By the sound of things, Zac Brown Band's next album is going to be a little bit of a departure from what the group has done in the past.
"We're all continuing to grow up and get better as musicians and the chemistry as a band continues to deepen," Brown told Rolling Stone Country recently. "Our boundaries have dissolved and we're going to still do things that are somewhat familiar that people like, but we're also going to stretch out and take chances beyond what we've done before. Some people are going to be really surprised."
The band will be entering the studio soon to start putting together their untitled fourth album, which will be out in 2015. "We start arranging this week and then the next two-and-a-half months, all we're doing is recording," he said. "We've got 18 strong songs that we've whittled down and gotten ready. But you never know; one might pop up and get done right before [we start recording]."
Brown and co.'s last studio album, Uncaged, came out in 2012. It dominated both Billboard's 200 albums and Top Country Albums charts. The band went on to put out an EP, The Grohl Sessions, Vol. 1, last year that was produced by Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl.
"They're unbelievable," Grohl told RS about the Zac Brown Band. "The band is so good they can be tracked live; we didn't fuck with computers, we tracked live, four-part harmonies around one microphone. It's rocking. I didn't know what [the band] was [prior to this]. People are like, 'Oh, it's country.' 'No, it's not, it's like the Allman Brothers.' 'No, it's not, it's jam band.' I don't even know what you would call it, it's fucking great."
Grohl returned to Brown's Southern Ground studios to record a song for his group's upcoming album, Sonic Highways. The trip was highlighted on last week's episode of the band's HBO series.
