SEVENDUST To Enter Studio This Summer

In a new interview with Anne Erickson of Audio Ink Radio, SEVENDUST guitarist John Connolly spoke about the progress of the songwriting sessions for the follow-up to 2020's "Blood & Stone" album. He said: "We're in demo mode right now. We're gonna hit the studio in the summer. So, yeah, we're working up as many new demos as we can. We started working with LJ [singer Lajon Witherspoon] [to] get the vocal process going. But, yeah, probably [in] July, August, [we'll] hit the studio."

Asked about the direction of the new SEVENDUST music, John said: "It's hard to say. It's sort of very all over the place, in typical SEVENDUST fashion, until we really start to hone in and figure out what's gonna make it and what's not. We're realists at this point. We know all the early stuff that we work on in the demo stage is either gonna be the first single or it's probably never gonna see the light of day. So some of these songs are just a stepping stone to get to something cooler. It's always exciting when you're at this part of the process, 'cause you just don't know. Sometimes you've gotta take a step back and go, 'Okay, maybe we should listen to some of the stuff that was a couple of months ago' before you find those special moments. But with everyone sort of diving into the Dropboxes and kind of picking their favorites and stuff like that, I would imagine probably within the next six weeks we'll have a lot more of a shape and a sound. But, yeah, the vibe is just a big question mark. It's a big, wide-open canvas right now, which is good, 'cause we've got tons of ideas to fill it with, for sure."

Last December, SEVENDUST released a digital expanded edition of "Blood & Stone". "Blood & Stone Deluxe" contained five new tracks, including three never-before-released remixes and two newly recorded songs. Jake Bowen of PERIPHERY, Richard Wicander of FIRE FROM THE GODS and Justin deBlieck, formerly of ICE NINE KILLS, provided remixes and the band finished recording "All I Really Know" and "What You Are" specifically for this release. "Blood & Stone Deluxe" was released via all digital partners via Rise Records and was produced by Michael "Elvis" Baskette.

Connolly is currently promoting "Hypoxia", the third studio album from his PROJECTED project, which also features SEVENDUST bassist Vince Hornsby alongside ALTER BRIDGE/CREED drummer Scott Phillips and guitarist/vocalist Eric Friedman (a.k.a. E-Rock; TREMONTI). Due on June 24 via Rat Pak Records, the 13-track follow-up to 2017's "Ignite My Insanity" was tracked at Studio Barbarosa in Gotha, Florida with producer Michael "Elvis" Baskette, who has previously worked with SEVENDUST, ALTER BRIDGE and SLASH, among others.