Mary McCartney details her directorial debut with Abbey Road Studios documentary 'If These Walls Could Sing'

The names "" and "McCartney" are so closely related that they are almost synonymous. The studio, located on the now universally known Abbey Road in North London, is where Paul McCartney and his comrades recorded most of their albums, eventually naming their seventh after the road itself (the studio, then still known as EMI Recording Studios, was later renamed in honor of the album).

Now a new McCartney is making its mark on the square. Photographer-turned-filmmaker Mary McCartney, who also happens to be Paul's eldest daughter, has made her directorial debut with a new documentary, "If These Walls Could Sing," which is slated for release on Disney+ on January 6. p>

McCartney (pictured above with Ringo Starr, his father Paul and Elton John at the premiere of doc in the UK) sat down with Variety at the iconic studio itself to discuss her time in film, her early memories of Abbey Road and if she has any other film projects in sight for the future.

When did you start working on this project?

I started working on it a few years ago in lockdown. I was invited by John Battsek, who is an amazing Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker who did “Searching Sugarman” and “One Day in September,” to name a few. And he emailed me out of the blue and said, "Have you thought about making documentaries?" And I said, "Yes." And then he sent me the idea.

How did it go from photography to film?

Amazingly, it felt quite natural. Because when I light in my photography, in my portrait work, I've always used more continuous lighting, which is more the kind used in films. I am not a flash person. And because when I'm doing portraits, it's kind of continuous lighting, creating a nice space for someone to feel – the subject to feel – comfortable in, so it's collaborative and that I get something out of it that he may not have given before: a look or a feeling. It's about this little unknown and magical moment that I didn't plan. And so I approached the interviews in the same way for the documentary. I did as much as I could in Abbey Road studios so when people came in to be interviewed they were in the atmosphere and it reminded them of the time they spent here.< /p>

Did you do all the interviews yourself?

Yeah.

That's a lot.

Yes, that's a lot. Because interviewing is an art form in itself. But in a way, that's where my portraiture experience came in. It's interviewing without talking, as much as it's encouraging, but it's getting an interview with someone in a weird way to through a portrait. But it was nerve-wracking because I made sure it was properly lit, checked the frame, and then got the interview. And the interviews were so important in this documentary because there's actually a surprising lack of archival footage. Because recording in a studio - I hadn't even thought about [that] and I grew up in recording studios - etiquette is that you don't really take pictures and films, because it's It's a safe place to play for musicians. So you're not thinking "Oh, someone has a camera", you're literally focusing on creating the music. So there aren't a lot of photo shoots that happen in the recording process. He was therefore highly dependent on getting very good interviews.

And not people who just say "Oh I love Abbey Road, it's awesome. " Everyone had to give their point of view. So each person I interviewed was there for a different reason. Elton John and Jimmy Page were there to talk about their experience as session musicians here. And then John Williams […] talked a lot about the film scores that were made at Abbey Road. So that's his section. And then my dad and Ringo were there to talk about the Beatles.