Chrissie Hynde will be taking her new band, J.P., Chrissie and the Fairground Boys, into the studio for a new album next month — and also has the next Pretenders album in her mind, if not quite in her sights just yet.
Hynde tells Billboard.com that Welsh singer J.P. Jones and the Fairground Boys have been quite prolific in coming up with material for the follow-up to last year’s “Fidelity.” “We could go into the studio right now,” she notes, “but we’ll probably do another three or four demos and we should be ready to go.”
Pretenders’ Chrissie Hynde Starts New Chapter with JP, Fairground Boys
Hynde says she’s particularly looking forward to the new sessions because the group is tight and honed from the touring it did in support of “Fidelity.”
“The last album we didn’t go in with a producer and we just kind of wrote it very quickly and it all happened very fast — and we’d never played live together,” she acknowledges. “If you were to compare the recorded album with what we ended up doing live, obviously it took on a whole different life, and we got to know each other better. So I’d like to think it’s going to be a better album.”
While the Fairground Boys are dialed in, Hynde is also starting to think about a new album for the Pretenders to follow 2008’s “Break Up the Concrete.” The band toured Australia with Blondie in late 2010 and joined country star Faith Hill for a special pre-Super Bowl “CMT Crossroads” concert on Feb. 5 in Dallas. Hynde says she hopes to start focusing on new Pretenders music after the Fairground Boys sessions finish.
“They’re always really keen,” Hynde says. “I love the Pretenders band, especially this lineup, and I still like to think that when we go out it’s the best thing for all of us. But with the Pretenders I know the guys will have other work; it’s not like it’s a new, young band and they’re waiting for me… But because I love the band I want to do something else, so I just have to write some songs.”