Liam Gallagher has hit out at Damon Albarn‘s recent comments about Taylor Swift and declared her to be “fucking cool”.
The Blur and Gorillaz frontman was on the receiving end of a backlash last month when he said that Swift’s “co-writing” approach was at odds with his “traditionalist” view of songwriting.
This led to Swift hitting back with the tweet: “@DamonAlbarn I was such a big fan of yours until I saw this. I write ALL my own songs. Your hot take is completely false and SO damaging. You don’t have to like my songs but it’s really fucked up to try and discredit my writing. WOW.”
A number of musicians also jumped to her defence, which led Albarn to subsequently apologise “unreservedly and unconditionally” to Swift, claiming that his words had been “reduced to clickbait”.
Gallagher, who features as this week’s cover star on NME’s Big Read, has now waded into the row.
When asked by NME whether co-writing isn’t “real” songwriting, Gallagher said: “Says who? All them fucking gorilla albums are co-writes aren’t they? I get it – Noel bangs on about it as well: ‘I’m more important than you because I write my fucking songs’.”
With regard to the Albarn backlash, he continued: “Well, he [Albarn] won’t be saying that again in a hurry, though, will he? Did he not get ran out of fucking town by the Swifters? I think [Taylor’s] fucking cool, man. She does write her songs and I’m sure she’s co-wrote with people.”
Gallagher has worked with a number of songwriters on his new album, including Dave Grohl, Vampire Weekend’s Ezra Koenig and his regular producer Greg Kurstin.
Speaking about Grohl’s contribution on ‘Everything’s Electric’, Gallagher said it was chosen over a number of offerings from his Foo Fighters bandmate Taylor Hawkins because “it’s an out-and-out rock’n’roll tune”.
Gallagher added that Hawkins’ ideas were less to his taste. “They’re a fucking bit kinky, man,” he said. “I’m like, ‘You don’t need me, man – you carry on doing that stuff’.”
Elsewhere in Gallagher’s Big Read interview, the singer speaks about his forthcoming return to Knebworth and his recent helicopter accident.
His new solo album ‘C’mon You Know’ is set to be released on May 27 via Warner Music.
On March 2, Gallagher will collect the this year’s Music Moment Of The Year Award at the BandLab NME Awards 2022 at London’s O2 Academy Brixton. Tickets to the event are on sale now and available here.