Alexisonfire Reveal More Info on Upcoming EP, 'Dog's Blood'

It will likely be next year before Alexisonfire get to work on the follow-up album to 2009's 'Old Crows/Young Cardinals,' but in the meantime, the Ontario rockers will be recording the 'Dog's Blood' EP that singer Dallas Green told Spinner about back in March.

"We've been talking about it for a long time and we've got songs for it. It's just a matter of us getting off the road and really just focusing on it," singer George Pettit told Spinner this week. "There's probably some lyrics that need to be written for one of the songs and we just need to go into the studio and do it."

They'll likely have their chance soon -- with the exception of a gig in Montreal on July 25 and a slot at Wakestock in Collingwood, Ont. on Aug. 7, the group is not touring until October, when they head to Australia.

The four songs include the title track and 'Black as Jet,' which Pettit describes as the "fast, heavy" ones. The other two are still untitled, but he says they're both "slow-burners, kind of moody songs."

As mentioned by Green, the band commissioned American artist Skinner to do the cover art for the vinyl release.

"It's a bizarre, mental hellscape -- weird cartoony stuff," Pettit says. "Dallas loves [Skinner's] art. He always had pictures of it on his computer. He said, 'We should get this guy to do some art work,' so we got in touch with him and he put together this cool, interesting thing."

Despite the good timing of the release, which should keep the band top-of-mind for music fans, Pettit insists the EP was a natural next step.

"I don't think we're thinking about it as a big marketing ploy [to] keep people interested until the next record," he explains. "We had these songs and were like, 'Let's do an EP.' That's it. We didn't over-think it. I know the idea was to not to put it out on CD and push it in stores. We're just going to put it out on vinyl and do a digital download.

"There's a lot of freedom that comes with doing an EP," he continues. "I feel like if you put out an album and you take a lot of liberties musically, you're more likely to see a lot of backlash -- whereas [if] you put out an EP and it's got some interesting, different songs on it, you can get away with it easier.

"It's just four songs. If you're disappointed by an EP, you're probably still more than likely to come back for the next record."