Sir Paul McCartney says releasing an album feels like waiting for exam results.
The Beatles legend is currently promoting his 16th solo record New. Despite his career spanning decades, he still battles nerves whenever he releases fresh material.
“Yes, you make the album and you forget that people are going to examine and you are just having fun. Then when it’s made and you deliver it, it’s just like sitting an exam - you have to wait for results,” he told UK TV show Daybreak.
Paul also spoke about the process of penning new tunes. While he always hopes to write a new anthem, he avoids putting too much pressure on himself.
“Sometimes you will sit down and think, ‘OK, I am going to write another Eleanor Rigby.’ But that is fatal, because you can’t,” he explained.
Paul was also quizzed on his rumoured collaboration with Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke. He confirmed speculation that his fashion designer daughter Stella has been integral in getting them to work together.
“Yes, that is what Stella wants me to do,” the musician replied. “She has great ideas but I can’t always do them. A lot of them I do, she is very much an ideas person. She wants me to do this, she wants to put me with certain people she thinks I would be good with.”
Paul says his wife Nancy Shevell inspired some of the tracks on his new album. He admits it took a lot of courage to express his emotions for the brunette, who he married in 2011.
“I started writing these new ones a couple of years ago, when I was first going out with Nancy. I used to ring her up each morning and I knew because of the time difference – she was in New York – that I had a few hours to write something. Then I would ring her up and then say to her, ‘Do you want to hear a song?’ It was a good motivation for me to write something,” he recalled. “My song Scared is about being scared to say I love you to someone. I think particularly for guys, it’s not easy to say with conviction, so I was playing with that idea.”
