Photo Credit: Sony Music
Roger Waters releases ‘The Lockdown Sessions EP’ — but there’s still no word on Pink Floyd’s rumored $500 million catalog acquisition.
Sony Music has announced the release of Roger Waters’ The Lockdown Sessions, recorded and filmed at the artist’s home during the COVID lockdown between 2020 and 2021. Also included with the release is Waters’ “Comfortably Numb 2022,” which was recorded during his This Is Not A Drill North American tour.
The Lockdown Sessions features five seminal tracks from Water during his time with Pink Floyd and his solo career. “Mother” and “Vera” from Pink Floyd’s The Wall, “Two Suns in the Sunset” and “The Gunner’s Dream” from Waters’ final Pink Floyd album, The Final Cut, and “The Bravery of Being Out of Range” from his acclaimed solo album, Amused to Death. Waters’ new version of the Pink Floyd classic “Comfortably Numb” features as the final track on the EP.
Roger Waters and Gus Seyffert produced the album. Alongside Waters on vocals, guitar, and piano, Gus Seyffert features on the album on bass, cello, and additional vocals. Joey Waronker, Dave Kilminster, Jonathan Wilson, Jon Carin, Lucius (Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig), Bo Koster, and Ian Ritchie also feature. The videos were directed and produced by Sean Evans, with photography by Kate Izor.
“Our Us and Them Tour lasted three years,” recalls Waters. “At every gig, we did an encore after the main show closed with ‘Comfortably Numb’ — the encore was always ‘Mother’ — I can’t remember why I decided to start doing other songs.”
“At some point after the end of the tour, I started thinking, ‘It could make an interesting album, all those encores,'” he continues, explaining that because of the COVID-related lockdowns in March 2020, his “Encores” project was scrapped until he decided to reimagine it as The Lockdown Sessions.
Roger Waters’ This Is Not A Drill tour will embark on its European leg in 2023, with 40 shows across 14 European countries, beginning in Lisbon on March 17 at the Altice Arena.