David Gilmour’s first solo album in nearly a decade, Luck and Strange, is set for release next month, and it's been bolstered by a production team whose “lack of respect” for Gilmour’s heritage helped him create, what he feels, is his best work since The Dark Side of the Moon.
Produced by Gilmour and Charlie Andrew (ALT-J, Marika Hackman), the co-producer’s decidedly non-prog rock background helped the Pink Floyd guitarist expand his horizons for the better.
Speaking in the new issue of Prog magazine, he’s uttered its title in the same breath as Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon – one of the best-selling albums in music history – believing nothing else he’s created since that 1973 LP matches it in terms of quality.
“It’s over 50 years now since The Dark Side Of The Moon,” Gilmour reflects. “My feeling is that this album is the best album I’ve made in all those years since 1973 when The Dark Side Of The Moon came out.”
It’s quite the statement, and one sure to whet appetites that haven’t been satiated with a new Gilmour album since 2015’s Rattle That Lock.
So far two singles, The Piper’s Call and Between Two Points, have been released, alongside a series of videos showcasing the guitars behind the record's creation. Among that collection is a 1945 Martin D-18 acoustic guitar, one that led Gilmour to voice his opinion that vintage guitars will always sound better than modern builds.
Indeed, the fact that Andrew arrived for the studio sessions unphased by Gilmour’s illustrious history – that includes a slew of Grammy wins, a place in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and a reputation as one of progressive rock’s most important figures – helped him get the best out of the guitarist.
“We invited Charlie to the house, so he came and listened to some demos,” Gilmour said in the record’s PR. “[He] said things like, ‘Well, why does there have to be a guitar solo there?’ and ‘Do they all fade out? Can’t some of them just end?’.
“He has a wonderful lack of knowledge or respect for this past of mine. He’s very direct and not in any way overawed, and I love that. The last thing you want is people just deferring to you.”
Expanding on that relationship in his conversation with Prog, he said: “Our plan is just to get this one out and run it and then do another one straight away, I will be working with all these people again.
“I’ve had this problem in the past, of wanting to throw myself in the studio with a few people and just kick stuff around, but not knowing who those people should be.
“And that is now a pressure that’s evaporated because I’ve got these phone numbers. It feels like a team and I love being in a team – I didn’t choose to be a solo artist.
“When you have achieved the higher levels of success, most of the people that come into your sphere are going to look to you,” he continues. “They’re not going to be like Charlie Andrew – Charlie is the kind of refreshing thing that you want to have happen to you.”
Alongside his video series documenting his Luck and Strange guitars – which survived his instrument cull that resulted in a huge 2019 auction – Gilmour also recently demonstrated his trademark swell technique. The soloing trick is created using delay pedals, rather than the volume knob, as many have (wrongly) assumed.
Luck and Strange will release on September 6 and is available to pre-order now.
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