Reunited British rockers THE DARKNESS are planning to enter the studio in early 2014 to begin recording a new album for release later that year.

"I think it's important the next album comes out quickly," THE DARKNESS guitarist Dan Hawkins tells Billboard.com. "[Last year's] 'Hot Cakes' has been a great introduction to let people know we're back. Now we need to keep the output up, really."

According to Hawkins, he and his bandmates have already started collecting ideas for the new CD. "Every day we set up our little [portable] studio and start jotting down ideas.

"It'll be out in 2014. This year we'll be touring and writing, then early 2014 we'll hopefully be recording it or continuing to write it and get it out later that year."

As for what fans should expect to hear on the upcoming album, Hawkins says: "I think we want to get even more old school. We want to make it even more of a performance record. We just want to be really brave and try to do something as live as humanly possible, warts and all. We've lost a bit of that in music today. It's time to get a bit of character in there, so we'll be going for something as fucking Route 1 as possible."

Hawkins isn't worried about internal strife once again rearing its ugly head and putting an end to THE DARKNESS reunion. "We've settled into a nice groove, really," he says. "We feel like more of a team than we did before. If something is broke, you've got to fix it, haven't you? And that's what we did. I think (success) went to all of our respective heads, but you've got to go there, haven't you? What's the point of being in a rock 'n' roll band if you don't take it to 11? Now the music is on 11, the gigs are on 11 but the drug intake is on, like, zero to one. That's how it should be."