New Album On the Way From Billy Bragg
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Artist:
Political folk-rocker Billy Bragg's next album, Mr. love and Justice, includes "some love songs," Bragg said Thursday during an appearance at Berlin's Popkomm, the annual international music conference. The album will be released next year.
Bill Bragg at Popkomm. Photograph by Michael Goldberg"Life is not just politics and not all love either," Bragg said of the mix of songs on Mr. Love and Justice. "It's a balance. Its that balance I'm trying to have."Bragg's last album, England, Half-English, was released in 2002. Last year his first book, "The Progressive Patriot: A Search For Belonging," was published.Bragg has become outspoken regarding artist's rights in the post-internet era. He believes that artists are in a stronger position thanks to the Net. "Before [the Net] artists had to rely on big multi-national corporations to get [their records distributed] - that physical selling of an artifact is why so many people signed bad deals."He said he thought the idea of the "album" was going to change. "It won't necessarily be 12 songs,' he said. "Concept albums will continue but maybe the concept will be that all the songs are recorded with acoustic instruments or all the songs were recorded in Berlin. 'The Berlin Songs.'"Artists are going to have to be much more creative in terms of where they get the money to finance their recordings and how they earn a living. He noted that there have always been "sponsors [of musicians]. Beethoven had a sponsor." "I won't perform at a venue where a cigarette company is a sponsor," he said. "But I drink Corona beer."
Bill Bragg at Popkomm. Photograph by Michael Goldberg"Life is not just politics and not all love either," Bragg said of the mix of songs on Mr. Love and Justice. "It's a balance. Its that balance I'm trying to have."Bragg's last album, England, Half-English, was released in 2002. Last year his first book, "The Progressive Patriot: A Search For Belonging," was published.Bragg has become outspoken regarding artist's rights in the post-internet era. He believes that artists are in a stronger position thanks to the Net. "Before [the Net] artists had to rely on big multi-national corporations to get [their records distributed] - that physical selling of an artifact is why so many people signed bad deals."He said he thought the idea of the "album" was going to change. "It won't necessarily be 12 songs,' he said. "Concept albums will continue but maybe the concept will be that all the songs are recorded with acoustic instruments or all the songs were recorded in Berlin. 'The Berlin Songs.'"Artists are going to have to be much more creative in terms of where they get the money to finance their recordings and how they earn a living. He noted that there have always been "sponsors [of musicians]. Beethoven had a sponsor." "I won't perform at a venue where a cigarette company is a sponsor," he said. "But I drink Corona beer."
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