Umphrey’s McGee Expect To Release Rock Album In 2014

Jam stalwarts Umphrey’s McGee, who are currently on tour with STS9, haven’t released a new studio album since 2011’s Death By Stereo. According to a new interview with keyboardist Joel Cummins, the band expects to release a new album next year in a “heavier rock vein.”

Cummins told RVA Mag that Umphrey’s has recorded 16 tracks over the past few months for potential release in 2014. Joel specifies that nine of the tracks have been played in concert, while seven are “completely new.” When probed for details about how the potential release will differ from Death By Stereo the keyboardist discussed the overall vibe of the material they recently recorded:

Well, with Death by Stereo, we were kind of considering putting out a few EPs for a while because we had sort of a funkier electronic sound with a few of the tracks and then we had kind of a heavier rock feel [on others]. So for this one we took a lot of our songs, and some of the newer things, that were more in that heavier rock vein. We definitely decided that we wanted to create something where the songs were a little more related than with Death by Stereo. With Death by Stereo we really focused on each individual song and weren’t really too concerned about creating more of an overall vibe. For this one we wanted to explore that. We have a few more up-tempo, dancier, songs that we definitely could have recorded as well but we decided to wait on those, so that’ll probably be kind of the direction of the next release, whenever that is.

Joel commented on the lack of rock currently out there, “Bands like Queens of the Stone Age are still really doing it. They might be my favorite true rock band out there right now. So, with that kind of jerk in the scene, everything has kind of shifted more into the electronic vein. So we kind of feel that this is the perfect time to put out something that really showcases that side of the band.” We look forward to hearing the harder-edged material.