[Music] the Wide Open Road this is something that's inspired artists musicians filmmakers for as long as art has been created this desire for emptiness to feel small as big as you two have become this is a band who have been searching for Uncharted Territory ever since they emerged from Dublin in the late 1970s their journey is unprecedented I can't think of a corner of the globe that they
haven't visited or tried to touch in a meaningful way for one environment one very vast large expansive experience keeps drawing you two back the desert this out of anywhere in the world is where Bono and the edge asked us to meet and talk about the 40 songs of surrender their musical Legacy recreated a rare moment of reflection for a band that fight and thrashed their way forward
I have so many questions for these two and luckily no distractions to look at that whoa I love the desert yeah I love it out here well it's an essential part of your story yeah but it's the Purity is that's the thing it's a pure pure space the desert because there's nothing here yeah do you feel like the smallest you'll ever feel in a place like this you know you have to have a certain
sense of self to be able to sit in the desert and enjoy that experience I think for long periods of time yep sure you have a seat you said something which was off the Record which I always like to start with on the record which was um you said in all of the years you've been traveling and dancing through the desert and having photos taken and doing things that you've never conducted a
conversation per se in this environment even though we do look at you two as being one of those bands that bought the desert and that sense of wide open space to us as fans that you never stopped here and had a conversation we we have many conversations with each other and but we've never recorded them yeah and uh other than as songs so when you gonna put this together for us
we were we were like well that's never happened before we've never done this before so it's a magic landscape and you know we came to America to look for America at a time and America was looking for itself you know America was trying to discover who it was in the 80s again it got a bit lost and so it was an amazing time to arrive in in America and for us a lot of our versions of America were from music but
also from books City Lights Bookstore in San Francisco reading the plays of Sam Shepard Patty Smith poems of Alan Ginsberg brought us to the I mean the Joshua Tree I don't think his America was really an owl these were important tracts for us and also then vendors that's right oh yeah remember Paris Texas that was a huge movie that to see America through a European eye like that was was important for us well
because outside of America we'd always been marketed this idea of the bright shiny America you come here it's where the money gets made and the products get sold and I think what people like women vendors did and ultimately you tapped into was that there is a beautiful wonderful untapped weirdness in between all of that it should be explored and should be embraced because
um it's the most magnificent landscape being out here and just looking but you're right on the this Danger it's not just a meditative kind of landscape you feel the peoples who fought and died here you just do you do they're over there I mean this is there's a ghost town over there and I was doing a lot of research into it out of curiosity and that's the most at one point was the most Lawless
town in Nevada if you can imagine how Lawless Nevada was in the 1800s and create a hierarchy and put that at the top we're in some Lawless right now a lot of those Bandits were Irish Jesse James the Hole in the Wall Gang Billy the Kid but island people very pathetic Travelers pilgrims and here we are still believing that at and to misquote Paul recurr or whoever it was you know at the far end
of experience in the right company with some wisdom you can recover your innocence I love that line yes it's a beautiful line because it sums up really of the journey that you've been on which has led to this collection of songs that have been beautifully how do I put this I don't want to say reimagine it's too clinical and artistic term I think you have reconnected with them and actually
listened to them maybe over the first time since you made them our songs are the boss and they were through this whole project they told us what to do yeah I mean we all make songs and make art we move on that's the point you've got to see your songs are like are your children wrong he sounds like your your parents they tell you what to do how to dress in the you know to turn up for work you know in
the video whatever they do boss you about the songs but after a while if you're successful and as a songwriter songs become they're owned by other people not you and being with this um collection we we were sort of trying to listen to them again yeah and and and trying to think well first of all will they hold up will they stand up to being broken down outside of the Firepower of a rock and
roll band like you too the irony is that the songs are sitting there if they actually do have some kind of personality construct of sitting there laughing that you're even asking that question because they're asking the same questions of you are you going to stand up going through these songs and what what will you come out the other end of this experience feeling like that's a
much more complicated right I've been the answer to that one I don't know even um yeah because the songs if they're any good they never end but rock rock and roll bands they do yeah well that's why you call it songs of surrender right not just because it's a beautiful title and it ties beautifully into the book and the experience but you know what songs have surrender when you break it down to
initials is right so about yeah save ourselves yeah yeah it was the right title SOS because obviously of what we've gone through with the nouvelle Corona virus and all that lurgy that evil little lurgy and then just the sense of trouble foreboding Ukraine all that stuff and and they look good in a t-shirt yeah yeah I think about these songs and I think about what it took to go back and and
