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U2’s Edge on prospective guitar-driven album: “There’s a resurgence of interest in guitar”

Bono had previously shared his dream of releasing rock music, and it looks as though it could be underway.

Edge and Bono

Image: Han Myung-Gu / Getty

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U2 guitarist The Edge has said that the “timing is right” for the band to release a guitar-driven record, noting that he feels there is “a resurgence of interest in guitar” in music.

In an interview with The New York Times last October, U2 frontman Bono had recalled talking with Edge about a prospective guitar-driven, edge-ier (pun intended) track: “I spoke to Edge about it this week. He’s going, ‘Is it that call again?’ ‘What call?’ ‘The one about we’re going to write the big fuck-off rock song?’ And I say, ‘Yeah, it’s our job!’”

Now, with more artists turning from mainstream pop to pop-punk and heavy-influenced music such as Demi Lovato, Willow, and the explosion in popularity of bands such as Wet Leg – people are falling in love with guitar all over again (we never stopped, but each to their own, eh?)

In an interview with Rolling Stone which was published yesterday (6 March), Edge spoke of the rock resurgence, “Personally, I feel like the guitar as an instrument… not in terms of being loved and played by so many musicians around the world, both professional and amateur, but in terms of its presence in the streaming music charts, it’s been in the wilderness for a little while.”

He continued, “I feel myself that there’s a resurgence of interest in guitar. I sort of feel it instinctually. It’s starting to percolate up.”

He then went on to hint that a rocky record could be coming our way from U2: “I feel the timing is right. I think it would be wonderful and very welcome for us to make some music that is more driven by guitar. That is the intention. That isn’t to say we are turning into AC/DC, but we will find a way to use the instrument in a fresh way as much as possible. It’s still my first love for me as an instrument.”

Starting on 16 April this year, a Spring 2023 run of eleven dates to celebrate Bono’s Stories of Surrender memoir will be taking place at New York’s Beacon Theatre. Get tickets at U2.com.

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