U2 could be celebrating the 30th Anniversary of Achtung Baby this month, but their focus is on the future as they continue to work on a follow-up to 2017’s Songs of Experience. Just minutes prior to the Edge, Zoom was used with Rolling Stone last week to talk about some of the band’s lesser-known Achtung Baby–era tracks, he was working with bassist Adam Clayton on a new song idea.
“We are firmly locked in the tower of song and working away on a bunch of new things,” the guitarist says, noting that they’re still in the very early stages of the process. “I’m just having so much fun writing and not necessarily having to think about where it’s going to go. It’s more more about enjoying the experience of writing and having no expectations or limitations on the process.”
The band is still looking for a producer at this point. “I so enjoyed working with [Dutch DJ] Martin Garrix [on the UEFA Euro 2020 song ‘We Are the People’] and I hope to work with him in the future. But we haven’t made any firm decisions on what the next thing will be in terms of personnel. I just don’t know.”
The only song U2 has shared with the public over the past three-years is “Your Song Saved My Life”From the soundtrack to animated film Sing 2Bono sings Clay Calloway, the lion rock singer. “That’s not a thing that U2 normally does,”Edge: “but it’s in the of spirit of mixing it up, keeping people guessing, and trying different things. It felt like a worthy thing. And also, it’s a movie about great songs and we we felt very comfortable in the company that we were keeping there.”
They’ve been off the road since the encore leg of their Joshua TreeDecember 2019 marked the 30th anniversary of Zoo TV. They aren’t ready to announce any plans for their next tour, but they’ve spoken in the past about the possibility of bringing Zoo TV back on the road for its 30th anniversary. Although The Edge is not revealing any details, he said he was open to the idea.
“I would love that and I couldn’t rule it out,”He said. “I think [Zoo TV]It is such an current thought. Back then we were we’re dealing with the overload and kind of the whiplash of 24/7 news cycles, which hadn’t been known before. It was the overload of cable television and hundreds or hundreds of channels. We didn’t know it was the beginning of an avalanche channel to grab our attention.
“And so, yeah, I think Zoo TV could absolutely come back and be just as relevant,”He continues. “But we haven’t actually got to the point of doing anything more than this kind of talk, but I wouldn’t rule it out again. The [production] team [from that tour] are still with us. That’s what’s fun about it.”
The Edge is currently enjoying his downtime as well as the process of creating new music. “I think everybody felt they needed some time at the end of the last tour,”He said. “It really had been five years of being away. If we weren’t in the studio, we were on the road. And as much as momentum is your friend, there’s a moment where you stop getting fed by momentum and it starts to drain you. That’s because you need those moments of inactivity just to listen to music. We’re all enjoying that right now.”