VOLBEAT's MICHAEL POULSEN Is Writing A Lot Of 'Uptempo,' 'Heavy' And 'Riffy' Songs For Next Album

In a new interview with "Whiplash", the KLOS radio show hosted by Full Metal Jackie, Michael Poulsen of Danish/American rockers VOLBEAT spoke about how he has been staying busy during the coronavirus downtime. He said (hear audio below): "Now that I have all the time at home, there's a lot of time to reflect on your whole career and what you've been doing in the past and what you're doing now and what you wanted to do with the music, so I'm very much inspired right now, so I'm writing a lot of VOLBEAT songs at this very moment. And let me tell you, I can't wait to start working on these songs in the studio when the time is right, because there's a certain energy that really, really takes me back to the beginning. There's a lot of heavy stuff in some of the new songs that I've got."

Speaking about how the new VOLBEAT music compares to last year's "Rewind, Replay, Rebound" album, Poulsen said: "I know for sure that what I'm writing right now is not really similar. That's gonna be another different VOLBEAT album, because if I was writing an album like that again, I would be old before I want to. So right now I'm doing a lot of spontaneous VOLBEAT songs that have really a lot of… [It's] uptempo, it's heavy, it's very riffy, there's even thrash songs, but again, there's also these really huge rock songs. Right now, I'm in a place where I'm kind of revisiting some of more uptempo and more heavy stuff. So I'm very excited about my whole situation when it comes to writing for VOLBEAT."

Michael went on to discuss his songwriting process in more detail, saying: "Writing is such an emotional thing — things have to come to you very naturally and then you just have to go with the flow. You can sit down and you can ask yourself, 'Where am I going with this?' And if you try to change it, it becomes another monster, and it's not necessarily a monster you wanna work with. So you just have to go with what your heart tells you. And that's what I'm doing also right now with the stuff that I'm writing right now, because I think everybody's kind of getting crazy being locked up in their own home. We have a lot of energy we wanna burn out. Even though I run every morning, I still have a ton of energy that I need to get rid of, and I get all that energy out in the new VOLBEAT music. That's why I'm saying that what I'm writing right now is more uptempo. I's very, very, very spontaneous writing, and there's a lot of energy in it."

Last month, VOLBEAT's U.S. tour with CLUTCH and THE PICTUREBOOKS was officially canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic which is sweeping the globe. The trek was originally scheduled to kick off on April 4 in Tempe, Arizona and run through a May 13 date at New York's Rooftop at Pier 17.

"Rewind, Replay, Rebound" was released last August via Republic Records. The disc was produced by longtime collaborator Jacob Hansen and co-produced by VOLBEAT's Rob Caggiano and Poulsen. It marked VOLBEAT's the first studio album with Kaspar Boye Larsen on bass.

"Whiplash" airs Mondays and Tuesday nights from 12:00 a.m. to 2:00 a.m. on the Los Angeles radio station 95.5 KLOS. The show can be heard on the KLOS web site at 955klos.com or you can listen in on the KLOS channel on iHeartRadio.