Portishead have begun work on new material after signing with a major record label, according to producer and leader Geoff Barrow.
Speaking to BBC 6Music, Barrow revealed he will work on new Portishead songs during the summer. “I’m writing for Portishead through July and August and I just want to bang on and get another record done,” he said. “For us, our fans want to hear a Portishead album as a collection of work. Formats have changed constantly throughout the years, so if the album is still a relevant format I don’t know. But if somebody writes a body of work like eight to ten songs which really means something then that’s what I want to listen to.”
Discussing their new record deal, Barrow confirmed the trio, which also consists of Beth Gibbons and Adrian Utley, have signed to one of the biggest in the world, and also stated that he did not believe his band fit in with the current UK music scene. “It’s with a major. It’s with the biggest record company in the world. It’s with people we trust which with a band is the most important thing,” he said. “We did the third record, it did incredibly well. We got very little support from the UK as we don’t represent a certain demographic of people. But we did Coachella and that was amazing.
We just signed another deal so we start working on new music shortly. We’ve had an enormous amount of success with the third record, even if people think that we haven’t been around for a long time.”
After releasing their critically acclaimed, Mercury-winning debut ‘Dummy‘ in 1994, Portishead released the eponymous follow up in 1997 before finally releasing their third studio album ‘Third‘ eleven years later. No date has yet been set for the release of their new record.
