www.RollingStone.com
by: Andy Greene
Neil Young sat down with Rolling Stone Executive Editor Nathan Brackett at the International Consumer Electronics Show on Wednesday to discuss the long-awaited rollout of his Pono music player, but he also shared details of his next LP. “I’m working on another album now that I’m going to do be doing with Willie Nelson’s sons,” he said, jokingly suggesting he would title it The Monsanto Years after the agriculture company he’s been railing against for years. “It’s an upbeat review of the situation.”
Young was less sure about his other future plans. “I don’t know much about the future,” he said. “I want to [focus on Pono] and I want to continue playing music. Those two things should keep me pretty busy. I have some film editing and things to do on the side. I’ll probably be writing some more books. I want to keep doing what I do. I’d like to continue doing it for a long time.”
Young has no tour dates on the books right now other than an appearance at the pre-Grammy MusiCares tribute to Bob Dylan on February 6th in Los Angeles. “I did a tour last year called Honor the Treaties that went across Canada to try and help the aboriginal first nations tribes enforce their treaty rights in the constitution of Canada,” he said. “If I do anything this year, I might do that again in a bigger way. At first it succeeded, but it succeeded more than the artists I was trying to get thought it would. If I do that again maybe it’ll get more artists. At this point, it’s interesting to try and do something meaningful and try and make some sort of a difference because I’ve attained a certain level that I feel a responsibility to use for positive things rather than just getting my name in People magazine or something.”
The majority of the interview was devoted to Pono. The website launched this week and the player began selling for $300. “This is all about making music sound as good as it can,” he said. “Music is about having a good time feeling in your soul, whether it makes you laugh or it makes you cry. The mission of Pono is to make you feel as much as you can. We’re sharing all of our technology with anyone that wants to make anything. Any manufacturer that wants to make this kind of quality, we’ll show you how to do it.”
Despite his busy schedule, Young found time to release two albums last year, tour Europe with Crazy Horse and play a series of solo acoustic dates across America. He also played with Lukas and Micah Nelson, two highly accomplished guitarists, at Farm Aid, the Harvest the Hope benefit and the Bridge School Benefit, but hadn’t previous that indicated he had any intention of cutting new material with the duo.
Watch the rest of the new interview right here to hear Young talk in tremendous depth about Pono.
Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/neil-young-recording-new-album-with-willie-nelsons-sons-20150108#ixzz3OFzpLeQg