Liam Gallagher Makes No Apologies

He's still crazy after all these years. Older, at 35, and perhaps a little wiser, Oasis' Liam Gallagher remains very much the uppity Manchester lad with a tree-sized chip on his shoulder.

"People think we're loudmouths," he said, of himself and brother/bandmate Noel. "We probably are loudmouths. A lot of Mancunians are very self-confident."

It has been exactly 14 years since Oasis barged onto the charts with its smash debut, Definitely Maybe, on Aug. 30, 1994, leading the charge for the genre known as Britpop. Alongside bands such as The Verve, Pulp and long-standing rivals Blur, the group provided an alternative to the rise of grunge in North America, by drawing influences from British rock groups of the '60s and '70s.


Liam Gallagher of Oasis: "People think we're loudmouths. We probably are loudmouths. A lot of Mancunians are very self-confident."

Oasis returned in 1996 with (What's the Story) Morning Glory? Those first two albums took the top two spots in a recent poll by Q Magazine and HMV to determine the top 50 British albums of all time (with two other Oasis albums landing in the top 25). The band has sold more than 50 million albums worldwide over the course of its career.

On Oct. 6, Oasis will release its seventh studio album, Dig Out Your Soul, leading one to wonder if the group has finally turned the page on the media-saturated roller-coaster ride of fights, expletives, drink- and drug-fuelled tirades, breakups and makeups that have made it one of the most notorious British bands of the last two decades.

At the centre of the controversy are the Gallaghers' much-ballyhooed ego battles, particularly Liam's loose-cannon persona, which spares no one, not even - especially not - his older brother.

Reached by phone last week at his England home, the singer was as candid and off-the-cuff as might be expected.

"It's f---in' heavy, man," he said, describing the new album. "It's very good. There are beautiful songs. Noel wanted to write songs that are a bit more groovy. I don't know - it sounds like Oasis. I don't care, as long as the songs are good."

Noel pens six of the album's 11 tracks, with Liam providing three and guitarists Gem Archer and Andy Bell each writing one. While he has been getting more confident in his songwriting, Liam is not one to analyse his own creative process:

"I don't know what any of my songs are about," he said. "I don't sit down to write about anything. They're about whatever you want. I don't pick subjects, I just start."

That attitude sums up Gallagher's reactionary approach to life. He doesn't think, he just does, letting the pieces fall where they may. While he has been writing more songs of late, he has no delusions, leaving the bulk of Oasis's musical direction to his brother.

His relationship with Noel is a twisted yin-yang to which, despite their protests, both are inextricably bound. Noel the songwriter needs Liam the singer and vice versa, the former's emotive anthems require the latter's inimitable mix of vulnerability, defiance and whining conviction. As much and as often as the two siblings have shoved away from each other, something always pulls them back together.

Oasis continues to this day because, though the Gallaghers have not quite patched up their differences, they have learned to function despite them.

They have agreed to disagree, often vehemently.

"We don't speak that much," he said. "We don't need to. We only speak about music. It's cool. It's professional. What's the point of speaking? We don't have much to say to each other. We don't shoot the breeze. We never did that much talking. We're not lovers anyway.

"We do hang out, we're just not buddy-buddies. We're not little f---ing nerds. We're men. We don't go to the pictures. We'll have a beer, but we don't sit together eating popcorn."

Gallagher denies there is any lingering animosity between the two: "There's no tension. It's all cool. We just don't speak to each other. It's a lot easier."

As to defining what has been at the root of their many misunderstandings over the years, he was surprisingly forthright. "It's just me being a little mad bastard," he confessed, "and him not being mad. There are things I don't like about him, and things he doesn't like about me. He wants to be me. I don't want to be him."

Old rivalries die hard, and a little brother's button-pushing provocations may never die. Liam has driven Noel over the edge many a time, leaving their musical partnership in near-shambles at times. But they have always found the will and the way to pick up the pieces.

"I didn't join this band to split up," Gallagher said. "We're not splitting up. We have lots of fun. We wouldn't be doing it otherwise. . . . I want to be doing this in 20, 30, 40 years. I love being in this band. There are loads of people in bands, and loads who don't love it. I love it. It's cool as f--k. If the Stones and Neil Young are still out doing it, I don't see why we shouldn't."

Like the Rolling Stones, the Gallaghers may well find a way to move beyond the wild days of their youth and become an enduring act.

The band seems to have emerged from a mid-career funk that saw its 2000 album Standing on the Shoulder of Giants receive mixed reviews. Its 2002 effort, Heathen Chemistry, and 2005's Don't Believe the Truth inspired more positive reactions - if not the frenzy of the band's heyday - and Gallagher is optimistic about Dig Out Your Soul.

"It's a great album," he said. "It's a proper album. It's where we should be. We couldn't have done better. They're great songs, with great players and singers."

One of those singers is Noel, who lends his soft croon to the dreamy Falling Down (available now via iTunes). Liam's voice can be heard on the psychedelic, anthemic first single The Shock of the Lightning (which has leaked online but will be officially released Sept. 29).

"It sounds exactly like Oasis, with more keys and strings," Gallagher said of the album. "The sound is massive. It's really big."

He contrasts that with the output of the current crop of young rock bands:

"I don't think it's gotten better. No one's writing big songs, classics. It's fast-food music. I'm glad the Verve got back together. And Kasabian is all right. Otherwise I'm not interested."

On his path from feisty young man to grumpy not-so-young man, Gallagher has mellowed somewhat. But as evidenced by this interview, he's still got some spark left. And he plans to use it.

"I'd like this to carry on the way it is," he said of the band, "to make more music, and get bigger. I don't think we're big enough yet. The hunger's still there. We're big, but we want to be big everywhere. We want everyone to hear us."

But though he is keen to keep on rockin', he is no longer such an enthusiastic proponent of the rock 'n' roll lifestyle. He is off the drugs and booze - for the most part. "Absolutely," he said, with a chirp that blurred the line between enthusiasm and sarcasm. "Nice, clean, healthy living.

"(I don't do it) as much as I used to," he continued. "I was just bored s---less of drinking and going to pubs and clubs. I'd rather hang with the kids and the missus."

Gallagher is the father of two sons, aged seven and nine, and a 10-year-old daughter, (allegedly conceived during an affair in L.A. shortly after he married first wife, Patsy Kensit, in 1997) all from different mothers. In February, he married Nicole Appleton, his girlfriend of several years (and mother to his second son, Gene), in a small ceremony at Westminster Register Office. Noel was not invited.

Source: www.canada.com

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