Cheap Trick's Rick Nielsen Says He's 'Gun-Shy' About Next Record

NEW YORK (Cheap Trick Fans Website) - Cheap Trick hopes to reconnect fans with its first new studio album since 1997 by early next year.

Co-produced by the veteran band with Chris Shaw, the currently untitled disc will feature 11 tracks, including "Low Life in High Heels," "Words," "Special One," "Mondo Raga," and "Scent of a Woman." It was recorded at Bearsville and the Hit Factory in New York and was culled from a mammoth backlog of almost 50 songs.

"We've been writing all the time," says Rick Nielsen from the road, where the band is debuting two or three new songs a night. "It's just that we haven't been releasing stuff -- probably because we had two studio records in a row that didn't do anything."

"Warner Bros. gave up on us on Woke Up with a Monster, and Red Ant went bankrupt as soon as our [self-titled 1997] record came out. That was pretty disappointing, because they were good records. It makes you a bit gun-shy."

Nielsen says the band will have some label shopping to do once the album is mastered. "The idea of having a deal is not as important as what the deal is," he says. "But we'll make it happen."