After a series of album hits and misses, the band had a resurgence of sorts with "Don’t Believe The Truth." Young STAR recently sat down with bassist Andy Bell and guitarist Gem Archer for a little chitchat about the band’s direction, drummer Zak Starkey, and their songwriting contributions.
YOUNG STAR: Where were you both while Oasis was getting high during the Britpop era?
GEM ARCHER: I was living in London with my own band trying to get signed and sealed. You know just like everybody else having it large. London was a great place to be in the ’90s.
ANDY BELL: I was playing in a band called Ride under Creation, the same label as Oasis. So, that meant that I was able to see Oasis quite a few times in the early days.
Noel used to be the major songwriter for Oasis. How did it become a democracy now with your new album?
AB: It started off with Liam writing Little James on "Standing On The Shoulder of Giants." For the album "Heathen Chemistry," we started writing songs for that. For "Don’t Believe The Truth," all of us sort of clicked. It was a natural process.
GA: We all seem to play in each other’s demos. For instance, in my songs, Noel usually plays the drums or bass and everything seems cosmically gel together.
How is it playing with drummer Zak Starkey?
AB: Well, he’s a great drummer. Obviously! As a bass player, it is important to be able to gel with the drummer. I really used to play well without him. I didn’t know how it was going to work with a new guy. Zak was coming to the studio everyday while we were demo-ing. He just sat there. So, we decided to play together and see if it works out. It was really cool. We played all the Oasis songs for two hours. It just kind of gelled immediately. So, we have good chemistry together.
GA: Zak is absolutely fantastic. He just came straight from The Who. It’s kind of funny because he’s more of a guitarist’s drummer, and there aren’t many of them around. He doesn’t play like Ringo at all.
What can we expect from Oasis?
AB: There’s never going to be a new direction. It’s like a political party year after year. The world changes but your ideals don’t change. We have music like The Beatles and the Rolling Stones.
GA: You would never have heard the song The Importance of Being Idle in 1994. It is still Oasis and the same band with quality songwriting. We still believe that it’s not about being big but rather about being good.
AB: It is still Oasis’ music and it adheres to the same principles. That’s why there’s no new direction. But we can still make new albums with different flavors and styles.
What’s the best thing about being in Oasis?
GA: Not having to grow old.
AB: I was going to be serious.
GA: I am being serious (laughs).
AB: I was going to say just being able to be creative, and that’s such a great thing.