Manic Street Preachers' Nicky Wire has been working on a new solo album

Singer James Dean Bradfield released his new solo LP Even In Exile last Friday (14 August), and in a new interview with NME, the Manic Street Preachers' vocalist has confirmed that bass player Nicky Wire has also been working on solo material.

Bradfield told NME, "We’re following the same pattern we did last time we took a sabbatical [before 2007′ Send Away The Tigers’]. I’d have our studio one day, he’d have it the next, he asked me to play a guitar solo on one of his tracks, and yeah – his stuff is sounding great. There was one song on there that was fucking amazing but hard to describe. It was very modern, very electronic, and very soothsaying and prophetic."

Back in March, Wire also told NME that he's planning to release his new album by fan request, "All I’ve got to do is get 500 CDs made, print off a lot of polaroids and hand-make them all."

In the same interview, Wire also discussed Manic Street Preachers' new LP, which will follow 2018's Resistance Is Futile. He revealed they've penned a new song called "Orwellian", and went on describe the sound of their new album, "It’s very broad – it feels like an expansive record. ‘Resistance Is Futile’ certainly felt more tight and ‘pop’ in a Manics sense. Everything was really melodic and concise. This album just feels broader. It’s got a wider landscape, sonically. It’s early days, but ‘Orwellian’ feels like the one track to guide us. I wouldn’t call it a directly political song, but it has that element of the times that we live in."

He added, "Lyrically, I’m just working things out. Since losing both my parents, I’ve been kind of overwhelmed at that situation. There’s a deep-rooted sadness and melancholia that overhangs everything."