Update from U2.com

[The_acrobat]

There is a mandolin on the album version of "Yahweh", so this isn't exactly new territory.

 

[The_Edge89]

There is a mandolin on the album version of "Yahweh", so this isn't exactly new territory.

I can't remember hearing that, by I know Danny has played it before on songs like Running To Stand Still and One Step Closer.

 

[martha]

I thought they were only in Fez for a short time.

 

[The_Edge89]

I thought they were only in Fez for a short time.

Yeah, I think so too.
They're probably back in Dublin or the south of France at the moment celebrating a couple of birthdays (Blue/Hollie/Eve).
They have most likely left Fez already in any case.

 

[Acrobat Angel]

Latest update from u2.com
Popmart DVD confirmed to be released 10th Sept- finally!!!
No news on the album or Fez...

 

[The_Edge89]

Let's see what u2.com tells us troughout June.
If they post something new every week for the rest of the month we may get 2 news all in all, maybe three before we're back into guessing again.

The next Fez update (if any) will be here on Monday at earliest...that makes it about 25 days, almost a month!
It better be something nice, however it doesn't need to be anything big, just a songtitle or two would be nice, or pictures.

 

[BEAL]

I think maybe a picture or two would be nice. As far as the actual story, I would like it to continue in the same vein as the other updates. Giving us a little idea of what they're doing musically and personally.

What I don't want to hear is the same old "We don't know what this is for; It's great to get lost in the music; The Edge is on fire;"

And we haven't really gotten that from the updates. The best scenerio would be a outline of a plan. Maybe getting back in the studio in October, or going back to Dublin to sort out all the songs/sounds and see if there's a record in there.

 

[silvrlvr]

Do we know where the band is? Given that it's mid-July, it seems like an Eze spotting is about due, eh?

 

[shart1780]

I heard they're at Chuck E. Cheeses taking in the culture and gaining new inspiration for their next album.

 

[victor_f]

It’s About the Music.

U2.Com have been in Morocco with Brian Eno, Danny Lanois and U2 and we can bring you the inside track on the Fez songwriting sessions.

In Part 1 Larry explained that ‘Sometimes you just have to get away in order to write the songs.’

In our second Fez story, the band check out one of the headline acts at the Festival of Sacred Music and Brian Eno muses on why Arabic music is so distinctive. In this third story from Fez Adam discusses the ‘looser rhythmic structures’ they are working with and why it’s so good to be with Eno and Lanois again.

Adam looks over the balcony of U2’s studio in Fez; Danny Lanois is messing around with a slide guitar, while backline chief Sam O’Sullivan sets up some Sufi string players with music stands and microphones. Brian Eno is prepping the strings for work on a new track.
Eno loves the atmosphere the strings bring. ‘It has the effect of making the track much more nervous,’ he muses.

For Adam the marriage of local musicians with the experimental nature of the Fez Sessions is very promising. He’s looking forward to something new. For him the big plus about this period is how the band are working within ‘a looser rhythmic structure.’

‘I’m excited about what’s happening here because I feel that the strength Eno and Lanois bring to us has matured. Both as players and creative people there seems to be a great synchronicity between where we are at and where they are at.’

It’s amazing to think that it was nearly a quarter of a century ago, in a ballroom at Slane Castle, that U2 first hooked up with Eno and Lanois for what would become ‘The Unforgettable Fire’.

‘What has changed really is that we’ve all grown up,’ says Adam. ‘We’re here because we know it works, everyone knows that they can do more in this environment than they can do on their own – so there is a great collaborative spirit in the air.’

‘It’s very stimulating for us to be working on material that isn’t so rooted in rock’n’roll,’ he explains. ‘The last two records for us were very much rock records made by a four piece band but what we’re doing here, this is kind of liberating, it’s about something else.’
But he’s not predicting what that something else might be: ‘It’s good not to try and bottle it. It’s nice for it to be about the music. When the process is finished we’ll see what we’ve got…’

Later in the afternoon, the string players have left and the attention is turned to a group of percussionists who have arrived at the studio. Eno is discussing with Larry how the beat he’s already laid down can complement that of the local players. Whatever comes of these Moroccan sessions, and those that preceded them in France, Adam agrees that they seem to be a conscious departure from All That You Can’t Leave Behind and How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb. ‘By the end of the last tour everyone thought that for us to come back with a ‘part two’ of the rock record would not be right.

‘Partly it is important for us to surprise people, but partly it is about the mood that is out there. For example there are a lot of young rock bands out there at the moment doing really great stuff and it feels to us like let them do that …’
‘Because these sessions have been based on a week of writing here, a week of writing there, doing something else there… it’s been very easy to contain the energy and the ideas. I think if it was an open-ended session for six months we’d probably need to formalise things more.’

