"I don't want anybody to know who I am. I genuinely have no desire for anybody to ask me how I feel." Noel Gallagher says this about 45 minutes into my attempt to talk to him about who he is and how he feels. He doesn't say it in an accusatory way; he doesn't sound annoyed. He is trying to explain what works for him as a songwriter - that there's a necessary distance between who he is and what he writes. As he sings in one of the newest songs by Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds, "Be careful what you wish for / Be careful what you dream / They'll let you sing your songs, son / But they'll never hear you scream."

HEAR THE COMPLETE SESSION AND MORE ON NPR MUSIC