U2 has just spent the last past two years in the studio working
on their tenth studio album, All That You Can't Leave Behind,
which will be released in the US on October 31. In part one of
this two-part feature series, U2 drummer Larry Mullen tells
Music.com how a DJ saved the band's life, what it was like
working with Brian Eno, and why they won't be playing small
clubs anytime soon.

U2 are getting back in touch with themselves. All you have to
do is listen to their new album's first single, "Beautiful Day,"
with its Joshua Tree-era sounding guitar and soaring, melodious
chorus to realize that the band has left behind the more electronic
and experimental trappings of their last album Pop, a record which
left many a fan scratching their noggin.

"After Pop," Mullen explains, "we realized that we couldn't do
everything that everyone else wanted us to do. That album was
unfinished and the arrangements were incomplete. And although
 there are some really good songs on that album - I really like that
record - we went on tour far too early after the release of the
record." Pop wasn't even on the shelves in stores when the PopMart
tour began. "The whole thing was kind of wrong and then we went
on the road, and we took this 40-foot lemon with us."

It took someone outside the band, DJ Howie B., who had worked
with the band on Pop, to point out that things with U2 were overblown.
"He came down to the (tour) rehearsals, and he said, 'What are you
doing?' We said this is what we do. This is U2 as a band. He said,
'You know, when you make your next record, you should really do
what you do - bass, drums, guitars and vocals - because it sounds
really original.'"

Howie B.'s advice helped the band decide that when they went
back into the studio, they would write songs and not come out until
the songs were finished. That explains why the band spent two years
making All That You Can't Leave Behind. Everything was different for
U2 this time around. They planned everything out and depended on
nobody but themselves.

"This time around, it was just the band," he said. "It was hard to get
back to being a band. Being in a room together was kind of odd
because we hadn't done it for long. Danny (producer Daniel Lanois)
and legendary artist/producer Brian Eno were brought in as producers.
We brought them in because we didn't want anyone to get in the way.
They've worked with us before. They weren't going to be in the way.
They were just going to add to the process. They knew when to leave
and when to be there."

Mullen explained how the band changed its approach to songwriting
for All That You Can't. "We (usually) kind of write on the fly, like things
would sort of just happen and we'd sort of stumble over things," he
said. "And with those results were some of that great early U2 music,
the things that people go, 'well, that's classic U2.' They were just
stumbled upon and Bono would throw a lyric on top of it."

This time around, however, the band concentrated on crafting their
songs - rewriting, reediting, and reworking, until the band agreed
they were finished. "It was simply to go in and write songs that
would get on the radio and take what U2 does - take it out of the
ghetto and compete with the Britneys and the Whitneys. That's what
great rock and roll music has always done. Rock music has been in
the ghetto too long. We wanted to get on the radio, be on MTV or
VH1 or compete on that level."

U2, as Mullen explained were determined to make a quality record.
"We weren't leaving until we heard songs that we could call singles
and that would connect [with the audience]. That's what we did. It
was the right thing to do, and it was a lot of fun to make."

A few weeks ago, U2 debuted the material from All That You Can't
Leave Behind at the ManRay club in Paris to about 500 people.
Although Mullen says it was exciting, he admits it wasn't exactly a
road he'd relish taking again with the band. "I'd love to say it was a
moving experience and I really want to just go back and play clubs
again," he said. "It sounded horrible because it's not a controlled
environment at all. The roof was too low, so when I hit the kick drum,
the whole stage shook. It sounded horrendous to us on the stage. I
believe it was slightly better at the front. When we came off, we all
looked at each other and said now we know why we don't play clubs
anymore.

"It was alarming," he continued. "Every time something went wrong -
and things went wrong - we had to stop and start several times.
That was the beauty of it. It was truly a band. Most bands, when they
go to stadiums, they're out of their depth. Here's U2 in a club,
completely out of our depth. We're at the mercy of 500 people."

As far as a tour for the new album All That You Can't Leave Behind,
Larry Mullen is not in a hurry to make the same mistakes U2 made on
the PopMart tour - like having the album in stores before they start
touring. He promises me that "there certainly won't be a 40 foot
lemon" this time.

But while he makes it clear that the band will wait and see how
things are going before they embark on a tour, he's not
unsympathetic towards the need for stage props. "We're having
difficulty getting Bono particularly used to the idea of simplicity," he
said, "because when you're a singer - you gotta remember I'm the
drummer so I'm at the back, I've got this kit of drums surrounding me
so I'm protected - but for him, there is a certain amount of fear with
standing in front of an audience and not having anything else. That's
kind of scary."

A U2 arena tour for early 2001 is already in the making (one date in
Miami is confirmed so far), but this time the band plans to bring the
tour down in scale and hit arenas as opposed to stadiums. But
according to Mullen, nothing is set in stone.

Mullen points out that there are, however, certain "reference points" -
a guitar sound, vocals - that are U2's essence and which the band
will always refer back to. He tells a story about the Edge getting
upset while working on guitar parts for "Beautiful Day" and "Walk On"
in the studio. The guitarist was playing a part that Mullen said
sounded very much like classic U2 (Can you say Joshua Tree?). "After
about two are three hours, Edge turned around and said, 'I don't
understand. We are U2. I am the Edge. I invented this. If I want to
play it, I will!'"

For All That You Can't Leave Behind, rather than continue on with
Pop's electronic sound, U2 decided to take what they learned and
incorporate it into their sound. "We're not (rock) purists at all. We
come from a punk rock tradition, and we always try to experiment, we
always try to do new things," he said. "We always want to challenge
ourselves and challenge our audience. We don't make music for our
audience. We're very selfish about our music. We make music for
ourselves first. When people enjoy our music, that.s the bonus, but
we're very selfish about it."

Electronica's influence over U2, however, does rear its head on the
new album, only in much smaller doses. For example, "Beautiful Day"
opens with a drum machine, which Mullen explains, was added after
the track was finished. "I think that we would have not got to the
place we are now without going through those things," Mullen said
about experimenting with electronic music. "They were amazing
experiences, and we brought our audience through difficult times. We
made them listen to things that maybe they wouldn't normally have
wanted to," he said.

But when you boil it all down, U2 remains in essence a rock band. "I
loved using the electronica...(but) in the end, when you write and
record a song and two days later you go into a room and you can
perform it and it sounds not like the record but it sounds like the song
on the record, it.s got the same spirit, there's something really, really
very striking about that. We can do that with all the tracks on this
album," he said.

When reminded that the band has been together for an astonishing
20 years, Mullen answers with an exasperated, "I know." He doesn't
quite have the grand answer that will help other bands achieve U2's
longevity, but he does know what works for them. "I just know it's a
street gang mentality. We hang out together and we're friends and
all those things, but we keep our distance. But the other thing is that
we're incredibly hard on each other, and we have to be," he said.
"We're four members of the band. And we fight and argue and
discuss and hurt each other's feelings." He describes it as a "band
ego": "We're all sort of wanting to get to the same place. It's like
family -- a bit like a dysfunctional family."

So what is it that keeps a chaotic group chugging along for twenty
years? "We talk about this all the time - why do we still do this?
There is something else for us, and I don't know what that is," Mullen
concludes almost alluding to some sort of enigmatic higher power.
"There is something for us to do, and I don't really know what that is,
but I just know that it isn't finished yet, whatever it is that U2 has to
do."

U2's new record All That You Can't Leave Behind is out Tuesday,
October 31st.