases in 2017 – the socially conscious A Kind Revolution and his soundtrack to boxing movie Jawbone – he’s still churning them out, and changing his spots: new album True Meanings is his take on English folk, with a touch of Nick Drake to the orchestration.
With the album out this week, Weller is joining us to answer your questions in a live webchat, on Monday 17 September, from 12.15pm BST onwards. Post them in the comments below, and he’ll take on as many as he can.
Updated
Thanks for all the questions. Be seein' you. Peace out.