experience them again and one of the things I loved as soon as I started listening was that he realized that there was journey within these songs to go and travel that they weren't complete some of them that there were new thoughts new ways I think of a song like bad when instead of saying if you you begin by saying if I and I love that little twist something I almost trembled to sing them and
making that that this song Bad which is about you know my friend got bansolini who nearly lost his life a couple of ways as a as a child in a bombing in in a terrorist bomb attack in our city then later to heroin and and then to ask the question well can I sing that because I must be an addict too I'm not quite sure of what is my drug of choice but I I have things clearly I need to let go of
and can I sing and I change I just rewrote it in the first person and it it was it was really hard and really easy to say at the same time um yeah talked about dad being one of those songs and how Brian Nino really pushed it through even though you didn't feel it was complete yeah Brian you know you know I've stopped making sense of Fame I mean and you know David Byrne and he yeah you
know we can you can hear Brian in the background you know with the line like stop making sense your lyrics are as naive as mine were yeah that point There's Something Beautiful about leaving them as naive that's what least that's what brianino needs to say to me and the band Edge would would support that I I found it excruciating later in life to go back um I was really there were Landscapes
but kind of emotional Landscapes I was sketching right oh pencil drawings really you know not really you know I couldn't stand over them well that's a great lyric and and Edge would say great the moment you can stand over and say it's a great lyric You're just showing off you're not opening you're not being you know revealing uh I'd like a bit of showing off if that was possible yeah
going forward lyrics are not distinct you see from the music it's how that the words collide melodically sonically and how how it all comes together so you can't really look at a lyric in isolation and um judge it in that sense so so it's about to me it's all about emotional impact and if something's true and it communicates emotion which has obviously got content or else you wouldn't find it emotional I I don't
doubt it I mean you came from a hip-hop kind of background where you know Rhythm and meter and rhyme and and cleverness did not get in the way of anger or rage or Joy or silliness but in our early music what made you to special I hope was that at least it was unique territory well I didn't know who was communicating better sometimes like I would listen to you but then sometimes I
would get more anger out of your playing than I got out of your words and there were times when I would feel more emotional listening to Larry and Adam connect than I would out of either of you too yeah and so I feel like what makes you so unique as a band is the fact that each of you is striving to communicate very personally through your your craft somehow when you get it right it becomes
this much greater thing and also with the counterbalance for each other you know if you've got a really heartfelt lyric the band have to counterbalance that with something rough and seemingly kind of aloof to the emotion of the lyric and the melody so you know the same with Bonoff if he's doing something incredibly aggressive and pointed you know the band have to
take a different stance to set that up so it's you know it's about the inter balance between everything is this a version of on our first single U23 we'd out of control yeah it's Uncle boy girl and then this song called stories for boys which made it onto the Boy album and I guess it's a teenage fantasy kind of you know stories for boys but it's not sketched out and then for this collection
not only do we sketch it out Edge saying it and that's quite unsettled and stories for boys as a whole other resonance yeah but we were writing it now about ourselves as we were boys back in 1979 when we first started that song from the safety of this amount of distance of time and experience you can actually look at who we were and finish out that that lyric which we could never have written
at the time this is the maddest thing about this whole songs of surrender experience for me as a lifelong fan of your band is that I've watched you thrash and rail against reflection for most of my life that's true you are a band that refuses to stand still to the point where you'll actually put yourselves through all kinds of hell just to get to the other side and everyone's like no stay here for five
more minutes you built it it's great and you're already halfway down the road to some other really tough Challenge and as a famous as a great man I should say and a famous man technically once said Nostalgia is a thing of the past here we find ourselves with 40 songs reflecting on the past and so how did you find yourself at this place where Edge the thrash quieted enough for you to feel
like you could go home and relive your life in the very creative artistic sense I think it was a lot of opportunism because of the lockdown we suddenly we had the space and time to to just make music without there being any kind of pressure or any expectation and this idea I'd been knocking around for a while to to try some more of our songs in a stripped down way and we had done you know over the years in our show we'd
take a song like every breaking wave we'd bring it down to piano or staring at the sun bring it down to acoustic guitar and voice but you're right it was the untapped area fans have been waiting for the longest yes what is it going to be like this was like this was a golden opportunity to to see what it would where it would take us but also the joy of it was there's no
necessity to put it out if we didn't like it we could just do it and see how it worked so it was um we could really just enjoy the process it was really amazing fun it's both the vanity project and a grudge match The Grudge Match is we were trying to prove or else maybe obfuscate it was if our songs could stand up with you know the best songs that our favorite songs and so that was it we wanted to see it
