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BRMC: New Album And Record Deal Imminent

added 07 October 2004 at 11.20

Following the recent departure of drummer Nick Jago, bassist/vocalist Robert Turner has been speaking candidly about the current state of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, their split with Virgin records and how he Peter will move forward alone.

While the band have firmly denied their third studio album will be an acoustic record, Turner has not ruled out the inclusion of a number of “uncluttered” songs and even a new drummer on the forthcoming record.

"This is not an acoustic record, but some of the songs don't lend themselves to a lot of clutter," Turner explained to Billboard. "A couple of them have our friend Paul [playing drums]. Some of the stuff me and Pete just did ourselves."

Clearly moving in new musical directions, the band have explained their fears about making such a diverse record for their old label Virgin, and therefore why it was necessary to leave.

"There's one [new song] in the vein of an old, Johnny Cash song, and there are a couple of songs that sound like Dylan's first couple of albums,” Turner continued. “On the songs that do have a fuller sound, they're more produced and layered.

"When we were on Virgin, we knew this album was coming because we had it in our heads for awhile. We also knew our relationship with them wasn't good enough to survive a musical directional change. It was barely holding on as it was. If we'd stayed, we knew we'd be recording a record that would have been saddled from the beginning, and that would have f***ed up the music."

While the record is nearing completion at Sandbox Studios in Los Angeles, Turner explained that the band hope to put out a new record in the first quarter of 2005. But with no live shows currently planned, the band are in no hurry to replace Jago just yet.

"We're trying not to rush into the decision of rehearsing drummers or having people we know step up and take that role, because it's not 100% clear what's going to happen with Nick and us," Turner concludes. "We're going to let him take his time to clear out his head and play with other bands if he wants to. The door's always open for him to play with us if he wants."

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Jon Ford

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