Rocker Noel Gallagher goes for eclectic feel on 'Chasing Yesterday'

[May 06, 2015]  By Jennifer Atkinson

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Singer/songwriter Noel Gallagher believes his second solo album, "Chasing Yesterday," includes some of his best ever work with a range of instrumental melodies and an eclectic feel to it.

The former lead guitarist and songwriter with the British rock group Oasis wrote and produced the album that features 10 tracks and rose to the top of album charts in England when it was released in March.

"As a body of work, it's way up there with the best things I've ever done. It sits on a par with "Definitely Maybe" for me," said Gallagher, referring to the debut studio album by Oasis.

"Chasing Yesterday" is a follow-up to 2011's "Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds." It is the second studio album since he split with Oasis, one of Britain's biggest bands in the 1990s, following a blowup with its lead singer, his brother Liam.

"The style of this record is different from the style of the previous record because I'm producing it this time and I've got a more eclectic feel, I suppose," he said.

Gallagher also dismissed rumors that Oasis would reform after their acrimonious parting in Paris in 2009.

"In the case of the Oasis rumors, they're all started by people who are around Liam," he said. "Anybody who knows anything about that band knows that it is not going to happen."

His self-titled band, Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds, will begin the U.S. leg of their North American tour in New York City on May 7 to promote the album.

Gallagher said he loves all the songs on the new album but a few held a special place.

"In the Heat of the Moment" was the first single released from the album, followed by "Ballad of the Mighty I," which features English musician Johnny Marr. "The Dying of the Light" was a tune he wrote in one sitting.

"I love 'The Dying of the Light,' because it fell out of the sky. I wrote it one afternoon, in one evening," he added.

As for the future, Gallagher said he plans to continue to try to write the best songs he can.

"I love the satisfaction of living in a world on a Wednesday where a song didn't exist that you're going to create on a Thursday that's going to change somebody's life, possibly," he said. "You're creating that from nothing."

(This version of the story was refiled to correct title of album to "Chasing Yesterday")

(Writing by Patricia Reaney, reporting by Reuters Television by Jennifer Atkinson; Editing by David Gregorio)

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