Tom Morello recently announced that he will release his new solo album on October 15th. The project is called The Atlas Underground Fire and was recorded during the pandemic.
Without the help of a sound engineer, Morello recorded his guitar solos using voice notes from his cell phone, which he claims gave him "creative freedom," despite it seeming like an "absurd idea" at first. In a conversation on Loudwire Chats , the guitarist revealed that the idea actually came from a statement by rapper Kanye West .
“I read an interview with Kanye West where he was bragging about recording the vocals for two of his albums using his cell phone recorder. So I thought, 'Well, if that's good enough to secure the vocals on a Kanye West album, then maybe I can record guitar riffs on my cell phone,'” Morello recounts.
“I ignored all the microphones and put my phone on a chair, pressed the record button, and suddenly I was sending these riffs to engineers and producers around the world – to Bruce Springsteen , Eddie Vedder , the guys from Bring Me The Horizon , and Damien Marley – and that created a kind of global community of collaborators that, in the midst of a very stressful period, became a lifeline and a way to create. That was the genesis of The Atlas Underground Fire ,” he concludes.
In addition to the names mentioned by Tom Morello, the album The Atlas Underground Fire is expected to feature guest appearances from Chris Stapleton , Mike Posner , and Dennis Lyxzén ( Refused ).
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