'Blowing Up U2'

Nov

2011

'Blowing Up U2'

'These two scruff-bags with hoodies and a beard walk through the door, and it’s Bono and Adam, in disguise. They said, 'We want to blow up the old U2, and go to Berlin to make a new record. Are you interested?'

Flood - otherwise known as Mark Ellis - has worked in the studio with U2 for many years, first, as a sound engineer, and latterly, as producer. (He shared a Grammy for his work on the ‘Album of the Year’ in 2006 How to Dismantle An Atomic Bomb.) With the release of the 20th anniversary edition of Achtung Baby, Brian Draper tracked him down for U2.com and asked him to recollect those early days, in particular the role he played in the Hansa and Dublin sessions on Achtung Baby.

U2.com: You first got the call to work with U2 on the Joshua Tree, didn’t you?
Yes. It was nearly April 1st, and I’d been receiving messages that someone in Ireland wanted to contact me. The phone went in the studio, and I was told, “It’s Bono, for you.” So I picked up and said, “OK, who’s winding me up?” But it was him. Whoops.

U2.com: What did he say?
The chaps are doing an album, and would I like to come over and have a try-out, to see if we get along? He liked a couple of things I’d done. And the thing I liked, when I got there, was that he swore a lot. I had assumed Bono wouldn’t swear. So I did a two week trial. They were working on the early stages of the album, demos.

U2.com: Not a bad moment to join, then?
Unbelievable. To come to Ireland and work with the biggest band in the world - or very close to it, then - was like: Oh my God! I’m only 26, but let’s go for it...

U2.com: How was it, working alongside Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois?
I’d been conventionally trained as a recording engineer, but I realised how unconventional their approach to everything was. Everything. I had to tear up the rule book I’d been using for six years and start again. It was like I’d woken up in another place, a good place, a happy place.

U2.com: And U2 wanted you back. You got the call for Achtung Baby!
Yes, though I didn’t actually get ‘the call’. Depeche Mode were playing Giants Stadium (after we’d recorded Violator together) and I was sitting on my high throne in the press box, getting absolutely mullered, thinking, 'How good does this get?', when Anton Corbjin says, 'Flood, I have a couple of people to see you.'
These two scruff-bags with hoodies and a beard walk through the door, and it’s Bono and Adam, in disguise. So we were all there, having a few jars, and they said, 'We want to blow up the old U2, and go to Berlin to make a new record. Are you interested?'

U2.com: How much can you plan for something as profound as ‘blowing up U2’ ahead of time? Or do you just show up with some dynamite?
Well, it is a big deal, but it’s strange: there’s such a level of respect amongst those musicians and the producers that everyone’s on the same wavelength.
The band couldn’t go back to where they were - that was the overriding philosophy. They were saying to me, 'Be as free as you want to be. Try everything!' I’d been working with Depeche and Nine Inch Nails, so they were looking for some of that ‘industrial’ input.
But every day, they’d say, 'It’s too much like the old thing.' I remember hearing Trying to Throw Your Arms Around the World - it sounded like a campfire version, to start with. I was saying, 'Oh, that sounds good,' and they were saying, 'NO! It can’t be like this!'
Everybody knew what they didn’t want.

U2.com: So how do you find what they do want?
Bono puts it perfectly: 'You have the material, and then you circle it.'
A good example is One. That was pretty much the only backing track that was done in Berlin. It took about an afternoon, once things fell into place; they did the melody, the chords, all in about three takes. Everyone’s going, 'It’s amazing, it’s a classic song, it’s brilliant, it’s U2!' and there was a great sense of relief from the band.
But Eno and I were saying, 'It’s a brilliant song, but boy.. is it a pedestrian, boring arrangement?' So we spent six months trying every which way with it. It doesn’t seem very different, but many tiny things went in to shifting it away from the traditional sound.

