Bono Talks to Dave Fanning on RTE 2fm

Bono has spoken to Dave Fanning, in a world exclusive interview. In particular, he talks about 'Iris', a song about his mother - described by Niall Stokes in his review in this issue's Hot Press as Bono's 'most personal song yet'.

"We were always the band to divide people, not to unite people," the U2 frontman said, discussing the release of U2's new album, Songs of Innocence. "That's it. To sing, 'In the name of love/What more in the name of love' - it was as uncool in 1984 as it is now, and that's why people came through the doors. To sing about your faith: how uncool is that in rock 'n' roll? To sing about your mother; come on, shut up! Except John Lennon did it, Kurt Cobain did it, Eminem has done it. What is the point in being in U2 if you can't go to those other places?"

The interview will be broadcast this Sunday 21 September, at 10am on RTÉ 2fm and will take 2fm listeners on a journey through the new album - the band's first since 2009's No Line on the Horizon.

Speaking about U2's relationship with Apple, he said: "There's been some real deliberate misunderstanding of this relationship with Apple. This is a company which has more than any other technological company, sought to get musicians paid. There's lots of other technology companies who've become very rich on musicians not getting paid. So it's a perfect relationship to work with them."

On the controversy surrounding the method in which U2 released 'Songs of Innocence' he is trenchant in his views.

"The same people who used to write on walls are in the blogosphere," Bono says. "The blogosphere is enough to put you off democracy (laughs)! No…let people have their say. They're the haters; we're the lovers. We're never going to agree. People who would not normally be exposed to our music have got a chance to listen to it. Whether they hold that to their heart or not, we don't know. Whether those songs will be important to them, in a week's time we don't know. But they've got a chance and that's gotta be exciting for a band who've been around as long as we have.

"The hardest thing in the world, as Bruce Springsteen said to me - and this was ten years ago - is to surprise your audience or to surprise yourself."

The Dave Fanning interview with Bono will air from 10am - 12noon on RTÉ 2fm, on Sunday, September 21.