LIVING COLOUR's WILL CALHOUN Hopes Band's Long-Awaited New Album Will Be Completed By The Spring

In a new interview with Chile's iRock.cl, LIVING COLOUR drummer Will Calhoun confirmed that he and his bandmates are continuing work on the long-awaited follow-up to 2017's "Shade" album. As for when the LP might be "ready" for release, Will said: "I'm hoping by this spring — 2026, spring."

Regarding what the new LIVING COLOUR music sounds like, Will said: "We have a lot of interesting ideas at the moment. Obviously there's a lot of political things going on in the world and certainly in this country. So the sound now for me is a little bit closer to [LIVING COLOUR's third studio album, 1993's] 'Stain'. But it's still also a bit of a new sound for the band. There's some things that we wanna go back to, some people that we worked with that did a great job when working with the band. But I don't think that honestly we have a sound for the record yet. I think we're in the writing stages. We're trying out sounds, we're seeing what things work and don't work. And I'm hoping that we can get to a new space. I love where we were and I love where we are now, but I'm hoping we can get to some somewhere new. But the strange thing is in saying something like that, [LIVING COLOUR's breakthrough song] 'Cult Of Personality' was written almost 35 years ago, and it came out 32 years ago, and it's relevant right now. So this is the interesting part about sound and the impact. But I think spiritually, for us, and the subject matter is the most important thing. And we certainly want to bring in new fans and not disappoint the old ones."

On the topic of how the LIVING COLOUR songwriting process has change in the last three decades, Will said: "Yeah, we have new technology. There's A.I. It's easier to write. There's things now you can have on your laptop — Logic [Pro], Pro Tools, even things on your phone, GarageBand. So the process is — we have more toys to influence us to write. But for rock and roll and for this band, getting in a room, plugging the instruments in and hashing out the tunes have always given us the best results."

Last October, LIVING COLOUR guitarist Vernon Reid told SiriusXM's "Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk", LIVING COLOUR guitarist Vernon Reid about the band's upcoming LP: "We were recording and writing… And we're looking forward to the next tunes. We've done a set of tunes. We're probably gonna do quite a few more before we settle on what the album is, but that's an ongoing process. And, yeah, man, there's a lot going on, and we're processing where we are right now. And I'm really looking forward to the next steps. But we're active inside of that."

Reid continued:  "We've got quite a few tracks. We collaborated with Frankie Bello [ANTHRAX bassist]. We've got a few tracks. It's elusive. There's a thing, in particular myself, that I'm looking to hear us do. We're kind of cataloging and writing as we go, and it's pretty exciting. Some of the things are there. Will Calhoun brought in a wonderful tune the other day that's fully written by him. We covered a kind of obscure Dr. John thing that I think is pretty fun. But me, I'm looking to come up with riffs. I am looking for the kind of implacable, irresistible riffs. That's kind of where I'm at with it. So we're in process. And we were recording at the Carriage House, which is very, very cool. We were recording at this place Clubhouse. So it's been a fun process."

In a 2025 interview with "The Plowzone" video show on RokuTV, LIVING COLOUR bassist Doug Wimbish was asked if he and his bandmates are working on fresh music. He responded: "We are. It's interesting because [when people ask], 'Are you in the studio writing some stuff?' Well, we're going in the studio in a couple of weeks, and we've been in the studio actually creating some ideas. So, to be honest, yeah, we're in the process of making a new record. I'd like to say we're in the process, really, of collecting the material to get to that point where we can actually go in and have enough music or enough ideas to start to really build out songs."

He continued: "That's how we work. We're a band where [we work best when you] get us all in the room, turn it on and let's all play at the same time. That's when the magic happens. And to not overthink it. Just get in. Let's go. Take a break. Play some more. Make sure that you can actually document the stuff. Go home. Sleep on it. Come back and do the same thing the next day. And if you can get into that kind of routine, then things start to happen. Or you can wait for that magic moment, and you'll be waiting on Godot. So we're in that flow vibe, and I'm looking forward to going in the studio and chopping it up."

In May 2024, LIVING COLOUR singer Corey Glover told Robert Cavuoto of Myglobalmind that he and his bandmates were "still in the writing stage" for the follow-up to "Shade". He said at the time: "I think we're in search of a voice at this point. I think it's important that we have something to say that's sort of poignant, particularly in and around this time. If everything was right, this record would have come out this year. But I think scheduling was not in our favor. But I don't think the world is going to change significantly. And if it does, we'll talk about it. But for the most part, we're trying to figure out what our mission statement is for this. And we're writing it in that regard to sort of jumpstart that process."

In September 2023, Corey expressed hope that LIVING COLOUR would have some new music ready to release soon. He told May The Rock Be With You at the time: "We really, really take our time making records, because when you have musicians of the caliber of Vernon and Will and Doug — and myself, I guess — we get kind of precious about our thing. We want it to be right. We want it to be exactly the way we want it to be as it occurs, what it is and how it is. So it takes a minute."

He continued: "Making records is simpler technically, but a lot more difficult in terms of living your life. We're a lot older. We've got a lot more responsibilities. We've got kids. We've got college. We've got high school. You've got all this other stuff that you gotta think about — and write a song. [Laughs] So it's a two-sided coin in terms of having the wherewithal to make music and live the rest of your life."

Asked what the process is like writing music now compared to, say, 1988, Corey said: "Well, you can get the information out to people a lot quicker. You can say, 'I've got this groove.' Back in the day, you played it on the phone or you made a recording, and then you physically brought it to them. Now I can hum a thing on my phone and say, 'Here. I'm sending this to you. What can you do with this?' And then they send me something back, and we can go back and forth with that in real time as it occurs. And that makes the process that much simpler."

LIVING COLOUR disbanded in 1995 but reunited in 2000. (Original bassist Muzz Skillings left the group in 1992 and was replaced by Doug Wimbish.)

In June 2020, LIVING COLOUR released a video for its classic song "This Is The Life" featuring footage of the peaceful protests that swelled across the U.S. and around the world over the death of George Floyd at the hands of police. The original version of "This Is The Life" appeared on LIVING COLOUR's 1990 album "Time's Up".

"Shade" was released in September 2017 via Megaforce Records.

Image credit: Wanderson Fernandes