U2.com: Like what?
The drums, for a start. For ages, we were experimenting with big heavy drums. But Danny had an idea for Larry to play with a delay effect on the whole kit. It gives it that sort of tumbling feel - it’s not obvious in the finished mix, but it’s there - and it gave Larry a different way of attacking the song, too.
I also started to work out that drums in mono could be just as powerful, without having to be as loud. That’s one of the major subtleties on Achtung Baby: most of the drums are in mono, which is very, very unusual.'

(Read Part 2 of our conversation with Flood in which he recalls the tension in the studio during recording, coming up with the voice for The Fly and finally 'standing on top of Everest'.)

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19 Comments

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Baky - 17 December, 2011

MAGNIFICENT!!!!

All about Achtung Baby is always welcome, interesting and gripping...

crisbaj - 14 December, 2011

The most creative music-makers in the wo

Love the interview, the whole team together have proven to be the most creative music-makers in the world... great to 'get on the inside', helps us struggling musicians embrace a different process...

markzanca - 05 December, 2011

Awesome!

I absolutely love interviews on the recording of Achtung baby! Can wait for interview part 2! Maybe some day soon we'll have Achtung Baby part 2 the the album? lol

Muldfeld - 29 November, 2011

Thanks so much, but more detail, please!

I can't wait for Part 2 and I 'd love to hear more detail from Flood on the subtle things he or others changed from how the band recorded songs initially. Please do more interviews with him!

greydogblues - 28 November, 2011

probably just me

I get a little sad reading about 'blowing up' early U2 and 'chopping down' the Joshua Tree. UF and JT are still my favorite albums - I dig almost everything since, and love all this new energy surrounding AB, but there's something in the earlier days that still gets me or gets to me.

sethandshannon - 24 November, 2011

Blow up again...please!

You haven't successfully blown up since "Pop"! Stop playing it safe, and go "BOOM" like you used to!

musicabona - 24 November, 2011

Evolution of sound

With this great interview Flood reveals some insightful details about how U2 were eager to move away from their past in order to find something new and special. The Kindergarten version of Trying To Throw Your Arms Around The World is one stunning example of a song;s evolution from a raw stage to more subtlety. In contrast to the quiet melancholy of the album track the early version comes across as an uplifting tune.

longshotz40 - 22 November, 2011

YES YES YES

I love this interview..cant wait for the 2nd part :) Thank You

Sailos - 22 November, 2011

its all about the drums

gonna go listen to those drums now

alexct - 22 November, 2011

About "Trying To Throw Your Arms Around

Is it the version on the "Kindergarten" CD? If yes I definetively agree with U2. At first hearing I thought "It's impossible!! These are not U2, must be some cover!!!" I like some of the "Baby" versions, some sound really strange but you can feel what the basis were for the songs. Wonderful ONE!!! Stripped to only acoustics.

Vox98 - 21 November, 2011

Love the stories

Love hearing the stories on how things transpire. Would have loved to be in the room when Adam and Bono walked in with disguises! haha Waiting for part 2

K_fu_K - 21 November, 2011

Go on U2!!!!!

I thought 'How would these guys blow up the old U2'?But I'd forgotten that you are U2 and that you can always blow up whatever you want because you are able to blow it all up and you can always bring us new and great feelings with your songs. Long Live U2!!!!!!!!!!! :D

Hardfelt - 21 November, 2011

Artistic Mystic

I love these behind the scenes insights from collaborators. It just shows how hard the guys really work, how they value their art and craft and just how lucky we all are to hear the end product.

norwaylad - 21 November, 2011

Mr. Mojo Risin

Nuke It lads , shake that mojo loose. Put the Baby Back in Boom!!!

LJStephens1980 - 21 November, 2011

Wow!!!!

Very Interesting, can't for the 2nd part of this!!!!

- 21 November, 2011

Don't blow up again!

We''ve been kept in suspense for years on end after your tours, because you go away and get new material for at least 3 years, if u blow up again, it'll take forever! U got new songs, get uur new album out soon guys! we send love from Cumbria, England

wdixon077 - 21 November, 2011

I second that!

@gevans.... well said, well said!

gevans - 21 November, 2011

Blow up.....

Go on do it again, I dare you!!! If there was ever a time to go "and dream it all up again" it is now.

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