Unfortunately, the article (from September 11th 2020) is behind a paywall:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/music/i...aul-epworth-adeles-hygiene-bonos-calls-obama/
Here's the relevant part:
To reach the point where he could make his fantastic first album as an artist, deep space psychedelic soul odyssey Voyager, producer Paul Epworth first had to make some more quotidian journeys. Some with Adele, with whom he’s had a hugely successful, Oscar-winning partnership. And some with Florence and the Machine, Mumford and Sons, Coldplay and Paul McCartney, just a handful of the 60-odd artists with whom he’s made records.
But many more of them, it seems, with Bono. “U2 have a very considered process,” begins this multiple Brit- and Grammy-winning 46-year-old from Bishop’s Stortford, carefully, as he discusses working on the band’s 2014 album Songs of Innocence.
“There’s a lot of exploring every possible avenue. And that’s something I realised I had to undertake. I imagine if you’re that many albums in [to your career], and especially when you’re elder statesmen of the rock game, you’re trying to find your angle.
“They’d obviously done most of the record with Dangermouse,” he recalls, mentioning the equally iconoclastic American producer, “and I think they’d just run out of stream. But they had all these ideas – they just needed someone to come in and have the confidence to say: give it some snarl.”
His broader brief, though, was to give the Irish band' 13th album some focus. Or, as he puts it, to “corral the cattle. It wasn’t to find the key, it was to literally f______ build a fence round it and gradually make it smaller!” he laughs. “And do that until a record pops out the other side.”
Epworth, though, couldn’t stay the course due to the birth of his second child with wife Danielle. “The record went right up to the week my son was born,” he says of Eli, now four, younger brother to Vivienne, nine, “so there’s a deadline there that couldn’t be moved.”
For all that it sounds like a lengthy, challenging process, Epworth was honoured to work with a band who were a huge part of his musical life. Was Bono willing to be produced? “Yeah, he was. I pushed him as well – to the point where he was like, ‘get the f___ off my back! That’s far enough,’” Epworth relates with a smile. “I was doing this all the time,” he says, miming a jabbing finger. “But then again, they were doing that to the songs all the time.
“It was a really interesting process, watching people in the studio working who clearly have a deep desire to prove to themselves they can do it every single time. So they had this idea for two records,” he says of 2017 companion album Songs of Experience. “And it feels like they do a bit of crowd-sourcing with their music – they’re very open to opinions. To the point where Bono invited in a bunch of fans who were stood outside the studio to come listen to the stuff.
“They were all sitting in here with their heads in their hands, incredulous that they were listening to unreleased U2 music – and Bono’s asking their opinions on it.”
And on it went. “Bono called me up a few weeks later and said: ‘So, I’ve just been thinking about the tracks. I was playing it to Barack the other day.’ And I was like: ‘Who?’ I just had to make him say it twice! ‘Barack Obama.’ And I said: ‘Oh, really? That’s what I love about you, and that’s why you’re never gonna finish this f_____g record!’ And Bono goes: ‘But I played it to the cleaning lady, too!’ I was like: ‘That’s the problem! Too many opinions!’”
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/music/i...aul-epworth-adeles-hygiene-bonos-calls-obama/
Here's the relevant part:
To reach the point where he could make his fantastic first album as an artist, deep space psychedelic soul odyssey Voyager, producer Paul Epworth first had to make some more quotidian journeys. Some with Adele, with whom he’s had a hugely successful, Oscar-winning partnership. And some with Florence and the Machine, Mumford and Sons, Coldplay and Paul McCartney, just a handful of the 60-odd artists with whom he’s made records.
But many more of them, it seems, with Bono. “U2 have a very considered process,” begins this multiple Brit- and Grammy-winning 46-year-old from Bishop’s Stortford, carefully, as he discusses working on the band’s 2014 album Songs of Innocence.
“There’s a lot of exploring every possible avenue. And that’s something I realised I had to undertake. I imagine if you’re that many albums in [to your career], and especially when you’re elder statesmen of the rock game, you’re trying to find your angle.
“They’d obviously done most of the record with Dangermouse,” he recalls, mentioning the equally iconoclastic American producer, “and I think they’d just run out of stream. But they had all these ideas – they just needed someone to come in and have the confidence to say: give it some snarl.”
His broader brief, though, was to give the Irish band' 13th album some focus. Or, as he puts it, to “corral the cattle. It wasn’t to find the key, it was to literally f______ build a fence round it and gradually make it smaller!” he laughs. “And do that until a record pops out the other side.”
Epworth, though, couldn’t stay the course due to the birth of his second child with wife Danielle. “The record went right up to the week my son was born,” he says of Eli, now four, younger brother to Vivienne, nine, “so there’s a deadline there that couldn’t be moved.”
For all that it sounds like a lengthy, challenging process, Epworth was honoured to work with a band who were a huge part of his musical life. Was Bono willing to be produced? “Yeah, he was. I pushed him as well – to the point where he was like, ‘get the f___ off my back! That’s far enough,’” Epworth relates with a smile. “I was doing this all the time,” he says, miming a jabbing finger. “But then again, they were doing that to the songs all the time.
“It was a really interesting process, watching people in the studio working who clearly have a deep desire to prove to themselves they can do it every single time. So they had this idea for two records,” he says of 2017 companion album Songs of Experience. “And it feels like they do a bit of crowd-sourcing with their music – they’re very open to opinions. To the point where Bono invited in a bunch of fans who were stood outside the studio to come listen to the stuff.
“They were all sitting in here with their heads in their hands, incredulous that they were listening to unreleased U2 music – and Bono’s asking their opinions on it.”
And on it went. “Bono called me up a few weeks later and said: ‘So, I’ve just been thinking about the tracks. I was playing it to Barack the other day.’ And I was like: ‘Who?’ I just had to make him say it twice! ‘Barack Obama.’ And I said: ‘Oh, really? That’s what I love about you, and that’s why you’re never gonna finish this f_____g record!’ And Bono goes: ‘But I played it to the cleaning lady, too!’ I was like: ‘That’s the problem! Too many opinions!’”