At The Drive-In made lots of fans happy when they announced plans to reunite this year. However, it’s safe to say that we shouldn’t expect anything more than festival appearances (including Coachella and Spain’s FIB Benicassim festival) from the post-hardcore group any time soon.
In an interview with Kerrang! Magazine, guitarist Omar Rodriguez-Lopez was asked if the reunion shows could potentially lead to At The Drive-In recording new material. Lopez responded with the following:
“Will there be a new album? No, no, no. At The Drive-In is more of a nostalgia thing – it’s songs we wrote when we were all in our 20s and we’re doing a couple of shows. It’s an old T-shirt that doesn’t fit me anymore, but when you put it on again, it feels nice. It’s as simple as that.”
This may come as a major disappointment to some. However, it’s also not that surprising to hear, especially since Lopez and singer Cedric Bixler-Zavala’s other group The Mars Volta is still very active. In fact, even though At The Drive-In is reuniting this year, The Mars Volta will be releasing a new album called Noctourniquet on March 27.
Meanwhile, the guitarist also admitted in a separate interview with NME that money did play a role in getting At The Drive-In back together, saying:
“We’re not getting any younger and there’s been an offer of money every year. You can’t avoid that. You’d be a fool and a politician to pretend that wasn’t part of it.”
Granted, it’s fair to assume that money wasn’t the only reason behind the reunion. And while fans might also be disappointed to hear Lopez admit that financial reasons did play a part in getting them back together, at least he’s honest about it.
