Paul McCartney’s advice to young bands: “Don’t rely too much on gadgetry. Just play it all, learn it all, write it all”
Paul McCartney has cautioned young bands against over-reliance on music-making “gadgetry”, noting that musicians should instead focus on the fundamentals of playing, learning, and songwriting.
Speaking to Apple Music’s Zane Lowe ahead of the release of his new solo album, The Boys of Dungeon Lane, the Beatles star shares how different recording conditions once forced musicians to commit to their ideas in ways that are less common today.
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Citing the 4-track as an example, McCartney says, “With the four-track, you’ve got to wipe things because there’s only four tracks and you may want to do eight things. You take two tracks where you’ve got, let’s say, drums and bass, and you reduce them to one track, which frees up these tracks so you can keep recording.”
He explains that that added constraint was not a drawback but part of the creative process.
“That’s actually a great thing,” says Macca. “I say to young bands nowadays, don’t rely too much on the sort of gadgetry. Just play it all, learn it all, write it all because it’s better.”
While he remains open to experimentation (“I like odd things. I like tape loops,” says the musician), McCartney notes that there is a difference between using technology as a tool and depending on it as a substitute for musicianship.
“What will happen is a lot of people rely on it,” he says. “So you get records that sound like they’ve been made by gadgets. I don’t like that.”
That said, McCartney also acknowledges that modern conveniences like the smartphone have transformed the way he captures and develops musical ideas. Having a recording device in your pocket at all times, he says, means unfinished songs can be saved instantly and revisited later.
“[In the past] you always had to finish a thing because there was nowhere to put it. You had to put it in your mind. So you had to finish it. So you did.”
“Now I must have over a couple of thousand sketches on my phone because I’ll put it down and think, oh yeah, okay, I’ll come back to that. I’ve saved it. It’s okay,” he says. “Because of the luxury of a phone, if you don’t have long but you got an idea, you’ll put it down.”
Watch the full interview below.
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