U2 are back in the studio with drummer Larry Mullen Jr., guitarist The Edge has revealed – find out more below.
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Speaking to the BBC‘s Jo Whiley to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the band’s ‘How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb’, The Edge revealed new information about new music within the camp.
Per the guitarist, longtime drummer Larry Mullen Jr. – who had to sit out of the band’s historic Las Vegas Sphere residency due to injury and recovering from surgery – is now “good” and “taking it easy but he’s back in the saddle on the drums” in the studio.
The Edge revealed that U2 are now recording new music with Mullen Jr., which he described as “crazy”. He eplained: “We’re at that great phase where we don’t have to over think it, we’re just making music and loving that process. And then we’ll figure out where things belong afterwards so there’s a couple of different projects.”
The Edge continued: “Definitely U2, with Larry which is wonderful, we’ve got him in the studio… he’s good, he’s taking it easy but he’s back in the saddle on the drums still doing some recording with us and so we’ll be doing a bit more of that before the end of the year.”
The update comes after Mullen Jr. in 2022 cited damage to his “elbows, knees [and] necks”, which he “got a chance to have a look at” during the COVID pandemic. Due to these drumming-related injuries, which he described as “damage along the way”, Mullen said he’d “like to take some time… to get myself healed”. It was then reported that he had undergone surgery to address the injuries.
While recovering, Mullen Jr made the decision to pull out of playing U2’s Las Vegas Sphere residency.
Late last year, the band shared that progress on their new album was “somewhat tied” to drummer Larry Mullen Jr. and his recovery. Bassist Adam Clayton said: “Starting work on new songs is somewhat tied to Larry’s situation. Could he commit to an album project? I don’t know.”
But that’s not all that U2 are working on. The Edge and Bono are currently working with Brian Eno on “some crazy kind of sci-fi Irish folk music”. Whether that material will be part of U2’s next album, Edge said, “We’re not sure yet, we’ll see,” before expanding: “Part of our kind of process is to go so widely away from, off track, and the sort of the process of bringing things back on track is kind of how you get sort of unique sounding music.”
When asked more about the “sci-fi Irish folk music”, the Edge also teased that “a bunch of, you know some beautiful, Irish musicians” could also be involved but did not disclose any names.
Should the “sci-fi Irish folk music” make the cut for U2’s next album, it’ll be a markedly different approach from what was previously described of the album. Late last year, frontman Bono said it would be “an unreasonable guitar record” with “big choruses”.
Bono said at the time: “I announced it, without discussion, as ‘an unreasonable guitar record’. And Edge called me up and goes, ‘How unreasonable?’ And I said, ‘As unreasonable as you’re ready to take it.’”
However earlier this month, The Edge contradicted Bono’s description of the record, saying that while “guitar will be a big part of the next record”, he doesn’t think “it’s going to be a heavy rock album. I think it’s going to be a very different kind of use of the guitar, not a straight-up rock thing.”
In other news, U2 recently shared a new song ‘Luckiest Man In The World’, that was previously recorded in 2004. The track comes as part of the 20th-anniversary celebrations for the band’s 2004 LP ‘How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb’.
