New Order Answer the Call
After a four-year hiatus, veteran British rockers New Order will release their eighth studio album, Waiting for the Sirens’ Call, on April 26th.
“From the days of Joy Division to the Republic album, we’d just been touring, and we got burnt out, really,” says guitarist/vocalist Bernard Sumner of the band’s slow pace of the past decade. “We needed to get off the road and dry off for a bit.”
Produced by Tore Johansson (Franz Ferdinand, the Cardigans), Waiting favors guitars over the synth pop that made New Order famous. “It’s pretty rock-y,” Sumner says. “Reason being, we don’t really go out to clubs anymore. We don’t own a club anymore. And in order to be a part of that kind of music, you have to be involved in it.”
They’ve also added another guitarist: Phil Cunningham has joined Sumner, bassist Peter Hook and drummer Stephen Morris, who have not had a steady fourth member since longtime keyboardist (and Morris’ wife) Gillian Gilbert left to focus on her children. “It’s good to have someone else,” says Sumner, “because I used to have to do all the guitar, and the vocals, and the keyboards.”
New Order have signed on to play the Coachella Valley Music and Art Festival on May 1st, and they plan to tour the U.S. after the album’s release.
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