STONE TEMPLE PILOTS' JEFF GUTT Is Completing Debut Album From WE ARE NOT MACHINES Project Featuring EVANESCENCE's WILL HUNT

In a new interview with Paul Cashmere of Noise11, STONE TEMPLE PILOTS singer Jeff Gutt confirmed that he is working on the debut album from WE ARE NOT MACHINES, his long-running recording project with EVANESCENCE drummer Will Hunt. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "I'm right now finishing that record, after 10 years, that I was starting, 'cause I got it halfway finished. And I'm in the studio daily here in L.A., finishing that up. [I've] got a guitar player flying in in a couple days, and we're gonna see how that goes. And I don't know — [I'm] just winging it and putting it together."

Gutt continued: "I'm a kind of guy that needs to finish things. I can't make half a record and then leave it, and it's been 10 years, so it's like... And it's a different producer now, so we're trying to make all this mash… It's crazy. But whatever, man. We're just gonna do what we wanna do and make music for ourselves first, and then see where it goes with that… Will Hunt's in that, and he's been in it for 10 years, so he's been a believer the whole time. He's been in it longer than that, actually. So, we'll just see where it goes. It's something I need to do in my life, is finish that record. I can't just leave it halfway done. I have OCD like that."

Asked if there are plans to take WE ARE NOT MACHINES on the road once the band's debut album has been released, Jeff said: "Yeah. I'm sure we'll get out there and do some festivals or do some tours. 'Cause I have STP and [Will] has EVANESCENCE, and any other people that get involved, we'll have to work all that out. So there'll be small windows where we can do it. But, yeah, it's something I would like to grow and see where it goes."

STONE TEMPLE PILOTS features three original members — bassist Robert DeLeo, guitarist Dean DeLeo and drummer Eric Kretz.

Gutt, a 50-year-old Michigan native who spent time in the early-2000s nu-metal act DRY CELL, among other bands, and was a contestant on "The X Factor", joined STONE TEMPLE PILOTS nine years ago after beating out roughly 15,000 hopefuls during an extended search that began more than a year earlier.

STONE TEMPLE PILOTS broke the news of Gutt's addition to the band on Eddie Trunk's SiriusXM radio Volume 106 show before breaking in the singer at an invitation-only concert for SiriusXM subscribers in November 2017 at the Troubadour in West Hollywood, California.

Original STONE TEMPLE PILOTS singer Scott Weiland, who reunited with the group in 2010 after an eight-year hiatus but was dismissed in 2013, died in December 2015 of a drug overdose.

Chester Bennington, who joined STP in early 2013, departed nearly three years later to spend more time with his main band LINKIN PARK. Bennington committed suicide in July 2017.

STONE TEMPLE PILOTS released their first all-acoustic album, titled "Perdida", in February 2020. The disc was Gutt's second with STP. His recording debut with the group was on its self-titled seventh album, which arrived in March 2018.