CANDLEBOX To Release New Studio Album In 2027: 'We Have Eight Songs Now'

In a new interview with Clint Switzer of On The Road To Rock, CANDLEBOX frontman Kevin Martin confirmed that he and his bandmates are working on the follow-up to 2023's "The Long Goodbye" album. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Yeah, for some reason we think we should make another record. [Laughs] We have eight songs now. We're working on probably two or three to get done, and single releases this year, and then go for the full album release next year."

Martin also talked about the return of original CANDLEBOX guitarist Peter Klett and how it affected the band's sound, particularly when it comes to the live shows. He said: "It's been really just a pleasure. When he came back last year and we did, I think we did, like, 15 to 16 shows last year, maybe 20, I don't recall, it was just like old times. And I think that the thing that I forget, when I leave the touring world and I go home and I'm with my family and I'm kind of doing what I do around the house, I forget how much CANDLEBOX actually means to me. And having Pete back in the band, it's icing on the cake, really. He's such a stellar player. He's such a beautiful soul and a beautiful human being. And it really just ups the game when we get out on stage, because he brings all of that, the magic fingers that he has, right back to those songs.

"It's funny — when he plays, I sing the song exactly how it's supposed to be sung," Kevin explained. "It's just the oddest thing. With Brian [Quinn] and Island [Styles], I can go wherever I want, but there's something about how [Pete] plays that it makes me sing the song exactly how it was done on the record. It's wild."

This past January, Kevin confirmed to the Stupid And Contagious Podcast that there are no plans for him and his CANDLEBOX bandmates to retire from touring anytime soon, despite the fact that they announced their "farewell" tour, "The Long Goodbye", and released what was being billed as their "final" album of the same name three years ago. He said in part: "I was done [in 2023]. We were putting out the record and we were going out with 3 DOORS DOWN, and I really wanted to focus on my family and my relationship with my wife and son more, and I was also releasing this bourbon and I wanted to focus on it. And I just kind of felt like I was done with this music business. And then the minute you say that, your value becomes tenfold. An then I was asked to go out with BUSH, and, of course, Gavin [Rossdale, BUSH frontman] and I have been friends since the '90s, and I was, like, 'I can't pass up on that.' And it was [also] with Jerry Cantrell [on the bill]. And then it kind of all kickstarted again. And my wife's, like, 'Look, you know you're not done with this.' And then Pete's, like, 'Hey, man, I'd like to come back.' So, yes, it's now — we're calling it the 'We Can't Quit You, Babe' tour. I mean, fucking RAINBOW said they were retiring. So did THE WHO, KISS…"

Regarding how touring has changed in the three decades since the release of CANDLEBOX's debut album, Kevin said: "It's a hell of a lot harder. It's a hell of a lot more expensive. Certainly with socials and social media and stuff, it's difficult because there are expectations, I think, that fans have of the bands. I mean, back in the day, CANDLEBOX was the most faceless rock and roll band out of Seattle. So it was easy to play a show and go out and watch the opening band and nobody knew who we were. Now your face is all over everything and people can reach out and say, 'Oh, my uncle's a huge fan.' And, 'I met you guys through this person' and 'You're not coming to my town. Why not?' That that kind of stuff... Everybody asks that, and it's, like, you live in a tiny little town in the middle of Iowa. Nobody goes there because it's the most difficult place to get to and it's incredibly expensive to get there. And it's not that we don't want to — we would love to. If we could afford to hit 70,000 cities in the United States in one year, we would, but the odds are stacked against you. But other than that, it's really just the expense of being a touring band. It's so financially unbalanced now. A tour bus, for example. If you're in a 2010 tour bus, let's say. That's 15 years old — a 15-year-old tour bus that probably hasn't been very well taken care of or upgraded or anything like that. It should be about $500 a day, but what you end up paying is about $1,500 a day for that bus. That doesn't include the driver, that doesn't include the fuel. So you're looking at a bus that's 15 years old that's gonna cost you $2,200 a day. The cost of hotels is $350 a night, [plus] taxes, insurance. I mean, my daily nut to tour is $22,000. That's a day what I have to pay to tour. And the merchandise isn't cheap. To print a shirt is about $12 to $15. That's why t-shirts at shows are $40 and $50 and $60 because it's like retail markup. You've gotta make a hundred percent markup. And it's not gonna get any easier as long as Trump's in office, with tariffs."

CANDLEBOX released "A Little Longer Goodbye (Tour Edition)", the digital deluxe version of the album "The Long Goodbye", on all DSPs in July 2024 via Round Hill Records. The digital release featured the 12 tracks on the record plus two bonus live songs, "Elegante" and "Cellphone Jesus" (recorded at Club Amanda in Santiago, Chile on October 27, 2023),as well as the single "Washed Up".

Martin previously discussed his decision to retire in July 2023 during an appearance on SiriusXM's "Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk". He said at the time: "During COVID, I had a great awakening, being home with my wife and my son and realizing that maybe I had put far too much emphasis on the wrong syllable," he said, referencing a classic line from the 2003 Mike Myers/Gwyneth Paltrow movie "View From The Top". "My music career had become so encompassing of my time and my emotion and my energy and all this stuff that I realized that I had not given my family what they actually needed from me, which was me. And being home and being a dad and a teacher and a husband, and learning how to bake bread and realizing, 'God, man, I've missed a lot of things in my life that I enjoy,' I said, 'I need to figure out when I can wrap this up.'"

He continued: "I love music and it is a part of my life and I love playing live and I love performing and I love the fans. And that is something that I never take for granted. But I knew that I didn't love it the way I did when I started. And so I said to my wife, I said, 'I think I wanna make one last record and I wanna do it in 2023 when the 30th anniversary of the debut comes out, and then I wanna just put a nice little bow on this thing and wrap it up at the end of the year. And how do you feel about that?' And she said, 'I would love that, but only if you're ready.' And it took me from 2020 to 2022 to realize that I was."

Kevin added: "I don't ever wanna be a performer that phones it in on stage. I've been to those shows, I've seen those shows. I don't wanna do that. And I would hate to become that person. If this is my top, where I'm at, and I'm going out on it, and I'm in the best shape ever and my voice is in the best shape ever, and the music that I'm making, the shows that we're playing are fantastic, and we're having an absolute blast, then what better way to go?"

Image credit: thelanatic