Bono Sounds Off On Songwriting

In anticipation of the No Line On the Horizon, the new U2 album, dropping March 2nd, U2 frontman Bono sat down with British newspaper The Observer for a lengthy interview.

In anticipation of the No Line On the Horizon, the new U2 album, dropping March 2nd, U2 frontman Bono sat down with British newspaper The Observer for a lengthy interview.

Because with Bono, there are no other kinds.

The loquacious Irishman spoke in detail about the songwriting on his band’s 12th studio album. Those who enjoy U2 should definitely check this one out.

Here’s an excerpt:

SOH: OK, I’m going to throw some lyrics at you.

Bono: Fire away.

SOH: These are from “I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight”: “Every generation has a chance to change the world/ Pity the nation that won’t listen to you, boys and girls.”

Bono: Well, that is building up to the next line, ‘The sweetest melody is the one we haven’t heard. That’s just a nice thought. The solution to the problems we find ourselves in will have to be found by the new generation but often the new ideas just aren’t listened to. That lyric is meant to be playful, by the way, not earnest in any way. There’s a lot of mischief on this record.

SOH: Was that one written with an eye on Obama coming into power?

Bono: Of course! The amount of U2 fans who supported him! The young U2 fanbase were really active in the campaign. Though the One campaigners are from every political colour, an enormous amount of them were also campaigning for Obama.

…I think this is the moment when actually everything is up for grabs. It’s like Bob Dylan says on ‘Brownsville Girl’ [he breaks into a Dylan impersonation]: ‘If there’s an original idea out there right now, I could use it [laughs].’ And there are original ideas out there, that’s the thing.

Read the full article here.