To date he estimates they’ve come up with ‘at least thirty or forty pieces’ and when the time is right, they’ve got the basis for the next record. ‘There’s definitely an album in there,’ he says. ‘If anything we might be short of one or two songs of a certain nature but I think we’ve got a record.’

But there’s no point in speculating on release dates: ‘It would be nice to think that we could do things quicker but you have to give yourselves time to spend with the music.’

More from Fez coming up.

 

[U2girl]

 

[GibsonGirl]

‘It’s very stimulating for us to be working on material that isn’t so rooted in rock’n’roll,’ he explains. ‘The last two records for us were very much rock records made by a four piece band but what we’re doing here, this is kind of liberating, it’s about something else.’
But he’s not predicting what that something else might be: ‘It’s good not to try and bottle it. It’s nice for it to be about the music. When the process is finished we’ll see what we’ve got…’

Later in the afternoon, the string players have left and the attention is turned to a group of percussionists who have arrived at the studio. Eno is discussing with Larry how the beat he’s already laid down can complement that of the local players. Whatever comes of these Moroccan sessions, and those that preceded them in France, Adam agrees that they seem to be a conscious departure from All That You Can’t Leave Behind and How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb. ‘By the end of the last tour everyone thought that for us to come back with a ‘part two’ of the rock record would not be right.

THANK. GOD.

 

[waynetravis]

To date he estimates they’ve come up with ‘at least thirty or forty pieces’

woah

 

[The_acrobat]

I couldn't be happier about all of this. I have to admit that I was a HUGE HTDAAB fan in 2004 and 2005, because I mainly got caught up in the hype. But I recently came back to that album, and I realized something... it's not really that spectacular. "City of blinding lights", "Original of the species" and "A man and a woman" are really the only songs that do anything for me anymore. (AMAAW used to be my least favorite, but now it's among my favorite.) A change would do them good.... and me!

 

[AtomicBono]

Great news! I'm excited to hear they've recorded that much and that it's a departure from ATYCLB/HTDAAB. I love those two records (especially ATYCLB), but what I love about U2 is their ability to change. I would have been disappointed if they had come out with something too much like HTDAAB, just like I would have been disappointed if they made Pop part II, much as I love Pop.

Looser rhythmic structure... I hope Larry is coming up with more interesting beats! That is the one thing that has been rather lacking since Pop, I think. Most of Larry's beats have been rather dull.

 

[Dorian Gray]

yes, fuck yes.

 

[phillyfan26]

30 to 40 pieces in fantastic.

 

[Lila64]

 

[Irvine511]

 

[*browneyedgirl*]

and definitely good news

 

[ludvic]

Even though HTDAAB is one of their best IMO, it's time for a change.

 

[BEAL]

Great news! I'm excited to hear they've recorded that much and that it's a departure from ATYCLB/HTDAAB. I love those two records (especially ATYCLB), but what I love about U2 is their ability to change. I would have been disappointed if they had come out with something too much like HTDAAB, just like I would have been disappointed if they made Pop part II, much as I love Pop.

Looser rhythmic structure... I hope Larry is coming up with more interesting beats! That is the one thing that has been rather lacking since Pop, I think. Most of Larry's beats have been rather dull.

I agree. While the past 2 records have had their Larry moments, nothing compares to Pop. His best record IMO. Actually, could say the same thing about Adam.

Although I do understand that they're mindset has been to play a more musical style, rather than finding the most awesome bass line or drum line, it's still a pleasure to hear something like DYFL bass, or a WUDM drumming.

 

[phillyfan26]

Bono - Joshua Tree
Edge - Achtung Baby
Adam - Pop
Larry - October

 

[catlhere]

I think they were on the right track with ATYCLB/HTDAAB though. Building on that sound, improving it and making it even more complex would have been great. So I hope they don't completely trash the momentum and try to be unique and different for the sake of being unique and different, when they seemed to have hit a groove with the last two albums. But If the songs end up great, cool.

 

[t8thgr8]

I hope this is the record that shuts the haters up once and for all.

 

[last unicorn]

To date he estimates they’ve come up with ‘at least thirty or forty pieces’ and when the time is right, they’ve got the basis for the next record. ‘There’s definitely an album in there,’ he says. ‘If anything we might be short of one or two songs of a certain nature but I think we’ve got a record.’

Oh my God, I am really getting excited about this!!!

 

[silvrlvr]

Could 18-20 of the pieces be the Spiderman Musical?

I don't mean to be cynical, but all these updates seem like a monster stalling tactic. If you're serious about an album, you make an album.

 

[WITS]

But it is something to look forward to, and don't forget the edge said that 2 albums could come out of it anyway.

 

[topplehatU2]

U2 double album.

 

[elevated_u2_fan]