was some trepidation you know will this will they stand up and then the the vanity project is kind of the same which is you you think well you've said for years you never finished the lyrics you said for years yeah you know that your voice you know by the way when I used to say I sang like a girl and people get upset don't say that what's wrong with seeing like a girl that's awesome yeah your dream is to
sing like a girl out green you know the falsetto the male in falsetto is his most masculine in a way you know to be that feminine or whatever and Joey Ramone yeah you know he had that beautiful almost Dusty Springfield thing about him and my voice had gotten to this place where I didn't have to be shouting or Screaming punk rock singer I thought well I'm going to sing these
songs and if we really get there I know they'll sing me what was the hardest one are you bad was the hardest one uh for sure for the reasons we just spoke about I made with or without you um a single conversation just and that's and I reveal this trick that I did on all I wanted you where I was seeing from from point of view of the Muse yeah so you say you want a diamond on a ring of
Golds as you hear it as a YouTube fan you think that's Bono singing to his wife and when you realize no that's that's his wife singing to him saying I don't need this and so it was nice to be able to you know to really declare that uh and to go to the text and the melody and treat it with some respect you go you know we share our songwriting and on YouTube and the reason we do that is because
well Larry and Adam make those songs valuable so there's an economic aspect the other reason is because through improvisation that's how Larry and Adam normally contribute to the the songs but it's also how bands Stay Together by the way and if anyone's oh yes the truth is the truth is if anybody splits things evenly you give yourself 4X the likelihood of staying together than you
do any other time that's correct and so that it was also good advice um from our manager and Paul McGinnis at the time but the only thing of it is that this is the vanity bit you know Edge and I more and more revered the song you know I used to be saying well what did you do your life I'm in a band yeah you know what you do with your life I'm an activist what you do with your life you
know a singer you know but now I would say I'm a songwriter I'm a former I'm a songwriter first the text is everything The Melodies are everything and R there's a sort of there are great songwriting couples uh Duos um you know Duets jewels and this is I've been working with Edge since I since I was 16. we've been writing songs together and he's the musical genius he comes with the the
magic and I helped shape it and I tried to put into words what's in the music then I come to him also with music that's why it's often not as genius but he makes it so that's why and we've spoken a lot over the course of my life and and one thread always you know rides through the new recordings at least which is that you know you've got to go really deep and at times into really hard places to come out with the good
stuff and I think part of that is because you set this set the bar so high for each other all of you you know when I hear a guitar line and I imagine what it must be like to try to match that or elevate it I think that bar is so high when I hear some of the words that Bono writes for these songs and I think what you might have to do to bring them an emotional resonance melodically the bar is so high but we're
also pushing each other into those guitar lines and into those lyrics so occasionally Edge will you know come up with a great lyric he will say I'd like can we race Uncle I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For That was your idea love that and you know and occasionally I will come up with the guitar part it's you're throwing stuff around here and it's it's beautiful it's it's
um and also it's magic if if you're lucky enough to be in in the position that we're in where we have some songs that are revered what else would you want to do with your life what else would you want to do with your day then search for more get another one but this is where it gets interesting for me from your process point of view there's a great moment in your book and surrender where you talk
about waking up at four o'clock in the morning and you you basically acknowledge that the edges at this point either half or fully asleep while he's continuing to play the guitar line which by the way anybody who's a true creative has done this I've been making beats in my bedroom nowhere near the edge but still falling asleep my thing right you don't ever want to let it go right and
so there's a part of this process which is which is instinctual but there's also part of it that's coercive and I wonder what the balance is between choice and the spiritual coercion of knowing that something's there you just got to stick around long enough to find it does that make sense yeah you got the right word there I think for me it's always about there is something that you know is
there and you just have to keep trying to unearth it to reel it in together it tells me you're the kind of person that will do that as long as it takes well the incident you're referring to is in London and I at The Misfortune of having the room underneath Edge and and all I heard was the same as the it was the guitar arpeggio from song for someone and it went on for an hour before I went to sleep and
this is like I we got home late so it was like 2 A.M I want to bed and I woke up and it was still it was an hour lady was still doing it I woke up two hours it was still the same thing and then I thought yeah not the same but that's but see this is the point between choice so what are you searching for after four hours 14 hours 40 hours part of it was I would have been recording each idea so
I'm like I'm laying them down because I work a lot alone so I've got a microphone and a laptop in my bedroom on the road so I would have been recording them but then I I think what probably happened I had something that was almost it and that's the worst terrify situations because if it's almost it you can kind of give it a lot of respect which it doesn't deserve and
