Former Oasis rocker Noel Gallagher recently stated that the band’s much-praised sound is owed to the unremarkable gear he and his bandmates had access to. He went on to note how it was the only gear they could scrounge at the time.
In addition to striking a remarkable balance between simplicity and raw emotions, original recordings of Oasis songs like “Supersonic” and “Live Forever” definitely also had a unique DIY charm to them.
However, the older Gallagher sibling told Gibson in a recent interview how that sonic quality was rather a case of making lemonade when life gives you lemons, rather than an intentional choice. He said (transcribed by Ultimate Guitar):
“The sound that everyone goes on about — the sound was born out of the fact that it was the only sound we could get out of the equipment that we had. Bone [Paul ‘Bonehead] Arthurs, Oasis guitarist] had one amp; it was a Carlsbro. If Carlsbro made amps, they’d be shit. And it was.
“It only had one sound, and that was, it was good when you turned it up full. I had a Vox AC 30 that belonged to Mani [Gary Mounfield, bassist] from the Stone Roses, the second-best band from Manchester. And that only sounds good if you turned it right up. So that was it.”
He added:
“Everyone went on about the fucking sound and it was like, well, that’s that was it. You know, it was born out of the fact that the equipment we have was shit. The Vox had was going through a PA speaker. It was awful, but you masked it all with volume. I guess that made me write Liam’s vocal parts in a higher register to sing over the racket. The sound was born, but it wasn’t something we studied at all. And if anything, we struggled trying to keep it once we became bigger, and had better equipment.”
