Credit: Stefan Brending
Wed 29 July 2026 17:15, UK
Chad Smith has confirmed Red Hot Chili Peppers will begin writing their new album in September.
It will be the first body of work from the Red Hot Chili Peppers since 2022, a year which saw them release two albums, Unlimited Love and The Return of the Dream Canteen.
Since then, the band have kept busy with their own individual projects, including Flea releasing his debut solo album, Honora, earlier this year.
For his part, Smith performed at Back to the Beginning last year to celebrate the life and career of Ozzy Osbourne, as well as contributing to the new Rolling Stones album, Foreign Tongues, which arrived on July 10th.
However, now he’s got his eyes firmly set on reuniting with Anthony Kiedis, Flea and John Frusciante to get to work on a new Red Hot Chili Peppers album.
In a recent interview on the Detroit Tigers channel on YouTube, Smith revealed, “We write music, we have some ideas floating around, but when we write together, which we are starting and writing in September, we’ll write for six, eight months, and that’ll be the music we make for that record.”
He elaborated, “We don’t have song ideas from two years ago, or ‘that riff that we never finished’, everything is who we are at the time.”
Smith added of their philosophy, “That’s how we make our records, and that’s sort of the reason why it’s fresh for us because it’s who we are as a band and as people for that period of time.”
Earlier in the same interview, Smith said of their longevity and how they have managed to keep going for so long, “We still do it because we love it, we still enjoy playing with each other, we feel like we have new things to say and new music to come up with.”
The drummer also added that “we make an effort to challenge ourselves”, which has kept the project fresh for all these years.
However, he did concede that if one of the band decided they “don’t have the fire anymore” then Red Hot Chili Peppers “would stop”. Thankfully, he doesn’t see that happening anytime soon.
His latest comments come after Flea said in February that they have “been writing music together, recording at John Frusciante’s house, and the music feels great.”
The bassist added to MOJO, “Ultimately, once we start playing, it’s about… just catching a magic groove and doing it good.”
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