PAUL McCARTNEY THE FIREMAN RUSHES IN

PAUL McCARTNEY HAS BEEN MAKING RECORDS FOR OVER 45 YEARS, YET HE SHOWS NO SIGN OF LOSING HIS PASSION FOR MUSIC OR HIS DESIRE TO BREAK NEW ARTISTIC GROUND: “Maybe other people in my position would just play it safe, but it never occurs to me. I can’t do the same song again and again. I do have a natural enthusiasm, and I still feel very lucky to be allowed to do what I do.” INTERVIEW by JONATHAN WINGATE

Although he has lived his life under the microscope since Love Me Do was first released in October 1962, the media maelstrom that has followed Paul McCartney’s every move for the last couple of years must have come as quite a shock, even for a Beatle. For probably the first time in his life, the media spent more time talking about McCartney’s personal life than his music, as every detail of his divorce was endlessly discussed and picked over. McCartney kept typically tightlipped throughout, and not for the first time, he retreated to the sanctuary of the studio and started working on Electric Arguments, the third album he has recorded with producer, Youth (pictured, right) under the pseudonym, The Fireman.

Of course, this is by no means the first time that he has gone undercover. McCartney has been taking pseudonymous excursions into experimental and extra-curricular territory ever since his Beatles days: Percy ‘Thrills’ Thrillington, Paul Ramon, Bernard Webb and Apollo C. Vermouth are just a few of the vast array of alter egos he has adopted over the years.

Where the two previous Fireman albums (1993’s Strawberries Oceans Ships Forest and 1998’s Rushes) consisted of abstract ambient dance music, Electric Arguments is the first Fireman release to feature McCartney …

by JONATHAN WINGATE
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