Black Stone Cherry singer Chris Robertson recently sat down with UK’s TotalRock and confirmed that they’re hard at work on the follow-up to 2023’s Screamin’ At The Sky.
Robertson said, “We’ve been working on new music. We know it’s been a while since we put out a new record. We put out the Record Store Day record, which was a collection of previously recorded material. But we’ve been working our asses off on some new music. And I can’t give out dates, but soon-ish there’ll be some new music for people to hear and some announcements and things like that. But we’ve been very, very hard at work on new music and we’re very excited for people to hear what we’ve come up with.”
As for how they’re kept on together for more than two decades? “That’s hard, because you’ll hit a riff and you’ll be, like, ‘Ah, it’s too similar to this one.’ I think you never wanna completely repeat yourself, but… there’s nothing wrong with drawing from what made you who you are and the things that got you there. AC/DC is one of the greatest bands of all time, and a lot of their songs have similarities. But none of us care when they’re on the radio.
“And you’ve got the other side of that spectrum — you’ve got AC/DC and then you’ve got Led Zeppelin, where no record ever sounded anywhere near similar. I feel like for us, we’re kind of somewhere in the middle of that. There’s a common thread through all the albums, but also sonic and structural differences. Put a little (Lynyrd) Skynyrd and Aerosmith in there and you’ve got the four quarters that make the dollar of Black Stone Cherry.”
Robertson says the new record carries a distinct “vibe”. “We all got together at Ben’s (Wells, guitar/backing vocals) house to write these songs in a room together. So we weren’t on the bus this go-round. It was the first time in several years that we got to get in a room and just go, ‘Hey, let’s get together and write songs. Let’s just get together and see what comes out,’ and not have it all spur from riffs that happened on the bus. I’m really excited for people to hear this stuff.”
The difference, he says, was night and day: “When we’re on the back of the bus writing, it rocks and great ideas flow, but it’s such a small space. People are coming and going. This time, we were all in the same room the entire time… instant feedback, instant spontaneity. It all happens at once.”
As you’d expect, there’s ho release date yet. But sounds like you won’t be waiting too long to hear new Black Stone Cherry!
