The Cult guitarist Billy Duffy spoke with Guitar World about his Coloursøund project with The Alarm’s Mike Peters, which has been resurrected andis  gearing up for the release of their second album, Coloursøund II.

Duffy and Peters first recorded together in 1998 and 1999, when both Duffy and Peters were on extended hiatus from their respective bands. Coloursøund released its self-titled debut in 1999. 

Duffy: "We both felt that Coloursøund was a bit like unfinished business. Coloursøund didn’t split up in so much as I had to leave it in ‘99 because The Cult reformed and we got offered a really big record deal. But Mike and I have always worked together over the years and we have a great connection. So when The Cult were going through a bit of a quiet period, I just felt like, you know, I like to work. And that's what Mike and I started doing.”

Guitar World: It’s been more than 20 years since the first Coloursøund album. Why now?

Duffy: "That’s a very good and reasonable question to ask. I don't know, there just never seemed to be the right set of circumstances in the last 20 years. I got busy with the Cult, and then the Cult wasn’t busy, but then Mike got busy with the Alarm and his own solo thing. I mean, Mike is probably the busiest man in rock that I know. He's always doing something.  But in late 2019, I think, I just sent him a riff. Because what happened was, I'm still working on the new Cult album as well, and there’s a few little riffs and things that are just not seemingly right for where the Cult's at these days. So I sent one off to Mike to see how he would react. Within 20 minutes he'd written a verse and sent it back to me and we thought, 'Oh, okay. Maybe there's something still here…' And once we’d done that first track, which wound up being 'Paradise', that sort of set the intention: “Well, maybe we'll get together and write some more stuff…"

Guitar World: Coloursøund II sounds like a contemporary record. Which speaks to a larger point about your guitar playing. Your style has always hit on a lot of classic rock and blues-rock references, but interpreted through a punky, sometimes almost post-modern lens.

Duffy: "I try to do that. You know, I think that's one of the dangers of saying in 2021, 'Oh, we're just making a rock record.' You really have this terrible fear it's going to just be some riffs that are a thousand times rehashed. But I try to put my own personality into it. And I think that growing up in England, and the punk thing that Mike and I lived through, has had somewhat of an indelible effect on our DNA as performers and writers. Which isn't to say that I want to make punk-rock music, but there's something about the atmosphere of living through that that will be with me always. There was a point in my life where I was 15, 16, and I was like a sponge. And just the sights and the sounds and the smells of actually being at punk gigs, actually being in the room when the Sex Pistols played for real, that’s never gonna leave me."

Read the complete interview here.

Tracklist:

"Paradise [Free People]"
"Lightning Strike"
"Revelation"
"Addiction"
"Why?"
"The Wild" (LP Only)
"Actions"
"The Other Side"
"Start A Fire"
"Eye For An Eye"
"Mourning Call"
"The Candle" (LP Only)

Ever since, Peters and Duffy have continued to cross musical paths and collaborate as friends, even as The Cult and The Alarm found renewed success in the decades that followed. Both performed together as touring members of the alternative supergroup Dead Men Walking (2003), and participated in many charitable cancer awareness events including Empire State Building Rocks (2007), Snowdon Rocks (2017) and Grand Canyon Rocks (2018).

More recently, Billy Duffy has appeared as guest guitarist on Blood Red Viral Black, a track from The Alarm’s most recent album Sigma which was a UK #1 album in 2019.

All along there has been talk of bringing Coloursøund back into focus, and creating a platform for both Billy and Mike to explore what is obviously a songwriting partnership as natural as it is productive. The chance to make Coloursøund active again has now arrived, and earlier in this year a songwriting session was held that resulted in the creation of a brand new set of songs that will soon be recorded for a second Coloursøund album.

To rekindle the flame that has never ever burnt out, Coloursøund will reissue their original debut album as a limited edition Vinyl record of 500 copies that will feature all the original tracks including the classics "Under The Sun", "Heavy Rain", "State Of Independemce" and "Alive" that have helped to keep the legacy of Coloursøund alive ever since they were first played in concert and committed to tape.

Every single song has been remastered by Pete Maher, and the release will also be numbered and signed by Billy Duffy and Mike Peters along with a special one-sided 7” single featuring a brand new recording of "Fade In Fade Out Fade Away" that was cut during the lockdown in June 2020.

Coloursøund II.will be released on July 16th, 2021. Go to this location for pre-order.