Paul Weller thinks rock music has become "niche".
The 60-year-old ‘Modfather’ believes grime has become the leading genre with something to say and that the days of kids starting up bands – like he did in The Jam – with the intention of "changing the world" are long gone.
Recalling a conversation he had with his pal Noel Gallagher on the topic, he told The Daily Star newspaper: "I’ve always had that romantic notion of being in a band.
"I still do in some ways. But Noel Gallagher said this, and he’s right, the days of kids from a council estate getting a band together and wanting to change the world are gone, really.
"You’re more likely to find that in the grime scene than in pop or whatever.
"But four young geezers off an estate, you don’t really see that at all.
"And I don’t think it ever will come round again. Not like The Jam or Oasis. I think it’s just changed."
On rock becoming less popular like jazz music did, he said: "I was talking to this fella the other day about the same thing with jazz, how one time that was the most popular music but now it’s a very niche thing.
"It’s still there but you can never call it popular music. Maybe it’s the same with rock ‘n’ roll? "It’s had its time."
Paul has teamed up with former Oasis star Noel on a track for his new album ‘True Meanings’
Previous collaborations with the ‘Wonderwall’ hitmaker include ‘Echoes Round the Sun’ on Weller’s 2008 LP ’22 Dreams’ and ‘Birth of an Accidental Hipster’, which they co-wrote for The Monkees’ 2016 album ‘Good Times!’.
Weller also featured on Noel’s latest solo album, ‘Who Built the Moon?, playing the organ on ‘Holy Mountain’.
Other guest appearances on ‘True Meanings’ come from Rod Argent of the Zombies playing Hammond organ on ‘The Soul Searchers’ and piano and Mellotron on ‘White Horses’; folk legends Martin Carthy and Danny Thompson adding picked guitar and double bass respectively to ‘Come Along’; Little Barrie taking lead guitar on ‘Old Castles’; Lucy Rose singing back-up vocals on ‘Books’; and ‘Movin On’ is the result of a "scratchy demo" on Paul’s phone that was sent to Tom Doyle of the White Label project.
The record also surprisingly contains four songs which have lyrics penned by other writers to Weller’s melodies and music.
Connor O’Brien from Villagers came up with the words to opener ‘The Soul Searchers’, while ‘Bowie’, ‘Wishing Well’ and the closing ‘White Horses’ are all the lyrical work of Erland Cooper from Erland & The Carnival.
Speaking about the album previously, Weller said: "It’s got an acoustic guitar on it but if that makes it a folk album, I really don’t know. It’s just about songs, voice and guitar essentially, and there are some tracks that have been orchestrated, strings and brass."
‘True Meanings’ is out now.
Paul Weller: Rock has become niche
