Stereogum doesn’t do traditional interviews, but when offered face
time with Paul McCartney we ignored the staff handbook and sent
Brandon into Manhattan armed with a page of questions and
instructions not to embarrass us…

It’s not often you get to share a couch with rock royalty. I
reminded myself that when I was scheduling my day, so I showed up a
few minutes early to NY Noise on June 14th, not wanting some subway
logjam to make me lose my spot. Upon arrival I learned Sir Paul, who
I was earlier told I could call “Paul,” was running behind schedule,
that I should maybe grab lunch.
When I returned to the studio 45 minutes later, I didn’t want Paul
to notice my coffee wasn’t from Starbucks, so I decided to finish it
outside. [Isn’t that cute? â?”Ed] Within seconds he came ambling down
the street. The stories you hear (or read about in the New Yorker)
are true: Everyone recognizes him; folks stop awestruck in their
tracks. The best interaction: Some woman with a dog shouts, “I love
your music” and Paul replies, more or less, “I love your dog.” When
he got closer, he asked his companion to snap a photo (or press play
on the Paul Cam recorder) in front of the studio. I was framed in
the shot, so I took two steps to the right, deciding to let him slip
past and introduce myself later.
Unable to finish the somehow endless cup of Joe, I went inside and
spent some time in “the waiting room” listening to folks talk about
how the album was doing on radio. There were two radio DJ’s
scheduled to interview Paul; I was surprised at how shocked I felt
to realize radio still existed. After about 20 minutes I was called
into the office.
McCartney was sitting on a couch downstairs in a smaller, darker
studio room. He stood up when I entered, and we shook hands. He’s
obviously given thousands of interviews, knows the drill, and as I
expected, he was jovial and polite. The one thing I didn’t expect,
though, was for our discussion to begin with him asking the
questions. He was curious about my tattoos and wanted to know the
stories behind them. I gave brief explanations, trying not to cut
into our time. Listening back to the tape, I basically rushed him
(”Um, Pynchonâ?¦ and that’s from this other book.”). Sorry, Paul.
All said the interview went well. We didn’t have that much time and
I decided to focus on technology instead of asking for Beatles
anecdotes or riffs on the new album (which, while not a full return
to form, definitely has some good material). No, I don’t write for
Wired, but I was genuinely curious to know his thoughts on leaks,
rips, and downloads. We ran out of time before I could query about
the origins of the computer-era pun of Memory Almost Full.
During our talk, he sipped from a large a.k.a. venti Starbucks cup.
I continued to sip from my no-name cup and couldn’t help but wonder
who was having the better coffee experience.
Note: After we said our goodbyes, I passed Whoopi Goldberg on the
street. I should’ve told her McCartney was around the corner, but
was too busy listening back to the recording, making sure I could
hear Paul loud and clear.
STEREOGUM: Memory Almost Full’s available as a digital download. The
Beatles, as well as you in your solo work and with Wings, are known
for pioneering recording techniques, audio fidelity. Are you
concerned about people listening to the new album on crappy computer
speakers?
PAUL MCCARTNEY: I figure people make that choice themselves. Anyone
who’s concerned about that would probably get the vinyl. We used to
listen to stuff on the beach on a mono radio [makes mono music
sound] and it still sounded cool. There was no fidelity, never mind
low. It was just a record; it was just the vibe of the record. So
I’m used to that. So no, I’m not really concerned; I think it’s the
peoples’ choice. If you’re a hi-fi nut, you’ll get great equipment.
There’s a version you can get that’s very hi-fi: Mr. David Kahne, in
the studio here, provides great, top-grade sound. Like I say, if you
want to listen to it on crap speakers that’s your choice. [Laughs]
But I would advise you not to ’cause there’s so much better stuff in
there if you actually hear it.
STEREOGUM: The Beatles discography’s available on iTunes soon.
What’re your thoughts on that?
