'We don't want it to sound like 40 years ago': Mick Jagger on the Rolling Stones' new album

Earlier this month, the Rolling Stones announced the band's first album of original material in 18 years, Hackney Diamonds, which will be released on Oct. 20.

And though the legendary rock group has been active since forming in 1962, frontman Mick Jagger, 80, doesn't want their new music to be thought of as retro.

"I said [to producer Andrew Watt], 'Andy, I want it to be true to the school, you know. I want it to be like a Rolling Stones record, but it's got to sound like it was recorded this year,'" Jagger recalls in a Canadian exclusive interview with Q's Tom Power.

"We don't want it to sound like 40 years ago, and of course it doesn't. It sounds like now — the clarity of it, you know, and fidelity of it. And if you listen to it — compare it to an old Rolling Stones record — it's very, very different."

Unlike some artists of his generation, Jagger isn't mired in nostalgia. Reflecting on the last 61 years with the Stones, he believes he's been able to lead the band to success "by staying abreast of what's going on."

"I'm not saying I'm slavishly trying to be at the cutting edge of everything, but you have to understand how things work, you know, in the current world," he says. "And that doesn't just apply to the music industry, it applies to lots of things.

"I mean, you know, driving a car is a different experience than driving a car in 1960. And the record business, like all businesses, it changes a lot. I mean, the record business being a business of technology, it never stays the same. It never stayed the same ever."

Over the decades, Jagger has witnessed first-hand the transition from vinyl to eight-track to cassettes, CDs and now streaming and digital distribution. When the Stones first got their start, he says, it was only about singles.

"Albums by pop acts did not sell," the Stones frontman tells Power. "What did sell was show albums like South Pacific.… Frank Sinatra might sell albums.… And then suddenly, the Beatles came along, and they started selling pop albums. So it was a huge change."

When it comes to the state of the music industry in 2023, Jagger has a lot to say about the advantages of streaming, which he's a fan of.

"Streaming, you know, is … much maligned, but the interesting thing about it is that people of all generations can access music from all periods," he says. "Before, if I wanted to, you know, buy an old blues record from 1955, that was really difficult. I had to do a mail order; I had to go into a specialist's shop, even though I had plenty of money. To go and buy it now, I can just — there it is. It's right there."

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Hackney Diamonds is not only the Stones' first offering of original music since the release of A Bigger Bang in 2005, but also the first since drummer Charlie Watts died in 2021. It's the band's final album to feature Watts, using recordings from 2019.

"I knew him since I was 19," Jagger says about his late friend and bandmate.