Paul Weller talks about singing with Boy George, writing for The Monkees and his solo effort “A Kind Revolution”
Weller’s 13th and latest solo studio album, “A Kind Revolution, ” is another fine outing. Although featuring his usual mélange of influences — Motown, Northern Soul, psych and garage pop, and retro rock ‘n’ roll — the album boasts especially strong songs. “Nova” is shaggy glam bolstered by neon-hued keyboards; “Hopper” is plaintive, shirred piano-folk based on the evocative art of Edward Hopper; and “Woo Sé Mama” is pinwheeling soul-rock with propulsive rhythmic sass. On the collaboration tip, Weller and Boy George team up for the haunting “One Tear, ” which features echoes of both Bowie and easygoing disco-funk, while another British music legend, Robert Wyatt, contributes trumpet and vocals to the debonair pop curio “She Moves With the Fayre.” Despite these disparate sounds, “A Kind Revolution” hangs together nicely and draws cohesion from its differences. Weller had a proper summer vacation this year, in the form of two months off. He’s kept busy, of course. In July, he and his wife welcomed a baby girl. Weller also recently released a new non-album single, “Mother Ethiopia, ” and is hard at work — about “halfway through, ” he estimates — on his next solo record. “I’ ve done about five or six, maybe, songs for it so far, ” he says. “I’ ve got to try and hopefully try and finish it after October sometime. I’ ve got my head into that a little bit. It’s going to be more of an acoustic record, not really a rock ‘n’ roll record, with some orchestration and stuff as well. Strings, brass, wind embellishments. Hopefully something different anyway.” In the meantime, Weller is firing up the touring machine again for September dates in Europe and then a North American trek kicking off October 1 in Huntington, New York. “We can’ t wait to play, really, ” he says of the U. S. tour. “They’ re all highlights. Every night’s a highlight. Every day’s a bonus. We’ re looking forward to all of it.” Weller called up Salon to chat about “A Kind Revolution, ” his recent songwriting collaborations and keeping an open mind. But then the songs [on “A Kind Revolution”] are quite different from each other. So I don’ t know if it’s got an overall sound to it or not; I’ m not sure. It goes from something like “Nova” to “Long Long Road” and then “She Moves With the Fayre.” It’s really sort of darting about stylistically. I think, often, the songs decide where you’ re going to go. There’s definitely that element of that. You follow where the songs are telling you where it’s going. We did a gig together last December, just before Christmas, and I managed to coax him out of retirement. It was for Jeremy Corbyn, who’s the leader of the Labour Party over here. It was a fundraising thing. It’s great to be playing with him again, just to be onstage with him, because it’s a pretty rare sight. He hasn’ t played for over 30 years or something like that. It was really amazing. We were going to do something on “Saturns Pattern, ” but it never worked out, time-wise. I thought it would be real nice working on “One Tear.” I thought he would be good on that. And that was it. Again, another phone call, and I managed to make sure he was around. And he was down for a couple of hours, two or three takes, and that was it.
