We Two

“We Two” is a track from the album “The Boys Of Dungeon Lane“, released in 2026. It was recorded with producer Andrew Watt at Paul’s studio, Hog Hill Mill. During the sessions, Watt suggested using an old Studer four-track tape machine that was available at the studio, similar to the equipment used by The Beatles and by Paul on his debut solo album, “McCartney”, in 1970. To reinforce the song’s analogue feel, the recording ends with the sound of the tape rewinding.

We just stuck that on because no one hears that. You used to hear it, every record you ever made.

Paul McCartney – About the sound of a tape rewinding at the end of the track – Interview with New York Times, May 28, 2026

Andrew, at one point came over to our studio in Sussex and we’ve got a four-track machine, one of the big old-fashioned four-track machines, Studers. It was amazing because that was what we used to record on all the time with The Beatles. The process was you had four tracks and you would record something on, say two tracks, like drums and bass. And then what they do is they mix them to one of the tracks. So then you had drums and bass on one track now, so you’d freed up these other tracks. Trouble was, you had to get it right because you couldn’t go back, couldn’t say, oh, I’ll do the bass again. No, that’s it, you’ve done it so… But I love it, I think it’s such a great discipline. So anyway, we had this Studer machine and Andrew got very excited about it. He loves all the old gear, you know, and he said, “Could we record on it?” So we did. We did a song specially so we could mix down, use the whole process again. And the sound is very full. So, for instance, it’s really good on the snare drum and it’s silly ’cause it’s just because it’s fatter tape instead of quarter-inch tape, it’s one-inch. I didn’t realise that would make a difference to the sound. So check out the snare drum sound, which we’re very proud of on this song, which is just a love song that we made up in order to do this process. And it’s called “We Two.”

Paul McCartney – From Exclusive Commentary Edition Digital Album – Recorded during the “Boys of Dungeon Lane” listening session at Abbey Road, May 5, 2026

Now, with “We Two”, we were in my home studio in Sussex. Andrew had come over to do some work with me there, and I was showing them around. I’ve got quite a nice selection of stuff there, amongst which is the big Studer machine — the four-track Studer machine, which is what we made all the early Beatles on. Well, the first Beatles thing was not even that grand, just a little two-track. So we had this four-track, and I still have one and I keep it up. My engineers love it, and occasionally we’ll use it. Andrew said, “Could we use it?” I said, “Yeah, sure — let’s think of something to do on it.” So we put together this song “We Two” and recorded it on that. And the thing we loved most about it was the snare drum sound.

I’d talked to engineers in the past and said, “Why is it that?” He said, “Well, it’s because it’s fat tape.” I said, “It’s that simple?” I thought it’d be something more complicated. No — if you get thin tape, you get thin sound. Anyway, so we did it. We had a lot of fun doing that. That snare drum is a good snare drum sound.

Paul McCartney – Interview with Zane Lowe, May 2026

The album contains many inventive twists and turns, but perhaps none more endearing than the creation of this stripped-down tune. As McCartney explained, when EMI got purchased by Thorn Electrical in 1979, the buyer wanted to purge all the equipment from Abbey Road (which EMI owned at the time).

McCartney got a lot of the old studio equipment, including a Studer four-track tape machine that the Beatles recorded many of their classics on, the harmonium played on “We Can Work It Out” and the spinet used on “Because.”

Because the Studer could only record four tracks, the Beatles employed a technique called “bouncing down,” which would quickly mix two tracks down to one to free up tracks. McCartney said “I and Ringo would be on bass and drums, which would take up two tracks and then we’d bounce it down to one track. You had to get it right because you couldn’t get it back.” In England, Watt and McCartney wrote the sweet love song, “We Two,” to record on the Studer and bounced down the tracks. “We’re particularly proud of the snare drum” on the record, McCartney said, of the song that ends with the sound of the track playing backwards.

From Billboard, April 17, 2026 – From the “Boys of Dungeon Lane” listening session, April 16, 2026

The four-track “uses a fat tape, like an inch… so you get a great bass sound, a great snare drum sound. So we made up a song to go to record on the four-track,” and they did the same hazardous style of overdubbing as back in the day, “and we did the same post, you know, “‘bouncing down’ and all that sort of stuff. And we’re particularly proud of the snare sound.” After the playback, McCartney and Watt continued to amusingly concur on this very fine point: “Best snare drum ever!” … “Best snare drum.”

From Variety, April 17, 2026 – From the “Boys of Dungeon Lane” listening session, April 16, 2026

Lyrics

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