Robert Lamm is eager to get back to songwriting, less than a year after Chicago released its first album of original songs since 2006. The only question now is whether everyone else is.
Seems Lamm recently uncovered a collection of leftover material, ripe for completion. “Relocating my studio entailed looking through manuscripts of unfinished new songs,” he tells Chicago’s official site. He now plans to “take my band partners’ temperature regarding interest in new recording and, depending on my readings, I may switch attention to solo ideas.”
Recorded largely on the road, the long-awaited XXXVI: Now arrived last summer, marking the group’s initial new studio recording since Chicago XXX. And they’ve stayed out there ever since, with yet another round of dates beginning later this month.
The “current focus is practice,” Lamm adds. “Next step is viewing videos of past tours and reviewing songs of co-headlining bands to prepare for summer. Meanwhile, getting my body in shape for the grind of what will be a very active year. Mountain hikes and celery stalks!”
Lamm has remained active on the solo front, even as the group he co-founded in the late 1960s has become more a touring outfit. He’s issued two albums since Chicago XXX, as well as an inventive reworking of material titled Robert Lamm Songs: The JVE Remixes.
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