It was kind of.there weren't too many preconceived ideas. It seemed to come fairly easily, but with 22 Dreams, the more we recorded, the more we wanted to do. And you know when it's flowing because there's a certain mood within the room, within the studio and the people you're working with are all buzzing as well. Really? So a lot of the album was just written in the studio? It was all pretty much from scratch, I had maybe a half a dozen songs arranged before we went into the studio, and then the rest we just made up as we went along. There's hundreds of them, and there's quite a few I've forgotten.ĭid you go into making 22 Dreams with ideas that you'd previously had sitting around, maybe from earlier recording sessions or playing them live or during soundchecks, or did you start completely from scratch? I suppose I feel more affinity toward the ones I can remember. I don't slavishly try to reproduce what we've done on a record, so a song naturally takes on a different life.Īre there certain songs of yours that you've grown to love more as the years have gone by? Well, when you play any song live it always takes on a life of its own anyway.

I guess in a way songs are living things anyway that can change and mutate when you go out and play them live. But sometimes it works and you capture what you set out to do, and other times you only get halfway, but you've still gotta cast it out there because that's just where you are at that point in time. There's other albums I've made where I've kinda.we've finished it all and listened back to it and there's been bits I've liked but I've never had a whole, 100% feeling about it. With 22 Dreams, I thought it was pretty much as perfect as it could be. It's hard to answer that because every record is different. What's your feeling when a record is recorded and mixed and ready to be released - is it a feeling of satisfaction about a job well done, or is it sometimes a feeling of frustration because there's things you would have liked to change, or maybe a song or idea you were reaching for but never quite got there all the way? You can have all the faith in it and love for it. You never know how people are going to react to it. But then it still comes time where you've got to let go of it and give it out to people in the world, but that's all part of the magic, really, especially when people respond to it, and how much people have loved this record makes it all worthwhile as well. We had so much fun making that record - every day we would try something different and we all thought we were making something really special.

Is it still intimidating or stressful after all this time to put out an album and to, quite frankly, be judged by the public and by critics?

If I get bored of my own music, I just go and listen to other people's music for a little bit, do you know what I mean? It's remained a source of wonderment to me. It's in my blood and it's my whole life and I think that kinda counts for an awful lot as well. Paul Weller: I'm still so much in love with what I do - playing music and not just being a musician but being a fan and just the whole trip really. Thirty-plus years into your career, what is it about music that still excites you and makes you want to keep on doing it?

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