Paul Weller: 'The noughties was a nothing period for me'

 

Paul Weller has told Absolute Radio the noughties was a “nothing period” for him and he’s unsure whether he likes a lot of the music he made at that time.

Fresh from storming in at Number 1 with his eclectic 17th studio album ‘Fat Pop (Volume 1)’ in May, Paul Weller joined Absolute Radio’s Danielle Perry on her show to discuss his latest record and his legendary career so far.

‘Fat Pop (Volume 1)’ is Paul Weller’s fourth studio album in four years, and Danielle asked Paul whether he’s feeling “creatively vibrant” in this career purple patch.

“It must be I suppose because there has been a lot of records, yeah,” Paul said. “There’s no pattern to a lot of things, they just happen. It's just what happens at the time.

“When I feel creative I just kind of run with it really because there might be time when I don’t write for a long time. But I've enjoyed it. I've just enjoyed writing and making music more than ever probably.”

Paul also reflected on the “liberating” experience of launching his post Style Council solo career in the 1990s, however he looked back less fondly upon his music in the noughties.

“I don’t know if I like a lot of the stuff I made at that time really,” Paul said. “I haven’t heard it since that time. I don't know, it's like anything, if you have a long career - if you want to call it that - you're always going to have peaks and troughs. There’s always going to be great bits and other bits that were sort of ‘so-so’ or you're treading water. So, I kind of sort of feel that I was doing that at that time, in that in that period.

“I've really enjoyed it probably more than any other time in my life in the last 10 years. I've really enjoyed just making music and playing music even more than ever. I don't know why that is. But it was a bit of a nothing period for me, the noughties, and then it got better after that.”

Asked by Danielle if he listens back to his older music, Paul replied: “Not really no. Sometimes before a tour I listen to some stuff just to think about what sort of songs we want to play and put in the set. But generally, because I'm normally working on new stuff I'm more inclined to listen to that.”