then in the end you've got to find what actually is it so it can be a process of just give it a go as not that's not it I know there was no Incredible Edibles involved nothing no there was no like tequila you weren't having any personal shots or anything like that I just knew and we were in the studio the next day we were learning from you in it though trying to throw him under the bus for
that behavior boy there's always room under the bus with you isn't there for someone else to join I'm ready it's a great great place to be so what was the song for you on SOS that that you felt from a from a songwriting point of view you are most looking forward to revisiting because you felt like there was more life in it well I first started out looking at some obscure songs
because I thought that would be a fun part of the process so I looked a dirty today and if God will send us Angels oh yes God I hadn't listened to that song in that context before and it really came alive you know the thing is it's it's with gobbles and his angels I realized that we'd not really fully underscored the melody right we'd we'd left it very abstract and the melody was much better than the
song would suggest so I went okay this melody deserves proper underscore so I changed the chords changed a lot of the stuff same Melody same lyrics but it's a better song there not the same lyrics oh that's right we changed the lyrics so the thing with the bumdogs Christmas tune of all Christmas tunes yeah you know Jesus sisters eyes are a blister the ice you never looked below you know
but it's it's very it's a very dystopian picture at Christmas and I was thinking man it's just such a slash your wrist situation and and I just changed two lines and it became a gospel song so if and I think the last chorus I remember it is if God will send send his angels we could we sure could use them here right now as lovely as this being out the wide open space there is a reason also why
we're in Nevada yeah and there's a destination I'm dying to get to and to do that we've got to get in the tour bus yeah what's the last time you guys won a tour bus that's still a trip it's been a while it's been a while great memories of these things yeah it's a beauty after you I prefer the Boeing Business Jet myself wow look at this place yeah the second one of these I've been in
um that's from this era I'm pretty sure the one at Shangri-La which is Bob Dylan's old two of us similar is similar we've recorded in that bus yeah when we were outside we were talking a little bit about destination I know you just went home and you had a really good hang at home and you did something with the great Dave Letterman yes and I can imagine that was really healing in a lot
of ways to go back and be a part of the community and go to the pubs that you know ultimately inspired you at that point and I was thinking about what that must have felt like and then the word faith came to mind and it's something that has been a propulsive force in your lives and in your music and to me it's almost gone in three stages and you'll you'll have better descriptions than I do but it's almost
like the first one you're born into so it's literal it's like what are we gonna do with Shalom what are we going to do here as Servants of the message then it becomes a spiritual exercise because you commit to the music to the performance and you create a space to connect and it feels very holistic and then you discovered the Practical use of Faith which was to go out there and put
make things better actually work on the process to making the world a better place does that make sense to you the idea of it the through line being Faith but you've had different ways of using it yeah well for any songwriter for any musician who improvises faith is at the heart of what you do because you jump from one note to another without knowing what that next note is yeah that is by its very
nature the faith is required for songwriting ask any jazz artist any uh you know people he just you jumping off and and hoping you land yeah on a particular court or or place and then I suppose I mean I think the scriptures say faith is the Assurance of things hoped for but not seen so when you're a kid and you don't have anything at all to offer the world at least it feels like that and you're at a
place in your life and and in your country's life where there doesn't look like there's going to be a lot out there you need faith and we found it in each other um we found it in music we had a certain religiosity is the truth even though you know Ireland is dividing along sectarian lines we're having like a it's nearly a civil war so we reject formal religion but we find Our Own Way
um and music's you know the language of the spirit anyway yeah but that's where we connect with our music and that's at the heart of who we are as Faith yeah and the idea then that the world is more malleable than you think that it's not stuck in stone that you can kick it you can caress it you can kiss it you can push it you can you know you shape it but as a band what happened
was once you committed to this journey this ride and you you began this whole experience um of carrying your faith with you but ultimately searching for Uncharted Territory for un unattained experiences the whole thing just became as what it becomes this wild circus of the unknown every single day and if you do that with purpose which you two always have by continuing to do the work you were worried you couldn't
do when you wanted to leave the band and you did every night on stage Joshua Tree tour and Beyond every time that you walk stood in front of a world leader and tried to change something as a band or as an individual you were doing the work you set out to do you become agents for change and I wonder I've never asked you this how that has felt at times just as four people
four friends loyal to each other that ultimately Realize by doing this work people expect more of it and more of it and more of it and it never seems to end I think that's why it was so important for us to make the album like baby and the tour that followed Zoo TV because we started to become caricatures on that basis like the whole the the the the Joshua Tree period had way over exaggerated the sense of
