The Red Hot Chili Peppers are getting close to finishing their eleventh studio album, according to frontman Anthony Kiedis. And perhaps even more exciting, the Southern California rockers have been working on the record with famed producer Danger Mouse.
Kiedis declared the band was, “In the home stretch” during a recent interview on a radio show called Jonesy’s Jukebox, hosted by The Sex Pistols’ Steve Jones.
Danger Mouse replaced legendary rock and hip-hop producer Rick Rubin on the project, who has worked with the band on Blood Sugar Sex Magik, By The Way, and Stadium Arcadium. According to Kiedis, the Danger Mouse took a more involved approach to making the record, preferring to write songs with the band directly in the studio.
“We had written two dozen songs before we got with him,” Kiedis said about Danger Mouse. “[He] is like, ‘Let’s keep a few of those, but let’s go write all new songs in the studio.’ We’re looking at each other like, ‘Dude, we kind of already wrote the songs, bro.’ He’s like, ‘No, I like to write new ones in the studio.’ So, in honor of accommodating this new process, we wrote all new songs, and it’s a good thing we did.”
According to an interview last December with the Red Hot Chili Pepper’s bassist Flea, the new record had all of the instrumental tracks complete, but just needed Kiedis to record vocals. With vocals now finished, it simply needs to be mixed and mastered, and listened to by the band.
“We’re going to go back and listen to the songs, and see if we can beat them,” Kiedis said of the album.
The band is scheduled to perform at music festivals throughout the summer, and will headline the Reading and Leeds festival. The new record doesn’t have title or a set release date yet, but will be out before the end of the year, with many fans hopeful it will hit stores before festival season.
