'sparks Flying' On New Aerosmith Album

Recording for Aerosmith's next, as-yet-untitled Columbia album is moving right along, according to band principals Steven Tyler and Joe Perry. The set, which the band is writing and producing with the team of Mark Hudson and Marti Frederiksen at Perry's Boneyard studio outside of Boston, is due sometime this spring. Aerosmith originally went in the studio with Matt Serletic, who produced the group's No. 1 smash "I Don't Want To Miss A Thing" from the soundtrack to the 1998 film "Armageddon." But the sessions "didn't ever get out of pre-production," the band's A&R executive, John Kalodner told Billboard's Melinda Newman in August. Perry thinks the switch has made all the difference. "We didn't want to do a color-by-numbers with a big name producer," he said in a statement. "My stomach would get in a knot when we were considering other producers. Now it feels more organic. We didn't have to reproduce our energy, which is what usually happens when you work with a big outside producer. We just let go and the sparks flew." More than 20 songs have been put to tape, including "Avant Garden," "Jaded," "Under My Skin," and "Beyond Beautiful." Aerosmith is planning to support the new album with a world tour. The set will be Aerosmith's first since "Nine Lives," which debuted at No. 1 in April of 1997. The band's latest single, "Angel's Eye," from Columbia's "Charlie's Angels" soundtrack, is No. 6 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock Tracks chart this week.