HOW PAUL McCARTNEY’S PRODUCER LEARNED TO TELL HIM TO CHANGE SONGS

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HOW PAUL McCARTNEY’S PRODUCER LEARNED TO TELL HIM TO CHANGE SONGS
MARTIN KIELTY
Jul 5 2018


Michael Loccisano / Kevin Winter, Getty Images

Greg Kurstin, who produced Paul McCartney’s upcoming album Egypt Station, revealed how he tackled the challenge of telling the Beatles icon to change his songs.

Kurstin – a lifelong Beatles fan – spent two years working on the record with McCartney and his band in Los Angeles, Sussex in England and London’s Abbey Road Studios.

Responding to the observation that “It must have been odd telling a Beatle how to improve a song,” the producer told Rolling Stone, “It was. It is strange, but I know that’s what he really wants from me. I just have to take a breath and say it. Sometimes it might not go over very well, but he was always really cool."

Kurstin recalled "a couple of times where I might have suggested something that might have been challenging." "I can’t remember specifically, but I remember him just sort of carrying on, and I’m wondering, ‘Did he hear me?’" he said. "Then maybe half an hour would go by and I’d say, ‘Hey, Paul, what about that idea I mentioned a little while ago?’ He said, ‘Oh, I heard you. I was just pretending to ignore you.’ We’d just laugh about it. Then sometimes two days later he’d try the idea, and I’d be like, ‘Wow, okay.’ I thought I failed miserably with the idea, but he came back to it and really tried. I think he’s always listening, always absorbing.”

The producer noted that McCartney recorded more than just bass and vocals in the studio. “His touring band is on the album, but I’d say a lot of it is him playing a lot of the instruments," he said. "He’s a great drummer. He played a lot of the drums on the record. … There was a lot of time where it was just me, Paul and the engineers in the studio, and I would occasionally play here or there. The bass, obviously, is pretty much all Paul. He also played piano a lot of the times and sometimes guitar. There’s a few songs that have his band and there’s a lot where Paul is playing most of the instruments.”

One of Kurstin’s favorite memories is the experience of working in Abbey Road. “I mean, it was amazing,” he said. “He’d tell stories and you could visualize him and John [Lennon] and the band there as kids. … He told countless stories about the echo chamber. He said he’d hide out there with John, kind of giggling and laughing when there would be another session in another studio. If you soloed any of those tracks, you’d probably hear them laughing.

“There were also lots of stories about the console. There’d be a setting for classical and a setting for pop. They’d have the switch set to pop when the Beatles recorded and John and Paul would be like, “Why do they get classical? What do they do that we don’t?” They thought they were getting short-changed or something.”

McCartney added three U.K. dates to his Freshen Up tour, in addition to the four Canadian dates previously announced. You can see the dates below. Egypt Station will be released on Sept. 7.

Paul McCartney 'Freshen Up’ 2018 Tour

9/17 – Quebec City, QC – the Videotron Centre
9/20 – Montreal, QC – Bell Centre
9/28 – Winnipeg, MB – Bell MTS Place
9/30 – Edmonton, AB – Rogers Place
12/12 – Liverpool, U.K. – Echo Arena
12/14 – Glasgow, U.K. – SSE Hydro
12/16 – London, U.K. – The O2




www.PaulMcCartney.com

JUL

05

2018

Paul Announces UK Dates

THE 'FRESHEN UP' TOUR 2018
FIRST UK LIVE DATES IN THREE YEARS ANNOUNCED TODAY

December 12th – Liverpool, UK - Echo Arena
December 14th – Glasgow, UK - SSE Hydro
December 16th – London, UK - O2 Arena

NEW ALBUM EGYPT STATION OUT SEPTEMBER 7th ON CAPITOL RECORDS

“There’s nothing like performing in front of your home crowd, especially when it’s been a while.  I can’t wait to finish the year on such a high by partying in Liverpool, Glasgow and London.  We’ve freshened up the show since our last time round and we are excited to get to play some of our new songs along side some of the favourites.” - Paul

THE PAULMcCARTNEY.COM VERIFIED PRESALE WILL TAKE PLACE ON WEDNESDAY 11th JULY at 10AM BST.
REGISTER FOR YOUR CHANCE TO BUY PRESALE TICKETS USING THE LINK BELOW. REGISTRATION WILL CLOSE ON SUNDAY 8TH JULY AT 10PM BST.

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Registration for the Paul McCartney Presale powered by Ticketmaster Verified Fan will close Sunday 8th July @ 10 PM BST. If verified and selected, you will receive your code via text message, two (2) to four (4) hours before your Verified Fan presale begins. Presale tickets will begin to be available on Wednesday 11th July at 10 AM BST. Due to the limited quantity of tickets, they will be available on a first-come, first-served basis.

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Paul McCartney announced earlier this week that he’d be making his eagerly anticipated return to the road with his new 'Freshen Up' tour, starting in Canada this September. Today, Paul announces his first shows in the UK since 2015 – and his first Scottish concert in almost a decade.

The new tour dates confirmed this week mark Paul’s first series of live dates since the 'One On One' tour that played to some two million fans over the course of 2016 and 2017. The 'Freshen Up' tour will also be Paul’s first outing following the release of his brand new studio album, Egypt Station, out September 7th on Capitol Records.
 
Paul’s last concerts in London and Birmingham took place in 2015 and were part of his massive 'Out There' world tour, which ran from 2013 – 2015. His last visit to Scotland was in 2010 on the 'Up and Coming' tour at Hampden Park.
 
'Freshen Up' will begin in Canada in September for four shows before heading to the US for Paul’s headline performance at the 17th annual Austin City Limits festival in October.
 
The Paul McCartney live experience is everything any music lover could ever want from a rock show: Nearly three hours nightly of the greatest moments from the last 50 years of music, dozens of songs from Paul’s solo, Wings and of course Beatles catalogues that have formed the soundtracks of our lives. Paul and his band have played an unparalleled range of venues and locations throughout the Americas, the UK, Europe, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and all points between: outside the Coliseum in Rome, Moscow’s Red Square, Buckingham Palace, The White House, a free show in Mexico for over 400,000 people, the last ever show at San Francisco’s Candlestick Park where The Beatles played their final concert  in 1966, a 2016 week in the California desert that included two headline sets at the historic 'Desert Trip' festival and a jam-packed club gig for a few hundred lucky fans at Pappy & Harriet’s Pioneertown Palace, and even one performance broadcast live into Space! Featuring Paul’s band of the last 15+ years – Paul “Wix” Wickens (keyboards), Brian Ray (bass/guitar), Rusty Anderson (guitar) and Abe Laboriel Jr (drums) –and constantly upgraded state of the art audio and video technology that ensures an unforgettable experience from every seat in the house, a Paul McCartney concert is never anything short of life-changing.