Elbow’s Guy Garvey songwriting with Massive Attack

Massive Attack
Massive Attack

Massive Attack are back in the studio working on their as-yet-untitled fifth album - the follow up to 2003's 100th Window. In a recent interview with BBC Newsbeat, founding member 3D spilled the beans on a collaboration with Elbow frontman Guy Garvey.

"We've been working with Guy on some songwriting, and that's been really fun", said 3D aka Robert Del Naja. "He's a great writer, a great thinker."

"It's about being able to sing something beautiful and romantic and still being aware of someone tugging at you saying, 'This is what is really going on mate", he continued.

Massive Attack released 100th Window at the same time as the invasion of Iraq in 2003 and fans can expect another anti-war themed album, albeit carefully written: "There's always inspiration in there but we've always been very cautious about how to write a song and a protest song is always difficult", said Del Naja.

"When it works, it can be beautiful but when it doesn't, it can be quite feeble and patronising or silly".

Tom Porter worked on MusicRadar from its mid-2007 launch date to 2011, covering a range of music and music making topics, across features, gear news, reviews, interviews and more. A regular NAMM-goer back in the day, Tom now resides permanently in Los Angeles, where he's doing rather well at the Internet Movie Database (IMDB).