The new documentary “If These Walls Could Sing” will premiere on Disney starting Dec. 16 and tells the story of Abbey Road Studio, the London recording studio made famous by the Beatles and many musical artists.
Directed by Mary McCartney, the film looks at the 90-year history of Abbey Road Studio, the recording of Beatles albums, the writing of “Star Wars” and the Britpop movement of the ’90s.
The documentary interviews Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Elton John, Jimmy Page, Roger Waters, David Gilmour, Noel Gallagher, Liam Gallagher and John Williams.
In addition to being a documentary filmmaker, director Mary McCartney is also an accomplished photographer and host of cooking exhibitions with her Discover/Food Network series, “Mary McCartney Serves It Up. “She is also the daughter of Paul McCartney and Linda McCartney, who in addition to being a musician, is also an accomplished photographer and cookbook author.
Moviefone had the thrill of speaking with director Mary McCartney in a lengthy interview about her paintings in “If These Walls Could Sing,” the story of Abbey Road, her father’s interview, Elton John’s love for his father, Jimmy Page’s contribution to “Goldfinger. “‘, how Indiana Jones saved the recording studio and had to record the Gallagher brothers of Oasis separately.
Sir Paul McCartney, at Studio 2 Abbey Road in “If These Walls Could Sing”. Credit: Mary McCartney.
You can read the full interview below or click on the video player above to watch our interview with Mary McCartney about “If These Walls Could Sing. “
Moviefone: To begin with, it’s clear that you and your family have a long history with Abbey Road Studios, but how did this documentary come about, and as a filmmaker, why did you need to tell this story?
Mary McCartney: Well, up until doing this documentary, I was a portrait photographer and a photographer doing exhibitions and books. So, I was approached. A natural progression from photography is to move into directing and I’ve been directing more short pieces. Then I was invited by John Battsek from Ventureland, who is an Oscar nominated documentary director, he messaged me one day and said, “Have you thought of directing documentaries?” I was like, yes, I have. Then he said, would you please direct the documentary of the 90-year history of Abbey Road?
If I’m being honest, if you can, my first reaction was to say no, because I thought it was too close to home. Then I had a little note with myself and thought, yes, I’m going to do it. it. It’s an incredible opportunity. I love Abbey Road and have been going there since I was born. Even before I was born, probably in my mother’s womb. There were so many things I didn’t know about the study, and I didn’t even know I was 90 years old. history. So it’s been quite an adventure and a thrill to do this.
MF: In addition to the wonderful interviews you did for the film, you also come with a lot of archival footage. Can you tell us about the difficulties you faced in locating everything you needed for the documentary?
MM: So, initially, I thought, “Do you need to make the documentary about the history of Abbey Road?I said, okay, yes. Then they said, “We’ll make the files completely available to you. Then, I thought I was going through to get into this cave of photographs and sequences of Aladdin. Then I realized temporarily, which I already knew, that there wasn’t a lot of footage because one of the regulations that gets passed is that when you record musicians and the artists, manufacturers and sound engineers are locked into the area and it’s creative. You don’t need other people to film you and distract you.
I temporarily learned that we had to exploit all the archival footage we had. I think we worked hard to make it look like there was a lot of footage, but it was actually few and far between and spaced out and we built it, as you say. , audio interviews, photographs, and whatever films we can find.
So, moving on to the interviews, they were given a lot of importance because I needed to capture the essence and emotion of the studio through those interviews. That’s where my photography kind of career came in because I have this bag of tricks. It has created a lovely environment for the user we are interviewing. We were able to film a lot of them, most of them, in the studio, in Studio One, Studio Two, or Studio Three.
I think that really helped with the feel of it. Also, I just really tried to make it very relaxed and casual. I think that’s one thing that I’m really happy with in the documentary is that it is very conversational. They’re relaxed and I think it really allows the viewer to connect. I want to draw the viewer in and make them feel that by the end of watching it, that they’ve been in Abbey Road, that they feel that the essence of Abbey Road in their hearts.
MF: Seeing how you are Paul McCartney’s daughter, and all the musicians you interviewed love and respect your dad, do you think that helped with conducting the interviews?
MM: I think so. I was a little nervous because I had never interviewed anyone before and one of my behaviors is to interrupt people. I get overexcited in the conversation. I’m intervening and talking to people, so I had to control myself. But you’re right. I had never met Jimmy Page before. I know Elton John, although not very well. But then they said, “Oh, your father. ” My voice wasn’t there. So in the end it was fun, I gave in and it became part of the vibe of “If These Walls Could Sing. “
Mary McCartney, director of “If These Walls Could Sing,” takes pictures at Abbey Road. Photo: Mary McCartney/Tim Cragg.
MF: The documentary starts with your narration and footage of you and your family on Abby Road with your pony Jet, on which the song for Wings was written. Can you tell us about the filmmaker’s choice to personalize the film?
