THE DARKNESS Putting Finishing Touches On Comeback Album

August 4, 2011

THE DARKNESS frontman Justin Hawkins has revealed to U.K.'s Total Guitar magazine that the band's third album is almost complete.

"To use one analogy, the house is built," Justin tells Total Guitar as part of an exclusive interview for issue 218. "And it's a lovely house. How we decorate it is the next conundrum. We're getting to the stage where it's like, how much do we want to blow it?

"We could do all those big QUEEN arrangements, it's just whether we want to. Do you overblow it? Do you underblow it? Do you cup the sack while administering said blowjob? Do you pop a finger up the arse? We have to decide how the happy ending goes."

The as-yet-untitled comeback CD was rehearsed in THE DARKNESS' Lowestoft hometown and was recorded at guitarist Dan Hawkins' home studio.

"Home is where the heart is," says Justin. "When you write songs, you need a grounding to set the stories in. There's a lot about small-town life. The album has songs about stuff that's happened to us in the town. [As for influences], it's AC/DC, QUEEN, AEROSMITH, et cetera."

"There's some really great, almost 'DIRE STRAITS' Strat stuff from Justin on the record," says Dan. "That's another big influence.

"There are some interesting wah sounds, and we made a point of ditching all that click track shit, because rock music needs to breathe. It's party music. With something like 'Cannonball', every single part of the song is a riff!"

THE DARKNESS made its U.K. live comeback on June 5 in front of just 200 people at the Norwich Waterfront.

THE DARKNESS' appearance at the Download festival at Donington Park in Leicestershire, United Kingdom in June marked the band's first festival appearance since splitting up in 2006.

THE DARKNESS' first album, "Permission To Land", was released in 2003, hitting the No. 1 spot in the U.K. chart and winning "MasterCard British Album" at the 2004 Brit Awards (along with "Best British Group" and "British Rock Act").

Between 2003 and 2006, THE DARKNESS was honored with many awards and accolades; along with three Brit Awards, the band won an Ivor Novello in 2004 for "Songwriters Of The Year", four Kerrang! Awards, two Metal Hammer Awards, an MTV Europe Music Award and even an Elle Style Award in 2004 for "Most Stylish Band".

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