With a new full moon, so we get a brand new Peter Gabriel single, this time for the rousing title track of his upcoming album i/o, which you can listen to below.
"This month the song is i/o and i/o means input / output," Gabriel explains. "You see it on the back of a lot of electrical equipment and it just triggered some ideas about the stuff we put in and pull out of ourselves, in physical and non-physical ways. That was the starting point of this idea and then trying to talk about the interconnectedness of everything.
"The older I get, I probably don't get any smarter, but I have learned a few things and it makes a lot of sense to me that we are not these independent islands that we like to think we are, that we are part of a whole. If we can see ourselves as better connected, still messed up individuals, but as part of a whole, then maybe there's something to learn?"
i/o sees Gabriel once again working with the Soweto Gospel Choir, who previously featured on the song Down To Earth that was recorded for the film Wall-E and who he’s also performed with twice in South Africa at events for Nelson Mandela and Bishop Desmond Tutu.
"I didn't always hear the Soweto Gospel Choir on this song, but every time I've worked with them it's always been fantastic," he adds. "You can just feel the energy whenever they sing on this record, and on the song I did for Wall-E, it's just joyous. It hits you in the heart."
The title i/o has long been associated with a new potential new Peter Gabriel album amongst Gabriel fans
“It's been around for a long time as a title for this project. I always knew I was going to write a song called i/o, but the title came first," he smiles.
As with Gabriel's the previous full moon releases, i/o will come with differing mix approaches from Mark ‘Spike’ Stent (Bright-Side Mix), released on 6 April. Tchad Blake (Dark-Side Mix) and Hans-Martin Buff’s Atmos mix (In-Side Mix), released later in the month.
Gabriel has this far streamed new songs Panopticom, The Court and Playing For Time.
Gabriel will tour both Europe and North America later this year.
