Mike Scott: “There’s a sense of musical history in the record”

Following this week’s announcement about the new Waterboys album, Life, Death And Dennis Hopper, here’s the Mike Scott talking about the record in our Album Preview from Uncut’s January 2025 issue.

THE BAND, THE VERVE, SHARON VAN ETTEN AND MORE STAR IN THE FEBRUARY 2025 ISSUE OF UNCUT; ORDER A COPY HERE

MIKE SCOTT: “It’s a concept record that tells several stories at the same time. There’s a central story [about Dennis Hopper], but it’s also telling the story of our times, the story of the counterculture, which is a fascinating subject. And the further away we get from that big bang of the 1950s and ’60s, the more fascinating it becomes. There’s a sense of musical history in the record. It’s a rock’n’roll record, basically, and there’s a strong flavour of Americana in it too.

“Initial recordings were done during that strange period of lockdown. So I would record my parts here in Dublin and the other Waterboys would record their parts separately. James [Hallawell] did a lot of his stuff in his studio in London. Brother Paul [Brown], our other keyboard player, lives in Nashville – he has a home studio too. After lockdown lifted we did some proper band recording, all in a room together, but a lot of it was done during that weird period. We were all working on our own, through the miracle of email and file-sharing.

“Actually, I like working like that. Even if I’m recording on my own, I switch into my inner teenager and play like I’m 16 years old, so it always has that wildness and fire. And one of the drummers who worked on the record, a guy called Greg Morrow, he’s one of the top session players in Nashville. I would send him a track which might’ve been recorded using a drum loop or a pulse, and he’d send me back these absolutely fantastic drum tracks. It sounded like he was in a room with all the musicians playing completely naturally. So I’m blessed to be working with musicians of that calibre.

“I wrote a song with Steve Earle for this record. I had a particular lyric that was set in America and I’d written music for it, but my music just didn’t sound right. I needed someone who could write real deep Americana music, and Steve Earle and I know each other, we share a manager. So he wrote the music for this track and he sent me a demo with his vocal on it.

“The idea was that I would sing the actual recorded version on the album. But when I heard his demo, my God, it sounded fantastic with him singing, so I asked him if he would sing it for real on the record. It’s the opening track, so when people put on a Waterboys record, the first singing voice they’ll hear is Steve Earle and not me!”