FOREIGNER Is Working On New Music

FOREIGNER bassist Jeff Pilson has once again said that it's unlikely the band will release another full-length studio LP as a follow-up to "Can't Slow Down", which came out more than a decade ago. "I don't really see a whole album of new material coming out anytime soon," he told Kylie Olsson's YouTube show "Life In Six Strings" (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET). "But we are working on some music. So I think that what's gonna happen is whatever other things we release in the next couple of years, there will be some new songs added to it. So that's what I see kind of happening. 'Cause we're working on a few that are not that far away. So I would say expect a package deal to have a couple of new songs on it."

Elaborating on the new tracks FOREIGNER is working on, Jeff said: "A couple of them were actually written by Mick [Jones, FOREIGNER's founding guitarist], like, 20-some years ago; there's stuff that he had. So what we're doing is we're just kind of working it out and arranging it with Mick. Like one of them right now, we've kind of worked on a beginning bed of it, and then Kelly's [Hansen] gonna sing it. Another one, we've tried a few different treatments; we haven't really settled on that. There's another couple that are kind of in the same state — they're written; we just haven't decided exactly where to go. One of them needs a bridge, and things like that."

This past December, Hansen told the "Iron City Rocks" podcast that writing songs and putting out records in this day and age is "not a money-making proposition." He explained: "The streaming and online services do not provide anything that would even come close to providing a living for a musician — for, I would say, 99.9 percent of musicians in the world. But this off time [during the pandemic] has given us the opportunity to work on some new stuff. I was just working on a track yesterday. And Jeff Pilson is an extremely prolific writer and musician and producer, so he's been doing a lot of records on his off time.

"I don't need that much artistic fulfillment from writing new tunes, although I do get inspired, and I do do it," Kelly clarified. "But it all depends on what's inside that musician's mind. But it's not about the money, that's for sure."

FOREIGNER's last album, 2009's "Can't Slow Down", was the only full-length collection of new songs to have been released by the band since Hansen took over vocals after original singer Lou Gramm left the band for good in 2002. The album entered the Billboard Top 30, driven by the radio singles "In Pieces" and "When It Comes To Love". The band also has released a series of live albums and compilations, including 2016's "In Concert: Unplugged" and 2017's "40".

FOREIGNER's current lineup is rounded out by Thom Gimbel (rhythm guitar, sax, vocals),Michael Bluestein (keyboards),Bruce Watson (guitar) and Chris Frazier (drums).