The Raveonettes prep Hawaiian/metal-influenced album for September release

In our last Raveonettes update, we suggested the duo take some well-deserved time off after a busy 2008 and hit the beaches of Hawaii. Turns out, we weren't too far off.

Frontman and songwriter Sune Rose Wagner divulged new details about the forthcoming album, now apparently set for a Sept. 1 release, in a recent MySpace blog entry. "In the meantime, writing has started for the new album, and it looks to be more diverse than the previous albums with everything from punk, noise, metal, pop, Hawaiian and dark synth being the main influences…I’m totally fucking excited!" Wagner, whose core influences include everything from Buddy Holly to Suicide to Depeche Mode to the Jesus and Mary Chain, has made a point of differentiating each release from the last (including a string of four EPs in the latter part of last year), but Hawaiian and metal? Either this is one of those ironic MySpace genre jokes, or perhaps the rock duo really is stretching out on this next record.

Shortly before the MySpace update, Wagner told Paste that despite the critical success of the group's mostly homemade third full-length, Lust Lust Lust, he and musical soulmate Sharin Foo both wanted to do something different, including working with a producer. "We don't like to repeat ourselves too much. It's nice to do something different, and it's just how you feel about it. I'm very much into working with a producer this time around and so is Sharin, so I'm glad we both agreed on that." (He laughs off mere mention of the infamous Phil Spector, someone who in the past Wagner has been surprisingly iffy about.)

"We'll probably mix it up. I think some of it will be done in my apartment, and some of it will be done in the studio. It depends on, again, what sound and what we really want to do, and that's all kinds of conversations we need to have," he says. "We're pretty open to anything, whereas the last one was more like, 'It would have to be made at home and have to be this, this and this.' We're just pretty open to whatever is best for us, really."

In an attempt to ensure a late-summer release, Wagner said via MySpace the band will not play SXSW, nor much of anything for that matter. The duo has, however, expressed interest in playing major U.S. festivals, saying they're confirmed for Lollapalooza in August. However, that blog entry has mysteriously disappeared from the MySpace page. Perhaps the announcement was made too early? Although the dates were confirmed (Aug. 7-9), the official line-up has yet to surface.

Looks like another busy year for the Danish pair.

Related links:
News: Raveonettes announce Lust Lust Lust follow-up
1000 Words: The Raveonettes - Black Cat - Washington, D.C. - 1/17/09
The Raveonettes on MySpace

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