Blondie to release brand new music, and there's another album in the works
16 July 2021, 09:29 | Updated: 14 April 2022, 16:01
The band will follow up a six-track live EP with a new 10-12 track album that will include some "obscure covers".
Blondie are about to release a six-track live EP, and more excitingly are also starting work on their next studio album.
Blondie: Vivir en la Habana (Live from Havana) takes the best moments from the documentary film of the same name, which captured the band's first performance in Havana, Cuba, in 2019.
The film had its UK premiere last month at the Sheffield Doc/Fest and was also seen in the US at the Tribeca Festival.
BLONDIE: VIVIR EN LA HABANA Short Film Trailer
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Released today (July 16), the full tracklisting of the live EP is as follows:
- The Tide Is High
- Long Time
- Wipe Off My Sweat
- Heart of Glass
- Rapture
- Dreaming
The performances feature the band alongside local musicians, including singer David Torrens, salsa star Alain Pérez, and Carlos Alfonso and his 12-piece band Síntesis.
Blondie frontwoman Debbie Harry told BBC News that "their addition to songs was monumental" after just one day of rehearsals together.
Blondie - Tide is High (Live in Havana, 2019) (Official Audio)
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She added that with lockdown winding down, the band are working on a "pure Blondie project" for their next album, hooking up with producer John Congleton to record 10-12 new songs.
"It's at a very elementary stage," Harry said of the record, which will likely include covers of "some obscure tracks".
"We've been assembling different tracks that we like. And I think the next step would be to get into rehearsals and make some [demos].
"I think we're all kind of relieved that we can be in the same room with each other again."
The record will be the band's 12th studio album, and their fifth since they reformed in the mid-1990s.
That backs up the one condition Harry had when she agreed to bandmate Chris Stein's plans for a comeback.
"I made a demand. I don't want to be in an oldies band," she said.
Blondie - Rapture (Live in Havana, 2019) (Official Audio)
"The only way I would do it is if we were creative. I prefer looking to the future than looking at the past, so that was one of the basic principles I felt we had to have."
The new album will be the follow-up to 2017's Pollinator, which featured contributions from ex-Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr, Sia, Charli XCX, Nick Valensi from The Strokes and David Sitek from TV on the Radio.
