Sawhney & Macca

Nitin Sawhney tells 6 Music about working with Paul McCartney

13 August 2008 - London Undersound is the new album from Nitin Sawhney and the former Beatle features on his new song My Soul.

Speaking at his album launch last night (12 August) at London's Blackhall Studios, Sawhney exclusively told 6 Music: “There’s tracks with people like Paul McCartney, who’s actually talked about his feelings towards the paparazzi and what happened to him.”

As for how he met McCartney, Sawhney said they go way back: “I’ve known Paul McCartney for quite a long time, I did a remix for him years ago for his ambient music Fireman project.”

Sawhney added that he respected Macca’s lack of pretensions when the star visited his modest home.

“It was quite mad actually, it was kind of the equivalent of a little bedsit and he came in. He was such a humble and chilled bloke, he didn’t have any airs about him or anything. He just came across as a really nice guy so it was great keeping that friendship going and we’ve done that since,” said Sawhney.

Sawhney also said that Macca often comes to his gigs and they go for drinks occasionally, but admitted that it felt weird working with the king of collaborations, and following in Lennon's footsteps: “He [McCartney] just came down to the house for a couple of days and it just worked very easily actually, there wasn’t any effort really.

“It was quite interesting really because I forget that he’s a natural collaborator – Lennon, you know – so you kinda think, ‘God, your walking in the same footsteps as John Lennon.’ It’s quite mad collaborating with someone like that, it’s crazy.”

Anthony Gormley is involved with the new album and has created one piece of work for each of the album tracks, which was also exhibited at the album showcase.

About Gormley’s contribution, Sawhney explained: “He’s such a nice guy and has always been really supportive, but the fact that he contributed all this work to the album, just because he liked the album and wanted to do that - I can’t get over that. It’s an incredible thing to do.”

"He was such a humble and chilled bloke, he didn’t have any airs about him or anything."
Nitin Sawhney

Other collaborators

LondonUndersound is being released on 13 October and Sawhney has used a number of other collaborators.

Natty, who was there when the bus got bombed at Tavistock Square on 7/7, Anoushka Shankar and Imogen Heap – all feature, writing about their experiences of London and how it has changed.

Sawhney explained what Anoushka Shankar brought to his album: “She’s Ravi Shankar's daughter, and an absolutely brilliant sitar player and someone I’ve known for a long time - she had her own impression of London which came through in an instrumental piece that we wrote.”

As for what to expect from the record, Sawhney said: “It’s a whole mix of things, it’s a mix of moods. Some are quite upbeat, some are quite dark, some are quite broody and it’s just getting across all these flavours.”

Georgie Rogers