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With 6 Music Festival 2020 taking place in Camden this weekend, Saturday's By Day leg at Fest saw none other than the Modfather himself Paul Weller sit down with Lauren Laverne for an In Conversation chat.

Weller discussed new music, his links to Camden, plus why he's always looking to the future. Here are six things we learned from the talk...

1. His new record was inspired by LA

Weller's upcoming album, 'On Sunset', is his 15th solo effort and is due for release on 12 June. At the start of his chat with Lauren, he gave us a little taster of what to expect, saying in very modest terms: "It’s an amazing record. Probably a classic. It’s a bit soulful, but has an abstract edge to it. It’s got something for everyone."

"The album’s a whole journey, to be listened to from start to finish," he added. You get thrown in the deep end straight away and there’s a lot of little different changes and movements in it."

The Modfather went on to reveal that the album was inspired by a trip to visit his son in Los Angeles and realising that he was frequenting the same Sunset Boulevard haunts that he did over 40 years prior, something he felt as a very "nostalgic moment".

'On Sunset', then, is "about someone going back to a place and thinking about looking up an old lover or old friends, and of course everyone has moved on and everything’s changed. It’s another time."

On what continues to motivates him over four decades into his career, Weller said: "For me, on every album, if there’s only two or three moments where I surprise myself then I feel like I’ve done my job. I’m also looking to see what’s inside me and what else I’m capable of, and where those limits end or start.”

2. Camden means a lot to him - and so does Amy

Returning to Camden for 6 Music Festival must have been another "nostalgic moment" for Weller, with the artist himself explaining how he used to go to gigs at Dingwalls and Koko (then called the Music Machine) back in the 1970s.

Of all his favourite Camden memories, one stands out for Weller in particular: "It must have been '79. Shane MacGowan was supporting [at Music Machine] with The Nips, dressed as a Roman gladiator. That was one of my favourite gigs."

The Jam came through the same time as the punk scene made waves in Camden, and Weller says of this era: "It was an exciting time… punk was the first time our generation had something of their own. This explosion was happening, music, fanzines, people making their clothes."

A relative outsider, having moved to the capital from Surrey, Weller reminisced: "London was magical to me - and it still is. It was where everything was happening and you could be whatever you wanted to be. It allowed people to be expressive."

Weller also has a connection to one of Camden's favourite daughters too, having performed with Amy Winehouse at the 大象传媒 Electric Proms in 2006 at Camden's Roundhouse. He recalled: "She came to rehearsals and blew all of us away. We were astounded by how great she was, how naturally gifted she was. She [had] a great personality too, just a God-given talent. [She’s] sorely missed.”

3. He was like a Godfather to Britpop

Camden's music legacy is long and wide-ranging and, as well as punk, played a big part in the formation of Britpop too, a genre that Weller can be seen as something of a Godfather to. He played guitar on Oasis' 'Champagne Supernova' and was an inspiration to many artists from the scene.

Speaking to Lauren, he told the story of how he first met long-time collaborator Steve Cradock, guitarist of Ocean Colour Scene: "I first met him when he was 16. He came down to our old studio and he had been camping in the park, sleeping in his parka. He kept bugging me, ‘hear this, hear this, listen to my music.’ He was just a little kid and we had to throw him out in the end. Then I saw him a few years later and he was in Ocean Colour Scene and was recording in our studio.”

Weller later gifted Cradock a Rickenbacker bass guitar from his time in The Jam for his 30th birthday.

4. What it was like having his dad as his manager

Weller's father John, who sadly passed away in 2009, was his manager for over 30 years, right from his first gigs to his time in The Jam, The Style Council and his journey as a solo artist. Asked what his working style was like, Weller responded: "Cash, cash, cash. He loved his cash."

Weller said that they'd "argue all the time" but in a healthy way: "We’d have a big argument and then make up, then it would all be forgotten... I’m not easy to manage though. Once I get an idea, I’m really strict with it and want to get on with it."

Overall, it was their differences that made their professional partnership so successful: "He was just a much more practical person. He wasn’t into the arty-farty sort of thing, he was more meat and potatoes. It worked."

5. He has a newfound sense of spirituality

"I’m going through a bit of a spiritual phase at the moment," Weller revealed near the close of his In Conversation talk. "Not in any orthodox way, but I’m re-evaluating lots of things in my life and my beliefs… myself as a person and how I’ve treated people.”

On whether this has made its way into his writing however, he said: "I never write anything that’s totally biographical. I won’t be able to do that because there’s not enough interesting things that’s happened to me really. There’s always little bits of myself or my thoughts in my songs, but then I try to broaden them out so people can identify with it."

6. He's all about the future, not the past

Despite Weller's self-reflection, he remains "allergic to nostalgia": "Of course I look back at certain times of my life with fondness or regret, but it serves you no purpose to dwell on it. It’s better to live in the moment and learn from your mistakes. It’s important just to live now."

He added: "I wish for nothing more than what I do. I don’t look to achieve anything else than what I’m doing now. To make records, to write, to play, it’s all I ever wanted to do, and it’s still what I want to do. That’s success in itself."

On which current artists have been inspiring him lately, Weller named the likes of Michael Kiwanuka, Celeste and Sam Fender (the latter of which he called "incredible"). "I’m lucky because my kids are different ages so they play me all different things," he remarked. "I get [played] a bit of drill and a little bit of grime. Like any music, some I love and some I don’t get.” However, we shouldn't expect Weller to "go drill" any time soon - he "wouldn't have thought" that's likely to happen.

Listen back to Paul Weller In Conversation with Lauren Laverne on 大象传媒 Sounds