Styx are working on a new album, according to keyboardist and singer Lawrence Gowan. In a recent interview with National Post, he says that in addition to a new solo record, the band is gearing up for a new release too.

"There’s a whole new Styx record of original material that we’re working on right now," Gowan said. "That’s pretty close to completion. It’s been a long time coming. We did one studio album in 2003, and then we did a covers record in 2005, and then it’s been just live DVDs and live records and a couple of albums of Regeneration."

He's referring to 2003's Cyclorama, the first Styx album to feature Gowan as a full-time member. He replaced the band's longtime keyboardist and singer Dennis DeYoung, whose last album with Styx was 1999's Brave New World.

“We’ve been writing new material and testing it out," Gowan told National Post. "It’s part of the vital thing that keeps us moving forward. But we’re also cognizant that when you have a body of work like Styx does, the audience wants to hear that. And it takes more than a couple of hours to do just that. And right now, the live performance is what the band should be focusing on."

Styx's last studio album, 2005's Big Bang Theory, consisted of classic-rock covers, like the Beatles' "I Am the Walrus," the Who's "I Can See for Miles" and Jethro Tull's "Locomotive Breath." But they've been busy since, re-recording their old songs for an LP (2011's Regeneration: Volume I & II), making live albums (The Grand Illusion, Pieces of Eight Live from 2012) and on the road, still one of Gowan's favorite places to be with Styx.

"That experience is the one thing you still can’t go download," he said. "And for me, it’s still the greatest form of entertainment. A great rock show still does more for my psyche — and for me physically, mentally and spiritually — than any other form of entertainment I’ve ever encountered.”