Rockers continue to be productive while under COVID-19 lockdown, as both Styx and the Scorpions revealed that they’re using the time in quarantine for work on new music.

In an interview conducted via Zoom, Styx bassist Ricky Phillips explained to radio personality Chasta how he and the band continue to collaborate. “I’m down here doing a lot of work, writing bass parts for stuff as Tommy Shaw sends it to me,” the musician explained while sitting in his Austin, Texas based studio. “He’s writing and working in Nashville where he lives, and then he sends me stuff here. I work on it. Eventually when we all come out from our caves we’re gonna get in a room and carve a new record.”

Asked to describe the new material, Phillips said, “There's a lot of proggy stuff and a lot of odd signatures, but you never feel like you're in a music theory class. It's done in a very friendly way.”

Like Styx, German hard rockers the Scorpions are laying down new song ideas, even while its members are apart.

“It's different because we can't be in one room together, there's no interaction really,” frontman Klaus Meine explained in an interview with the fan site Scorpions News. The rocker went on to note the added challenges of recording without a producer or engineer on hand. “It's very different this time, and it's true, I have a lot of respect for those guys dealing with all the technical side of making an album.”

As for his bandmates, Meine noted they’re in constant communication. “We're in touch on the net, on Skype, Facetime and all that, and [we] try to make the best out of it, you know, try to move on with the songs. But of course, we all can't wait for the day we all can be together with the whole band in the studio.”

Unlike the Scorpions last release, 2017’s compilation album Born to Touch Your Feelings: Best of Rock Ballads, Meine insists the new LP will be made up of “all new songs.”

The frontman also feels very lucky to be able to keep working when so many others in the world can’t. “We have a very privileged situation that at least we can be at home and can work in our own studios and keep things going,” Meine admitted. “To have a chance to go back in the studio and keep working on new songs - write new lyrics, now that's to be creative, it's a wonderful thing, especially in these days. We're all in lockdown and we have no chance to go nowhere really. We cannot travel, we cannot move, but at least we can be creative, we can take a deep dive in our own creative world. And hopefully something good comes out of it.”

 

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