Huntress lead guitarist Blake Meahl says the follow-up to 2013’s Starbound Beast is nearing completion.
The band are currently in the middle of a UK tour with Amon Amarth that saw singer Jill Janus called into action to assist the headliners when vocalist Johan Hegg was too ill to perform for a January 17 show in Plymouth.
Huntress continues to be in demand on the live circuit and it’s slowing down the progress of sessions for album number three.
Meahl tells the Mike James Rock Show: “We’re trying to get our record finished, and we keep getting these insane tour offers that are impossible to decline. We did Download, came home, wrote the album, left for another tour, then came back and started tracking it. And now as soon as we get back, we’ll finish it up.”
“We got it all ready and written. It’s just the powers that be that make it really tough between booking schedules and timing and tour timing and then everybody’s availability being the same and money coming at the right time to pay for it, and all that.”
Huntress are working on the project with producers Paul Fig (Alice In Chains, Ghost, Red Line Chemistry) and James A. Rota (“Sound City” movie and Fireball Ministry).
Meahl says: “Our goal for this record, and for every record since our first one, is to get more organic and real with it.”
“The first two producers that we worked with, they liked to stick with that modern, edited sound where they’re going, they’re snapping things around and making sure, visually, everything lines up so it sounds extra tight. It’s a byproduct of a little bit of Pro Tools and the whole situation. But you don’t have to do it that way.”
“The production we’ve got this time is awesome, ‘cause they’re using that technology, but we’re doing full takes of everything and we’re not editing things up. It’s, like, yeah, if there’s a fuckup, we’ll punch it, but it’s not all mechanized.”
The guitarist adds: “All my favorite records are the old ones, and I think part of that is that real natural energy of sound of that human push-pull. When it’s all glossed like that, it just slides right by. Everything is so even, it doesn’t feel musical.”
