Patti Smith Looks Ahead to New Projects After ‘Banga’

Today, Patti Smith releases her 11th album, Banga. In the new issue of Rolling Stone, on newsstands Friday, she talks about the making of the album, plus other upcoming projects – including her follow-up to Just Kids, her award-winning 2010 memoir of her life with artist Robert Mapplethorpe.

Smith tells RS’ Austin Scaggs she’s currently working on “three books and a little album of Appalachian-style songs. Robert used to scold me for working on so many projects at once, but it’s just a part of my nature. I have a detective story in the works. I love detective TV shows – The Killing is my favorite. Another book is a sort of parallel to Just Kids.”

She adds, “When I was touring [Just Kids], I wrote down all of the questions people asked me, things I didn’t address in the book. Like, what compelled me to write a certain song, or my view of religion. I have no qualms about telling those stories, if I can tell them well.”

Back in April, Smith talked to Rolling Stone about the journey that led to the making of Banga, her first album of original songs since 2004’s Trampin’. “It was something I had to wrestle with: Who am I now and what can I give to the people?” Smith said. “To give people a new record, I have to evolve, have new things to share. I needed those years of traipsing around.”