Indepth Interview with Noel and Bonehead in March of 1995

Noel- I'm Noel
Bonehead- and I'm Bonehead
Noel- and he's louder than I am..I'm very quiet
Bonehead- and I've got this big deep voice..I'm older
Noel- yeah...he's all shoutin'
Bonehead- I'm on!
Interviewer- Stay alert there...so..again...thank you on this miserable day...for doing this interview.. It's a pleasure to meet you...I was lucky enough to see the band..I was telling him before you got here. . back in Bradford...like two years ago...
Noel- The Verve
Bonehead- Did you?
Interviewer- and that was...actually I stumbled upon the show by accident...
Noel- Were you one of the people who sat on the floor?
Interviewer- well...my boyfriend at the time was photographing the show...so I was kinda hanging out...but that was my first exposure to Oasis...Queens Hall...I think...
Noel- yeah...it was
Interviewer- and then I also saw...since then I went back to the states...I also saw the band at Wetlands for new music cinemar...and then I saw the show Friday at the Stone Pony..
(Noel Yawns)
Noel- oh..God...don't remind me of that one...that's pretty poor
Interviewer- It's just interesting, though, for me...to see the different crowds that you attract...it seemed like in England...or at least then...it was a bit of a younger crowd.. maybe a lot of girls coming in to see the band
Noel- yeah..we said this last night...the crowd of England basically looks the same as we do... but in America...you get middle-aged couples
Interviewer- I've noticed in the states so far...exactly...there is older people that really follow the British music scene..and then it seems like these 18 year old mosh-pitters right in front that are there..and also these girls looking at the band adoringly from the side lines...
Noel- They're looking at him...
Bonehead- yeah..they do..they do..I've got me share...I've got these gezzers..."Bonehead!"...all these people from New Castle
Interviewer- Now that you've been touring so so much over the years...is this difference that noticable to you with the different audiences between the State and between the UK?
Bonehead- an audience is an audience
Noel- You don't usually see the people in the back anyway...you just see the people in the front...
Bonehead- the big difference in America is these people in the mosh pit...they've got this thing going where they don't seem to paying any interest in the band..it's like "Oh..there's a band out in front...now let's go see 'em"...I mean...90 percent of the people are genuinely there to see Oasis....but I look at some of them and I think "Are you really here to see us, or are you taking any notice of what's going on the stage?"
Noel- it seems like you've got these gigs where it'll be the front three rows of people in this big massive hole but there's geezers running around, punching each other...singing like Live Forever...totally missing the point
Interviewer- another thing surprising about the show Friday because you're not necessarily a band that I would stage dive and mosh to...but yet it seems like any band that comes through now...that's what the kids are doing...and it prevents maybe a lot of people from getting up close to the band...it's kinda dangerous in front...
Bonehead- this happened last night...these people that are genuine fans at the front and they are paying attention to what's going on stage and listening to the music...
Noel- and another one's got a boot in the back of the head when some ten stone geezer comes flying over top...cuts him in the back of the head...it pisses you off sometimes as well cos you've got these little kids in the front..they're like 16 and you got these ex-marines somewhat like 25 years old...
Bonehead- drinkin' Budweiser..take your shirt off and then lose it...
Noel- swivel the old baseball cap backwards...
Interviewer- security seems to have it well under control?
Noel- you can't do anything about it...it's a shame really...people in the front who wear glasses usually nine times out of ten..don't leave the gig with the glasses on...they usually end up on the floor or something like that...sometimes it pisses you off...that's just the way it is, you know what I mean? but...all that moshing's fifteen years too late..it's punk rock...you know what I mean?
Interviewer- I think it's kids reading about.."Oh wow, The Clash, The Sex Pistols, and try to relive something here that we never experienced first hand...it's always second-hand in the states..
Noel- I don't know, I don't know what makes people do it...every time I've been to a gig I stand at the back and drink and listen to the music...