earnestness and responsibility and we just had to own up and say actually I'm not the Messiah we're very silly you know we're we're not those characters you know we we absolutely set out to offer ourselves to serve in some shape or form in in in YouTube as a band and through our music but um we were also not taking ourselves nearly as seriously as people thought we were
and we were able to laugh at ourselves and uh actual baby was that antidote for us as much as for uh you know music fans to that overly sanctimonious um Pious and and Earnest sort of image that had grown up around us we needed to flesh out you know the truth about who we were and give ourselves the freedom then to be in both because that was our the thing we loved about Bob Marley like he was able to without
any issues like blend spiritual into the political you know into the very sexual there was no like to him these weren't different baskets these were all part of who he was yeah that's right that's exactly right and the pop song you shouldn't stray too far from the pop song great rock and roll always has that you know Kurt Cobain describes Smells Like Teen Spirit as a pop song those songs were
just brutally aggressive nursery rhymes written from within a very dysfunctional and painful place but the maladies you can hum them to a child at night yeah the guitar solos playing the melody too young he's literally just playing the verse again and his favorite song is in My Life The Beatles so you know don't bore us get us to the chorus yeah the punk thought this is songwriting discipline
this they had real discipline I mean the bands and the way they approach the arrangements yeah but the song writing itself and so for us with you two whenever we get too far from Don Boris get us to the chorus when progressive rock the lurgy arrives into our life I'm always getting very nervous because you know YouTube is always that thing at least you knew where you were I
don't know though you know that's what I love about songs of surrender because there's moments where these songs unveil themselves and I'm like this is a strange Arrangement it's not like like bad's a strange Arrangement like the end of the world doesn't have a chorus it doesn't that's true it doesn't you're the cause a lot of our songs are unusual Arrangements they're not classic sort of
Verse Chorus post chorus bad has a very big chorus though it's just not a traditional one well that's the thing very big Melody I would I would say the progressive aspect is not adhering to the classic formats and I I think I think that is something you always need to be open your abstract painters I think in a lot of ways even though you think you're right well we love Innovative
experimental work with working with Brian Eno and Daniel and that's why but we brought to it it's what I'm saying is when we bring that discipline it's that's when music gets made and what we felt a little estranged from a kind of Indie mentality that seemed to not have to own up to its ambition I just love when music is once is kind of jumping out of its skin but to find the song that matches the voice or the band
that's the thing and that's what I loved about Nevada that's what I loved about the Joshua Tree was it just sounded like you actually for once in Pure Balance and Harmony and happy and the album reflected this glorious time what I got from Zoo TV was um baby into the zoo TV tour was something all together different you were railing so there was there was a real fight to break free and you as you
said at a time when ambition was bad in music Don't Embrace Brands let alone go and build an entire tour around imaginary Brands and and don't poke fun at it and don't play stadiums God whatever you do though yeah yeah do not do that and then you are like you know the fly oh yeah like I loved that about that was for me you were the only man if you had taken up to a baby and tried to
perform it in an environment like Joshua Tree would never have worked it had to come alive he was already starting to wear eye makeup and silver shirts oh for sure he was blowing through all that yeah you know of authenticity I'm I rail against bogus authenticity yeah do you remember you you will remember familiar things around the 90s when we were working on acting baby and zeroop and
stuff people saying but drum machines they're false you know we're authentic are you talking so there goes electronic music there goes black music there goes hip-hop like you it's it's you know and what I loved it was a great moment in the 80s um when there was a certain kind of palette that was acceptable to paint cool things within rock and roll it was it was a certain news the Harley-Davidson
actually this would fit into this whole stream there's this this landscape we may have been part of it and arrives Prince on a Honda purple stack teams I mean there's nothing about his style or fashion that fit in he blew it out he just brought it back to him the thing about it is it got co-opted really quickly it got easily manageable and it got easily commercialized and co-opted into a
framework that worked for radio for outlets for marketing for Branding right every anytime an underground resistance which is what house music was disco was hip-hop was it was fighting back it always got like well until you're ready to play by our rules we're going to disregard this as not being authentic or real or marketable or useful and someone like Prince was so valuable Beyond his
ultimate genius and ability was because he was like I'll do it all better than all of you right in an undeniable way so you can't deny me on the songs until the songs were great undeniable for a period but back to act on baby period because you're right that there was at that moment there was this idea that anything that was commercial was was had no authenticity that to be pure to to to have your work be
taken seriously you had to be pure and anti-commercial yeah which if you think about it if you're trying to make an album there's a ridiculous position to take like if you make an album you want people to hear what you've done yeah which means that you have to have your records in the stores and lots of people buy them so you wanna promote your records do the things that
