Another Weller LP? Get ready for Fat Pop (Volume 1) !
“All the tracks are different… it’s all about the songs.” PAUL WELLER
BACK IN November 2019, MOJO was invited to Paul Weller’s Black Barn studio for a sneak preview of his On Sunset album, which topped the UK charts in July. Incredibly, almost a year to the day later, the Modfather is on the blower announcing another new record, Fat Pop (Volume 1), begun during the first lockdown in March 2020 and completed after restrictions were lifted in August.
“I made a conscious decision to make another record when everything shut down,” says Weller of the quickfire 12-song long-player. “So I started recording on my own, playing along with a click-track or a drum track, then I sent the [sound files] out to the band to record their parts. It kept us working until we all got back together.”
The band reconvened at the Black Barn in the summer, where it was decided to air some of the new material in a special ‘live in the studio’ film, Mid-Sömmer Musik (available to stream now). The performance included newies Moving Canvas, a chunky, ’70s-style chugger; the trippy, Traffic-esque Testify; and a flowing pastoral number titled Still Glides The Stream.
MOJO assumes the last of these was inspired by Lark Rise To Candleford author Flora Thompson’s novel of the same name. “What?” replies the Modfather. “I don’t know, mate… Chopper [Steve Craddock] did the lyrics to that. He’s probably nicked them out of someone’s fucking book and not told me! His lyrics were good poetry. I turned it round and made it about our local street sweeper. Those people ‘coming here and taking all our jobs’ form the infrastructure of this country. We’d be fucked without them. If anything, they should be paid more.”
The opening track on the album is a clipped, electronic post-punk rocker titled Cosmic Fringe, which Weller hints will also be the lead single. “But it’s not representative of the record,” he emphasises. “All the tracks are different. There’s a [shared] sonic thing going on, but this time it’s all about the songs. They could all be singles, that’s why it’s called Fat Pop (Volume 1). Stan [Kybert] the producer said it should be called ‘Greatest Hits’, but I thought that was going a little bit far…”
Fat Pop (Volume 1) is scheduled for release in May 2021 – “hopefully on my birthday [25th]” – with a tour following in June. “It will be two years since I’ve played live, which is unprecedented,” says Paul. “I’ll be 63 by then, nearly at retirement age. It’ll probably be my farewell tour (laughs). Hopefully not.”
Meanwhile, Weller is finishing off a record with singer-songwriter Declan O’Rourke and working on Weller band-member Steve Pilgrim’s new album. The idea of more lockdowns, however, casts a worrying shadow over Weller-world.
“To be honest, mate, I’m scared at the thought of another six or seven months of not working,” he says. “Maybe I’ll make another album
(laughs). Actually, I’m thinking of getting a part-time job. I might retrain like that Tory cunt [Chancellor Rishi Sunak] suggested. I might go for something like school janitor, cleaning out the shithouse. That would be good.”