His comment was, I want my money back,' says The Edge.
Where am I catching you?Im in Dublin.
I just came in from a recording session.
U2 released ‘How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb’ in 2004. They revisit the record with a new outtakes collection due Nov. 29.Kevin Mazur/WireImage
Were doing some demos and recording some tunes that weve been working on.
It was just Bono and myself, but it was a lot of fun.
Was that your goal going into it too?Very much so.
I think we felt that this was a moment to explore our early inspiration.
And so we really went into that album very consciously thinking in those terms.
We often came out of that with two or three different track ideas.
you’re free to get some very surprising results.
You started with producer Chris Thomas.
He made one of the great guitar records of all-time withNever Mind the Bollocks, Heres the Sex Pistols.
But after several months with him, you changed directions with Steve Lillywhite.
And some of the tracks just sounded too polite for us.
Hes very practical, hes very supportive, and hes very upbeat.
During out post-punk phase, that was the whole thing.
We wanted to keep it simple, and we wanted to keep it direct.
Steve goes back to the very beginning with you guys.
He knows all four of you well.Exactly.
And we did have some great ideas and great song beginnings.
It was a really credible, good song, a solid, beautiful rock & roll tune.
So that, as I say, is the right kind of chaos that was missing.
Did you feel pressure at this point to follow upAll That You Cant Leave Behind?
Each U2 album is a kind of reaction to the one thats come before.
So that was a big part of our decision going into this record.
Lets talk about some of the songs on this new release.
It sounds like Bono cut new vocals for some of the songs.Not all of them, but yeah.
And Picture of You is pretty close to the original with some harmony singing.
All Because of You 2 is the same.
Wait Forever is exactly the same.
We didnt touch that at all.
But Treason needed some new vocals because there was whole sections that were missing that didnt have a lyric.
And then Luckiest Man in the World… part of that was maintained from its earlier guise as Mercy.
Tell me about Evidence of Life.
I went into the studio with just some ideas.
I had a few days, and just put that track down.
I think its me playing drums.
Youre moving forward all the time.
Things get left to one side, and you just never end up getting back to them.
And I do remember thinking about whats become Country Mile and what has become Happiness.
Well get back to these at some point.
Treason was produced by Dave Stewart.
We left it to one side back then.
But I really love that tune.
Its quite different for us.
Theres a version with a slightly different opening, which is the radio edit.
I like that one even better.
I think at the time we made it, it had a different main lyric.
The Country Mile lyric idea was one that we got to when we were reworking the songs.
So I think we felt at the time that the lyric content was already covered on the album.
But Im like, Yeah, what were we doing?
Its the same with Happiness.
Thats such a great, funky groove.That was another one that we just didnt have time to finish.
You go, Well, is it this or this?
Thats a great one.
Are You Gonna Wait Forever goes back to theAll You You Cant Leave Behindsessions with Eno and Lanois.Yeah.
And Chris Thomas was very helpful in helping us get that one on board.
Id never heard of Theme From The Batman.
We just said, Lets throw it in because it had never been released.
Maybe its on YouTube somewhere, but it never appeared on a U2 record.
Youre the only musician on the song, and you produced it.
Its more like an Edge solo track.It pretty much is.
But it felt like it was part of that moment, part of that time.
And I guess thats whats fun about this collection is that little insights into where our heads were at.
All Because of You 2 is clearly an earlier version of the song.That was one of the first versions.
But for me, it sort of encapsulates what we were trying to do.
But I think it lost something as well, whereas this is just complete.
It is what it is.
I think theres a purity to it thats very compelling.
Are you guys deep into the next album?Were working on so many different things.
During the whole Covid lockdown, I just went crazy into creating tracks and song ideas.
Weve never done that.
Its just not who we are.
Weve always tried to avoid using the instrument in a way thats too mainstream and kind of normal.
Music starts to come into focus.
How is Larry doing?
Is he able to play drums in the studio?Yeah, weve done a session with Larry.
Were going to do another one in a couple of weeks, and were having a great time.
Its lovely to spend time with him in the studio in a creative environment.
Were really at that phase of just experimenting, letting the music tell us what to do.
Its just a lot of fun right now.
Are you thinking about the next tour yet?
Might it be stadiums?
Arenas?We cant really think much about the tour.
Theres been some conversations about what we might do.
But what that is, were not really sure just yet.
But yes, definitely.
As I was saying, I have 100 song beginnings that were wading through.
There was a lot of cool experimentation going on at that time.
So yeah, Im sure itll happen.
This has been the longest gap ever between albums of new material.
A lot of fans are really excited to hear whats next.Me too.
I cant wait to get something out, and hopefully get on the road.
