ERIC KRETZ On Next STONE TEMPLE PILOTS Album: 'My Guess Is It's Probably Gonna Be The Hardest Record We've Ever Had'

In a new interview with Australia's May The Rock Be With You, STONE TEMPLE PILOTS drummer Eric Kretz was asked if he and his bandmates have had any discussions about using the coronavirus downtime to work on new material. The 55-year-old musician responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Yeah, there was at first, but then it kind of goes into, 'Do you guys wanna do a record?' And we're so disappointed that we finished the 'Perdida' record [STP's first-ever acoustic album] and then we weren't able to tour it. And I think in some ways, it was actually very therapeutic just to take a break — just take a break. The whole world is hurting right now, and it's just, like, 'Let's just hang out with our families.' We all have kids around the same age, so let's just really enjoy them growing up and deal with the hardship of just the constant lockdowns and the stresses that were going along with COVID. So I'm sure what's gonna happen is now, after a couple of years break, I know Dean [DeLeo, guitar] worked on a record, TRIP THE WITCH, and Robert [DeLeo, bass] has been working on a really cool solo record. So everybody's just kind of doing their own thing. And what you're gonna find out now is I bet right when this [upcoming Australian] tour is done, it's gonna be, like, 'Let's start a new record. Let's do this [and] keep going.' And then, as we're lining up tours for the States and for Europe for the rest of the year, I think it's just gonna be, like, 'Let's keep jumping in the studio.'"

Regarding whether "Perdida" is indicative of STP's future direction or if that album was just a "one-off experimental thing," Eric said: "It was just experimental. I'm sure you know from our catalog, we've always had a song or maybe two that were similar to that. And it was just, 'Let's just do a whole record like that.' And the majority of it we wrote here at my place where I have a studio. We just sat around the couch with a couple of acoustics and some hand drums and just kind of arranged the songs and put the lyrics together and just kind of got it all together. And then recording was sometimes it'd be a few of us together, sometimes it'd be one person at a time or two people at a time, and just kind of developing the layers. And Robert and Dean really had some great ideas with expanding what they wanted to do with the harmonies and melodies and continued to use instruments that we haven't touched on before. So in that sense it was a different avenue for us to take.

"I would say the next record — my guess is it's probably gonna be the hardest and loudest record we've ever had, just to say, 'Okay, we've done that. Now let's do this and let's try something different,'" he added. "Or it could be totally a mixture of the two. We kind of don't know until we get there. In a few more months, like I said, we'll probably be itching to record again."

In November, STONE TEMPLE PILOTS scrapped the remaining shows on their tour — including an appearance at the Welcome To Rockville festival in Daytona Beach, Florida — after a "member" of the band's "organization" tested positive for COVID-19.

STONE TEMPLE PILOTS features three original members — the DeLeo brothers and Kretz.

Singer Jeff Gutt, a 45-year-old Michigan native who spent time in the early-2000s nu-metal act DRY CELL, among other bands, and was a contestant on "The X Factor", joined STONE TEMPLE PILOTS after beating out roughly 15,000 hopefuls during an extended search that began more than a year earlier.

Original STONE TEMPLE PILOTS singer Scott Weiland, who reunited with the group in 2010 after an eight-year hiatus but was dismissed in 2013, died in December 2015 of a drug overdose.

Chester Bennington, who joined STP in early 2013, departed nearly three years later to spend more time with his main band LINKIN PARK. Bennington committed suicide in July 2017.

"Perdida" was Gutt's second LP with STP. His recording debut with the group was on its self-titled seventh album, which arrived in March 2018.

Later this week, STONE TEMPLE PILOTS will embark on the "Under The Southern Stars" tour of Australia with CHEAP TRICK, BUSH, ROSE TATTOO, ELECTRIC MARY and BLACK REBEL MOTORCYCLE CLUB.