Bonehead- I'm not fully inclined to take me shirt off and start running around punching people and making forming this big mad circle
Interviewer- I was just curious on your take of that...now the record has been out for a year in the UK now...
Bonehead- No..not yet...
Noel- It only been out since August...
Interviewer- I guess..Supersonic..wasn't that released in the spring?
Bonehead- April
Noel- yeah..Supersonic is nearly a year
Bonehead- It's almost a year...yeah
Interviewer- so, with the record being out a year...with having recorded it before that...how do you keep the songs fresh still? especially since in the states a lot of people are hearing the music for the first time...
Bonehead- they're timeless songs...I mean, you can play any track of the album, you can play 'em in ten years time...and it'll still sound as good as it did ten years before....
Noel- you could probably say the same thing to the Stones...they still do "Satisfaction" because it's a great song...you know what I mean?
Bonehead- yeah...yeah
Noel- they probably still get the same buzz of it..they done the day they wrote it..same for us, you know what I mean? There are a few songs that you get a bit bored of playing...but I mean...we'll never get tired of playing Supersonic and Live Forever...and stuff like that...cos that's just like classic, you know?
Interviewer- When you were writing these songs, what was the deciding factor in which ones made the record?
Noel- Those were the only ones we had...(laughs)
Interviewer- I thought you may have had twenty and then you know...
Noel- well...we had a few more...I think that when we recorded the album, we had one....we had Fade Away...didn't go on...cloudburst
Bonehead- Cloudburst, yeah...
Bonehead- And a few demos of old stuff that we put on b-sides...different tracks...there wasn't that many...we had quite a few...there was quite a few that people never hear from them sessions that we dropped...
Interviewer- Was one of the requirements would be that it would be a song that you guys wouldn't tire of..that would maybe stand up to be the classic in years to come?
Noel- No, no..I still like...Cloudburst, for instance, on the b-side of Live Forever...I love to play that..it's just...well...I don't know...when you're making an album, you do have to actually make an album...it's what's the best within the context of the album...it's like, Fade Away wouldn't have fit in it...and I don't think Cloudburst would have...so they didn't go on...you know?
Interviewer- I understand that...I heard somewhere that out of all the songs Slide Away was kinda written in the studio and edited at the last minute?
Noel- yeah
Bonehead- yeah
Interviewer- and part of my job, sometimes I feel like I have the best job in the world, I get to talk to bands...and a lot of them sometimes I don't like the music...but this record..I've been playing it over and over and over again...and Slide Away is just such a wonderful song..the way the guitar just builds...as soon as you wrote that and presented it to the band...was it like "yes, this has to be on it"?
Noel- yeah
Bonehead- totally
Interviewer- No...I was just curious why..did you feel you needed another track?
Bonehead- No..it just came out..didn't it?
Noel- Well, we didn't concentrate on goin' in and writing another track..it's just that, I wrote a lot of songs in the studio...at that time..that was the best one that was written and it was such a good song that it just went on..
Interviewer- What I like about the record is...I'm more of a guitar person..and there's just some really great guitar riffs on there...and also it seems like the bands that have had careers rather than just one or two hit albums have all been guitar oriented as opposed to the synthesizer or keyboard based...okay, there's a few, but specifically again..in the states guitar oriented bands seem to have a more of a lasting appeal..um, now you also play piano...
Bonehead- I try
Interviewer- Oh, you try.
Bonehead- I'm not a pianist.
Interviewer- Was there any..will there be any future song with piano on it?
Bonehead- well, yeah
Noel- There's piano on quite a few, there's piano on Live Forever, Digsy's Diner...
Bonehead- Whatever.
Interviewer- As far as playing live too?
Bonehead- Not live, no. I mean, we've used one live. When doing Whatever, we brought a string section in...we brought a piano.
Noel- We brought a pianist in.
Bonehead- No, it's just something...I mean, yeah, you can put a piano in and stuff like that in the background...
Interviewer- Supersonic, you mentioned that, was the first UK single released. Umm...which comes first to you...
