The Darkness‘ reunion will continue beyond their ‘Hot Cakes’ album and guitarist Dan Hawkins says that fans shouldn’t expect too long of a turnaround before a new record arrives.
The guitarist tells Billboard, “I think it’s important the next album comes out quickly. ‘Hot Cakes‘ has been a great introduction to let people know we’re back. Now we need to keep the output up, really.” To that end, Hawkins says the band members have already started looking head to the next release.

He explains, “Every day we set up our little [portable] studio and start jotting down ideas. It’ll be out in 2014. This year we’ll be touring and writing, then early 2014 we’ll hopefully be recording it or continuing to write it and get it out later that year.”

As for what he’s expecting, Hawkins says, “I think we want to get even more old school. We want to make it even more of a performance record. We just want to be really brave and try to do something as live as humanly possible, warts and all. We’ve lost a bit of that in music today. It’s time to get a bit of character in there, so we’ll be going for something as f—ing Route 1 as possible.”

Hawkins says he doesn’t envision any of their past problems resurfacing, adding that the band members are “settling into a nice groove.” He adds, “The music is on 11, the gigs are on 11, but the drug intake is on, like, zero to one. That’s how it should be.” The group is currently on tour and will remain on the road in the U.S. through early February.

-loudwire.com