Larry Mullen Jr’s new song with GAYLE Premieres

Original Story by Aaron J. Sams (2024-11-12)

Larry Mullen is featured on a new song from the film Left Behind, released today on YouTube. The song is credited to Larry Mullen Jr, and GAYLE. The song is called “Between the Lines”. Larry Mullen features on drums and backing vocals on the song, and is credited with writing the song and producing it as well. The full credits are at the end of the article, and you can listen to the song below.

The song is the second song featuring Mullen, released since Larry started having surgery in early 2023 to repair years of damage caused by drumming. U2’s song “Atomic City” was recorded after an initial round of surgeries and recovery in 2023. It is unknown whether the other new U2 song heard at Sphere, “Glorify” was recorded before or after these surgeries. Additional surgery followed the recording of “Atomic City”, prior to the recording of this song for the soundtrack of Left Behind.

The documentary Left Behind deals with a group of parents in New York City who advocated on behalf of their dyslexic children, eventually establishing the South Bronx Literacy Academy. The singer of “Between the Lines”, GAYLE, is dyslexic herself, as is Larry Mullen’s son. It was looking to learn about his son’s dyslexia that lead Mullen to getting involved in the film. He is listed as a producer of the film, but also contributes two songs. Of the collaboration with GAYLE, Mullen shares with Billboard “It was a collide of cultures, two different eras coming together. And the collision is kind of a beautiful one despite musical differences.”

Larry shared with Deadline, “It’s really worthwhile mentioning Gayle, who came in very late to this. She’s a young woman with dyslexia, a brilliant singer, and she really turned the theme song of this around. And it’s just amazing that she did it. And she’s a really articulate, clever, and it just makes a big difference when somebody like her, who you know, she’s a big star, and she’s got lots more to go, when she turns around and just drops everything and says, I’ll come on board When she says, I’ll do this, and I’ll work on your film, and I’ll collaborate with an old guy. She did that, and that takes a lot of humility, and I’m very grateful to her, and we all very grateful to Gayle for doing that.”

GAYLE, likely best known to date for her hit song “ABCDEFU” shares, “It was an honor to be asked to make a song for such an important issue and with such an iconic musician. This is a topic that affects my life and I’m so inspired to be a part of this project.” Larry comments, “It was just completely fortuitous and luck that myself and GAYLE kind of fell into each other.”

Along with “Between the Lines”, featuring GAYLE, a second song opens the film, and is again played at the end of the film after “Between the Lines”. For that performance Larry Mullen is joined by Donna Lewis, best known for her song “I Love You Always Forever”. This second song, also co-written by Mullen, features him on drums as well and is called “One of Us”. The second song was written as he watched his son watch the documentary. Larry Mullen shares with Billboard “I could feel his stress and this real discomfort, so I actually just translated that into a pair of drumsticks, and I started to feel what he was feeling. It was me trying to let the sticks dictate what was going on through his eyes.” As of yet, “One of Us” has not been released outside of the film.

Larry also speaks briefly about his injuries and recovery, sharing with Billboard, “I’ve been out of action for quite a while. I’m just back a couple of months. It was great to be able to do this track because I could play on it, whereas six months ago, I couldn’t because I had a neck surgery. So, I’m just getting back in and it’s slow, methodical. This project was a lot of fun.” Last week Larry spoke with Deadline about the project and shared the film came first, and his musical involvement later, “We talked about what I could do, or would I do anything, and, as you know, I got injured, so it was difficult for me to figure out what I could do. Thankfully, last couple of months, I was able to get back at it. And I brought the documentary to my son, who is dyslexic, and he watched the film with me. I could see how he was reacting to it, and I just came up with an idea of his intensity and how he was feeling. I just literally took the idea, went into the studio and recorded what I thought he felt like now.” He shares later in the interview, “I’m recovering. It’s just slow. And yeah, I’m anxious to get back, and this was a very good way back in. You know, there’s, there’s plans to go back into the studio and that. So, yeah, it’s exciting, but it is slow.” The Edge revealed recently in Rolling Stone that the band have already been back in the studio with Mullen and further sessions are planned.

The track is being shared via the Abramorama YouTube channel, run by a company which works as a marketing and distribution channel for feature films centering on music and documentaries featuring a focus on social impact.

The trailer for the film can be viewed below. The film premiered at the Woodstock Film Festival in October, and will be part of the DOC NYC Film Festival later this month. A theatrical release will follow in January after a week long exclusive run at the QUAD theatre in New York.

Song Credits

Artist: Larry Mullen Jr. and GAYLE
Writers: GAYLE, Larry Mullen Jr., Reed Berin, David Baron
Producers: David Baron, Reed Berin, Larry Mullen Jr., GAYLE
Co-Producer: David Beal
Executive Producer: Chris Farrell
Recorded by: David Baron and Reed Berin
Assistant Engineer – Gillian Pelkonen
Mixed by: David Baron

Performers:
GAYLE – Lead Vocal
Larry Mullen Jr. – Drums, Backing Vocals
David Baron – Piano and Organ
Gerry Leonard – Electric Guitar, Slide Guitar, Acoustic Guitar
Gail Ann Dorsey – Bass
Clap Ensemble – David Beal, Gillian Pelkonen, Don McAulay

Larry Mullen Jr’s new song with GAYLE Premieres

Original Story by Aaron J. Sams (2024-11-12)

Song Credits

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