Few would begrudge the decision of veteran Brit-rocker Paul Weller, known affectionately as the “Modfather,” to finally reunite the Jam, the highly influential mod-punk trio the singer formed in his mid-teens. A lot of people would likely embrace it. But there’s really no reason for Weller to do so, especially considering the roll he’s been on recently. 2005’s As Is Now and last summer’s double LP 22 Dreams—behind which he’s coming to Seattle for a rare live gig—rank as two of the best albums he’s ever crafted, sometimes surpassing his solo masterpiece, 1995’s Stanley Road. Which raises the question: How is it Weller keeps getting better?
“To be honest with you, I don’t know,” he answers over the phone from London with a surprisingly bashful chuckle. “I don’t think too much about what I’ve done in the past; I always sorta think about what I’m writing now or what I can write about tomorrow…There’s stuff I’ve been proud of in the past, and I don’t disregard it, but I think, ‘Right, that was good, but next time could be better.'”
The 21 songs on the sprawling 22 Dreams involve musical styles that have piqued Weller’s creative interest over the years—spiky mod-punk, of course, but also twinkling psych-pop, Motown soul, stadium anthems, and acoustic folk—all of it fitting as smartly as the well-tailored suits he used to wear.
“I’ve been doing it a long time, so to get all of these accolades after all these years is quite fucking amazing, really,” Weller says, adding that he has a hard time believing he’s been at it for more than three decades. “It seems like the blink of an eye. Last year I was 50, and I was like, ‘Right, so where’s that all gone?’ I guess you don’t notice the time slipping by, you know?”
While he may occasionally play a Jam tune in his current set, Weller insists he has no interest in reforming the band. But he is flattered that people still care enough to pine for a reunion.
“I can see why it interests people, and it’s all a part of me, it’s part of my character and there’s a lot of history there,” he says. “It probably would bother me if no one was interested in what I was doing now, because we’d all be looking backward, but it isn’t like that, so I’m comfortable with all of it—the present and the past.”
