Rock band Guster shifts to Columbia for new album
NEW YORK (Billboard) - After four albums with Reprise, rock outfit Guster has signed with Columbia. The group hopes to complete its as-yet-untitled label debut in February.
Lead singer Ryan Miller says Guster plans to come away with "17 or 18" songs recorded, pared down from around 25 possibilities. Fatherhood has been a key factor in the writing.
"Three of us all had our first kids within four months of each other," Miller tells Billboard.com. "We're adjusting to this new era of fatherhood. The band met each other in 1991, and it's 2008. So, it's sort of an interesting place to still be excited about making music together."
Miller said the many of the band's supporters at Warner Music division Reprise had left by the time the band's deal was up. "We saw an opportunity to start fresh and try something else," he said.
Guster's last album, 2006's "Ganging Up on the Sun," sold 147,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan.
Meanwhile, Guster will join new labelmate John Mayer at the end of March for the second Mayercraft Carrier Cruise, alongside O.A.R., Brendan James, and Martin Sexton. The four-day event departs from Los Angeles en route to Cabo, Mexico.
Reuters/Billboard
