Globalization, the rise of French politician Marine La Pen and the election of President Donald Trump are just a few of the reasons that U2 were forced to delay the release of their new studio album according to a new interview.
David ‘the Edge’ Evans spoke with ‘Rolling Stone’ about the band’s 14th studio album ‘Songs of Experience,’ which will be released this December, and what inspired some of their new tracks.
This album is three years in the making, which the Edge revealed was due in large part to President Trump, whose ascendance to Commander-in-Chief sent the group back into the studio to rewrite and rerecord.
‘It is a little bit of a departure as I’ve always believed in working across the aisle as an anti-poverty activist but this isn’t a matter of right or left,’ said the Edge while speaking about President Trump.
‘There’s a bully on the bully pulpit and silence is not an option.’
Songs of Donny: U2 will release their new album ‘Songs of Experience’ in December, which was inspired by the election of President Donald Trump last November (Bono performing on stage in September 2016 with a Trump video playing in the background)
Political pop: The band had completed most of the tracks last year but decided to rewrite and rerecord parts of the album after President Trump won (l to r: The Edge, Bono, Larry Mullen Jr, and Adam Clayton in July)
The Edge also stated during the interview his belief that the election of President Trump has sent the ‘moral arc of the universe’ bending the wrong direction.
‘For the first time in many years, maybe in our lifetime, the moral arc of the universe, as Dr. King used to call it, was not bending in the direction of fairness, equality and justice for all,’ explained the 56-year-old musician.
‘The baseness of political debate, the jingoism, the atavistic fervor of Trump’s verbiage reminded us that we were dreaming if we thought evolution applied to consciousness.’
He then added: ‘Democracy is a blip in history and it requires a lot of focus and concentration to keep it intact.’
The Edge went on to explain how his song ‘The Blackout’ from the album was altered in light of the political climate as an example.
He explained that in that case, the song ‘started off its life about a more personal apocalypse, some events in my life that more than reminded me of my mortality but then segued into the political dystopia that we’re heading towards now.’
And the time back in the studio was not all about politics and rewriting, but also working on their craft and the band’s sound according to the Edge.
‘The pause on our album gave us a chance to play our songs live in the studio, strip them down to their bare essentials without any studio trickery to see what we really had,’ he said.
‘That was a great gift to the album even though in some cases we didn’t want to run with the live feel, we learnt so much about the songs and that helped with cohesiveness.’
Gang of four: ‘This in’t a matter of right or left. There’s a bully on the bully pulpit and silence is not an option,’ said the Edge of President Trump in a new interview (album cover for ‘Songs of Experience’ above)
The release of the album comes as the group is touring the United States in support of their seminal album ‘The Joshua Tree,’ which is celebrating its thirtieth anniversary this year.
It will serve as a companion piece to their 2014 album ‘Songs of Innocence,’ which was inspired by lead singer Bono’s childhood and early years growing up in Dublin.
That album also gained notice after it suddenly appeared in the iTunes accounts of over half-a-billion Apple customers, who had no say in the company’s decision to put the band’s song on their devices.
This latest album will have a more conventional release however, despite these very unconventional times.
‘Lots of people around me, both conservative and liberal, feel that this is one of those defining moments in their life and in the storied life of their country,’ said the Edge of President Trump’s surprise win over Hillary Clinton in his interview with Rolling Stone.
‘After the election, some people on the left were almost grieving I’d say and when I try to understand this, I realized there was a kind of mourning, a mourning for innocence that was lost.’