Primus are well underway on their next full-length, according to drummer John Hoffman, who says the band has been steadily tracking material even if the record is far from finished.
Hoffman, who claimed the drum stool in 2025 after outlasting more than 6,100 hopefuls in a worldwide audition the band nicknamed the “Interstellar Drum Derby,” spoke about the sessions during a recent conversation with Luke Poling of “Rock ‘N’ Roll Grad School“. Asked directly whether he and his bandmates had wrapped the new album, he made clear there is still plenty left to do (as transcribed by Blabbermouth):
“No, we are not. We’ve recorded a few songs, like we just put out ‘The Ol’ Grizz‘ [on the A Handful Of Nuggs EP, which came out in May]. And then we did a cover of [Dio‘s] ‘Holy Diver‘ featuring Puddles Pity Party on vocals. And we did ‘Little Lord Fent**yl‘ last year, which was actually part of my audition process. I was thrown that song as part of the audition, and I had one night to come up with my drum parts. And same with Gergő [Borlai], who was the other drummer in the finals. It was part of his process, too. And we each had the ability to kind of show what we would bring to the table in a recording situation. And, thankfully for me, the guys liked what I came up with. And a lot of people don’t realize this, but the drum part that’s on ‘Little Lord Fent**yl‘ is the actual drum part that I played during my audition, for the ‘Drum Derby‘. So what you’re hearing on that song is me nervously trying to get through the song with these brand-new parts that I just came up with, and thankfully it worked out.”
That detail, that the released version of “Little Lord Fent**yl” captures his live audition take, is something Hoffman only fully appreciated after the fact. He explained that when he first laid down those parts, he had no idea the recording would end up on an official release:
“I didn’t know that they were gonna release the song the way that they did. At the time, I was just looking at it as just another part of the test. It was like the final test, really, because at that point, I submitted all of my stuff through the Internet, and that took a couple of months from the time that they announced that they were looking for a drummer until the auditions started. So I had been in kind of correspondence with people, the management mostly, up to that point, and then I had my initial audition in Los Angeles, and then from there, the final audition, which was a three-day process. So by the time I got to that part, where I’m recording the song, I had already been through quite a bit of audition process at that point, so it just felt kind of like the final test. But I do think it’s cool that we ended up using the actual drum part from that time because it’s almost like an imprint, a photograph of what was going on at that exact moment.”
Turning back to the state of the album, Hoffman described the current phase as much about chemistry as it is about capturing finished songs. A lot of the studio time so far, he said, has gone toward locking in with Les Claypool and Larry LaLonde rather than assembling a finished statement:
“We’ve done a lot of recording. At this point I feel like it’s been a lot of sort of just coming up with riffs and seeing kind of what sticks, and also spending a lot of time in the room with [bassist/vocalist] Les [Claypool] and [guitarist] Larry [LaLonde] to just get on their level and have me become completely the drummer that they want and that they’re looking for and they can work with without having to think about anything. You have to spend time. You can’t usually just jump into a room, especially with guys like that, on their level, as creative as they are, as used to doing things their own way as they are. It’s a process. Not that it’s been difficult, but like I say, I feel like a lot of the recording process up to this point has been more of a getting to know you as opposed to this is what we’re gonna show the world.”
The album, whenever it lands, will be the band’s tenth full-length studio effort and its first since Hoffman came aboard.
“The Ol’ Grizz“, the newest of those recordings, puts Claypool, LaLonde and Hoffman in the same warped rhythmic pocket that has always been Primus‘ calling card — darting between rapid-fire bass lines, hazy psychedelic detours, and thunderous drumming, all wired together with the trio’s trademark blend of technical muscle and lopsided groove.
The track arrived on the four-song A Handful Of Nuggs EP, released in May. Alongside it, the set collects the band’s take on Dio‘s “Holy Diver” with Puddles Pity Party handling vocals, plus two cuts from the group’s current run: “Little Lord Fent**yl” featuring Maynard James Keenan of Tool, and a live rendition of “Duchess (And The Proverbial Mind Spread)” captured at the Mann Music Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
For the uninitiated, Puddles Pity Party is the towering singing-clown alter ego of performer Michael Geier. The “Holy Diver” original, penned by the late Ronnie James Dio, opened and titled Holy Diver, the 1983 debut from his solo band Dio.
A Shreveport native, Hoffman won the gig on the strength of his heavy pocket, restless musical imagination, and instant rapport with Claypool and LaLonde, which the band has said made him the obvious pick.
Primus also kept a packed calendar this year. The trio launched the “Claypool Gold Tour” across the U.S., a rare team-up that pulled together three of bandleader Les Claypool‘s projects under one bill. Running from May 20 to July 4, Primus, The Claypool Lennon Delirium and Les Claypool‘s Fearless Flying Frog Brigade shared the road for a 30-date trek billed as a “mind-melting musical experience” and a “fluid show featuring wildly different setlists and surprises.”
