Morrissey has confirmed that his long-awaited 10th solo album is on the way. In a lengthy Q&A with devoted fansite True to You, the doom’n’crooner revealed that he’s about to hit the studio to work on the follow-up to 2009’s Years of Refusal.
“Well, we are about to record the new album, and one of the tracks is called ‘Istanbul,'” Moz wrote, answering a question related to his July 2012 performance in Istanbul. (For the record: “It is my second to Rome as my most favorite city in the world. When I’m in Istanbul I feel as if I could never die.”)
Attentive fans will remember that the successor to Years of Refusal has supposedly been “ready” for a number of years. Back in April of 2011, Morrissey wrote the following on True to You: “The follow-up to ‘Years of refusal’ is ready and fluttering wildly against the bars. There is still no record label and the years shuffle like cards.”
The Q&A, which was published on January 2, doesn’t offer any further details on the upcoming LP, but it does include some information on Morrissey’s other major project, a forthcoming novel. Yes, the former Smiths singer is looking to capitalize on the success of his Autobiography by diving into fiction.
“In 2013 I published my Autobiography and it has been more successful than any record I have ever released, so, yes, I am mid-way through my novel,” the 54-year-old multi-threat wrote, before aiming barbs at the music industry as a whole. “The actuality is that radio stations will not play my music, and the majority of people have lost faith in the music industry, and it’s generally assumed — quite rightly — that the number one chart positions are ‘bought’ by the major labels, so there really is no passion left in pop or rock music, and I don’t think people believe for an instant that the faces we constantly see on television and in magazines are remotely popular.”
Elsewhere in the exchange, the endlessly quotable Moz once again rails against meat-eaters (“I see no difference between eating animals and paedophilia”), names his personal favorite Morrissey song (“Life is a Pigsty” from 2006’s Ringleader of the Tormentors), and recalls the time that producer Tony Visconti tried to get him and David Bowie to duet on a Righteous Brothers cover (“I loved the idea, but David wouldn’t budge”).
For the entire Q&A, head over to True to You.
