The glue that binds the New Pornographers, Carl Newman, talks to Billboard about the next "fairly rock" New Porno's record and a forthcoming solo effort. "I think the next Pornographers record will be fairly rock," says Newman. "I think with 'Challengers,' we moved as far in this direction as we can go, unless we turn into M. Ward or something. The songs I find myself writing these days are a little bit more rock, but that's as far as I can say."
Newman, who says he hopes to have demos ready for band consumption by the end of the year for a possible 2009 street date, is also writing material for a solo album, which in a perfect world would be released this fall. As far as what differentiates a solo song from a New Pornographers' song, that answer isn't clear-cut.
"That's the confusing part," Newman says. "In a lot of ways they're similar, but in a lot of obvious ways, they're not similar. The Pornographers have all of these different people in the band and different voices, which makes a big difference. On my own records, I'm kind of left to my own devices. That can be both good and bad."
