Guitarist Gem Archer discusses the end of Oasis, the birth of Beady Eye and the process of recording Beady Eye's debut album, Different Gear, Still Speeding.

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How would you describe the changes in your overall sound?

I suppose the simple thing is that we are working backwards from Liam. So once the vocal is on, sometimes you don't need a lot of stuff. It's not that wall of sound we would do before. I suppose the guitars are a lot clearer; some of the songs have only two guitars on them. One by me, one by Andy, so there was a lot of space, and I think it's got a spring in its step.

It also seems to have a little more rawness to it.

Yeah, because we didn't want to make a "studio album" kind of thing. It just so happens you've got to go into the studio and record it, but it wasn't a concept. We knew it was going to be a debut, and we knew we were going to have to play these songs live.

Like recording in the '60s.

Yeah, it's mad, you know, but it just felt right. It was great. Hopefully it'll be the same next time around.

And considering the music industry as a whole, do people even have the patience to wait as long as they used to?

It's ridiculously fast now, isn't it? The turnover. It's all about the next thing. And there's so many changes. The other day, I picked up a magazine, because Blondie was one of my bands when I was a kid, and I picked up this magazine, and something fell out of it, and it's the record in the magazine and it's like 15 quid or something. So, there's a new one.

Considering the popularity of single-song downloads, what do you think about the future of albums in general?

I think it is evolving, and there's something about a collection of songs that happen together and age. It's a record of the time you made it, so I'm unhappy about that side of things disappearing. A classic album is a classic album for a reason, as opposed to a bunch of tunes that have been stitched together from different eras.

We probably grew up the same way — you buy the album, you get the lyrics, you get the artwork, you listen to it front to back. It's strange to me, considering how kids consume music now. They don't often think of music like that.

Oh, man, it's mad, It really is. My kids, they still have their iPods, and they love them. I'm constantly getting the my iTunes report, and it's like, "What the fuck have you been buying?" So I'm always getting hit with "Glee" and shit like that. It's just evolving, man. There are massive positives, as well; for instance, this is the YouTube generation, isn't it, which is mega. We'd be in Japan, and we'd be stocking up on bootlegs and vids and all that stuff, all the obscure shit. And now it's all there.

When did you start playing guitar?

When I was about 7. I used to play the violin at school. My teacher was great; I mean I suppose he was like Elmore James. And then they stuck me on the cello, and the teacher was rubbish, and he was like a proper stuffy geezer, playing the piano and everything. And I wanted to pack it all in, but I had a guitar by then, and he was like, "No, you can't. One day, you'll thank me when you're travelling around the world playing your cello." All I did was play "Satisfaction" by the Stones for about a year. Just on the one string. And that was it, really. And then I suppose like all kids, you make that choice. Is it going to be football or is going to be music?

Did you feel you had a signature sound, and what influenced your playing style?

I was just a little too young for punk, but my bands were The Jam and Blondie and The Ramones and stuff like that. It's just songs, really, at the end of the day. It's always about songs. I don't even see myself as a guitarist anymore; it just happens to be what I do when I'm on stage. It's whatever it takes to do the song.

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