- Music
- 23 Nov 17
With one week to go before their 14th album, Songs of Experience, U2 grace the cover of the 2018 Hot Press Annual.
In a series of in-depth and personal interviews between 2014 and 2017, Olaf Tyaransen documents the long and tumultuous road that led to the band's completion of Songs of Experience. Following them from Vancouver to London by ways of Killiney and their Joshua Tree shows in Croke Park, this is a compelling look at how numerous external obstacles almost stalled U2, while they defiantly rolled on.
Reflecting on mortality, the Web Summit, the fall-out after the leaking of the 'Paradise Papers' and of course, the viral sensation that was the Edge falling offstage, it is a dark, but humorous story of struggle and success.
The Edge on the new political climate influencing Songs of Experience:
"I think we felt that, to ignore it would just be weird. Knowing that these are the things that we care deeply about, I think people would expect us to step forward to a degree. Obviously democracy sometimes throws up surprise results and you gotta respect the result.... But in terms of values and ideals, we'r different, so fundamentally different, from what President Trump is putting forward."
Adam on parenthood:
"Well, I came to it late, but I'm sure you've all been through it. I can thoroughly recommend it. Not too many sleepless nights."
Bono on his health scare:
"Last winder I was on the receiving end of a shock to the system myself, a shock that left me clinging on to my own life like a raft. Now lots of us have a brush with mortality at some stage, whether it's our own or someone dear to us. It's an arresting experience. I was arrested."
Edge on working with Kendrick Lamar:
"We share a lot of values with Kendrick. We are fans of his, we reached out and initially asked him to guest on our album, and then we sent him a tune. He got back in touch with us asking if he can put it on his record."
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Edge on his son appearing on the album cover:
"Covers are hard. You can kind of stick the band on the cover and that sometimes will do it, but this album is a complicated record. Thematically, it's both extremely personal and quite political and both very internal and also very universal.
Adam on the Joshua Tree tour:
"Because this album got pushed out to this end of the year, it gave us the license to do the Joshua Tree shows, so we kind of had this moment where we went, 'Oh! We could celebrate The Joshua Tree"
The Hot Press Annual 2018 is available in stores from November 24, or you can order it now direct from hotpress.com below or via download in the iOS app .