https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/culture/article/paul-weller-mary-mccartney
For Weller’s latest GQ appearance, we thought it would be good to put him together with an old friend, the photographer Mary McCartney. Which is what we did...
今回wellerに登場願うに当たって、彼の古くからの友人、写真家のメアリーが対談相手に相応しいと判断した。
Mary McCartney: So, Paul, when did you become a Beatles fan? When you were 12?
メアリー:ファンになったのは12歳の頃?
Paul Weller: When I was five years old. I had some of the singles, because my mother bought them, but the first time I saw them was the Royal Variety Performance in 1963, when I was five. From the time I saw The Beatles I loved music and then when I was around age 12 I started trying to learn to play guitar. Me and my mate had a few lessons for a bit and got a few weeks in, but the guy was trying to teach us how to read music, so we got bored with that. And as soon as we learnt enough chords we stopped the lessons and we just start doing it ourselves.
weller:5歳だった。母親がシングルを買ってたから聴いててね。でも、1963年にロイヤルバラエティパフォーマンスで初めて姿を観たのは5歳だった。それから曲も好きになって、12歳頃にギターを習い始めた。でも退屈で、ある程度コードを覚えた所で、もうレッスンに行くのは辞めて自分達で弾き始めたんだ。
メアリー:実際に曲を書きだしたのは何時?
PW: As soon as we – me and my mate Steve Brookes – learnt the three or four chords. I’m still mates with him now. We started a band and we just learned together and we just kept swapping whatever we’d learned in the week, swapping back and forth. It was just me and him and then we just gathered up people as we could find them. There was never any doubt in my mind that’s what I would do and, even at around 12, I thought that was definitely what I was going to do for a living. Well, I didn’t know it could be a career, I just knew I was going to do music. So by the age of 14 we were playing pubs, working men’s clubs and social clubs with The Jam. But your dad’s band was the catalyst for all of it.
PW: As soon as we – me and my mate Steve Brookes – learnt the three or four chords. I’m still mates with him now. We started a band and we just learned together and we just kept swapping whatever we’d learned in the week, swapping back and forth. It was just me and him and then we just gathered up people as we could find them. There was never any doubt in my mind that’s what I would do and, even at around 12, I thought that was definitely what I was going to do for a living. Well, I didn’t know it could be a career, I just knew I was going to do music. So by the age of 14 we were playing pubs, working men’s clubs and social clubs with The Jam. But your dad’s band was the catalyst for all of it.
weller:スティーブブルークスと3つか4つのコードを覚えて直ぐ。彼とは今でも仲が良くてね。バンドを作って一緒に習得していったんだ。お互い覚えた事を教え合ってね。
12歳の頃には、これで生業を立てようと。実際出来るかなんてわからなかったけど。兎も角やるべき事は音楽だ。そう思って14歳の頃にはもうパブ等で弾いてた。
君の父親のバンドの存在は常に影響してたよ。
MM: You know, I’m directing a documentary about the history of Abbey Road Studios at the moment, so I’ve been taken back to those times. There is a photograph of me aged three months on one of the sofas in the studio, so I was there before I can remember being there. Whenever I walk in through the doors I still get a funny feeling. But I’m learning a lot about The Beatles’ recording process, though. What was your writing process in the early days?
MM: You know, I’m directing a documentary about the history of Abbey Road Studios at the moment, so I’ve been taken back to those times. There is a photograph of me aged three months on one of the sofas in the studio, so I was there before I can remember being there. Whenever I walk in through the doors I still get a funny feeling. But I’m learning a lot about The Beatles’ recording process, though. What was your writing process in the early days?
メアリー:今丁度、ドキュメンタリーでアビーロードスタジオの歴史を撮ってる所なの。当時を調べてる。3ヶ月の赤ちゃんの私の写真がスタジオのソファにあるの。私の記憶以前から、私はそこに居たの。ドアを開けて入ると何時も奇妙な気持ちになる。今、beatleのレコーディングがどうだったか多くを学んでる所なの。初期のあなたの作曲の方法は?
PW: When we started to write songs we just used to pinch a lot of The Beatles songs. They were very basic, just us taking our first steps as songwriters. I was actually very passionate at the time, but I didn’t have the skills to articulate that passion. That kind of developed. Our first songs would have been nonsense songs, just “My Baby Love Me” stuff... But, like every other fledgling songwriter, I just started off by aping other people, like The Beatles did, like Dylan did. Everyone starts out copying other people.
weller:曲を曲を書き始める最初のステップはbeatlesだ,極めて基本的だから。当時は気持ちに技術が追い付いてなくてうまく伝えられなかった。
最初の曲はナンセンスソングだったね。
他の青二才の仲間同様、みんな真似から始めるんだ。
メアリー:新しいアルバムはLockdown中に作った?
以下 新作の製作過程が細かく語られてる。
omit(笑)
PW: lockdown中はどうだった、メアリー?
MM: Mine was good, but we’re not here to talk about me. I’m grilling you today. But mine was good. Well, I say it was good, but it was unnerving. I think, on a global scale, it was just unnerving because it was like living in a science fiction movie. I think the main thing a lot of us benefitted from was having to slow down and not being able to just go and do things. So, in that sense, it wasn’t a bad thing. I was obviously worried about people’s health and the economy, but, like you, I really got in touch with nature. I did a lot more photographic work outside. And, of course, I started to prep for the Abbey Road doc. What’s the perfect recording scenario for you?
メアリー:楽しかったわ。でも今日は私の話じゃなくてあなたの事を掘り下げていくのよ。ただ私の場合は楽しくやってた。でも世界的に無気力になってたと思う。せかせかした生活からのんびりした生活になったのは良かったと思うけど、みんなの健康面と経済面が心配よ。私は、自然と触れ合って過ごしたし、ドキュメンタリー番組にも取り掛かってたけど、あなたにとって完璧で申し分の無いレコーディングってどんなもの?
PW: Well, I love my studio and, to be honest, I’d be quite happy to never come out of the place. I could quite happily stay there forever. I bought the building in 1999, but it’s only really been the past 15 years or so that we’ve really got it together, with the sound and the vibe and the equipment. I’m continually making little acoustic adjustments to the room. We’ve got a drum kit set up all the time, as well as a mic’d piano, so it’s always ready to roll. I can play guitar, obviously, as well as bass and piano, but I’ve never really enjoyed playing the drums, because I can’t sing and drum with any conviction. It’s a different art altogether, playing drums. I like drummers who play the song, who can play the tune and who aren’t trying to do their own thing. That requires a certain amount of discipline, a different discipline: not playing too much but playing the right thing. Your dad is a good drummer
自分のスタジオが大好きで、籠もれたのは本当に幸せだった。1999年に建物を買ったんだけど、機材を揃えたりしてしっくり使えるようになったのは本の15年程なんだ。
まだアコースティックなものを加えて、もっと完成されたものにしていくよ。ピアノやドラムセットは揃ってる。僕はギターも弾けるしベース、ピアノも出来る。でもドラムは演奏を楽しめないんだよね。全然違うんだよ。技巧に走るんじゃなく曲に合わせるドラマーが好きなんだ。相当な訓練が必要だよ。ドラムの技術じゃなく、別の訓練だ。出しゃばりすぎず、適切な演奏をする、というね。
君の父親は素晴らしいドラマーだよ。