Noel- Music
Interviewer- Music? Is that always?
Noel- aaaahhhh, yeah. I don't write a full set of music and then put lyrics to it. It sort of starts off with the music and then it will change halfway through...the words always come last but the melody and the chords come first.
Interviewer- Do you write with Liam's voice in mind?
Noel- No. I just write.
Interviewer- 'Cause it seems like such a perfect matching...there are a lot of songwriters and they do write with the singers voice in mind.
Noel- Nooo...not really, we've both got the same range anyway. It's like..if I can sing it, he can sing it. Apart from the quiet ones and all the acoustic ones, he's got a very loud voice so he couldn't really sing Sad Song and stuff like that, so I sing 'em. But I don't write with him in mind at all, I just write.
Interviewer- Was this the bands decision or the labels to release Supersonic first?
Noel- It was ours.
Bonehead- It was our decision.
Noel- The label wanted to release Bring It On Down.
Interviewer- Really?
Noel- Yeah.
Interviewer- Well, what prompted Supersonic? Cos obviously, you know, you had, the reputation of the press kinda preceding you. So there is a lot of expectation...
Noel- I think the lyrics probably swung it in the end. 'I'm feeling Supersonic. Give me gin and tonic...' I mean, all the rest of the songs are basically pretty straight-forward traditional rock 'n' roll songs and the lyrics are about one thing or another where Supersonic can be about anything, you know what I mean? It's just like a lot of jibberish...it's just a lot of rhymes...'bout Alka-Seltzer... and doctors and helicopters and all the rest of it...we wanted that out first just because it'd make people listen and go...
Bonehead- "What's that all about?"
Noel- "What's he going on about?"
Noel- So it captured the imagination, I think...especially in England.
Interviewer- Do you prefer people interpret your lyrics the way they want to...or would you rather have them understand your meaning?
Noel- I'd rather nobody interpret them at all, to be quite honest with you. But people just get from them what they will. It's nothing to do with me once I write it...
Bonehead- People do..People are always gonna interpret his lyrics. You get some mad things people come to you and say..."Oh yeah, Supersonic this and it's about this." And you go, "Is it? I don't think it is, mate."
Noel- IS IT?!
Bonehead- IS IT?!
Bonehead- But no, people are always gonna do that...
Interviewer- And I'm one of those kind of people....
Bonehead- It's probably a good thing...see what I mean...
Interviewer- ...is he talking about this, or is he talking about this...
Noel- Well, if we were to blow the myth and say it's about this...then it's like... at least people will still be thinking what Supersonic is about in 20 years time...I'm never gonna tell 'em what it's about.
Bonehead- Keep 'em guessin'
Noel- Because then, it's like, there's the answer...and it's like, you know, you never wanna find out the meaning of life. Who wants to find out the meaning of life? After that, it's just boring, innit? I'd rather people try to sit down and decipher that song. I'm still trying to decipher I Am The Walrus. Still. To this day. You know what I mean? and Bungalow Bill and all the rest of it...and loads of Beatles lyrics. And they never said what they were about. So people have their own interpretation of 'em, I think that's the way it should be.
Interviewer- I mean, there's books devoted to the interpretation of some of the Beatles lyrics...
Bonehead- Yeah.
Noel- But nobody really know what them songs are about...and they're probably not about anything, anyway. They're probably about, if my understanding of The Beatles is correct, the way I write is just like...I write the first line...and the end word, whether it be, Supersonic.. it's like, "Well, what rhymes with that?" And you start off with 'A' and you go, "Atomic. Bionic." Then you go..."Gin & Tonic...Tonic...Gin & Tonic. Alright, that'll do." It's no big deal...you just write it down, and people go "Wow! Feeling Supersonic...Give me Gin and Tonic. Wow!" Basically, cos it rhymes.
Interviewer- Right, so no big mystery with that...but it works. You know, it just works so well.
Noel- Totally, yeah.
Bonehead- Yeah.