Interview for paulmccartney.com

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Mogi on Facebook: How do you deal with writers’ block?

Paul: I don’t really get it. I’m quite lucky with that – touch wood! I hardly ever sit down and go, ‘I’m going to write’. It’s nearly always when I’ve got some time and there’s nothing else I particularly want or need to do. I can just sit down and noodle around with something because it’s come from my own desire and not somebody else’s, or of a requirement. It often comes reasonably easy.

Sometimes I might block out the words in order to get the tune and shape of the song and then think,‘God, they’re bloody awful those words, I’ll have to fix them!’ Then I’ll revisit them and get some great lyrics, and that’s always a good feeling.

So, I don’t really have writer’s block. I’ve been blessed with that. I sometimes tell the story of John and I having written just short of three hundred songs, and every time we sat down to write we came up with a song. Which is incredible!

PaulMcCartney.com: Do you ever have the opposite problem, where you need to stop what you’re doing because you had a sudden idea and must write it down?

Paul: Sometimes, yes. I’ve got endless bits of paper stuffed in places, which one of these days I swear I’m going to get to! But most things these days are written on my phone.

I find that I don’t have to worry too much about writing, unless I’ve got a deadline. I’m lucky that I’m my own boss! I was talking to a young singer recently, who asked me, ‘Can you stipulate what you want to write? Can you decide what you want to do, and what you want to record?’ I said, ‘Yeah! Why, can’t you?’ And they said, ‘No! Not so much these days’. Because there’s a lot more involvement now, with record labels and people saying, ‘You can’t do this, you can’t do that…‘

So, I’m very lucky in that respect too. I can decide what I want to do and when I want to do it, and that helps with the writing.

Will: Given that you live on a farm for a lot of time, what are some of the special encounters that you’ve had with animals?

Paul: We used to have rescue-deer, and one day I needed to move one from one paddock into another. So I thought, “Well, I’ll just pull him in there! I’ll just get hold of his antlers,” – he was a male – “And I’ll just pull him into the next paddock.” Oh, they are strong! This ended up like as a wrestling match with me and this guy. I didn’t realise how strong he was. I think I did get him into the paddock eventually, but after quite a struggle.

PaulMcCartney.com: With Easter coming up, and lambing season, we wondered if you’ve ever birthed a lamb? Or if you’ve helped birth one?

Paul: Yeah. You occasionally do that when you live in the countryside. The person who’s done that recently is Arthur, my grandson, who’s been brought up around the farm. He lived in London but visited the farm a lot and so is used to being around sheep and stuff. Well, he and his mum, Mary, were horse riding one day when they noticed a sheep was lambing, and it looked like she was having trouble. So Arthur got down off his horse and helped to birth the lamb, which was very slow. I was most impressed, ‘cause it’s a bit of a messy job! But I thought that was very good of him. That’s my most recent ‘lamb story’.

PaulMcCartney.com: You’ve mentioned in the past that the opening notes of ‘Blackbird’ were inspired by Bach. Has Mozart ever factored into any of your compositions?

Paul: Not in a specific way, like with ‘Blackbird’. In that instance, it was a piece of Bach’s music that inspired us (PM.com: For those wondering, it’s Bourrée in E minor!), and I stole from that.

With Mozart, I often remember something he’s supposed to have said: “I use the notes that love each other.” I’m paraphrasing, but that’s the sentiment. And I agree! In a great chord certain notes love each other. So that’s my main Mozart inspiration. 

What was your dad’s reaction to you and Wings recording ‘Walking in the Park with Eloise’?

Paul: Oh, he loved it. He really loved it. He wouldn’t ever admit he’d ‘written’ it. He said it was just a piece he played on the piano that he’d ‘made up’. And I said, ‘Well, we call that writing these days!’ I think he meant that he didn’t physically write something out in notation. 

The recording of the song happened when I was in Nashville. I mentioned it to Chet Atkins and he said, ‘We should record that for your dad!’ So, it was Chet’s idea. We got a couple of guys together and recorded it. Then I played it to dad, who was very happy to hear the tune he ‘didn’t write’.

PaulMcCartney.com: Was it something that he’d played for many years?

Paul: Yeah, it was just something that he’d made up on our piano. He usually played all the ‘old standards’, that’s why I’ve got such a rich background knowledge of them. He never read any music, it was all by ear. I think it all sunk in when I was little, before I could even reach the piano! 

It gave me an interest in those kinds of songs. I’d hear Fred Astaire’s stuff on the TV or radio – [singing] ‘Heaven, I’m in Heaven!’ And I would learn to appreciate the skill made in making that song. I figured out how he’d done it, what tricks he used. A lot of my music education was just that, hearing tricks that other composers had used and thinking, ‘Oh, I love that. I’ll do it too’. For instance, the song ‘Bésame Mucho’ starts off in a minor key and goes into a major. What a great trick!

PM.com: You mentioned that ‘Walking in the Park with Eloise’ was recorded in Nashville. We’ve visited the Loveless Café there, where there’s a sign advertising ‘Country Hams’. Is this where the inspiration for the band name ‘The Country Hams’ came from?

Paul: Yeah, exactly. And that parking lot is where I met up with Chet Atkins and Jerry Reed. We went and ate there – I seem to remember the peach preserve was their speciality.

PM.com: What a nice piece of music history! There should be a little plaque in the car park.

Paul: ‘This is where Paul met Jerry and Chet!’

Have you ever had any supernatural encounters?

Paul: I don’t think so. Not really. My dreams are very supernatural, I can go anywhere there. But not in real life. I’ve never actually seen a ghost or a spirit, and I’m not a great believer in all that. A lot of it comes from raising kids: when they’d say, ‘Dad, I’m scared of ghosts,’ I’d say, ‘There’s no such thing.’ You do a lot of that as a parent.

So, I don’t believe in it. I think the human mind is susceptible to getting a bit worked up and overexcited, and often these things have a rational explanation in the end.

Going further

• https://www.paulmccartney.com/news/you-gave-me-the-answer-do-you-experience-writers-block
• https://www.paulmccartney.com/news/you-gave-me-the-answer-what-are-some-of-the-special-encounters-youve-have-with-animals
• https://www.paulmccartney.com/news/you-gave-me-the-answer-have-you-ever-been-inspired-by-mozart
• https://www.paulmccartney.com/news/you-gave-me-the-answer-walking-in-the-park-with-eloise
• https://www.paulmccartney.com/news/you-gave-me-the-answer-walking-in-the-park-with-eloise
• https://www.paulmccartney.com/news/you-gave-me-the-answer-have-you-ever-had-any-supernatural-encounters
• https://www.paulmccartney.com/news/you-gave-me-the-answer-have-you-ever-had-any-supernatural-encounters

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