PM: I think it’s good. We’ve been through a lot of media. We started
off on vinyl — all our music was only vinyl, because nothing else
was available. Then it was the tape cassette: It was kind of “Wow,
that’s cool,” and so we listened to stuff on tape cassette, mainly
because it was portable. The feature of that was that if we did a
mix in the early days of the Beatles, we would just put one of these
little Phillips tape-cassette machines on the board and get a rough
idea of the song we’d just done. Going back in the van we’d play it.
We didn’t put it through speakers, we weren’t that sophisticated –
that came later, we did get little jacks and were able to do that.
But at that time it was just great to take the mix home to
Liverpool. Then you got CDs. They were sort of the new thing, and it
was good to hear stuff on that. Now you have downloading, Internet.
So, to me it doesn’t really matter. To me it’s the songs.
You can always go back to the original; you can always go back to
the media that was intended. Some vinyl nuts will have a record
player and the original vinyl records for the Beatles, and you’re
hearing it as we made it. A lot of engineer friends of mine will say
that’s the best way to listen to it. I was interested to hear the
theory of vinyl vs. CDs. One of my engineers said we record
something and the frequencies will go [makes high-pitched frequency
sound] and beyond that we can’t hear, but they are on the vinyl.
Similarly, the other way [makes low-pitch sound]â?¦ those frequencies
that are in the bass. You can’t hear them, but they’re there in the
vinyl. You can measure them on VU meters, but our ears can’t pick
them up. So he said, that’s why vinyl’s better. That’s why people
think of it as warmer and fuller, because it actually is. Whereas a
CD, if you go [makes high-pitched sound again] the CD doesn’t need
any information above that, so it goes to whatever it is — 5,000
KH — and cuts off. Similarly in the bass. That’s why engineers,
some of my engineers anyway, don’t think this is good. I think it’s
gotten better, for one reason or another, but I’m not a great audio
guy I kind of will listen on anything — to me the spirit of the
song is more important. I like listening on great equipment, but I
figure it’s up to people.
STEREOGUM: Do you personally download music?
PM: I don’t. Well, yeah, I do a little bit for iPod. I had a little
period when I was on tour that I used my iPod quite a bit. On the
plane, coming home after a gig where you’ve suddenly got a couple of
hours, where you’re just sitting around doing nothing — that was
the ideal time. I downloaded some stuff for that, just some albums I
liked for late-night listening, instead of reading a book on the
plane. But day-to-day I don’t really do that. I’m more sort of a
radioman or CD.
STEREOGUM: Recently a DJ in Chicago got a hold of the new White
Stripes album prior to its release and played the entire thing on
the air. Jack White, one half of the band, called the DJ up and,
basically, let her have it. What are your thoughts on leaks and
people ripping music to the web, etc?
PM: That’s a pity. It is a pity just because these guys do it for a
living. Artists, that’s how they make the money. I don’t think
anyone would enjoy going into the paymaster at the end of the week
and saying, “Can I have my wages,” and he says, “No, sorry, some
other guy just came in and had them. He just copied them and you’re
not getting paid this week.’ Which is sorta what it’s like. There
was some young girl quite a few years ago now, when it first started
happening with Napster, and it was quite a contentious idea, she
said — a young Italian girl — she said, “I pick up all my music
free off the Internet.” I said, “That’s very nice for you, but the
artist who made it isn’t getting paid.” I said, “How do you feel,
you go into your TV station the end of the week and don’t get
paid…” Let’s say the artist has a family, a new baby or
something … you need some dough, you know. So I think that’s a
pity. I like now the fact that people are getting more pay.
So it is unfortunate, but it’s a modern phenomenon you can’t really
escape. People can just pick it up. I was just talking on the way
down here in the car about music biz and why it’s down and we just
figure because you can get so much of it free. You don’t actually
have to go and buy a CD anymore. The only people I feel sorry for
are the new artists who might be relying on that as a good way to
earn a living. So it’s a pity if they don’t get paid. But other than
that, obviously it’s nice for the people. [Laughs] You don’t have to
pay. You get a free ride. That’s a nice thing. [Laughs] Everyone
loves a freebie.
