Spring 2017. Twenty-five years after his last rock album, an urgent, raging Roger Waters has returned, with much he needs to say. On the eve of Is This The Life We Really Want?’s release and the epic Us + Them tour, Michael Bonner joins Waters in New York to set the world to rights. To be discussed: Pink Floyd, Donald Trump, Brexit, The Beatles, 9/11 and an album which, producer Nigel Godrich says, gives Waters a “reboot in the same way The Force Awakens gave Star Wars back to the fans”…
‘LET’S have some wine, shall we?” It is midafternoon in New York City and Roger Waters is playing the genial host. At present, he has taken up residence in a discreet post-production studio in Midtown, close by the American offices of his record label. The main studio space is busy – a German television crew is taking down lights and a backdrop – so we opt for the calmer surroundings of a modestly sized edit suite. Waters takes stock of the available furnishings – a faded green sofa or an orange armchair – before parking himself in a black swivel chair next to a mixing console.
A conversation with Roger Waters covers a lot of ground and moves with speed and purpose. One minute, he is considering the merits of ecclesiastical architecture; the next finds him reminiscing warmly about creating tape loops at Abbey Road during Pink Floyd’s heyday.
Seemingly, we are here to discuss Is This The Life We Really Want? – Waters’ first LP since 1992’s Amused To Death. But a lot has happened since Waters first told Uncut about this new record back in November 2015 – Brexit, Donald Trump, the stirrings of the right across Europe – all of which have given Waters vigorous new purpose. At Desert Trip last October, Waters bombarded audiences with images of Trump transmogrified into a pig, or wearing lipstick, or making a Nazi salute. It gave his music a raw topicality; where songs from 30 or 40 years ago appear horribly prescient as England and America flirt with the kind of totalitarianism he attacked on Animals and The Wall.
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