SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017 GQ.COM.AU 89&A
WORDS NOELLE FAULKNERLIAM GALLAGHER
IT’S BEEN A TOUGH FEW YEARS FOR THE OASIS
SINGER – BATTLING THE BREAK–UP OF HIS
MARRIAGE AND FORMER BAND, WITH AN UNEXPECTED
LOVE CHILD THROWN IN FOR GOOD MEASURE.
THE MANCUNIAN WHO CAME TO DEFINE ‘90s SWAGGER
AND IS, HIS WORDS, ‘THE GREATEST FRONTMAN
OF OUR TIME’, TALKS ABOUT HOW IT’S ALL LED
HERE – TO A DEBUT SOLO ALBUM AND CONTINUED
DESIRE TO WIND UP BROTHER NOEL.GQ: It must feel good to be talking about
music and being creative, instead of the
shit that’s been swirling the past few years.
Liam Gallagher: Oh, yeah, without a doubt.
I mean, they’re always gonna talk about
the shit, because the shit sells – so there’s
always gonna be a bit of that. And I don’t
actually mind that, either, you know what
I mean? ’Cause it can’t all be music, music,
music – some fuckin’ muso, going, ‘Oh,
yeah, man, the album is great’, you know,
being a fucking dork and doing interviews
like Sting, talking about how ‘This fucking
song’s saved my life’. It’s like, ‘Fuck off, mate’.
GQ: Yeah, ‘get back to your tantric
meditation’ and all that.
LG: Exactly. So, yeah, I don’t mind a bit of
the drama. Because it’s real life, you know
what I mean? But I’m definitely glad to have
the music alongside of it.
GQ: Well, you’re back where you belong,
behind the mic. Tell us about the past three
years and where you’ve been – because we
heard something about moving to Majorca?
LG: After we knocked it on the head with
Beady Eye, I was going through a divorce
and all the other stuff [court cases relatingto his fathering of a love child with journalist
Liza Ghorbani] – it was just dealing with
lawyers on a daily basis until I fucking went
to sleep at night. I was thinking, ‘Fuck this
shit’ and I planned to get out of England
for a bit. So I went to Majorca for a holiday,
had a really nice time and thought, ‘I could
fucking live here’. But I didn’t. I came back,
shook my head a bit, and I thought, ‘It’s time
to make some tunes’.
GQ: We’re glad – as we can’t imagine
you wandering about in thongs and shorts
full-time.
LG: Me neither, I suppose. I mean, I could do
it, but I gotta put lunch on that fork. But what
made me want to get away from England was
just the fucking constant bullshit all the time.
Which I made for myself, I guess. It was my
own doing. But still, I thought, ‘You know
what? I need a bit of sunshine, healthy food,
get fit and fucking make a plan.’
GQ: So it was simply arriving at a point where
you needed to create again – to go solo.
LG: I just started out with a guitar, doing it in
me room and that. And then I wrote a song
called ‘Bold’. And then I wrote another
one called ‘What I Need’. And I thought,‘They’re pretty fucking cool’. And I played
’em to a few friends. They were going,
‘They’re fucking really good’. Then, I met
this guy from Warner Bros and he said, ‘Let’s
have a listen’. So I played him these tunes
on the guitar and he was like, ‘Yeah, they’re
really good’ and goes, ‘Do you want a record
deal?’ And I said, ‘Well, yeah, go on then’.
GQ: Do a lot of the songs on the album
reveal more about you than what we’ve
heard before?
LG: Totally, man, without a doubt. But I’m
not gonna do too much of that, I’ve given
enough away. And you gotta keep a little bit
back for yourself. But there are bits in there
about Noel. There are bits in there about my
mum. There’s bits in there about my kid...
my girlfriend... my other brother... They’re
all personal, but, you know, I haven’t sat
down to write a song about ‘this’, or ‘that’,
or ‘that person’ or ‘this person’. Everything
just comes in, in a song. And suddenly, it goes
back out, subconsciously.
GQ: It’s nice to have you back.
LG: It’s nice to be back – it’s nice to wake up
in the morning and have something to do.
’Cause boredom will kill anyone and I’ve
been bored out of my mind the past four
years, and it’s been dreadful. And it’s not like
I’m curing cancer, this is just a fucking good
rock ‘n’ roll record – and there’s nothing else
about like this at the moment.
GQ: Do you think a lot of rock ‘n’ roll
frontmen have gone a bit soft?
LG: Oh, yeah, without a doubt. But I don’t
think rock ’n’ roll has. It’s always there if you
want it. It’s just people are choosing not to
do it because apparently, it’s not trendy at
the moment... There’s a lot of these rock ’n’
roll bands, or so-called rock ’n’ roll bands- they’ve got guitars and that but they’re
wearing ’em like pieces of jewellery. Plug
the fucking thing in and turn it up. The
sounds are meant to be loud, and concerts
are gonna be loud, you know what I mean?
And some rock ’n’ roll bands are making
dance records – they’re sitting on the fence
with a foot in the dance world... It’s like,
‘Make your fucking mind up, man’.
GQ: Since you’re considered one of the
greatest frontmen of our time...
LG: Yeah. Without a doubt. Without a doubt!
GQ: ...well, what makes a good frontman –
what are these frauds lacking?
LG: Life, man. Life experiences. No one
seems to be getting in any trouble or getting
... I mean, I guess, it’s getting in trouble
and getting out of it. They just seem to be
doing a gig and going home. And that ain’t
happening for me. Obviously, I’ve calmed
down a lot from when I was 20 and 30 and
PHOTOGRAPHY: NEALE HAYNES. that... Just these young bands today, man,