Paul McCartney On The Fireman, The Beatles & The Future

You gave away a download of ‘Lifelong Passion’. How do you feel about the download culture and would you mind if someone downloaded your album for free?

“It’s weird for me because I’m not from that. I’m from the times when you went into a record shop and you bought a 45, so that’s kind of how I understand it. People say that about CDs, tapes etc... We’ve gone through vinyl, tape cassettes, CDs and downloads, and to me it’s sort of all the same, except now it’s this weird thing where people don’t pay for it (laughs). It is a bit of a surprise but I don’t mind actually, it’s interesting. It all kind of works out, the Radiohead thing of paying what you think it works. I think it’s a funny idea really; it’s quite funny.

“I must say, I didn’t actually download Radiohead’s ‘In Rainbows’. I was thinking of downloading it and giving them my 1p and telling all my friends I paid ten quid for it – I think a lot of people did that too. It’s part of life now.”

You mentioned recently that you would like to sing a song for Michelle Obama (President-elect Barack Obama’s wife) if he won – would you still like to do that?

“I was so pleased that Obama won. I was sort of fingers crossed because I was expecting dirty tricks until the last moment, like what went on in Florida [between George W Bush and Al Gore in 2000]. I was so pleased he won that what occurred to me was that, if I ever got asked, I could sing [The Beatle’s] ‘Michelle’ to his wife – but I haven’t written a special new one for him, the old one will have to do.”

What would you like to see Michael Jackson do next following his recent out-of-court settlement with the second son of the King of Bahrain?

(Mimicking Jackson’s high voice) “You know, make another album (laughs). I don’t know, make another album, that’d be great. The guy’s awfully good.”

How do you feel about your fans and if like Ringo [Starr] you’re about to ban them from sending stuff in to sign with peace and love?

“(Jokingly) Yeah, I’m not signing anything – you can stick it up your jumper (laughs). Ringo’s always been like that, God bless him. We love Ringo because he just says what he thinks. If he doesn’t want to sign anything anymore then he doesn’t have to. I don’t mind that, I think it’s really good; it’s his life after all. And yeah, he gets in trouble occasionally, but as anyone who has known Ringo as long as I have knows that’s what he’s like. I think it’s a good quality; it’s called honesty actually."

Are the Beatles ever going to appear on iTunes?

“It’s constantly being talked of. What happens is, when something is as big as the Beatles, it’s heavy negotiations, you don’t just pop into a room. iTunes wants this, EMI wants this, Mr Hands wants this; so there’s heavy negotiations going on. We’re all for it but there are a couple of sticking points I understand. The last word I got back from it was that it’s stalled at the moment. They [EMI] want something that we’re not prepared to give them. It sounds like the music business to me.”

The Fireman’s new album has been compared to the sounds of The Killers, Arcade Fire and Jack White – are you happy to be listed alongside those artists?

“Yeah, I don’t mind being compared with them as long as they’re good artists like those. I hear a bit of U2 in ‘Sing The Changes’ but it’s not intentional. You can’t help that you’re often going to sound like someone else. We didn’t sit down and think ‘Right, we’ve got to do Jack White on this track.’

You spoke recently about the Beatles lost song ‘Carnival of Light’. Do you plan to release the track – and is it electronic?

“No, it’s not electronic. It’s a little bit avant-garde, or as George [Harrison, the Beatles’ guitarist] used to say, ‘avant-garde-a-clue.’ It’s fifteen minutes long. It’s a song, it’s not really electronic – there’s little bit of echo and stuff. I tried to get it released in some form or another on the Beatles anthology, I thought it might be a good ingredient [to] show that side of us. But we didn’t all agree on it, a couple of guys said they didn’t like it so it got vetoed. With the Beatles we’ve all got to agree on it, if one doesn’t like it won’t get done. Good policy.”

How do you feel competing with the return of Guns N’ Roses in the chart and have you heard ‘Chinese Democracy’?

“I haven’t actually. I didn’t know it was out this week, I never look at who we’re in competition with – I don’t really feel in competition anymore. Particularly with The Fireman, it’s not like you’re releasing as Coldplay or Guns N’ Roses for that matter, but I wish him (Axl Rose) good luck because, geez, it’s been a long time coming. To say the least.”

Do you have any views on programmes like The X Factor which possibly don’t encourage creativity?

“Yeah, I have lots of views on that. I think there’s too much of it really. You can’t turn on the telly without somebody being judged by four people, whether they’re on ice or on a stage or in the jungle. There’s always these people going, ‘I don’t think you’re very good’, and the contestant going ‘Oh give us a break.’ "You can't turn on the telly without somebody being judged by four people, whether they are on ice or on the stage or in the jungle. I just think it's a bit weird myself. So I'm not very keen on it. But I watch it like everybody. It’s compulsive viewing, but so again is a traffic accident – you know what I mean. You may be right that it doesn't encourage creativity. I don't think you are going to get a Bob Dylan emerging from one of those shows, but then not everyone goes on those shows. I think it's just a phase we're going through."

‘Electric Arguments’ is out now on One Little Indian.