[tweetmeme]Back in February, The Cure announced ambitious plans for 2014, including the release of a new album — the long-delayed companion to 2008′s 4:13 Dream — as well as a third round of “Trilogy” shows worldwide, which would find the band performing The Top, The Head on the Door and Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me in their entireties each night.
In a totally characteristic turn of events, however, Smith already is backtracking a bit, revealing in an interview with London’s XFM — recorded after the band’s epic Royal Albert Hall performances this weekend — that he’s not terribly keen on putting out an album “made by a band that no longer exists,” and said that while he expects the “Trilogy” shows to happen, he’s not sure they’ll get around to them this year after all.
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In the XFM interview, Smith confirmed the album, provisionally titled 4:14 Scream, is done:
“I’ve finished singing and mixing an album that was made by a band that no longer exists… So I’m trying to be convinced that I should release what is the second half of an album that effectively came out in 2008. It’s a bit of a sore point, really, to be honest, amongst this current lineup. But I think it will get released. … I don’t feel such a strong urge, really, to beat people over the head with new stuff. It will just come out and people who want to hear it will hear it and those who don’t, won’t, and they’ll just keep dancing to ‘Close to Me.’”
The album likely will come out during the “dead period” this summer, Smith said.
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Smith’s claim of a “band that no longer exists,” however, is really only a reference to guitarist Porl Thompson, who rejoined in 2005 and left in 2010. Bassist Simon Gallup and drummer Jason Cooper remain in The Cure, which is now augmented, once again, by keyboardist Roger O’Donnell, as well more recent addition Reeves Gabrels, the guitarist who came on board in 2012.
Working in the studio as a live band similar to the 4:13 Dream sessions, Smith says the current lineup also is recording new music: “This band is trying to make an album… an album I’m tempted to make that’s really different than anything else we’ve ever done.”
Following this weekend’s marathon 45-song sets at Royal Albert Hall, Smith and Co. are next slated to take the stage at the BottleRock Festival in Napa Valley, Calif., on May 30. After that, Smith said, The Cure is not likely to perform again until late September.
He said the “Trilogy” tour is still in the cards, but maybe not before 2015:
“It will happen. I don’t know whether it will happen this year. I quite like what we’re doing, I like dipping into the history of the band, playing shows that are just really big shows. I’m so enthralled by digging out songs that we’ve never played. They’re essentially new songs… they’re new songs to me, I know the songs less well than if I was singing an actual new song.”
Fans of The Cure, of course, know not to put too much stock in what Smith says the band will be doing. And, in wrapping up the interview, Smith acknowledged as much:
“Having said all that, I have no idea… I really don’t. I’m really bad at planning long-term stuff.”
Below, listen to the full 8-minute interview (via Chain of Flowers):
