Roger Waters Shares Update From Studio With Nigel Godrich

In May, Roger Waters will begin his extensive Us Or Them Tour in which is expected to see the Pink Floyd bassist perform new material along with his most beloved songs. Waters recently posted a sample of the work he’s doing in the studio with famed producer Nigel Godrich on his first studio album since 1992’s Amused To Death.

The bassline Waters lays down in the studio sample has the feel of classic Pink Floyd material such as “Have A Cigar.” Roger had talked about his new studio album with Rolling Stone back in October. “We’ve got some really good work in the can,” Waters revealed. “We did some work in London and in Los Angeles.” Waters was expected to return to the studio last November. Here’s the clip Roger shared:

When asked about the concept for the studio album, Roger shared the following with Rolling Stone:

I had written a long, meandering piece that was a radio play with about a dozen songs in it. It was the story of an old Irishman who is babysitting. You don’t know this. The thing starts off with a two-minute monologue of discontent [chuckles]: “Our children and grandchildren, ceaselessly bent over their computers, blah, blah, blah, I fucking hate this, I fucking hate that.” That was the beginning of the whole thing, this disillusionment.

You eventually discover that he is babysitting. The kid wakes up. He goes in to look after the kid, and it’s his granddaughter. She is having a nightmare, and the nightmare is someone is killing all the children. He says, “No, they’re not. They haven’t killed any children since the Troubles [in Northern Ireland].” And the kid says, “Not here, Grandpa. Over there.” The grandfather promises they will go on a quest to find the answer to this question: Why are they killing all the children? It is a fundamentally important question.

So I wrote this whole thing – part magic carpet ride, part political rant, part anguish. I played this to Nigel, and he goes, “Oh, I like that little bit” – about two minutes long – “and that bit.” And so we’ve been working. I’ve also been falling in love, deeply in love. So the record is really about love – which is what all of my records have been about, in fact. It’s pondering not just why we are killing the children. It’s also the question of how do we take these moments of love – if we are granted any in our lives – and allow that love to shine on the rest of existence, on others.