Mick Jagger joins Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1 to discuss the new Rolling Stones song “Sweet Sounds of Heaven” featuring Lady Gaga and Stevie Wonder. He tells Apple Music about the origin of the collaboration, working with Lady Gaga, how the band’s forthcoming album ‘Hackney Diamonds’ came together and was kicked into gear by acclaimed producer Andrew Watt, and what makes the album different from past Stones releases. Plus, Mick reveals how Paul McCartney ended up on the new album.
Mick Jagger on Collaborating with Lady Gaga on “Sweet Sounds of Heaven”…
…she's a really great singer and I'd never heard her sing quite that style before. Not exactly. We did it live in the room and that was a great experience, her just coming in the room and her just opening up and seeing her bits and feeling her way and then getting more confident. And then we came back and then did some extra parts that we hadn't done on the day and then we did some tidying up and we were just in the overdub room, really face-to-face, getting them really tight, the parts really tight, and then being slightly competitive and screaming.
Mick Jagger on New Rolling Stones Song “Sweet Sounds of Heaven”…
It's all played live. And of course we did overdubs, but it's all played in the room. Yeah, there's that moment, especially in that session where we had Stevie, and you're feeling your way out a little bit and then you do that soul ending, which is you do sometimes on stage where you stop and you start. It's very kind of tried and tested redoubling thing. But, yeah, I mean, it really feels like, yeah, it is played live… it was a good moment… we played it with Keith and Ronnie when we were in The Bahamas when we more or less finished everything. But we hadn't mixed it then, so then we mixed it, I mixed it with the mixer and Andy [Andrew Watt] and we were in three places. And then when we finished mixing it, we had a sort of three-way playback. And, yeah, it's a really good moment when you play something. And it's always a great moment when you play it back like that. And, "Wow, we finished it and it sounds really good, and we're pleased with it." Because if we hadn't been pleased with it, we've had to have change it. You've got to choose the right songs because we recorded a lot more songs than this. And then to choose a set of songs, these aren't necessarily even, you might prefer one than the other, but they will come out. The other ones will come out. But choose a good balance of the songs you've recorded.
Mick Jagger on How Paul McCartney Ended Up on the New Rolling Stones Album ‘Hackney Diamonds’...
Mick Jagger: We kind of often text each other and stuff. The thing was that Andy had said to me, "Look, I'm working on this, Mick. It's had my complete attention, my complete focus, for six months." And then he said to me, "I didn't really tell you completely the truth because I had this week booked with Paul McCartney right in the middle"… right in the middle of the three weeks we got booked for, we only had three weeks booked for cutting tracks. "So right in the middle of the three weeks, I've got Paul McCartney booked." He says, "It's the only thing I couldn't cancel." And I said, "Well, it's all right. We will take a few days off. It's all right. We've got time." "And we've got a lot of great stuff." And he said, "Well, yeah, but why don't we invite Paul for one of the days and get him to play?" And I said, "Well, yeah, that's a great idea." So Andy called Paul and asked him if he wanted to come on one of his days that Andy had promised him.
Zane Lowe: Amazing. So wait, so Paul paid for his session to be on a Stones record?
Mick Jagger: He gave up one of his recording days, I think would be fair… he didn't get an invoice, but he did give up one of his recording days.
Mick Jagger on the Origin of Forthcoming Rolling Stones Album ‘Hackney Diamonds’…
I don't quite know how it works. But I didn't really know where we were with it. And then we recorded a lot of stuff, but we didn't have a deadline. And I don't think we were that mad about what we recorded, though there were some really good things, but there were some things that we weren't crazy about. And there was no deadline and there was no cohesion and there was no finish line or style or anything. And so I think we got a bit lazy and lackadaisical about the whole thing. So I said to Keith, "Well let's do it another way. Let's have a deadline. Are you up for doing a deadline? Are you up for getting a new producer?" And Keith sort of, he agreed with all this straight away… And I mean, if it didn't happen, it didn't happen. And when I said, "let's go to Jamaica and just hang out and just jam a bit and so on." He was very keen on that because just the idea of doing that, of being very loose and so on, and getting this album back on track. And he was very amenable to all this. …and Jamaica was super relaxed, a very nice place, beautiful views, and there's no pressure, but you still want to play and see how things go. And Steve's there, Matt was there, me and Keith and that was it. Then we brought it onto the next, we did some rehearsals involved Ronnie, and that's where we introduced Andy into the equation. And then Andy just bulldozed the whole thing through and he said, "Oh, this is a good song. This is a good song. I love this song." That made it easy. But, yes, there does seem to be a moment where everyone seems to be in agreement that they want to move forward, they want to make an album, they are excited, and they want to finish it.
Mick Jagger on What’s Different About the Forthcoming Rolling Stones Album ‘Hackney Diamonds’…
…we don't have Charlie, so that's a huge difference in doing these sessions that we talked about. Though I play with Steve a lot. I play with Steve on the road. And I also play with Steve in the studio. I mean, I've done demos with Steve. I mean, I know he's very enthusiastic, so that's always good. I mean, I think I have a really good understanding with him. I'm interested in grooves is my thing. I'm not just only interested in melody, lyrics, but I'm interested in grooves. What groove should this song be in? What do I think for this band that fits this groove for this song? And because the Rolling Stones have a certain kind of bass, you can't do any groove. You want it to be the perfect groove for this band. So Steve and I would work on the grooves. And as I would work, used to work with Charlie on the grooves, so it's like experimenting. I would just hang a bit late at night when everyone had gone home, just pick up a guitar and say, "Okay, so tomorrow we're going to do this one. You remember this one?" Because there was so many songs that was hard for everyone to remember. "So we're going to do this one tomorrow. And I'm a bit worried about this. Should it be like this? Should the bass run be like this? Should the tempo be like this?" So Steve and I would work on that. So that's a big difference. And then having Andy Watt as a producer who's very enthusiastic and very cracking the whip and making sure everyone's really working hard.
Mick Jagger on Working with Producer Andrew Watt…
…the thing is, Andy knows when, I think one of the great things is you don't need to do the song many times. He knows when it's done. So you do the song four times and it's done. He said, "That's it." And then everyone will look at him and go, "What? It's done?" "Yes. And now to the next one"… not all sitting around and thinking about it. There was none of that. "We move to the next one now." And we'd all say, "Ah, that's great." And we would all applaud each other because it got to be a joke that we'd finished another track and move on to the next one. So I think that's really good to know when you've done it
