The band is in the midst of their groundbreaking Las Vegas residency

Bono and The Edge have teased that new U2 music is coming soon. Last month, the band dropped “Atomic City” as they launched their extraordinary new U2:UV Achtung Baby Live At Sphere shows at Las Vegas’ groundbreaking new venue, Sphere. The single acts as a placeholder while the band works on new music, the pair confirms in a new interview with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe.

“Edge has about 100 [song ideas] in the bag and I have about 20, but Adam’s got something to contribute. Larry will be sitting there going through the bag going, ‘No, that’s shite. That’s shite. That’s shite. Is there anything here that’s not shite?’ And we’ll find ten. And that’s all you need, ten, and that’s your reason to exist. If not, U2 should just fuck off,” Bono says. “Go live on an island or go away be a nuisance or be useful somewhere in the world, either will do. But if we want to continue as a band, it’s only about one thing: it’s about the text, it’s about the tunes, it’s about the performance, it’s about whether you believe us or not. We have an extraordinary musical genius in our band, and we will try — I will try to put into words what the music he’s making, I will make it with him.”

“There’s a lot that we have ready and some that need a little dusting off, but will be ready soon,” The Edge adds. “So, I tell you, we got some amazing new songs.”

“The fight is for our future. It’s love versus luck,” Bono continues. “That’s what our band is built around. It’s not just friendship. We overuse the word love like The Beatles did… It’s a lazy word to use unless it has meaning. If it doesn’t have meaning within the band then it’s not going to have meaning outside of the band.”

No timeline for the project was given, but the plan is to return to the studio when drummer Larry Mullen, Jr. heals from shoulder surgery that has forced him to sit out of the band’s 25-show residency. Dutch drummer Bram van den Berg is filling in while Mullen, Jr. recuperates. Despite his injury, Mullen, Jr. did record drums for “Atomic City,” which was recorded in early September in Los Angeles.

“It’s really tricky for him and he came in the night before. We recorded it in Sound City [Studios],” Bono shares. “Larry went the night before. He didn’t know if he could play for an hour or he didn’t know if he could play for 15 minutes. He just played up a storm.”

“[H]is [drum] tech was saying that [Mullen, Jr.] loved the sound of the room so much, he ended up playing for three hours,” The Edge adds.

“[The recording] took its toll on Larry. He’s miming [while] we’re [shooting] the video, and he’s like ‘Ow.’ But he’s going to get back to fitness,” Bono continues. “It’s a heartbeat for Larry to see this and know that Bram is standing in for him… [Bram] will be here playing instead of Larry, and that’s gotta hurt as much as some of the injuries, but he gave it all on this song anyway.”

The album will be the band’s first new project of all new material since 2017’s Songs of Experience. In March, the group released Songs of Surrender, featuring acoustic and reimagined versions of 40 of their biggest hits. The album debuted atop of the charts in 35 countries, including the US, the UK, and their native Ireland.

The news stems from a new video Apple Music has released where Bono and The Edge tour the finished Sphere building with Lowe, gushing about its innovative technological achievements as well as its top-of-the-line audio engineering. U2 talks about the creative vision behind the stage design as they bring on a new era of music for the band. They take on a quite spiritual and artistic approach to hard-hitting subjects, presenting them in an aural-visual journey that is sure to make the audience feel deeply immersed.