every band has always done the problem is we live the wolf in though that's why musical let the wolf in the door which was big business and we'd started to collaborate with big business in a big way and fans didn't know how to feel about it well there's a difference there's a difference between allowing your music to be tainted right by a bad use a bad Association where you're cheapening what you're doing but
we we never had any problem with ambition yeah nor did any of the bands that we looked up to and not at the hip-hop world but you never did a commercial Edge that's the difference right that's why I think you are able to go in but that's why you were able to go in there and be playful with it was because people couldn't sit there and trace it back to it to a legitimate trade yeah
you can go and play with the imagery of big commercial branding and marketing twist it upside down and blow it up every night in the Pontiac Silverdome because no one can trace it back and go yeah but they're because they did a Coke deal six years ago and it all goes back to that you never did until the bipod ad my manager begins used to say it was it'd be you know an artist
does need to um think about you know the walls that their art is going to be hung on and perhaps who owns the gallery because if you don't like them you might not want your art hanging in the gallery so he didn't let us off so you two had to think we were a band of four but with Paul we were a corporation of five he was so important and so the corporation word was a pejorative in the 80s but of
course hip-hop came along and said hold on a second yeah yeah and we think about what we're doing we are we are our own industry you're coming out of Compton if you're Dre or Kendrick it's not a sellout to set up your stall and to be selling your wares so there was a beautiful honesty that came from hip-hop we saw a little bit of it with with the Oasis when they came through in in the UK oh wow well that's
what's going to ask you you are a freak of nature the four of you not only have you stayed together but you've maintained a friendship and a loyalty that more often than not becomes a corporation and really just becomes a board meeting you don't get that unless the Friendship is real the love is still there Oasis can't say the same right now for the most part it's much more hard
for them because they're Brothers correct the thing about your friends is you get to choose them in terms of family you don't choose your family and I think uh our band luckily found each other as friends first yeah and then lo and behold we found out that we actually weren't weren't bad as songwriters and performers but also the way we're designed we're not in
competition so it's not like Lana McCartney where there's two guys who you know the Rivalry probably made them better yeah but they're also basically doing the same thing singers and songwriters you know I I do a lot of music composition but I need Bono to to finish the song so we complement each other we don't we we don't ever cancel each other out it's additive so we shine brighter working
together than we ever could on our own and I think that's why the band is still together as much as the friendships are sort of the same meaning the friendships are real and they work there's been a lot of departure in recent years you know Paul no longer managing the band that's change kids grow up and leave home that's change people pass away that's um awful change but change nonetheless
and inevitably you come back to the only thing that's stable if you're lucky that's a marriage or a relationship or close friendship you're extra like you've got the band as well but you regroup and you figure out what is really important here and where are we going and then you got a decision to make you know do we continue to relive Our Lives through these songs and or is there a fight thrash something to
kick against still that's it that's the only one out that's the only band I want to be in have to be in that one when I took tone down right or I'm worn down I don't feel we make the music the way we should we need all four people yeah at Full Tilt yeah and that's the way it works and that's the way our live show works but in the studio it can get a little um polite see the problem is you're not
comparing um a binary thing like something that's really terrible and something that's really good often you're trying to compare something that's almost great something that is great and you know that's the problem settling the enemy of great is not crap the enemy of great is almost great because you settle you go good enough good enough it's time starts to settle in right all of a
sudden people around you go yeah but and then you go well maybe time is a factor well maybe these shows we booked are a part of this process well maybe maybe and then all of a sudden you're out of the out of your Zone and that's you just don't want to go there some I mean and times in my life I think I've not wanted to go there and that is the price it's a lot of things I want to do with my life
but it turns out there's a devotion that is required now for the song for songwriting for the band there's only one thing that I need to do and that is to make music because if I don't do that I'm in trouble and I don't want to make music with anybody else other than Edge and Adam or Larry if I can have that I want that but it requires a kind of a pledge you know it's like it's like a
photo it's like for like your teenagers again it's like you're are you gonna go there some people might say you know what I can't do that and that would be totally understandable it might even be mature it might even be sane is to say if you think that I can commit to this like we did when we were kids you're off you're you're out of your mind that's what it requires for me is there any
risk of anybody saying that yeah yeah I mean if it does it interviewed me last week it might have been me but of saying they wanted easy life and not not want to go there or that I can't go there the way you need me to go there to be committed to the degree that you expect at this point in my life versus where I was 40 years ago yeah I mean each member of the band has their own decision to
