Oh, sad day… Knife Party (mostly just Rob, though, it seems) are doing an AMA (Ask Me Anything) on reddit right now, and of course the top question has to do with Pendulum.
empw, a moderator on many of the electronic music subreddits, asked, “So… how’s the new Pendulum album going?” The answer will likely leave you confused and a little sad.
Keep-management-and-fans-happy answer:
It’s not going at all (yet). We have a bunch of unreleased material from the last two albums that we still love, and would like to finish / re-work into something new, but we’re not actively working on it just yet.
Honest answer:
It’s been nearly 5 years since the last Pendulum album – even if we do release new material, it will most likely sound completely different, just because…well, people change, and get bored of things, etc. I have no real desire to make drum’n’bass anymore, I have no desire to fuse it with rock, and I sure as fuck don’t have any desire to tour with a live band.
Around about the time we started Knife Party, I really lost my heart for the project. I remember playing Glastonbury 2011 on the main stage – we played just before Beyonce to a crowd full of parents and their kids waiting to sing “Crazy in Love”, staring at us with blank faces. I was watching the TV coverage of the show afterwards and I just thought “how the fuck did it turn into this? this isn’t the kind of project I wanted to be involved in at all”. It wasn’t even the crowd response, I just didn’t like anything about it.
On top of that, we weren’t making any money since we were spending it all on crew members wages, freight costs, transport, production assistants etc (touring with a band is REALLY expensive). Now, we were never into it for the money, but as you start getting closer to 30, you start to think “oh yeah, I have to…be able to eat food n stuff” – and if your heart isn’t in the project, well, there’s not much point in continuing.
We’re contracted for another album. I have no idea what’s going to happen. I don’t really want to do one – I’d prefer to work on something else with KP or perhaps a new project altogether. If I have to do it, then I will, but that’s never a great place to start making music.
TL;DR – maybe. dunno.
We appreciate the diplomatic answer, but the honest one kind of leaves you wondering if there was a new Pendulum album, would you even want to listen to it? That last line really says a lot, “If I have to do it, then I will, but that’s never a great place to start making music.”
