P.O.D. have finished the follow-up to 2024's "Veritas", and guitarist Marcos Curiel and bassist Mark "Traa" Daniels have laid out how it came together in a new interview with FemMetal.
The sessions took place in the Whitman section of South Philadelphia at Memory Music Studios, the new room belonging to producer and engineer Will Yip — the band's first time recording outside California. Yip's involvement was not a strategic hire. "It organically happened that we just became friends online, and we started talking, found out he was a P.O.D. fan," Curiel said. "We were gonna be going in with another producer, and it didn't work out. And I so happened to ask, 'Hey, dude, what do you have going on on your schedule?' And he was, like, 'Dude, I'll do it. I'll do it.'"
The pace was the surprise. "I can say this proudly, we did a record — 13, 14 songs — all tracked, vocals, drums, and guitars, in 12 days," Curiel said. "It kind of set the tone, like, it's good to be prepared."
Vocalist Sonny Sandoval, speaking to Poland's Teraz Rock in June, said the band had not expected to get that far. "We only had two weeks. And we didn't even think we'd finish the record. We just wanted to get started, but we went in, and because we were so prepared, and Will is such a genius, we finished the whole record."
He also flagged two things about the sound. "It's heavy, but also it's extremely beautiful. I'm singing in ways that I've never done before," Sandoval said, crediting Yip with pushing him there. "It's the first time Marcos ever wrote on a seven-string guitar, so we have about six or seven songs on a seven-string."
Curiel described the album as continuous with "Veritas" rather than a break from it. "There's a lot of threads coming from 'Veritas'. It's kind of an extension, but it's also, I would wanna say a growth," he said. Daniels was more cryptic: "Marcos had an amazing concept for this record. I think it's gonna kind of throw people for a loop, but it's definitely gonna cause people to wanna think. It's not as surface-y as it sounds."
Yip's credits run from CIRCA SURVIVE, QUICKSAND, CODE ORANGE and TITLE FIGHT to TURNSTILE, with whom he won the Grammy for Best Rock Album — an award that landed after he and P.O.D. had already agreed to work together, Curiel noted.
No title or release date has been announced. The record is written, tracked and awaiting mix and master.