make but I'm clear I mean this is what I want to do this is what I do with all my time at the moment is work on new songs even though we're here to talking about some of the surrender it's the new songs get me you know awake at night so I was a surrender is only possible because there's so much amazing momentum for new work and for the future and to be fair we have a drummer who so is
injured and can't be playing rock and roll and and so so if we take this interest in acoustic music and intimacy being the new punk rock uh which is I really believe in the force of intimacy and these earbuds and the way we listen to music now but if intimacy is the new punk rock so is punk rock the new punk rock and we've got to make some really noisy rock and roll that's what I need to hear you know
edges yeah it's the most influential guitar player in 35 years the only person who won't say that is him the band has staked out extraordinary musical landscape the subject matter has been interesting we've got a singer that has an annoying Gene but we need we need a bit of bottle in our rock and roll singers right actually I've got a I've got an apology um I wrote it I apologize for having the
unreasonableness of Youth as I enter my 60s I apologize for being a singer who will get in your face whatever Direction you're looking I apologize for not being shy or retiring and for loudly giving thanks for where I go to work I apologize for stretching our band to its elastic limit I apologize for wanting to make an unreasonable guitar record that rattles my cage and others I
apologize for repeating over and over that rock and roll is not dead it's just older and grumpier and occasionally makes fireworks out of its mood changes but most of all I apologize for apologizing I was gonna say if you don't apologize for the apology no this whole thing's pointless you just heard Bono apologize for what you think he has been doing for the last 40 years what you missed was the point that he's
apologizing for what he's about to do that's the point that's it that's the point that's it I mean it's great that we've got this thing running and do we know where we're actually going to the Future oh good you are from the future then I am is it better is it better it's definitely better let's find out the future is a town that's normally reserved for endings where artists go to
rest and see out their days but this is a town where you two are planning a rebirth U2's future is waiting for them in Las Vegas away [Music] you know we're heading into the future your future when I think about SOS I think I may have mentioned this if I didn't I'm going to say it now in a way it's the first time I feel that maybe you've been able to address these songs Just with the simple purpose of
the songs and not what did we do last time and what do people expect next time and I feel like Joshua tree and the desert and all of that was the beginning of this period of time for the band where you had to think about so many other things apart from just is it a great song man how much you want to wrestle it back to that North Star you had things that you could lose
people that work for you that needed big Tunes big moments big display it all just becomes this crazy thrash what was that time like now that you've been able to get back to the songs in the purest form thinking about the ban Beyond just the songs we're just serving the songs that's it was was the overarching idea for this collection and to serve the song but to serve the voice which meant the
voice was the centerpiece of every single Arrangement yeah and um of course yeah of course and and that meant also allowing Bano to use his voice as he can as an interpretive tool um in a way that maybe it wouldn't have been possible when he's you know part of a rock band that's in full flight I'm amazed he wrote what he wrote and I'm listening to these songs and these songs
were written 5 10 15 years ago in the thrash of stadiums and success so what's fun is to hear things like city of London lights which it sounds like a completely different song lyric to me because yeah It Bun is interpreting it in in a way that he couldn't possibly have done with the The Rock first yeah and not just this other songs the same is true for a lot of them well you're hearing it in a
different way and that's I think why you went for new lyrics in in a lot of songs is because there was a kind of opportunity there there was a platform to deliver lyrics that weren't wasn't there before I can't remember what your quote was because there was a quote about genius in the book which I really loved it doesn't exist that's right you you inhabit it you manifest it based on
the work you put in and the vision that you have right so the work meets the vision I think is what you said uh I'm not sure about that I think I think you're not sure I think genius exists as a magic no that's what I disagree I think it does no I'm not saying every potential genius gets to be one right but I don't think anyone can be a genius see what I haven't decided and where you seem to
appear on the contrasting sides of the table you think that there is potential that is met somewhere on the journey that tips into genius whereas I think that there's an intangible Magic in circumstance at Birth that maybe sets in motion yes I I take the Patrick Kavanagh line about God makes all men genius but most men do not like God's work so there's genius in everyone right the idea of a genius
is what I dispute I don't think that there's a past you can take a while take away from Jesus you can't say you fell the off you're no longer genius revoke the genius Parts there's lots of people who inhabit genius for a period and then it is gone from them you have absolutely had genius moments but if you want me to take the genius tag off you happy to do it but I kind of like to go
to my Graves thinking Bono and Edge and Marion Adam in my lifetime we're a genius band I like that well that's a nice thought but I'd like to riff the Band-Aid off it if the next album's you need that to fight the Place creator creately as we almost reach adulthood speak for yourself pal I would like to say when somebody occupies something that's never been occupied before a feeling a color in the
