Arctic Monkeys drummer Matt Helders has said making music with the band is something they “will always do”.
The Sheffield indie veterans returned last week (January 22) with the subtle and cinematic track ‘Opening Night‘, the first to be taken from War Child’s new charity compilation album ‘Help(2)‘.
With this being the band’s first material since 2022’s ‘The Car‘, fans had been hoping that this was the start of the run-up to a new album from Arctic Monkeys; as well as speculating that this may be a swansong from them winding down.
Now in a new interview, Helders has has said there were no imminent plans to get back into the recording studio, but ruled nothing out and said making music was “something we love to do”.
Speaking to BBC Radio 1’s New Music Show (via BBC News), he added: “I think we went into this knowing it was a one-off. But then, having done it, we probably went away feeling like we just had a lot of fun making this record.
“There’s no conversations about it, but it’s definitely something we love to do and we’ll always do.”
Speaking in a previous interview with Zane Lowe on Apple Music, Helders spoke of how it was “a great time” for the band to reconvene, and that he enjoyed being able to “see everyone and to fall back into the roles that we’ve always had with each other, musically and personally.”
“Sometimes we might not see each other for six months, but when we do it’s like we were never apart,” he admitted. “That’s just how we are with people, with each other. It translates musically as well. We just had a couple of days doing this and it felt like nothing had happened; [that there was] no space between.”
Helders didn’t say anything about the band recording or touring again, but he did open up about how it has “always been fun” to be back writing and recording with his childhood friend and frontman Alex Turner, and that he always takes pleasure in watching him work in the studio.
Last Friday (January 23), marked 20 years since the band released their seminal, debut album ‘Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not’. Head here for Alex Turner recalling the creation of ‘I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor‘ and here for Arctic Monkeys’ first ever NME interview from 2005.
The man on the cover of the record Chris McClure also said he did not believe the album’s success could happen again in a recent interview with BBC Radio Sheffield.
