One would think that the Guinness World Record’s most successful singer and songwriter of all time would, at 66, be content to rest on his laurels (and a giant cash pile of residuals). Instead, the former Beatle is still actively involved in music-making, having recently released the trippy, sprawling Electric Arguments, with his friend and collaborator Martin Glover, a.k.a. Youth, under the pseudonym The Fireman. On a recent whirlwind visit to New York, McCartney sat down to chat with EW about that album, plus the status of the Beatles on iTunes, his old friend Allen Ginsberg, and much more.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: So how did you meet Youth, your partner in the Fireman?
PAUL McCARTNEY: Well, he was recommended to mix one of my tracks, and he and I became friends, and started messing about in the studio together. The first album in 1993 [Strawberries Oceans Ships Forest] was a hobby, like working in the woods, which I like to do; cutting trails with an ax — like a fireman! And my dad was also a fireman, hence the name. So yes, it was very underground, that first album. We made it, and had a lot of fun. So much that we made the second one. But last year when we got to together, it became different. The fireman found his voice, so to speak, and there were real songs. Before, it was one chord, like [in monotone voice] duh duh duh duh duh, so we thought, let’s try another chord, break away a tiny bit, like  duh duh duh duh duh… DUH di di di di di di. This got us interested, giving up the rule of one chord [laughs]. Plus, it’s very liberating, using a different identity — like Sgt. Pepper, we kept the name but it was a freedom, you know?

Beyoncé just did that too, an alter ego…
Sasha Fierce, yes! I was just thinking of that. But yes, it allows you to go to new places, because it’s not you, it’s a character. Very quickly, we found about a dozen songs. It was such great inspiration, having this other identity. I just like to keep it fresh, you know? Not the same old stuff. My motto is always “never do the same thing twice.” It was the same with the Beatles.

But once you add vocals, do these become Paul McCartney songs or something different?
They are Paul McCartney, but saying they’re just that would be betraying Youth and what we do together as The Fireman. Still, without my name out there, people might give it just a cursory glance, you know? So we decided, let’s put our names on it, actively promote it so people understand. And I wanted to create some Fireman brand loyalty, because it’s part of a series, three albums. And The Fireman is always something done in the studio, a sort of improv, if you will.

Like a two-man theater group?
Oh, I like that, yes! We start the day by talking, have a cup of tea, get fired up about something. Sometimes it’s talking about the ’60s, because people always want to talk about that with me, people are fascinated, and Youth is one of those guys — you know, Andy Warhol showing a movie at my house at a party and what have you. So I told him about my friend Jimmy Scott, an African guy. He used to say “ob la di, ob la da,” and of course I put that in a song. But he had another one — you know in the ‘’60s, people were always saying things like “far out,” and “too much”…You would ask him how he was and he would say, “Nothin’ too much, just outta sight.” So that’s the first track on the album. But Youth and I could talk about anything, like sea shanties — there was this album with Bryan Ferry and Johnny Depp, a bit Pirates of the Caribbean, you know. So we recorded “Traveling Light,” which has that sort of flavor.

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