Spectrum if you're a painter a mood we've never encountered then we're getting close to the visitation that you describe as genius but but most people don't own anything in terms of they're just very good at other people's stuff so there's a lot of karaoke greatness out there but actually to own something it is yours though you you that feeling if you're an artist that's what no one
gives a that you can paint to face or you can do a landscape like this what we want to see is a view on that landscape we've never seen before and that when we look away from it it will always be with us the thing that's the most difficult to maintain is sharpness sharpness is since the edge the thing of being able to make that decision in the studio or when you're writing a song and get to where
you need to get to it as I say you get distracted with the almost great idea if you're not sharp if you're sharp you'll go no that's not good enough so is it safe to say that those moments that are well documented both throughout the history of the band most recently is surrender where Bono was lashing out against anyone in the room for this sort of lack of chemistry or connectivity is
self-flagellation at times over you showing up having been in six different places trying to figure out how can I be sharp the problem is when you're not sharp you don't know you're not sure wow that work ethic are you just shake it like from day one I to acknowledge is aside from the talent the growth and the and the chemistry and and your ability to translate experience through the Arts you just worked harder
than anyone else didn't you maybe I think you're right I mean it's always been a struggle and you have to remember where we're kids that came out of punk rock we weren't great musicians what we learned along the way was that our limitations were actually a strength but it still didn't mean that it was ever easy and I think that's a good thing because struggle means you're always
going to have an intensity and a you're reaching all the time beyond what you're comfortable with and capable of yeah but it took it it took hard work it took determination to cook doggedness to to make the first album second album every album so why would our next one be any different because I thought maybe life would catch up with the band at some point and decisions would be made that reflected that moment
in time but it doesn't sound like well it's happened I thought about it but when we were doing these songs there was something happening with my voice that I'd never experienced before and there was a level of of kind of control and subtlety and I was something was going off every second day and so I'm like what what's this and people were feeling it and so I'm going he wants it
I want it have we got the Wellspring of talons no not talons talents the wrong word I hold that please I'll be the Wellspring of extraordinariness right maybe energy and the energy to dive into it and I thought women so let's give it a let's see let's go to the next level then but should go to the next level it takes a completely different strategy speaking for myself it means this is it
I have to do this and and I'm gonna have to do another things that I very much enjoy doing I will set aside in a delightful way because the thing I'm most Delight in is when that song arrives that's it outside of my family it's out of my friends and they know you too well to know any different right they understand that's who you are right so this is it but it's it's a it's exciting
moment it's like if you two gets back on track and we have the Firepower out of our way we can really we you know we can we can go there I don't know if I've ever talked to anybody who in a 92nd span of conversation can go from like do we have the talent no no to get out of our way it's so amazing no no I was checking do we have the extraordinary I understand of course we're talented at this stage but you
have challenges of pain in the talent's nothing it's not even it's not even worth mentioning it's so loads of talented people yeah yeah do you have the blessing do you have the gifts and if we do then out of our way you know when I think about driving into Vegas and I knew we were going to stop here on our journey I imagine that this is sort of where the fly ended up you got it right
it was always the idea but my question is ended up doing what this what is to come I think he got very good at blackjack right but this is what I mean fat fly sitting in a domestic Suburban environment longing for the days when he would electrocute himself on the video screen at the back of a stadium tour you know what happens to the Eternal mischief forever captured in that brief window of
time to the fly yeah yeah beautiful this is where the fly is flying and the Mischief now is to bring a cathedral to Las Vegas there happens to be ones called Guardian Angel Cathedrals one Catholic Cathedral we're bringing another it's called a sphere and we are going to make a cathedral right off the strip in Las Vegas we're gonna make much Mischief there we will there will be much delight it will be
delightful we're going to take our live show to the next level all we've tried to do from beginning is break that fourth wall where you look at the camera sure from us the case was we would jump off stage I would jump into the crowd climb you know try to break the fourth wall right then we started doing it with technology videos turning them into video art the satellite stage you know could only
exist because of ear monitors that allowed you to go in front of the speaker stack that's how the satellite stage was invented we invented it and our shows have always been pushing at the sort of outer parameters really and this is the next level this is how we hopefully take ourselves and our audience to the next level we're choosing octum baby as it's the right place for such
Mischief because the fly was always headed to Las Vegas right it's a place where people come to be entertained this is different this is this is like we're going to Oz you know we're only this is the yellow brick road paved with faith and luck this is Las Vegas where something brand new sits on the horizon waiting for you to everywhere and part two of our conversation coming soon [Music]