Music

MARVIN x Paul Weller: The former frontman of The Jam has had a hand in shaping 80s rock, post-punk, and Britpop. Next up, he’s searching for El Dorado

Paul Weller is one of only a handful of artists who’s had a UK number one album in five consecutive decades. Kylie Minogue, Bruce Springsteen, John Lennon, and Paul McCartney make up the rest of the exclusive list.

With The Jam, Weller helped shape the course of British punk, while his work with The Style Council was a fearless reinvention. Since the early 1990s, he’s released a string of solo albums that have pulled influence from folk, rock and R&B, but have always felt distinctly his. His music and fashion have inspired everyone from rowdy Britpop icons Oasis to indie sleaze revivalist The Dare. He’s not slowing down.

Released in July, Weller’s 18th solo album Find El Dorado sees him faithfully reimagine some of his favourite ever songs, and later this year, an authorised oral history Dancing Through The Fire is set to be released. As Weller tells us, there’s plenty of life left in the former mod yet.

Find El Dorado features covers of Bobby Charles, The Kinks, The Guerillas and loads more. Where did the idea originally come from?

The whole project was a labour of love really. I’ve been thinking about it for maybe three years now, stockpiling songs in my head. Some I grew up with, some I’ve only heard recently. When I had a nice selection, I made up a playlist of all the originals and it just felt like an album. They just have this mood to them, this English melancholia thing.  We didn’t try and change the songs either. We’ve been pretty faithful to the originals.

I also didn’t want to tour this year and didn’t really want to write any new music either, so it felt like the perfect time to do a covers album. It’s an extension of when your friend sends you a song to check out. I hope it turns people on to other types of music.  

I think my personal favourite is The Bee Gees’ “I Started A Joke.” 

I must have been 11 when I first heard it and I’ve always thought it had a beautiful melody. It was only after I started learning the words for this album that I realised how incredible the lyrics are though. I’ve got no idea what Robin Gibb wrote it about, but you find your own meaning in them, don’t you? They’re very clever and it’s an amazing song. They wrote a lot of great tunes.

I know you covered Billie Eilish’s “What Was I Made For?” last year as well. It doesn’t seem like you’re snobby about pop music — to you, a great song is just a great song.

Yeah, but that’s only been since the ‘90s. I used to be very blinkered about what I liked and shouldn’t like. I’ve opened myself up to all the other possibilities now. I just find it fascinating that there’s all this great music out there. For a lot of people, they hit their 40s and they get cut off from that. They just listen to what they liked during their formative years which is understandable, but I’m just such a fan of music. I love the excitement of hearing something new. It just turns me on. It helps me keep believing that there’s still goodness out there in the world.

What new bands are you listening to atm?

I really like Kneecap. I think Sam Fender’s great and I love Fontaines D.C. All three of those artists are doing something really important. They’re real people’s bands. Some music is about escapism and that’s fine, but it’s also been a way of explaining to us what we’re going through. Even going back to really old folk songs, music has spoken about the politics of the day and the hardships of people.

How important is it for you to keep trying new things?

If the process of making an album was the same every time, it wouldn’t excite me enough to do it. It gets more difficult the longer you’ve been doing it but every time I start a record, I set out to do things a little differently. I don’t know whether there’s a ceiling on that though.

Read the full feature in the MARVIN British Invasion Issue. Click HERE to purchase.