Watch David Gilmour’s First Major U.S. Television Interview

David Gilmour released his new LP Rattle That Lock, the Pink Floyd guitarist’s first solo album in nine years, on Friday, and on Saturday the rocker sat down with CBS This Morning to discuss the album. Joining Gilmour for his first ever in-depth U.S. television interview was his wife and collaborator Polly Samson, and the two spoke about the songwriting process, Richard Wright’s death and the end of Pink Floyd.

It’s been a surprisingly prolific year for Gilmour as he followed up Pink Floyd’s The Endless River with his new solo collection, and the guitarist talked about his favorite thing about creating new music. “When you realize that you have a little germ of an idea that has ”“ I suppose I can only say, has to me ”“ a little taste of magic to it,” Gilmour said. “You have this idea that there are millions, literally, of people listening to it at the same time as you and that little strange telepathy of a feeling that you’re sharing something live with all those people.”

Samson, who penned the words for five of Rattle That Lock‘s 10 tracks, detailed how she developed the lyrics for the LP’s songs. “I walk for miles with [the track] on repeat in my headphones … But the more I walk with it and the more I listen to it, things just start emerging,” Samson said. “And the music is so suggestive. I mean, David speaks with the guitar.” Samson, who first contributed lyrics to 1994’s The Division Bell, also admitted that it was a daunting task to follow in the songwriting footsteps of Syd Barrett and Roger Waters.

Rattle That Lock features “A Boat Lies Waiting,” a tribute to late Pink Floyd keyboardist Richard Wright, who passed away in September 2008. On the track, following a long, piano-driven introduction, a sample of Wright’s voice is heard speaking before Gilmour launches into the song. “We’ve missed Rick as a friend, as a person, but I think it was at the point that you realized exactly what you’d lost in terms of music, you know, 50 years of reading each other’s musical minds and what came out of that,” Samson said to Gilmour, noting that the guitarist and keyboardist shared a musical “telepathy.”

Gilmour reiterated once again that Pink Floyd’s story concluded with their 2014 swan song The Endless River. “It’s impossible anyway to go back and do that properly without [Wright]. And there would be no great joy in it,” Gilmour said. “It ran its course in a wonderful way. I don’t miss it.”

Although Pink Floyd is over, fans can take solace in a new Gilmour album as well as the war-themed project Roger Waters has been working on.