Larry Mullen Jr has teased U2 are working on new music while opening up about working with dyscalculia.
In a conversation with Times Radio, the musician revealed he struggled counting bars due to dyscalculia, comparing it to “climbing Everest”.
Per the NHS website, the learning difficulty affects a person’s ability to use and acquire mathematical skills. The drummer, who only recently realised he had dyscalculia, shared that he cannot count or add because of it.
He has gone on to produce and write music for Left Behind, a film about a group of determined moms who band together to create the first public dyslexic school in the largest school district in New York City, which is out in select cinemas on January 7 2025.
Discussing his own challenges with the learning difficulty, he said (per The Irish Times): “I’ve always known that there’s something not particularly right with the way that I deal with numbers. I’m numerically challenged. And I realised recently that I have dyscalculia, so I can’t add, I can’t count.”
As for how it affects his music career, he said: “When people watch me play sometimes, they say, ‘You look pained’. I am pained because I’m trying to count the bars.”
Elsewhere, he said U2 were working on new material that would mark a change in sound for the band, who he hopes will tour in 2026. “I don’t think it will be what we normally do,” he said. “ I would hope it would be something different,” he said. “But I’m excited to get back in some capacity.”
Last month, guitarist The Edge revealed the band were finally back in the studio with Mullen Jr., who was forced to sit out of the band’s historic Las Vegas Sphere residency due to injury and recovering from surgery.
The Edge continued: “Definitely U2, with Larry which is wonderful, we’ve got him in the studio… he’s good, he’s taking it easy but he’s back in the saddle on the drums still doing some recording with us and so we’ll be doing a bit more of that before the end of the year.”
The update came after Mullen Jr. cited damage to his “elbows, knees [and] necks”, which he “got a chance to have a look at” during the COVID pandemic. Due to these drumming-related injuries, which he described as “damage along the way”, Mullen said at the time he’d “like to take some time… to get myself healed”. It was then reported that he had undergone surgery to address the injuries.
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