In his « down time » this year, British icon Paul Weller couldn’t resist covering some songs he has always loved for a new album. We spoke about the record and more.
This was supposed to be a chill year for iconic British artist Paul Weller. Weller is not touring this year, nor is he writing for a new album. So, he had down time to take care of those things on his “to do” list.
The first thing on that list – Find El Dorado, a covers collection of songs from the likes of Richie Havens, The Kinks, The Bee Gees and other artists Weller admires and respects. The labor of love features Weller’s first-ever recorded collaboration with Robert Plant, on “Clive’s Song,” as well as appearances from Noel Gallagher and more.
I spoke with Weller about the record and more.
Steve Baltin: Congratulations on the record. I love the simplicity of it’s very clear you just love these songs
Paul Weller: Yeah, and hopefully some of the song people won’t know and it’ll turn them on to the originals. I thought it’s just a nice collection of tunes and before we made the record, I selected what songs, and I put them into a running order, and it just sounded like a great compilation or like a little mixtape.
Baltin: Most of these songs I imagine you go back with many, many years, correct?
Weller: Yeah, some do. Stuff like “When You Are A King” and “I Started A Joke,” but they’d be the oldest ones I guess. They’re from when I was a kid, like 10, 11 or whatever. They were big pop songs I would know. I’ve always loved them two tunes and then the others, the Richie Haven song, which is the first on the album, that comes off an album of his in 2002 called Wishing Well and the rest I guess are old but they’re relatively new to me. People have been sending me or playing them for me over the last two or three years. I’ve just been collecting them up in my mind, put them in a little list in the back of the heads of tunes I’d like to try one day. And this year worked for me because I’m not touring. I’m not writing for an album or anything, taking a bit of a year out. So, I thought this is a good time to make the covers record. But I’ve been thinking about it for a good sort of four years, five years or so, a long time.
Baltin: The reason I ask about how far back the songs go is because I found from talking with people, your relationship with songs changes because of course you bring a different experience to it.
