Pitchfork: The Darkness' Hawkins Preps Solo Album

The Darkness are currently in the studio finishing their sophomore effort, but NME.com is reporting that lead singer Justin Hawkins is also in the midst of his debut solo record. The LP, British Wail, should be released a couple months after the Darkness release their own album in the fall. As of now, no date has been confirmed for either release.

Hawkins told reputable British paper The Sun, ahem, that the record "is a lot less rock than the band stuff. There's a lot more synths. I suppose you could call it luxurious rock. I'd written most of it in demo form before the Darkness took off but I've only finished it properly recently."

Apparently, Hawkins recorded his songs while on breaks from recording the new Darkness album and it was completed at home in his own studio in London. He plans to tour in support of the work, saying, "I guess Dan [his brother and Darkness guitarist] will have to be the guitarist. He likes the stuff. But it will be completely different from what people would expect."

He also told The Sun that the first single will be "This Town Ain't Big Enough For Both of Us", a Sparks cover.

Meanwhile, Roy Thomas Baker is producing the Darkness album. Baker is known for his work on Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody", in addition to producing records by Foreigner, the Cars, and Devo. The Darkness' offical site reports that an original list of 39 songs has been reduced to 15. Hawkins says that the drum sound is "perhaps the largest ever heard in rock."

Awesome.