Sir Paul McCartney (Photo: Live4ever Media)
Producer Ethan Johns has described his experience in the studio with Paul McCartney as ‘revelatory’.
Speaking to Rolling Stone, Johns confirmed he has recorded four new songs which could appear on McCartney’s latest solo album. The pair initially met up at London’s AIR Studios, before later moving on to Sir Paul’s spiritual home, Abbey Road.
“The first day we had was remarkable,” Johns remembers. “He walked in with this incredible song, we threw up a couple of microphones and within four hours, we had this great track. I think we did an edit between the first two takes. It had an incredible feel – a really evocative piece of music, a very interesting lyric, and the performance was great.”
“Then we started to experiment with it, and I put a bunch of psychedelic strangeness on it. You have fun. ‘Oh, try this! Do that!’ It’s just very inspiring to be around.”
“It was revelatory for me, recording Paul in that space having listened to the sound of those Beatles records,” he continues. “He plugged in his bass, I put a microphone in front of it, walked upstairs into the control room, pushed the fader up, and that sound came out of the speakers immediately. I didn’t have to do anything!”
“It was a pretty major light bulb for me. People get so fixated on the equipment and the gear, and those things are important – but ultimately, the bass sound on Revolver is Paul. Paul could be playing anything and he will get that sound.”
Meanwhile, Paul McCartney has been added to the 2013 iHeartRadio Festival in Las Vegas, which takes place at the MGM Grand on September 20th and 21st.