LOS ANGELES – For many musicians, a live album is an afterthought — a way to quickly appease insatiable fans or make some easy money.

But when Adam Granduciel, the frontman of the anthemic rock band The War on Drugs, set out to make their newest live album announced Wednesday, it was a labor of love that is anything but quick or easy.

For “Live Drugs Again,” out Sept. 13, Granduciel wanted to do justice to the ways in which the band has grown, both literally (they’ve added a member since their first live album was released in 2020) and figuratively as musicians who have honed their sound. So he combed through about 100 hours of recordings from their shows and even spliced different parts of the same songs together.

The album comes in tandem with the start of their co-headlining tour with The National, which kicks off Sept. 12 in New Hampshire. Granduciel spoke with The Associated Press about how performing a song live changes it, whether the band has new music in the pipeline and how he came to play guitar on Beyoncé’s “II Most Wanted.”

The interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

Talk about what went into making this live record.

GRANDUCIEL: I think we used maybe like 50 shows total. There are a few songs where it’s four shows spliced together, and part of that too is just having fun with the process…

Do you have new music in the works?

GRANDUCIEL: In theory there is new music. It’s nice to be home for a bit and sort of get into the flow of everything when you start making a new one…

How did you end up playing guitar for “II Most Wanted,” the Beyoncé and Miley Cyrus duet?

GRANDUCIEL: I worked on my last two records with Shawn Everett. And he’s producing Miley’s new album. And he called me one day, and I was taking my kid and his friend to an indoor playground in North Hollywood…

Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.