Robert Smith has revealed that he’s spent most of this wild, chaotic year locked inside finishing off The Cure’s first new record in 12 years, as well as chipping away at a solo album.
This morning, the frontman appeared on BBC 6 Music with Damon Albarn in promotion of his latest collaborative single with Gorillaz, ‘Strange Timez’.
During the interview, Smith revealed that Damon Albarn first sent the track to him whilst he was “in the middle of finishing off the big song at the end of The Cure album” a track that he has described as being “10 minutes of intense doom and gloom”.
When asked about how he was faring throughout the coronavirus lockdown, Smith mused “I feel really sorry for the people who had plans this year, it’s been a disaster. From my own perspective it’s great that we got so much done last year. This year has just been – just not a year – it’s just been completely weird.
“Our whole idea for this year was really finishing off the album we started last year, me finishing off the solo album and also, finishing digitising decades of stuff in order to make this film with Tim Pope about the history of the band. So, it’s actually benefited me because there have been no other distractions, so I’ve actually got a lot of what I wanted to do, done.”
Check out ‘Strange Timez’ by Gorillaz featuring Robert Smith:
In previous interviews, Robert Smith has implied that the forthcoming The Cure record will be their most unrelentingly sad yet.
“I think I’m generally more of a balanced individual than I was 10 years ago,” he told NME. “I’ve experienced more of life’s darker side, for real. Before I used to write about stuff that I thought I understood. Now I know I understand it. The lyrics I’ve been writing for this album, for me personally, are more true.
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“They’re more honest. That’s probably why the album itself is a little bit more doom and gloom. I feel I want to do something that expresses the darker side of what I’ve experienced over the last few years – but in a way that will engage people.”
