KEITH WALLEN On Next BREAKING BENJAMIN Album: 'We've Got A Few Songs Recorded, Done, In The Can'

During a new appearance on "Drinks With Johnny", the Internet TV show hosted by AVENGED SEVENFOLD bassist Johnny Christ, BREAKING BENJAMIN guitarist Keith Wallen spoke about the progress of the recording sessions for the band's long-awaited new studio album. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Obviously, we're still out there playing shows, which is probably confusing-slash-shocking to some people. 'Cause it's, like, 'Yo, you guys need a new record.' But we just love to play. I mean, for lack of better words, we just love to get out there and play. And I think we've been able to kind of split the time pretty well between playing, touring and writing as well. And we've got a few songs recorded, done, in the can. We have many songs written — finalized and written. And whenever we have the breaks and the time and everything, we just get in the studio and we knock 'em out. So I think in the next little gaps between now and our spring tour and then between the spring tour and potential late summer/fall tour, we're gonna get some real progress on it."

He continued: "But, man, I'm excited — I'm really excited. We've been working on some of these songs for, or at least demoing some of these songs — me and [guitarist Jasen] Rauch and Ben [BREAKING BENJAMIN frontman Benjamin Burnley]. It's been a few years in the making, of course. Everyone knows; I read it every day on the comments. But we're working on it."

This past February, Rauch told the FM99 WNOR radio station that he and his BREAKING BENJAMIN bandmates were "definitely recording" new music. "We've been writing for a while," he said. "Our tour schedule keeps things kind of intermittent. So it's hard to get… We'll go on a tour. We're out for quite a while, come home. Everybody wants to go see their family, have some downtime or whatever. And then it may only be a six-week turnaround, a 10-week turnaround, till we've gotta go back out and start prepping for the other thing. Keith and I do some work on the side with other bands, other projects. Keith's got his solo stuff, which is rad… But as far as recording goes, it's been so long since we've had an album out, we feel somewhat precious about it and are just making sure our quality control is there. So we are actually working, we are actually recording. We have songs that are finished, and it's just gonna be about all the business stuff —interfacing with the label and release schedule, what windows are open, that kind of thing, and then as far as us fitting in those recordings around the tour schedule."

Jasen continued: "A lot of bands would go and lock themselves away for three or four months in the studio. We're opting not to do that. We're doing a lot remote and things like that."

Asked by FM99 WNOR if it's easy to work on an album and tour at the same time, Jasen said: "It's almost impossible. I can count maybe three bands, I think, that would be successful at writing [and] recording on the road, because it's very difficult. You can have all the best intentions, but it's hard just squeezing things in between press, any sort of VIP stuff that we have, soundchecks."

Added Keith: "Even just finding a nice quiet place to you know record some vocals or something. And not even just that, but just recording vocals in general, it's, like, when you're on tour, you're using your vocals a lot and there's a fatigue factor there. So you wanna be at your best when you're recording; you don't wanna be just completely cashed from singing three shows in a row."

Jasen concurred, saying: "It's a recording, so it'll live forever, so you want it to be the best, you want it to be perfect, but is that going to be at the expense of the quality of the show suffering as well? So, yeah, it's a difficult line to walk there."

Last July, Keith told Radioactive MikeZ, host of the 96.7 KCAL-FM program "Wired In The Empire", about BREAKING BENJAMIN's next studio LP: "We've always been kind of writing and kind of chronicling some ideas over the past few years — through the pandemic, all that stuff, we've always been writing. But here recently it started to pick up a little bit. So I'm hoping — hoping — there's gonna be some new music out sometime within the next year. That's a nice, safe answer. I could say month, I could say two months, but I'm gonna say year, just 'cause it's been so long. I don't wanna screw ourselves somehow; I don't know."

Keith went on to say that there is quite a bit of new BREAKING BENJAMIN material nearly ready to be released. "We've got some stuff in the works," he said. "We've got a lot of music recorded. Ben [BREAKING BENJAMIN frontman Benjamin Burnley] just posted yesterday — he just tracked some vocals for a song. So, yeah, we're getting there. We move at our own pace here, much to the dismay of a lot of people, I've noticed, online."

He added about the new BREAKING BENJAMIN music: "It's awesome. It's exciting. And man, I can't wait to get it out there finally."

Two months earlier, Rauch told Janna of 97.9 WGRD radio station in Grand Rapids, Michigan about BREAKING BENJAMIN's plan for the follow-up to 2018's "Ember" album: "We are working on music. We've been writing for quite a while. And regardless of whether we were able to record anything or not, we've been writing for a little over a year, I would say. We kind of keep the bar pretty high for ourselves as far as the standard moving forward. We've been experimenting with some things, throwing some things out, started over a couple of times, and are getting to a place where we're pretty happy.

"So, yeah, we've been in the studio," he continued. "We did some in Nashville. We've done a lot of stuff remotely. Ben and I have dozens and dozens of voice memos going back, 'Hey, try this. Try this.' And we'll record something and send it back and forth. But, yeah, we're looking forward to it. And hopefully we'll have something out soon for everybody to hear."

The members of BREAKING BENJAMIN are no strangers to the upper echelons of the rock charts. Since bursting on to the scene with 2002's "Saturate", the band has amassed an impressive string of mainstream rock radio hits, with 10 songs hitting No. 1, numerous platinum and multi-platinum songs and albums, billions of combined streams worldwide and a social imprint of over 6.5 million — a testament to the band's global influence and loyal fan base. Their most recent release, "Aurora", gave BREAKING BENJAMIN their tenth No. 1 song at rock radio with "Far Away ft. Scooter Ward".

BREAKING BENJAMIN's last studio album, "Ember", debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard Top 200 and marked the multiplatinum band's fourth Top 5 debut on the Billboard Top 200, following 2015's No. 1 debut for "Dark Before Dawn" (gold),2009's "Dear Agony" (platinum) at No. 4 and 2006's "Phobia" (platinum) at No. 2. "Ember" spun off two No. 1 hits at Active Rock Radio with "Red Cold River" and "Torn In Two". "Aurora" and "Ember" charted Top 10 across numerous countries worldwide and topping charts across multiple genres, including Top Alternative Albums, Top Rock Albums, Top Hard Rock Albums and Top Digital Albums.

"Aurora" was released in January 2020. The disc featured reimagined versions of the band's biggest and most popular songs with special guests including Lacey Sturm (ex-FLYLEAF),Scooter Ward (COLD) and Spencer Chamberlain (UNDEROATH),to name a few.

Photo credit: Wombat Fire