Paul Weller
Paul Weller
John William "Paul" Weller, Jr.is an English singer, songwriter and musician. Weller achieved fame with the punk rock/new wave/mod revival band The Jam. He had further success with the blue-eyed soul music of The Style Council, before establishing himself as a solo artist in 1991...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionMusician
Date of Birth25 May 1958
culture elegance british
There's this British elegance that we, at times, have really missed in the States. We've always been more of a sportswear culture.
glamorous
The '40s were quite austere and super glamorous.
ties suits skinny
In the early-'60s, when you look at that period of time - up to the mod time - when everybody was wearing skinnier suits and skinny lapels and skinny ties - that came out of the States, and that was quite cool.
please-me play people
I never get too many problems. You can never please everyone anyway, obviously. And some people take the easy route and just play the greatest hits, and their audience is happy to hear that as well, and that's fine, but it wouldn't please me. But it doesn't trouble me.
internals
It's just something internal that says, 'I've got to do this now. This is what I'm doing now.'
kids differences water
I saw an interview with Keith Richards. He said, 'How else could a kid in Dartford suddenly connect with and understand what Muddy Waters is singing?' There's a cultural difference, but there's just something in that music that subconsciously or internally you just understand; it just makes sense.
bagpipes world drones
There's always something in most world folk musics that always seems connected; whether it's a bagpipe or a tambura, there's always some sort of drone instrument, and there's always percussion.
fashion team filters
In my world [of fashion] there's more things that kind of affect it. There's the retailers we do business with, our own stores, my merchandising team... Everybody has opinions, and so you definitely have to filter through a lot.
football kids night
For me, my entry point, when I was old enough, was the skinhead/suedehead thing, sort of like '70/'71. People didn't have much money - they would save up, or whatever - but everyone always dressed up. You'd go to a dance at the football club on a Thursday night and all of us kids - all of us from maybe like 12 to 16 - were all dressed up.
years jeans dressing-up
Worldwide, most people dress more casually these days, don't they? They have done for the last 20 or 30 years, I suppose. So, every place that I go to, the majority of people really wear jeans, trainers, T-shirt - everybody seems to dress more for comfort. Whereas, even in my lifetime, even up to the early-'70s, there was still that thing of dressing up.
greatness thinking style
I think the biggest influence for me is when I hear a great piece of music, whatever the style, I'm kind of inspired by that greatness and I'm inspired to try and obtain something that comes close to that greatness.
nice surprise surprise-in-life
I suppose it's nice to have some surprise in life and to surprise yourself in life and see what else you can do.
jimmy zeppelin
Led Zeppelin would never have reformed if he or Jimmy Page were bald.
playing
Playing live is what it's all about for me. It's cathartic, it's emotional, it's about communing with people. The way you feel after a gig is a such a powerful thing.