MM: Once you have a task like this, you actually make it for the viewer. I grew up in London so I regularly walk past this passage and there are other people taking pictures in it, but there is more to it than that feeling, tourists are here to take their pictures. It’s more like when I look at some of those other people, I feel like I’m a circle of family on a pilgrimage. That sounds like a really honest and very touching reason. They are there, near the wall and at the intersection they still cannot enter the studio.
So, I really thought it was a genuine opportunity to bring that into people’s homes. I still get that feeling when I walk through the gates of Abbey Road. I’ve done all the good-looking shots there and I’m still going to go in there. And it’s like you have the feeling of “There’s something special here. “It makes you feel good. It makes you need your game.
MF: One of the many things I love about your dad is how unassuming he is. In the movie, he picks up a guitar and starts playing ‘Blackbird,’ and acts like it is no big deal. What was it like for you to interview your own father?
MM: It’s a little nerve-wracking because interviewing someone or photographing someone is like, what mood are you going to get?How will they feel that day? So I create the area where when they walk in they feel smart, but I can’t say what happened to them or if anyone bothered them at breakfast. So you need someone to come in with a good mood because otherwise it’s hard to get interviewed if you don’t feel it.
So I set up the studio, I had his Hofner bass and a piano. When he walked in, he felt like he was thinking, “I’m on Abbey Road. It brought back some memories. The funny thing is, he had the acoustic guitar next to him and I thought, “Look, I need to come with ‘Blackbird,’ so if you feel like you can pick it up and play a component, but without pressure. . . “
So he does, but my sound recordist had put a little square of carpet under his foot because when you’re interviewing you don’t want to hear people tapping their feet on the wooden floor in the studio. So, my dad is also a bit of a rebel and if you tell him he can’t do something… so he was like, “Why have you got this under my feet?” Then he was really happy. He was like, “Oh, and it’s in the documentary.” It’s like, “Oh, I’m just going to have to move this so you can hear my foot tap.” So, it was sort of quite sweet.
He had a very intelligent temperament and loves Abbey Road. I think it’s one of the most comfortable interviews I’ve ever seen him do because he was happy to talk about it. The other people he worked with there over the years, he loves and admires the technical brilliance of the space. I feel like it’s shining. He wanted to share his feelings about Abbey Road with the world. I was happy to remember it.
(L to R) Ringo Starr, Paul McCartney, John Lennon, and George Harrison in Disney+’s ‘The Beatles: Get Back’
MF: I get goosebumps every time Paul mentions The Beatles. Do you have that same reaction or are you somewhat desensitized to the whole Beatles-thing?
MM: I was partly familiar with all the stories I included in the documentary. I think a lot of kids, like my kids, don’t pay attention to what I’m doing. I’ve taken pictures of the Queen, but don’t say, “Mom, tell us when you went to the palace. If I wanted some explanation as to why you don’t do it until you’re an adult and leave home, I think then I’d ask Dad more about his life and career. But I learned a lot from making this documentary, so I’m glad I did it.
I didn’t know they had made all their albums at Abbey Road. I didn’t realize they had used all the other spaces. One of the attractive things about Abbey Road was that they had done comedy recordings there in the early 1960s. A total type of special effects mastery for radio programs. So, those made it to “Yellow Submarine. ” He simply created a combination of a total domain that he didn’t know about.
MF: Can you tell us about photographing George Martin’s son, Giles Martin, and asking him to play the songs in the studio for “A Day in the Life”?
MM: Well, it was a dream to interview Giles Martin because he worked a lot with his father and remastered a lot of the Beatles albums. He also made the album “Love” with his father. So he’s an expert in general, but he’s still very eloquent. In fact, he was able to understand a lot of the history of Brian Epstein, the manager, who employed all those kinds of bands and singers at the time.
It was a dream come true, the interview. He’s also a producer, so I wondered: do you think we’ll be able to get our hands on the Beatles’ soundtracks?So we shot it and it’s wonderful to be able to watch and hold those tapes with the original writing. Magical, indeed.
Then he composes the orchestral pieces, or the voices, or the drums, and he knows it very well. It can just tell you the stories. Again, it really brings it to life and helps show the recording process. It is very important to show the registration process. It’s a recording studio and it’s a moment where the viewer can see the degrees of combination and feel how everything combines to give the finished track.
MF: The documentary is also about how the film industry, and Lucasmovie, helped save Abbey Road after the Beatles stopped making records. Can you let us know about that?
MM: The appeal that I hadn’t learned was at a dramatic point in the documentary, when they were going through difficult times, when all the old footage had been exhausted, and I thought, “What are we going to do with it?”Then Ken Townsend, the manager, found out that a movie set was finished outdoors in London and they temporarily gave him a movie screen projector and gave me the contract to do “Star Wars” and “The Lord of the Rings. “There was a time when all the “Harry Potter” movies were filmed there. So, in dramatic moments like that, I didn’t know anything about those things. .
