Paul McCartney has drawn a clear line between his own solo approach and the Rolling Stones’ when it comes to making new music. In a new MOJO interview, he pointed out that both acts tapped Andrew Watt to produce their upcoming records, but said that similarity ends there: the Stones arrive with a sound that is already locked in, while he prefers to avoid repeating himself. In his words, it is “kind of the opposite” with him.
That difference is central to McCartney’s new album, The Boys of Dungeon Lane, which is due out on May 29. He said the basic idea behind the record was simple: they had already made similar kinds of moves before, so this time they deliberately chose to do something different. The album was shaped over the last five years through sessions in London and Sussex with Watt, who has become a key figure in both McCartney’s and the Stones’ recent studio work.
McCartney also used the interview to say that Watt made an immediate impression on him, even if it was not a soft one. He recalled leaving their first session thinking Watt was a little pushy, but quickly decided that being pushy is not necessarily a bad thing in a producer. To McCartney, it simply meant enthusiasm — the kind that keeps a record moving and stops it from getting stale.
The Stones connection is even tighter than just sharing a producer. McCartney also appears on the Rolling Stones’ forthcoming album Foreign Tongues, with his contribution coming from sessions originally cut for Hackney Diamonds in 2023. That puts him in the unusual position of sounding like the counterpoint to the Stones on his own album while also being part of their next chapter at the same time.
The timing is busy for McCartney too. On May 8, he released “Home to Us,” the second single from The Boys of Dungeon Lane, and it marks his first proper duet with Ringo Starr. The song looks back toward Liverpool and early life memories, with additional backing vocals from Chrissie Hynde and Sharleen Spiteri. Taken together, it paints a picture of McCartney still moving forward, but on his own terms — not chasing the Stones’ formula, and definitely not repeating his own.
