Friday 17th January 2014 by Edward Keeble

Stuck in the studio: the big bands hard at work on their next album

Updates from Maccabees, Grimes, QOTSA

Kasabian: "This record is as good as it gets for us. If we were on a mountain, we're at the top of Mount Everest now. We've stuck the flag in and we're saluting it. Top of the world, mate - that's where we are."

The Maccabees: "Because we haven't really come across the songs that set the tone or mood for this record yet, we're kind of shooting in the dark. But I like that: there isn't a specific thing I'm trying to funnel stuff into."

Queens of the Stone Age: "We have more than enough songs. We're booked til September, but after that we plan to jump in the studio and get going. When it's time to make music, that's about getting lost for me. To be a control freak is not half as good as being a freak who's casually in control. You're feeling around in the dark for something that feels good. As long as you're not in an orgy, that can be an amazing moment."

Wu-Tang Clan: "The energy that's important is constantly pouring out. But when you've got to go seek for the energy, it becomes a little more difficult. Wu-Tang is forever, I'll never take back that statement. But we haven't recorded a lot of studio albums. This is the first album we've recorded in seven years, actually. And we can't wait seven years for another album."

Jack White: "Im producing two albums this month, and finishing them. One of them is mine."

Grimes: "I've been working on more percussive noise music and also a lot of straight vocal music. I want to make dark percussive shit and... release an album that's halfway between ethereal reggaeton and industrial dance music but is still very pop in its song [structures]."

Slipknot: Frontman Corey Taylor stated the new album will "be a cross between Iowa and Vol. 3 in a lot of ways, while also evolving the way we always have. The stuff i'm writing right now is really dark. The stuff Clown is coming with is fucking beyond. It's really cool. It's going to be cool to get the alchemists in the same room and see what happens."

Guns 'n Roses: "Axl has a lot of great songs up his sleeve. He probably has three albums' worth of stuff recorded. The stuff I've heard... I've been up in his hotel room many nights and he just sits down at the piano and plays. I'm like: 'This is amazing, people have to hear this song,' and he's like: 'Ah, this is something I'm tinkering on.'"

Metallica: "We're a band that never has a shortage of ideas," says guitarist Kirk Hammet. "You hear about these bands that are sitting in the studio and they don't have any songs, what are they gonna do? That's not Metallica. Metallica's problem is the total opposite. We have too many ideas. James (Hetfield) has, like, 800 ideas. I have 400. Those number alone are just crazy. That's formidable."

The Cribs: "I feel like there's two sides to the band - a punk rock side and a poppy side - and we've always tried to balance them. The idea this time is to let them exist separately as different records," said Gary Jarman.

Marilyn Manson: "It's very cinematic. The redneck in me comes out in my voice, and its got some old blues mixed with the very hard elements. I want to retain what I think is good about the past, what music I did and who I am. It's not about being pissed about the world - it's about realising someone has to fuck things up."

Outkast: "Theyre chilling, theyre doing movies, they're about to work on a new album," stated Queen Latifah.

Haim: "We're always writing and figuring out new vibes and trying to get our inner Kanyes out, we're going to tap into our inner Kanye."

Bastille: Dan Smith has so far been coy about the follow up to their debut, telling the Guardian: "All our heads are in the next album" and suggesting it may be influenced by R&B and electronic music. "I want to defy expectations," he added mysteriously.

D'Angelo: The enigmatic soul singer seems to be working on his first record in 14 years, with videos from studio sessions appearing online earlier this month. Collaborator and friend Questlove has claimed the album will be "my generation's version of Sly's There's A Riot Goin' On."

Suede: Brett Anderson has confirmed the band are working on the follow up to 2013's Bloodsports. "We're busy writing at the moment," he told the NME. "I'm very proud of Bloodsports, and the best thing about it is that it showed us that we can write new music, and relevant new music."

Rihanna: The R&B singer's producer DJ Mustard has revealed she's started work on yet another record. "I'm finally going in with Rihanna," he said. "I'm just doing what I think she would like, and if she don't like it we�ll just figure out something else in the studio, and I�ll just keep making beats �till she figure it out. But she's gonna get one."

Foo Fighters: Dave Grohl has said their upcoming record is taking shape. "I know what it sounds like and I honestly think the entire concept is really going to take people by surprise and it sounds nuts... We recorded something the other day that's unlike anything we've ever done and it starts with a fuse and then it explodes."

Linkin Park: Mike Shinoda has promised the band's upcoming record will be "bold and energetic". "We're inspired...the band is trying all kinds of things we haven't before. [We're] searching for the sound that truly captures where we're at as a band right now. Something bold and energetic. Something with a balance between the chaos and order," he wrote on his blog.

Tags: Metallica, Outkast, Haim, Grimes, Slipknot, Wu Tang Clan

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