CAN'T STOP THE ROCK!

Velvet Revolver battle through with new album.

Velvet Revolver bassist Duff McKagan reckons the band have outdone themselves on their forthcoming second album 'Libertad'.

Speaking to Rock Sound, the former Guns N' Roses man explained how they unclovered a new dynamic during the writing and recording process. He said: "Everybody stepped up with the songwriting. Scott (Weiland, vocals) with his performance, everything. It's really a great record."

Velvet Revolver had originally planned to record 'Libertad' with producer Rick Rubin. They agreed to work together after meeting over dinner last August, at which point the band already had more than 30 songs written.

However, the working relationship started to turn sour when Rubin became difficult to pin down.

"Come September he told us we needed to write more songs. It got to the point where we had nearly 50 and Rick just wasn't available because he was in Europe doing a record. We were writing ourselves into oblivion and we had so many songs that we couldn't hear what we had anymore or if they were any good," said McKagan. "We decided that if we worked with Rock we might not get an album out until 2008 and by then we'd kill each other."

As luck would have it, producer Brendan O'Brien's latest project had just fallen through, freeing him up to join Velvet Revolver in the studio straight away.

"I'm not saying we could never work with Rick but the timing wasn't right on this record," said McKagan. "With Brendan the clouds parted and we saw that we had good songs."

Track names currently set for the new record include 'Get Out The Door', 'Let It Roll', 'This Fight', 'Pills, Demons, Etc.', 'American Man', 'Spay' and a song called 'For Brother' that Scott Weiland wrote after his younger brother passed away recently.

'Libertad' is out on May 21 on SonyBMG. Velvet Revolver will be appearing at this year's Download Festival; see gig guide for dates.