Semisonic’s Dan Wilson on how Liam Gallagher inspired them to reunite

Semisonic’s Dan Wilson has opened up about how Liam Gallagher indirectly inspired the band to reunite to release new music.

The Minneapolis band formed in 1995 and released three albums before they split in 2001. They reunited 16 years later to play a series of shows to mark the 20th anniversary of their debut album ‘Great Divide’.

• Read more: Liam Gallagher – ‘MTV Unplugged’ review: live record offers warmth, hope and a sense of unity

Frontman Wilson has also written songs for a host of big stars including Adele, The Chicks and James Bay. Speaking to Music Week, he explained that working on songs for Gallagher planted the seed of Semisonic getting back together.

“I had this great meeting with Liam,” he said. “I’ve always been a huge admirer of his, and his band. We had this really interesting meeting, we talked about music, we talked about the possibility of me writing some songs and to see what it would be like for him to sing a song that I wrote. I was pretty inspired by the talk. And so I gave it a shot.”

When he submitted the tracks, however, Gallagher’s manager wrote back saying the album was already done. “That was fine,” Wilson said. “But then one of the songs in particular, which Semisonic didn’t end up using, but I kept thinking, ‘This doesn’t sound like Liam Gallagher at all, this sounds like Semisonic…’ I think it was like a kickstart or kind of a cheat sheet.

“It probably put me back in a mindset I was in in 1998, like, ‘Oh, that’s the flavour – that’s what the band was like. That’s what it felt like to play rock with a band!”

He added that writing those songs “gave me confidence”. “I got that spark of like, ‘Oh, yeah, this sounds like the band that I remember, that’s so exciting!’” he explained. “Part of that was nice for me because I just didn’t want to update our sound. I didn’t want to do some sort of grafting. I just wanted to sound like a trio playing music.”

Semisonic released their new EP ‘You’re Not Alone’ today (September 18), their first new material in 19 years.

Meanwhile, Oasis are set to celebrate the 25th anniversary of their album ‘(What’s The Story) Morning Glory?’ next month, but Gallagher recently said he hasn’t been invited to take part in any related events.