"It's pretty loud here," drummer Sean Moore apologizes right at the start of the call. The band's new studio is under construction. In fact, it hammers and drills in the background. In view of the unwritten law of the Manic Street Preachers to always allow a more conventional album to be followed by an experimental one, however, the question literally lies in the air as to whether the background noise might not also be an inspiration for the next work. "Why not?" Moore laughs back. "In the '80s I heard a lot of Einstürzende Neubauten, I really loved them. Maybe we should really think about a new sound!"
In their recently published work "Resistance Is Futile", however, the Welsh once again live out their more melodic side. That means: a lot of keyboard surfaces, even more pathos and always captivating melodies, intoned by the powerful, but always somewhat vulnerable sounding voice of James Dean Bradfield. "After the long break, we went into the studio without a concept. With other albums we wanted to go in a certain, often unorthodox direction. In the case of 'Resistance Is Futile' we decided to just let it all happen. So you could say that we have further developed our core sound."
Lyricist and bassist Nicky Wire had already told us that the title of the album was less about the martial Samurai on the cover than about the power of the melodies you shouldn't even try to resist. But even if the record sounds a bit sweet here and there, the band hasn't lost anything of their fighting, uncompromising attitude. "Yes, it's true that the album has become more musically conventional, but that's always the trick with us," adds Moore. "We invite listeners to engage with what moves and inspires us, be it art, music, film, literature or politics. We then process this in the texts. If you want to get more involved with the songs, you can do so and hopefully you will find a lot of inspiration in them. But those who want to listen to them only superficially also get their money's worth."
