- Music
- 04 Feb 14
The U2 frontman on Ramones and Kraftwerk influences on their new album, working with Danger Mouse and how he fears his band are "on the verge of irrelevance".
A day on from a typically auspicious comeback, as the world got U2's 'Invisible', Bono called in to Zane Lowe's BBC Radio 1 show last night for a quick chat on where the Dublin band are at creatively.
Talking about 'Invisible', Bono said: "Until it's on the radio, until it's online, it's sorta not real. It becomes very real. With U2, our album isn't finished until it's in the stores, and even then Edge is trying to mix it! It's tricking getting us four boys across the line.
"We're really thrilled with it… Just delighted that there's still people there interested in us. We're (at) nearly two and a half million downloads, I think. We had one million downloads in one hour yesterday."
As the host pointed out, its parent album is still not complete.
"We'll finish in a couple of months," Bono claimed, calling in from what he said was a "dank basement" in London. "People are feeling very upbeat about things. It's finished when it's finished."
No title has been decided as yet. "Insécurité" is apparently the 'most ridiculous' working title they have had, but Bono was keen to stress that will not make the cut.
In terms of the record's sound, he said: "We went back to why we wanted to be in a band in the first place. Listened to a lot of late '70s music, which kinda formed our musical taste. That's when it started for us, with punk rock and actually electronica. So you had The Ramones. We were listening to The Ramones and Kraftwerk. And you can hear both of those things on 'Invisible'."
Of their collaboration with producer Danger Mouse: "He's a great soul and a beautiful dude."
Bono also noted how his band always feel on the verge of irrelevance before releasing a new album.
"We'll find out if we're irrelevant. I'm perfectly prepared for people to try and blow us off the stage, it's the right instinct. It's just that we're not going to make it easy for people."
For the full chat, click here – the Bono interview starts 59 minutes in.