“I don’t have any career moves or ideas about what my ideas should be. You’ve got to be versatile with things as well.” Sometimes all the pieces come together and they don’t work, but that’s OK. We sort of rip it up and don’t worry about it. I think it’s right at my age to try and see what else you can become, as opposed to just doing what’s expected of you.” “I feel really, at my age now, like I need to go on and try to take it as far as I possibly can, really, to carry on experimenting with other types of music, working in different ways. I think I’m at the right age to do that. I’m into whatever, really: working with other people, writing with other people, just seeing where it goes. “I don’t think I’m going to work one way, or this way, or the other way. The older you get, the more important it is to stay open-minded, I think, and not look at it as a fixed way of doing things. It’s just whatever’s in the air at the time. There isn’t any set way to making music or writing. “I think the really important thing is just to keep an open mind about all of it. I always try to find different ways of doing things, just to keep it interesting.” I never really know where I’m going to go. “I’m interested in whatever way that is, whatever method. I like doing it like that, but also in a more traditional way, writing at home,” says Weller. The latter approach became the norm during Weller’s work with former producer Simon Dine, but he stresses that he still enjoys adopting a back-to-basics approach for some of his writing. So we ended up writing a lot of it in the studio.” There wasn’t anything pre-planned on the album, it was just us experimenting with things to see what happened. They didn’t feel right for the album I wanted to make. Because I had loads of songs, I had, I guess, six or eight tunes I’d written at home, but I chose not to use those. “It was all kinds of improvised and made up on the spot, to be honest with you. “None of the new songs started out at that level, for sure,” Weller explains, with even the more traditional-sounding Where I Should Be resulting from sessions of sonic experimentation. We observe that the songs don’t necessarily feel as if Weller could still sit down and play them on an acoustic guitar or a piano, yet in a previous interview, he told us that was how his songwriting always began. Saturns Pattern continues an adventurous approach to production that was present on 22 Dreams and Wake Up The Nation – and even more so on Sonik Kicks. So I don’t slavishly follow what’s going on, but at the same time I’m interested to hear what’s going on as well.” It’s inspiring to me to hear great music, whether that’s new or old, and it inspires me to go make great music. “I don’t think you can include the 60s, because it was such a different time. “There was tons and tons of shit out there, but you had to look for something that meant something to you. I don’t know if it’s become too different.” Probably, a vast majority of the charts means nothing to me whatsoever, but I’d have said the same thing about the 70s and 80s, as well.” Or maybe not its merit, but on whether it affects me or not. “I probably judge it solely on its merit. “I probably don’t judge it like that, I hope,” he replies. Weller doesn’t sit neatly alongside some of his label-mates, so do these “hits” offend his aesthetic? When we were on hold, awaiting our audience with the Modfather, the record company had short snippets of its current hit songs playing on the line. But in terms of whether it’s commercial, who knows, man? I don’t know who knows what’s commercial or not. It’s just… I hope it’s all popular with people, because that’s what you should be doing. “Outside of that, I’ve never really thought about what’s commercial. If I had the choice between selling a thousand or a million, I’d much rather sell a million, because it means I can get more money.” “The commercial aspect of it, it’s anyone’s guess, man. But yeah, I just want to keep on making more of it. I just think it’s fascinating, really, the twists and turns of this whole path. Whenever I feel like that, I want to keep making it and see where it goes. I still feel I’ve got loads of music inside me. That’s at the very core of what I’m about really. “Well, essentially, I’m just doing what I need to do, which is to write and make music. We wonder whether Weller feels the need to make concessions to commercial accessibility in pursuit of that quest, or is testing creative new ground his sole concern?

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