Muse frontman Matt Bellamy has elaborated further on the plans for a follow-up to 2012’s The 2nd Law, which Bellamy previously said would steer the band’s sound back to “guitar, bass and drums.” Bellamy suggested to Rolling Stone that Muse’s seventh album would be a ‘stripped back’ affair.

“I’ve got a pretty good picture of what I’d like the next album to be like,” Bellamy said. “It’s the comedown and the sort of waking up the next day being like, ‘What the fuck? …I kind of feel like it will be nice to reconnect and remind ourselves of just the basics of who we are,” he continued.

Speaking on the sound of the record, he said, “I have this strong feeling that the next album should be something that really does strip away the additional things that we’ve experimented with on the last two albums, which is electronics, symphonics and orchestral work and all that kind of stuff.”

In November last year, Bellamy said that the new album would see the band “veer back towards musicianship again and focusing on our own instruments: guitar, bass and drums,” adding, “It’s probably going to be a bit of a rawer album, and definitely a bit more rock, I’d say.”

Last month Bellamy told Triple J‘s The Doctor that the album would most likely be ready for release “early 2015 or late 2015,” with Christmas 2014 likely to see the release of the album’s first single. He said the band would enter the studio this year following a “few months” break.

(Via NME)