Noel Gallagher on working with Johnny Marr: “He’s the G.O.A.T.”

nme.com:

Noel Gallagher has spoken about working with Johnny Marr on his new album ‘Council Skies‘ – hailing the former Smiths turned solo star as “the G.O.A.T.”The pair have long been friends and collaborators – with Marr contributing to Oasis‘ 2002 album ‘Heathen Chemistry’ as well as playing on The High Flying Birds‘ ‘Ballad Of The Mighty I’ in 2015 and ‘If Love Is The Law’ from 2017.

They teamed up again for three songs on Gallagher’s new album ‘Council Skies’, namely lead single ‘Pretty Boy’ along with ‘Open the Door, See What You Find’ and the title track.“Sadly, we’ve never sat down to write a song,” Gallagher told NME for the latest in our In Conversation series. “We’ve talked about it for a while.

For the three tracks that he plays on, I had the idea that Johnny would be able to play something great on it – I could just hear it and knew it.“With ‘Pretty Boy’, it’s so linear and gets to that point where it just motors along.

I knew it needed something. I didn’t get loads of people to try it, I was going to ask Johnny to do it from the off.”Gallagher went on to explain how Marr’s contributions always come from a place of instinct, rather than instruction.“It’s a funny thing with Johnny,” said Gallagher. “He doesn’t get you to send him the track, he turns up, plugs his gear in, puts his guitar on, stands in front of the speakers and says, ‘Right, let’s hear it’.