STEREOGUM: Speaking of the music business: You’ve likened
contemporary record labels to dinosaurs…
PM: David Kahne, whose studio we’re in, said that. He said, it’s
like the dinosaur sitting around discussing the asteroid. And when
you talk to these guys at the labels, they’re very conscious of
that. Well, a lot of them are so conscious of it because they’re
getting little letters that say, ‘you’re laid off … baby,` and
that’s gonna make you super conscious of it. I think a lot of them
don’t know how to deal with the modern phenomenon of downloading and
the Internet, and what we’re talking about, you know, free access.
Suddenly the rug’s pulled from underneath them where they had a nice
little number going: You’d actually just put out a record, charge
for it, and get paid. Now it’s completely different, a new ball
game. So, yeah, I think there is a dinosaur aspect of it and the
world’s changing so fast it’s hard to keep up with it.
STEREOGUM: Is this why you decided to leave Capitol?
PM: My main reason was sitting with David, the producer, and just
saying, “I really want to get excited about putting the next album
out, I’m fed up with getting bored when release comes.” It’s like
the end of your school year, those exams, and you know, it’s not a
great feeling. I don’t have to take exams, in a way … [Laughs]
When I was in high school it was a reality — I had to go and take
them — but when you’ve sorta got where I’ve got or when the band’s
met … the exam is your album, and this idea of releasing it and it
getting very boring and talking to a lot of corporate people about
it and you find yourself yawning a lot, it just really, I just
thought I don’t want to do that. So we just tried to re-look at the
whole thing. That meant a label change. The Starbucks people were
just so passionate, they said, “Wow man, love your album” and the
feedback we were getting from them, from Steve Jobs at iTunes, and
from the whole new team we put that together to bring this into
being, new art people and stuff, was just such a buzz that I
said, “Yeah, this is what I want. I just want it to be exciting.” It
was exciting making it and now we’ve made it exciting to release
it … for us. That’s really all I care about. It’s kind of selfish,
but why not?
STEREOGUM: Memory Almost Full debuted at #3 on Billboard. It’s your
highest charting solo album in ten years. Do you think this has
anything to do with the label switch?
PM: I don’t know, I don’t know. It could be â?¦ We certainly thought
about this campaign. I said, “There’s no point working all year to
make an album and then just going to some guy you don’t know, well,
you put it out then. It’s like, who is this guy? If he gets it
wrong…” So we just said, “No no no, let’s just get a bunch of
people and ask ‘what do you think, what do you think, what do you
think?’ ‘I like that idea.’ ‘This is cool…’” It’s just more
exciting than sitting around and twiddling your thumbs thinking, “I
hope they’re doing the right thing with my record.”
STEREOGUM: Okay, one backward glancing question: The 40th
Anniversary of Sgt Pepper’s just passed. Did you intentionally
insert any references to past Beatles material in Memory Almost
Full? “Nod Your Head,” for instance, has a particular sound…
PM: I guess that could be a “Why Don’t We Do It in The Road?” type
vibe. I’m not really conscious of that. I just make music that
appeals to me at the time. And because I’m me, there’s naturally
going to be echoes of Pepper, White Album, Revolver, whenever â?¦
There’s going to be echoes from throughout my writing career. I’m
not really conscious of it, but I like it. It takes people to point
it out to me. Some people say, ‘That’s really Wings, that tempo.’ Is
it? Cool. I like that. I must say I hadn’t thought of “Nod Your
Head” as Beatles-esque, but I’m happy to think it is…
STEREOGUM: Listen to it again. [Laughs]
PM: [Laughs] Yeah, we like the Beatles. The Beatles are good. Good
band.