A lot of major films are shot here. One of the highlights for me in this procedure was the interview with John Williams. He is surely an incredible and impressive talent. There’s a funny moment of coincidence because I was interviewing him in a studio in Los Angeles and then by sheer coincidence, and it shows in the end credits, Ringo Starr came to the end of my interview and walked into the interview. It was a pretty funny moment, which I put in the title credits. Ringo’s interview had taken place months earlier on London’s Abbey Road. It was a natural coincidence that he was there.
I didn’t know much and thanks to this procedure I have become something of an expert, knowing precisely the history of Abbey Road and all those who made recordings there. So I thought: what stories are we going to extract? Because there’s no way to put it all in.
MF: The film shows that Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin was a consulting musician on Shirley Bassy’s recording of “Goldfinger” for the James Bond film of the same name. Can you tell us how you discovered this fun fact?
MM: It’s one of my favorite moments. I think in analyzing the story, I sought to tell stories of consulting musicians and what that meant because I didn’t know that Elton John had started his career as a consulting musician on the Abbey Road playing piano. about other people’s footprints, which is in the documentary.
Then I found out that Jimmy Page, who is also a legend, had recorded with Shirley Bassey on “Goldfinger” for the Bond movie. So I interviewed him and then incorporated him perfectly into Shirley Bassey’s story. I think it’s one of my favorite moments in the documentary because it’s so dramatic and funny. Because there’s a story of how he had to hold that note for so long, and then Jimmy Page said, “In the end he collapsed on the floor. “Let him tell that amazing story.
MF: You also had to locate footage of Shirley Bassey telling her side of the story. Was it difficult to locate?
MM: Yes, but I had to find that. I knew this folklore story that Shirley Bassey had held this note and collapsed, but we had no proof of it. We hadn’t found that interview at this point. I was like, I really want to put this in the documentary, but how do we do that? Then, what we did have access to, which was incredible, is all the handwritten recording sessions, which were all sort of filed little bits of paper from Abbey Road. So, we could go to the ‘Goldfinger’ sessions and it had Jimmy Page down as one of the session musicians.
So it’s a very well-studied documentary. He had a very smart studio team. I had a wonderful editor and this is my first foray into directing and a feature film. The chemistry between the team is incredible. So, I definitely have a bug to do more.
(From left to right) Composer John Williams and Harrison Ford at the Star Wars 2022 celebration.
MF: It’s well known that Oasis brothers Noel and Liam Gallagher no longer communicate with each other. Was it complicated to schedule your interviews at Abbey Road? You had to record them separately, right?
MM: Yes, they were recorded completely separately. I understand that they don’t talk to each other. They’ve followed separate tactics but, in a way, they still work in combination. I think they’ve released documentaries. So I felt it was vital to have any of their voices and I’m very pleased to have them. I think that even though they are not combined in the documentary, the Oasis segment is warm and talks about music and stories. Genuine warmth and they’re brothers, I’d love for them to reconcile.
But in the meantime, I think it shows that Britpop moment. It just goes to show how much Abbey Road has made things less difficult for artists, above all else. They brought sofas and everything. They had a chill-out space to relax when Liam Gallagher was waiting to sing. They have a canteen and bar on Abbey Road so it’s a great little place to hang out. But I wanted to hear any of his voices. . They are very funny and have an intelligent sense of humor. It evokes that moment vividly and is influenced by the Beatles. So again, this ties all of this together.
MF: Finally, the Elton John segment in the film feels like a love letter to your father. Can you tell us about his interview and what he told you about how your father influenced and replaced his life?
MM: I mean, Elton was wonderful the day he arrived and it seemed like he wanted to tell the story, and he wanted to do that because he’s telling an anecdote about when he was recording at Abbey Road Studio Three. It was kind of funny because every single user I interviewed was like, “We recorded and then your dad would come in and say hello. He was visibly quite sociable and worked his way through other people’s sessions.
But Elton said, “Your dad came in and said, ‘Do you need to hear my new song?’And he just sat down at the piano and played “Let It Be. “Elton says in the documentary that it encouraged him and it was such a special moment that he lived and that has been very meaningful to him to this day. So, I think in doing this interview, it was his opportunity to say it out loud and, in a way, to tell people about it. audience, but also to tell my dad.
He said, “I need you to know how much it meant to me and how much it meant to me in my career, and how it encouraged me in an artistic way. “That’s pretty sincere, is it rarely? I couldn’t have expected this before. I had no idea what his temperament was or what he meant.
Abbey Road, a detail from a tape recorder from “If These Walls Could Sing. “Photo: Mercury Studios/Tim Cragg.
If only these walls could sing, “Some songs are as amazing as they seem. “Still unrated1 hr 26 minDec 16, 2022Hours & TicketsSee if those walls can sing online