THE SCORPIONS To Record New Album

Veteran German hard rockers THE SCORPIONS are taking a little break before entering the studio to record their new studio album, tentatively due in early 2004. Several producer names have been mentioned as possible collaborators on the group's next effort, including Bob Rock (METALLICA, THE CULT),Rick Parashar (PEARL JAM, NICKELBACK, BLIND MELON) and former hard rock singer Max Martin (BACKSTREET BOYS, BRITNEY SPEARS, PAIN, BON JOVI, DEF LEPPARD).

"We've converted the back lounge of a bus into a studio so we can get some ideas and record a little bit," THE SCORPIONS guitarist Mathias Jabs told Toronto's Now earlier this year. He didn't reveal anything else about the record except that it'll be classic rock, even if it might be hard to get radio play for it.

"We are classic rock, and most radio stations don't play that. But a lot of things are changing, so you never know."

THE SCORPIONS hit it big in North America in the early '80s with "Animal Magnetism" and went on to become one of the most successful bands to come out of continental Europe. They scored with the 1990 political ballad "Wind Of Change", but then, like most '80s rock bands, became sudden casualties of the alternative grunge takeover.

"I never liked that music," Jabs said. "I liked NIRVANA but nothing that came after that. It was this depressing music, these heroin addicts singing all night about no future, then saying, 'See you next year' at the end of the night.'

So do audiences come out to THE SCORPIONS shows just for nostalgia purposes?

"Yes, but there are people out there so young — maybe 10 per cent of them are young — that they can't be on a nostalgia trip," Jabs explained. "I think it's because so many bands out there are covering the music of bands like us."