Manic Street Preachers’ James Dean Bradfield and Nicky Wire sat down with Absolute Radio to share that they started to work on their 15th studio album. James revealed that they have several songs but still no mission statement by saying:
“We just don’t know where it is. I think the main difference is usually, we have some kind of mission statement that we follow – vaguely follow – when we do a new album. But at the moment, this seems like a collection of songs. Yeah, good songs, but there’s no concept at the moment, I don’t think.”
Nicky stood behind James’ comments about not having a ‘mission statement’ by adding:
“No, there’s not [a mission statement]. ‘Ultra Vivid Lament’ was much more conceptual and lonely, and distanced from itself. But this one, it does feel like we’re just writing songs at the moment, but I’m sure I can mold something together!”
The band’s previous album ‘Ultra Vivid Lament’ had the mission statement of resignation and revolution, despair and defiance so James and Nicky are hopeful that they will figure out the follow-up album’s statement as they keep writing songs and get further in the process of completing the album.
You can watch the interview below and listen to ‘Ultra Vivid Lament’ below.