NEIL FALLON On Upcoming CLUTCH Album: “We Wanna Put Out An Awesome Record”

In a recent conversation with Shawn Ratches of Laughingmonkeymusic, Clutch‘s Neil Fallon offered an inside look at the band’s upcoming tour plans and a hint at new music in the works. Fallon addressed the band’s recent tour, where they played their 2004 album, Blast Tyrant, in its entirety, marking the album’s 20th anniversary.

Reflecting on the tour’s promotion, Fallon admitted (via Blabbermouth): “In hindsight, I don’t think we did a very good job of kind of promoting that or letting people know that was happening. So, we’re gonna do it again for a little bit, just like four more shows, in kind of Mid-Atlantic in New York, and Baltimore, the area, because it was the 20th anniversary of the record.”

After these shows, the band plans to take a hiatus from touring until April. Fallon revealed that during this time, they’ll turn their attention to celebrating the 30th anniversary of Clutch‘s 1995 self-titled album. Excitingly, this milestone includes a long-awaited re-release on vinyl. “Then we’re gonna take a considerable amount of time off, pretty much until April, and then we’re gonna kind of do the same thing with the 1995 self-titled record because that’ll be the 30th anniversary for that and we were given the rights to re-release that on vinyl properly. I mean, we don’t own that record outright, but it’s getting closer. And in the spaces in between, we’re writing the new record. It’s hard to kind of do that when you’re constantly touring. You would think it’d be easier to write on the road, but at this point, that’s kind of the last thing I wanna do” he admitted.

Reflecting further on the creative process, Fallon explained that crafting new songs is no simple feat after 30 years as a band. “The thing is with being in a band, it’s a hive mind. It’d be one thing if you were the only person you had to answer to and you understood what kind of mood you’re in. Like, ‘I’m in a sour mood. I don’t wanna write music. Or ‘I’m in a great mood and I could bang out five songs.’ But when you’re dealing with personalities, particularly personalities that have been with each other for 30 years, you kind of have to wait for the stars to align. And we don’t wanna just put out a record for the sake of putting out a record. We wanna put out an awesome record, and if that takes longer than, let’s say, usual, then so be it.”