Adam Clayton Part II

part I

How early on were you aware of what kind of album you were making?

I think there was a lot more clarity around this record and I can't explain why. It just felt like people knew what this record was. Again, from a very personal point of view, it was like that from the beginning. When we first got together and started to play together, the sound that happened, there was a richness to it. The sound seemed to be a product of the time it was being created in. It was very unusual. The complex, sort of North African feel that's a part of the record was there right from inception."

Did the environment in Morocco have a marked impact on the finished product?

I think there was a time when it was more dominant. Earlier on in the record there was a time when it was a bit more challenging and questioning in a cultural sense - east and west and the war was a bit more central to the record. And then it seemed to shift again and it became the record that it is now. I think you're aware that something has happened in the world. The world has changed and this record doesn't actually stand up and tell you that because you should know it anyway - but it acknowledges that things are different now and there's a different value system.

I don't know if you've read The Road by Cormac McCarthy?

That has a very interesting, brooding atmosphere about it, a sense that you know that something has happened but you're not quite sure what it is. I think this record has that quality.
Does Eno like bass?[Laughs] He loves it if he's playing it!

Do you and Eno always see eye to eye musically?

We have a really healthy respect for each other. It's probably taken a little while to get to that point but quite often we'll be digging in the same hole. The great thing about Brian is that he acknowledges his limitations and I have learned to acknowledge mine. He'll sometimes take something I'm doing and I'll think, 'Oh shit, he's playing my bass part again!' And I have to go and do something else. But the result is always better. And quite often it'll be the other way around: he'll say, 'Why don't you play this?' Or he'll give me a part and then he'll figure out something else around it. It's very much a collaborative experience.
The thing that I love about Brian is that he gets so excited that he's got a group of people to play with. Because a lot of his time is spent on his own. I think that's probably why he can be a little impatient. By the time he's worked something up he just wants to get off it and on to something else.

Black Eyed Peas' will.i.am is credited on I'll Go Crazy... What does he contribute?

Will helped early on in the arranging of the demo ideas in the summer. Then when he came in we recut it and he helped us push it up the hill. The final version is a recut that we did late on when we'd kind of played it in a bit. But he's a lovely, inspiring man to be around.
The version I heard before Christmas is almost more over the top than the version on the record...You're absolutely right. We did try and take some of the bells and whistles off it and bring it back down to earth. It doffs the cap towards Motown and it's great to hear the band do a song like that. Unashamedly it's a pop song and it's got a pretty good one-two [chuckles]"
Interesting to hear French horns on a U2 record. On at least two songs I think.Yeah. They're a lovely mournful sound. Real brass is something that you don't hear very much and it is a fabulous sound. Those tunes inherently had those brass parts written into them. But we did find a great horn player who came in and embellished them.
It works especially well with the guitar solo on Unknown Caller...And that is one of Edge's great guitar solos. Fabulous.
The internal chemistry of the band must shift over time and the process of making a record must be intense.

Have you all come out the other side happy?

Erm... [laughs] I think people are more relaxed now. When you have the kind of success that we had early on it brings a kind of responsibility with it. For some of the band, that became a burden that we fought against and wrestled with. But now instead of thinking that the band is limiting we feel it is very free. And we can do things that we can't do as individuals.

Most of us daydream about being millionaires. Do you ever wonder what you'd do if you woke up and weren't a millionaire?

Primarily, I don't identify myself as a millionaire but I am grateful on a regular basis that I don't have to think about [money] too much. If things changed, I could live within my means. I'd probably find it difficult but it wouldn't be the end of the world.

There's a lot of talk about the concert business downsizing. Could U2 tour on anything other than a massive scale?

I think it can change, depending on our appetite for big tours or for long tours or the economics of it. But for the tour coming up, I think we want to take on the big places again. It feels right to play the songs in stadiums this time. But I don't know what songs we're going to play yet. We're about to go off and do some promo for TV and when we get back from that we'll be rehearsing for the tour.

What did Bono get you for Christmas?

[Laughs nervously] Actually, we don't do Christmas presents any more. It was negotiated a few years back. We tend to pass books around.
Interview by: Keith Cameron