Considering it took them 11 years between their self titled sophomore effort and their latest offering, the absolutely amazing Third, the fact Portishead have announced they’ll be working on their fourth album in early 2011 comes as a bit of a shock.
Speaking to BBC 6Music, band member Adrian Utley had this to say. “We’re just finishing up some projects we’ve each got and then we’ll look to start writing, a little bit separately and then together but it is pretty exciting. I think we’re just gearing up to it, staring at each other a bit and getting ready to go.
“We’ve definitely thought about it and have had discussions about where we’re going and stuff, but it’s kind of early days and I don’t think any of us want to really hex it by putting too many rules on it, which we often do. I think we’ll just start puking up stuff and see what it sounds like,” Utley continued.
With the band planning a tour of Europe and the US around the same time, curating the latest addition to the All Tomorrow’s Parties collection of festivals I’ll Be Your Mirror in London on July 23rd and 24th, this will be the first time the band have attempted touring and recording simultaneously. We’ve never ever done that and I think it will feed into what we’re writing and how we feel about ourselves,” he said. “We tend to disappear into a studio for a long long time and sometimes it can get pretty dark which in a way is a part of the creative process, it’s part of what makes us make the music we do, the kind of world we create around us.
“This is making it different, we’ll be playing live shows around it that might have a good influence on it, I’m hoping that it does, I’m quite excited about the whole thing,” he added.
While this may hamper the band’s already drawn out recording process, I’m fucking excited to hear what they come up with.
