Peter Hook Gets Set to 'Freebass'

Former New Order and Joy Division bass player Peter Hook is hoping to unveil his latest band, Freebass, later this year. "You're gonna hear it in September, October," he tells Spinner of his bassist supergroup, which finds him teaming with Andy Rourke of the the Smiths, Gary "Mani" Mounfield of Primal Scream and vocalist Gary Briggs from Haven.

The ensemble was originally intended to include several guest vocalists, including Billy Corgan, who toured with Hook's New Order a few years ago, but a few others delivered in his place. "We started asking friends and it was wonderful. A lot of people offered, but offering and then doing are entirely different things," Hook says. "Tim Burgess [of the Charlatans] has done a song for us, which is absolutely fantastic; Pete Wylie, from Wah has done a thing for us that is wonderful; Howard Marks has done a rap on one song, which is great, absolutely fantastic."

But it was Briggs who really stepped up. "We came across Gary and he loved the music and sort of seized the opportunity with both hands," he says. "And basically everybody else fell away and Gary's done a fantastic job lyrically and vocally. I'm very happy with it."

Last we spoke with Hook, he was in Chicago for a DJ gig and he tells us though he has a new band on the way he's not ready to give up his DJ career. "I love DJing and I really do find it quite liberating working alone after 30 years of traveling with upwards of 15 to 25 people and having to do everything by committee," he says. "Doing something on your own is wonderful, so I don't see that I'm gonna be exclusively Freebass. I'm not gonna do that because I enjoy DJing too much and I do relish the independence to be honest."

Perhaps he can open for himself? "Or I can do an after party for myself as well. In fact, I can be a one-man industry," he says laughing.