NICKELBACK Bassist Says Group Is In 'No Real Hurry' To Record New Album

NICKELBACK bassist Mike Kroeger recently spoke with Cameron Buchholtz of the Oklahoma City, Oklahoma radio station Rock 100.5 The KATT. The full conversation can be streamed below. A few excerpts follow (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET).

On the "greatest hits"-style set list they're currently playing in concert:

Mike: "It's one of those enviable problems that we have. If we don't continue to play the old songs that people got on board for in the first place, there'll be torches and pitchforks, so we want to make sure and make everybody happy, so we try to play the stuff that got everybody to hear about us, as well as some new stuff, as well as even some stuff before people knew us — some of the oldies that people haven't heard for a while... We're still learning about how that works, and amazingly, in places where we're not too sure about playing those moldy oldies, the response has been fantastic. Maybe people know more of these old songs than we thought."

On the band's recent tour schedule, which included several live performances at casinos:

Mike: "We're trying to pick up the odd show this summer — not really hard, hard touring, just a fun and convenient schedule, and the casinos — that kind of thing – seem to fit into that program. We're just having fun — we're just cruising. It's kind of like dartboard touring — we'll put the map on the wall and, blindfolded, throw a dart at it."

On whether the band has to scale down their usual arena production when they play casinos:

Mike: "You get into one of those 'Ten pounds of crap, five-pound bag' situations, but you just do your best. You just try to bring as much as you can and still fit it into the room. But it's okay — it's a good problem... These casino things, they feel bigger than they are. They're still intimate, but they feel like a real gig. They're set up for real pro shows... They absolutely are smaller than normal. That does lend a little bit of exclusivity. You can only get so many people in there, and a lot of people want to come, so that leads to a little bit greater enthusiasm all the way around."

On the band's future musical plans:

Mike: "[There's] no real hurry. There are some songs, some ideas out there, but nobody's pushing a panic button. We don't have any business obligations to deliver for any big, bad company or anything like that. We're on our own schedule — we can do what we want... It's been really unique and novel to see my family on a little bit more regular basis, which I've been really enjoying a lot. Having two kids that actually, frankly, are both sort of on the verge of moving out, it's really nice to have a little time with them before they decide to split. To this point, Chad [Kroeger, vocalist] has been in the pressure cooker to kind of deliver every time that we've had a space where we had to record music. It was like, everybody looks at him, and it's time for him to write everything and make it happen. This time around, I, for one, don't really want to press him. I want it to come when it comes and not pressure him and make him feel obligated to deliver something and have all that pressure on him. I want it to come when it comes naturally."

On whether the group will continue releasing albums:

Mike: "That's something we've kind of been watching. It's been coming for years, and we've been wondering when's the day when rock bands are going to release sort of old '50s-style — a single like some are doing these days. I still don't know if it is going to be like that. It seems like rock still really likes albums, so we should probably give serious thought to continuing in that direction, but we'll see what happens. But we're not in any rush, and I think that is much to the chagrin of the fans. I'm sure they want more music, and there will be more. There are ideas cooking; we're just doing slow-cooking this time around... This is quite the change-up to actually play a tour and then come off the tour and not immediately jump in the studio, trying to put a record together immediately. We're kind of taking a little breathing space."

NICKELBACK's latest album, "Feed The Machine", was released in 2017 via BMG.