The Cure is returning to the studio, frontman Robert Smith has confirmed. The singer sat down for a rare interview with Shaun Keaveny for BBC Radio 6 Music. Smith explained why he returned to music. Apparently, curating this year’s Meltdown festival led to Smith discovering a bunch of new music from new artists. Smith told Keaveny that it was a “catalyst”, and that he “suddenly [fell] in love with the idea of writing new songs”. Now, the band has booked studio time in May to demo new songs.

The singer also noted that The Cure will headline the final night of Meltdown festival. But with a bit of a twist. Instead of a standard set, the band will perform “interpretations of Cure songs” with “different configurations of people on stage”.