Massive Attack: 'We have an album of new music'

Band talk to Gigwise at Glastonbury about their future and collaborating with Tricky

16:30 1st July 2014

Massive Attack have spoken out about progress on long-awaited new material, following on their incredible and show-stopping headline set at Glastonbury Festival this weekend.

Speaking to Gigwise before they took to the Other Stage to close the festival on Sunday night, the band said that they were progressing well with their sixth studio album - their first since 2010's Heligoland.

"To be honest there's a whole album of new material sitting in a studio at the moment which isn't finished and hasn't been played at all yet," said Rob Del Naja, known to fans as 3D. "There's one track I've done with Tricky... but I've gotta play it live with him really, and that's not ready for this tour yet as it would have just been a bit haphazard to throw it in there for these shows."

He continued: "At the moment I'm thinking that on this record we've been concentrating on songs and the inspirations for them. Working with Adam last year saw us hear a lot of old pop songs which I guess made us look at things in a different way.

"We've always worked under a DJ-based ideology incorporating the beats and rhythms first, so what we've been doing is just straight up songs and melodies, now whether that will fit into the history of the band, I don't know, but it's a different approach so it's interesting to see how successful that will be."

Massive Attack have a run of European summer live dates, including headlining appearances at Longitude Festival in Ireland and Blackheath Festival in London. For more information visit Gigwise Tickets.

Below: Massive Attack and beyond - 10 artists taking their time, who we really want to hear new material from

Missy Elliott: Her recent appearance during Pharrell's BET performance reminded us that it's been way, way too long since we heard from Missy. It's been nine years since her last album, The Cookbook, and we're more than ready for some new material (a verse on a Little Mix single doesn't count).
Radiohead: It's been a long four years since the release of Thom Yorke and co's last collection, The King of Limbs. They've always left between 2-4 years between each record, so surely that time is…now. However, we've heard nothing. Maybe they'll do a Beyonce? [Photo: Kevin Westenberg]
M83: The French electronic duo's 2011 opus Hurry Up, We're Dreaming was nothing short of an instant classic, and the ridiculously catchy lead single 'Midnight Single' was EVERYWHERE - deservedly so. That was four years ago. Hurry back, M83, and deliver us another eye-poppingly amazing electro anthem.
Prince: Whilst we've certainly SEEN a lot of Prince this year - he's played about a gazillion shows across the UK in 2014 - but there's still no actual album. His last record, 2010's 20Ten, was released on the front cover of The Daily Mirror, so…there's that. You know we'd pay actual money for a brand new, good album?
Blur: The release of Damon Albarn's solo album unfortunately means this probably isn't going to be happening anytime soon, as well as less-than-encouraging reports of the record's development. We've been waiting for 11 years, however, so what's a bit longer?
Mew: The Danish alt-rockers haven't released an album in five years; happily, it seems as if the follow-up is on its way. In June 2014, the band announced an album would be released in 2015. About bloody time.
Robyn: Yes, yes, we know Robyn recently collaborated with Royksopp on the excellent mini-album Do It Again, but what can we say? We're greedy, and it's been four years since a proper solo Robyn album. She's been playing some new material live recently, so fingers crossed we won't have to wait too much longer.
D'Angelo: D'Angelo helped popularise neo-soul in the late 90s and early 00s with his debut album Brown Sugar and the follow-up, Voodoo. Then he disappeared. Having re-surfaced with a number of live shows in recent years, there's been constant updates on his very much long-awaited third album which has failed to materialise. However, his manager recently promised it will come out in 2014. Hmmm…we'll take it with a pinch of salt. [Photo: Jesper Skouboelling]
Tool: The prog-rockers hinted at how long their fans may have to wait until their next release with the title of their last album, 10,000 Days. Over the past few years, statements from the band have varied from "It's halfway done!" to "It's not finished at all", so we're still in the dark. They have, however, recently been previewing what sounds like new tracks at live shows.
Massive Attack: Hmm. The trip-hop duo may think they're distracting us with a ton of amazing live shows in the past couple of years, but we're still very much waiting for the follow-up to their 2010 LP Heligoland.

Photo: Press