In a strange twist, Paul McCartney has compared Andy Warhol and Kanye West. The Factory artist and The Life of Pablo artist may seem an unlikely pair, but McCartney is insistent that the two have things in common, particularly their creative process.
When the two collaborated on “Only One” back in 2014 as well as other songs, the former Beatle wasn’t sure if he would be able to work effectively with West on music. He also describes the strange studio situation he found himself in, which reminded him of Warhol.
“I didn’t know his system,” McCartney said to Rolling Stone. “I’d heard things like, ‘He’s got a room full of guys working on riffs, and he walks around going, ‘I like that one.”
He further said, “It reminded me of Andy Warhol, these artists who use students to paint their backgrounds and things. It’s a well-used technique. I thought, ‘I don’t know how I’m going to fit into that, but let’s see. Here goes nothing.”
The two made an agreement before the sessions started that they would remain a secret if nothing worthwhile was produced from them. But to McCartney’s surprise the songs “All Day” and smash hit “FourFiveSeconds” with Rihanna came out of it. “All Day” even included a guitar part that McCartney had created way back in 1969 that had remained unused. Following their work together, the former Beatle described West as “a great artist.”
In a recent interview with NPR, McCartney said that he feels that he still doesn’t know how to be a songwriter, saying, “There’s no point where you think ‘OK, now I can do it,’ as it’s a little more fluid than that. You talk to other musicians and it’s always the same. You go into the studio thinking ‘Oh, I know how to do this,’ but then you realize you’re doing it all over again and starting from square one again. You’ve never got it down. Music is fluid, and I like that. I would like to be blasé and think ‘I know how to do this.”
The interview came in conjunction with his latest album, Pure McCartney, and the songwriter suggested in it that every time he writes a song, it is reminiscent of the first. Pure McCartney followed his 2013 release, New.
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