SCORPIONS frontman Klaus Meine spoke to SiriusXM‘s “Trunk Nation” about the band’s upcoming studio album.
Speaking about how the coronavirus pandemic has affected the making of the new SCORPIONS LP, Meine said:
“This situation gives us a little extra time. We had planned to release this new album later this year, but, unfortunately, it will be delayed until early 2021. And so it gives us some extra time. Also, to get prepared, when we pick up the tour again, there will be new songs in the setlist, there will be a whole new production, and I guess we will do a couple of videos, maybe, for some songs that will be released. And so there’s plenty of extra time. And it feels good that we can use this time and really make the best out of this situation right now instead of sitting at home and watching the grass grow.
“We came in here well prepared, because lots and lots of material we wrote already last year, and they’re still in the making and songwriting process — everybody comes up with bits and pieces. It’s really nice every day to come here and to see how all those elements come together and the feeling that we have hopefully a great rock album on the way is growing every day. And that’s really a good feeling.”
Meine went on to say that he is looking forward to working with producer Greg Fidelman:
“The vibe and the feel we [are trying] to go back to [is] the days between ‘Lovedrive’ [1979], ‘Animal Magnetism’ [1980] and ‘Blackout’ [1982],” he said about the new material’s musical direction. “I mean, it’s impossible to turn back time and start all over again — it’s such a long time ago. But we try to, especially with our producer, with Greg Fidelman, we try to go back to that spirit and make a hard-rocking album.
“Rudolf Schenker, the riff master, he came up with lots and lots of really great tunes, and I wrote more lyrics than probably ever before,” he continued.
“So we went back to the same old spirit, like back in those days, and we try to make an album that goes in that direction. I’m not saying it will be like ‘Blackout’ or ‘Animal Magnetism’ — that’s impossible, I think — but it will be different from what we’ve done in the last 10 years. It’s a totally different approach. And hopefully this works out. Right now, what I hear every day, it feels great and it’s a lot of fun and I can’t wait until we can share it with the fans.”