Liam Gallagher and John Squire have unveiled their debut single, Just Another Rainbow, ahead of a much-anticipated full collaborative studio album.

Squire explains: “To me the most obvious take on Just Another Rainbow is that it’s about disappointment, and the sentiment is that you never get what you really want. But I don’t like to explain songs, I think that’s the privilege of the listener, it’s whatever you want it to be. To me, it’s also one of the most uplifting tracks we’ve made together, which is weird.”

Listen to the new song below:

Gallagher adds: “I think John’s a top songwriter. Everyone always bangs on about him as a guitarist, but he’s a top songwriter, too, man, no two ways about it as far as I’m concerned. There’s not enough of his music out there, whether it’s with the Roses or himself. It’s good to see him back writing songs and fucking good ones. The melodies are mega and then the guitars are a given. But I think even when you take all the fucking guitars off, you can play the songs all on acoustic and they’ll all still blow your mind.”

While this represents the duo’s first collaboration together, the first time they were in a room together was way back in 1989. The then 16-year-old Liam attended a Stone Roses gig at the International 2 in Manchester around the time the band’s self-titled debut album was released, a show that he describes simply as “life-changing.”

Four years later, they met again as Oasis and The Stone Roses were recording in Monmouth. Oasis had just started work on what would become Definitely Maybe, while the Roses were deep into sessions for The Second Coming.

Pic credit: Tom Oxley

Squire and Gallagher’s friendship continued in the subsequent years, notably with the pair writing Love Me and Leave Me for John’s later band The Seahorses, who also toured as guests to Oasis. But it wasn’t until John jumped on stage at Liam’s gargantuan Knebworth Park show for climactic performances of Champagne Supernova that the prospect of working together on something more substantial became a reality.

With John enthused by both the prospect of working with Liam as well as the rush of performing in front of huge audiences again – his final Stone Roses show was six years ago by this point – the idea rapidly took shape. Squire sent Gallagher an initial three songs (Liam’s review? “All mega”) and then quickly wrote some more, with the duo then collaborating remotely and sending each other reference points. They were all the greats. Hendrix. The Pistols. The Faces. Bob Marley and even The Bee Gees.

The project then took on a life of its own. Liam arrived at John’s studio in Macclesfield and vowed to complete vocals for two demo recordings each day, a promise that he stuck to, and soon enough they had a catalogue of songs to choose from. From there it was off to Los Angeles for three weeks of sessions with producer Greg Kurstin who plays bass on the record, with drums courtesy of Joey Waronker (Beck, R.E.M., Atoms for Peace).

A full album is on its way and live shows by the pair are also a possibility.

Pic credit: Tom Oxley