Finger Eleven Developing "A Sense Of Humour" On New Album

It's been a long time in the making, but Finger Eleven's much-anticipated fourth album — their first since 2003's self-titled disc that spawned the radio ballad "One Thing" — is finally nearing completion.

While talking to vocalist Scott Anderson and guitarist James Black, a couple of things become evident pretty quickly. First, a sense of relief is almost palpable. After about a year-and-a-half of writing and nearly two months in a Chicago studio, the birthing process is complete. All that's left is to put the finishing touches on their new baby before sending it out into the world, for better or worse.

Secondly, the band are battling pure exhaustion. Black and Anderson both sound ready to take a much-needed break before plowing forward with video and tour plans. And both apologize for being a little out of practice with their interview skills. But that's to be expected, right? And all of that aside, the guys seem thrilled about the content of their latest creation.

"I can say that it's our best record," Anderson asserts. "If it wasn't, I don't think we'd put it out.

"That's sort of the only criteria. If it's better than anything you've ever done, put it out. If not, then we quit."

Black recalls a long process of writing and exchanging bits of music with bandmates over the internet.

"You come up with yours at home and send it off into space and it comes back looking like something else, so it's just a matter of everybody trying to create things — a lot of them. And after a long while we decided, let's kind of focus on some of these parts, lyrically and musically, that are really, really exciting."

What the band came up with is something that both Black and Anderson readily admit is quite different than their past work. It's more confident, Anderson says, and moves further away from the bleak, dark, heavy edge that's loomed on previous albums.

"I think we've developed a sense of humour," says Anderson. "We've tried to forget being cool and just delve into more expressive, self-deprecating stuff.

"I hope people find that some of this stuff is mildly humorous. Some of the stuff is not to be taken incredibly seriously. I don't really like dark bullshit any more."

Plans for a new video are still in "talking mode," Black says. The video will accompany "Paralyzer," which Anderson describes as having a "dance rock" feel.

"It's about a guy who's at this dance club and feels incredibly out of place. I'm all worried about how uncomfortable I am in places like that. We've proved it over and over when we're staying in Chicago. It's like, 'Man, this scene, I don't even know where to put my hands.'"

Finger Eleven are planning to spend the rest of 2006 mixing and mastering the new album and putting together the artwork for it. They expect to be ready to hit the road early next year for what Black says will be a long run.

But for now, he says, "We all just want to kind of decompress for a while and not think about our band."