The long, long wait for a new Midnight Oil album will soon be over. The band got back together for a world tour in 2017 and released the Armistice Day live album the following year. However, their last studio LP was 2002’s Capricornia.
Midnight Oil have posted a lengthy update on their Facebook page, which lays out their plans for the next 12 months. After wrapping up their 2019 European tour, they gathered in a Sydney studio with past collaborator Warne Livesey. The Canadian-based British producer worked on the Oils’ seminal albums Diesel and Dust and Blue Sky Mine.
The sessions were particularly fruitful. The band says they had over 20 songs they wanted to work on, and a significant chunk of these centred on Indigenous reconciliation. This sparked a project of its own, with the band inviting their “First Nations friends to collaborate with us in various ways on each of these eight tracks.”
Watch: Midnight Oil – Treaty ft. Yirrmal (live 2017)
That’ll be the first of the two releases from Midnight Oil in 2020. “Our collective work will be released as a mini-album called The Makarrata Project in June/July,” write the band. The band will donate profits from The Makarrata Project to charities that support The Uluru Statement From The Heart.
In alignment with the release, Midnight Oil will play a bunch of themed Australian gigs featuring some of the guests who contributed to the album.
In even juicier news, an official Midnight Oil album – the band’s 12th overall – is coming towards the end of 2020. Recording is done and it’s currently being mixed. The only real info the band offer is that it “deals with various lyrical themes including climate chaos, no surprise after the mega fires we’ve just experienced in Australia.”
Watch: Midnight Oil – Beds Are Burning
Singles from both projects should start the drip out over the next few months. And while nothing’s confirmed yet, they’re planning “lots more Australian and international touring across late 2020 and early 2021.”
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