So What's The Story?

03/06/2000 6:00 PM, LAUNCH
Lily Moayeri

"At the end of the Be Here Now tour, I was going to leave the band," states Noel Gallagher, elder brother to singer Liam and the leader/ guitarist/ songwriter of Oasis. "I'd had enough; I didn't like the people I was in the band with. I felt we weren't going anywhere, it was useless. I felt my time would better be served as a solo artist. So I gave up drugs, rediscovered the writing bug--it was brilliant."

For someone whose every move is watched by seemingly the whole world, Noel often behaves quite rashly. For instance, a few years ago he hopped on the Concorde in the middle of Oasis's successful American tour in support of their breakthrough second album, What's The Story Morning Glory?, and without a thought abandoned the whole operation. Or there was the time he infamously declared, during a drunken interview, that he wished the members of rival Brit band Blur would die of AIDS. And then there was Oasis's third release, Be Here Now, the entirety of which Noel wrote during a hurried two-week period, despite the fact that fans of the first two albums were expecting Oasis album No. 3 to be the answer to all their musical dreams.

Yes, it's true that Noel hasn't always made the wisest career moves, but somehow such decisions never turn out to be as wrong as they could have been. For example, Noel says taking a year off to relax after Be Here Now is what kept him from leaving Oasis, and that exiting the What's The Story Morning Glory? American tour was necessary to keep Oasis together at that time. "If we wouldn't have walked off that American tour, the band would have broken up. The thing is, we've made two records since then--this one far superior to the last one--and we're coming back and we'll keep coming back. So it was justified in my eyes. It weren't for the people who bought tickets, but there you go. It's just the way it is."

Now he's sitting in the most beautiful hotel room on the shores of Santa Monica, the sunset outside the window is a brilliant and fiery orange, and he appears to be one contented character as he talks about Oasis's new offering, Standing On The Shoulder Of Giants (the title is a reference to a Sir Isaac Newton quote). He's confident that this album, the band's fourth, is worthy of all the attention that Oasis garner on an everyday basis just for going down to the off-license to pick up a pint of milk.

After co-producing Oasis's first three albums with Owen Morris, Noel chose to work this time around with producer Mark "Spike" Stent (U2, Spice Girls, Massive Attack, Mansun) and engineer Paul Stacy (who played the string parts on keyboards during Oasis's Be Here Now tour). As a result, Standing On The Shoulder Of Giants keeps the Oasis rock 'n' roll mentality but infuses it with a technological sensibility that makes it a more modern effort than their prior works.

The friendship between Noel and Stent's wives was what brought Stent into the Oasis equation. After hearing a few of the rough demos Noel had been working on in his bedroom studio, Stent expressed his interest. When decision-making time came about, there were a few factors that helped Noel make up his mind. "I thought, 'Well, he's worked on contemporary, modern records. He doesn't seem to be apprehensive about working with us.' Because a lot of people go, 'What? The Gallagher brothers? In the same studio? You f--kin' sure?'" Noel quips. "And he was getting really excited about the music, which is the main thing. I just had a good feeling about it from the start. He's not into drugs and all that stuff, as well. It helps if somebody who's in charge is f--king saying, 'All right, look, this is how it's going to be, we're coming in to make a record.' The last time, we'd all turn up at the f--king studio, go to the pub, get f--king out of it, and then make a record. Whereas this time, we made the record first, then got drunk at the end. Which is great. And I'm looking forward to working with him again."

During the recording of Standing On The Shoulder Of Giants, two of the original members of Oasis, rhythm guitarist Paul "Bonehead" Arthurs and bass player Paul "Guigsy" McGuigan, left the group. After their departure, Noel had no qualms about redoing their parts. He redid the bass parts on six of the tracks himself, while Paul Stacy redid another four. All of Bonehead's rhythm tracks were redone by Noel, and Stacy, being a far more accomplished musician than Noel, played some lead guitar as well. "[Stacy] is a brilliant engineer, and his crowning moment on the whole record is 'Who Feels Love?'--that me and him put together in my bedroom and that just grew out of nothing. That grew out of one chord, flowed away, and he plays all the backwards stuff of it," Noel enthuses. "He was really good to have around. He's into it, do you know what I mean? He'd done little bits of engineering, but nothing really big and substantial. When you get engineers, you want to push them that little bit harder, they're sort of like, 'F--kin' hell, we didn't do this with such-and-such a band.' But he's like, he's into it, he's bang into it, and you need people like that around. He was there right from the beginning. We actually asked him to join the band [as a bass player] in the end, but he wouldn't do it because he doesn't like touring. I was thinking, 'F--king hell, was [touring with us] that bad? [But] he wanted to get more into the engineering side. I like keeping people involved, the same people around, because I generally like them. We're definitely working with him again, there's no doubt about that."

With Gem from Heavy Stereo now playing rhythm guitar for Oasis and Ride/ Hurricane #1 guitarist Andy Bell taking on bass duties, Noel feels he's assembled a group of brilliant musicians. "While we were doing rehearsals, it was all a bit formal and polite: 'Oh well, you play this bit in this part,' and they go, 'Oh, so sorry to interrupt, but am I playing correctly?'" Noel laughs, mimicking their dialogue in a posh London accent that's a far cry from his Mancunian brogue. "It's always like that when you meet people: What's it going to be like when we all get drunk together? Is it going to be the backhanded insult flying around? How are they going to react when you start taking the piss out of them for the first time? And I have to say, it's been an absolute f--king joy. They're wicked. We're into the same records and we've got the same sense of humor, and a decent haircut goes a long way to bonding. [When Bonehead and Guigsy] left, it was a bummer, but f--king hell, you know, now these two guys are in, it's like being in a new band, so it's great. And it will only finally feel like that when we make a record that we've all played on, and then it will be f--king brilliant!"

With half the songs for the fifth Oasis album already written and ready to be recorded in early 2001, it seems that maybe some of Noel's spur-of-the-moment decisions are the right ones after all.