Following the death of Andy Gill, Gang of Four are honouring the late band leader with another posthumous EP. The release is called Anti Hero, and it features a new song co-written by Gill prior to his passing. What's more, the upcoming release features a portrait of Gill done by Obey artist Shepard Fairey.
Coming in the wake of the recent This Heaven Gives Me Migraine EP, Anti Hero will arrive on July 17. Among the tracks, it will feature the song "Forever Starts Now," which Gill co-wrote before his death in February.
As the band's John Sterry explained to Rolling Stone, the song was written while Gang of Four were working on their 2019 album Happy Now.
"We'd always seen something great in the track, been excited by it, and would bring up the fact we needed to finish it after a glass of wine or midway through a game of pool on tour," Sterry said. "Life kept intervening like that and then, of course, the opposite of life, so we never did get to the final mix."
You can hear "Forever Starts Now" below.
Anti Hero was completed with help from Gill's widow Catherine Mayer, who recently explained that she believes he died after contracting COVID-19 while on tour in Asia. Other tracks on the EP include new renditions of Gang of Four tracks "Change the Locks" and "Glass," both of which were recorded around the time of Gill's passing.
There will also be the solo track "Day Turns to Night" from Sterry on the EP under his new solo moniker JJ Sterry that was written only days after Gill passed away.
In a statement, Fairey also said the following of Gang of Four and Gill:
Gang of Four has been a profound inspiration for me because the band demonstrates that great art can powerfully merge pleasure and intellectual provocation," he said. "I was devastated to hear of Andy Gill's passing, but honored to make a portrait of him in the hope of creating an iconic image of one of my heroes — with apologies to Andy, to me he was a hero — to serve as a reminder that though life may be fleeting, Andy's potent art and ideas will endure.
Coming in the wake of the recent This Heaven Gives Me Migraine EP, Anti Hero will arrive on July 17. Among the tracks, it will feature the song "Forever Starts Now," which Gill co-wrote before his death in February.
As the band's John Sterry explained to Rolling Stone, the song was written while Gang of Four were working on their 2019 album Happy Now.
"We'd always seen something great in the track, been excited by it, and would bring up the fact we needed to finish it after a glass of wine or midway through a game of pool on tour," Sterry said. "Life kept intervening like that and then, of course, the opposite of life, so we never did get to the final mix."
You can hear "Forever Starts Now" below.
Anti Hero was completed with help from Gill's widow Catherine Mayer, who recently explained that she believes he died after contracting COVID-19 while on tour in Asia. Other tracks on the EP include new renditions of Gang of Four tracks "Change the Locks" and "Glass," both of which were recorded around the time of Gill's passing.
There will also be the solo track "Day Turns to Night" from Sterry on the EP under his new solo moniker JJ Sterry that was written only days after Gill passed away.
In a statement, Fairey also said the following of Gang of Four and Gill:
Gang of Four has been a profound inspiration for me because the band demonstrates that great art can powerfully merge pleasure and intellectual provocation," he said. "I was devastated to hear of Andy Gill's passing, but honored to make a portrait of him in the hope of creating an iconic image of one of my heroes — with apologies to Andy, to me he was a hero — to serve as a reminder that though life may be fleeting, Andy's potent art and ideas will endure.