’I avoid it at all costs..’
’I avoid it at all costs..’
’I avoid it at all costs..’

'I avoid it at all costs..'

'Jamming is really the most awful, excruciating experience for me, I really don't enjoy it.' Edge doesn't jam.

05 Jan 2010
Speaking to the Daily Telegraph's Neil McCormick (and longtime band friend), Edge explains why he doesn't often play with other guitarists.

'I try and avoid it at all costs. Jamming is really the most awful, excruciating experience for me, I really don't enjoy it. First of all, that's not how I work as a guitar player. I compose using the instrument, I don't really sit down and play for the sake of playing stuff. So the idea of jamming - endless, directionless noodling around some nondescript chord progression - I really find very boring.

Obviously a great song is fun to play, but U2 were never really in that phase of The Beatles in Hamburg or Van Morrison in showbands or Dylan in the folk clubs, of knowing and learning a big collection of classics. We never did that, and at the time we were forming as a band there really wasn't a large collection of songs that we felt like learning. It was actually a moment where the past was being thrown out the window, so it's very much part of our DNA as a band not to be too reverential, as a general rule, and to try and look forward all the time. Invention being what we value most highly as opposed to emulation - which is what a lot of musicians feel is important, being able to play like the greats...'


Edge also tells The Telegraph about new songs he's been working on and the band's visit to Glastonbury this summer. But mainly he talks about 'It Might Get Loud' which you can catch a clip of here.

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