With Mötley winding down, Nikki Sixx’s boundless other band Sixx:A.M. is cranking it up for a frenzied two years, with first order of business being an ambitious follow-up to Modern Vintage planned sooner than later. Given the embarrassment of riches when it comes to songwriting in the nuclear-powered DJ Ashba and James Michael—each a producer, multi-instrumentalist, lyricist and all ‘round writer—Nikki is probably safer than usual in his forecasts of a pile of songs coming down the pike but soon. The plan, in fact, is for an axed-down-the-middle double concept album, to emerge with a spot of time between the two halves, along with “24 months” worth of touring!

“Well, we’ve got about 24 songs written right now, and we’re doing a double album, which we’re really excited about,” begins DJ Ashba, who can claim Guns N’ Roses and extensive Motley writing to his fine resume as well (and you gotta live them Bulletboys!). “It’s heavy. It’s probably our heaviest album that we’ve ever done, which is exciting. And the cool thing is, is that we are all pushing each other as hard musically as we’ve ever pushed ourselves. We’re kind of on a mission to put out an album that just completely tops everything we’ve ever done, and I know, as far as the guitar work—the solos, riffs—it’s some of my best work to date. So I’m really excited about people hearing it.”

As for the concept... “We’re writing two completely different separate albums, that will kind of coexist with each other. So it’s like one big, huge, overall story, and we’ll release them all within one year, at different times. I mean, I can’t say a lot about it yet, other than if you step back and take a look from one album to the next, they do have a story, somewhat of a story line, that we’re going to stick to. And definitely a cool concept that we will stick to. But as far as what I can tell you about that right now, it’s our little secret.”

Asked about the band’s sound, Ashba is adamant that there isn’t much of an established set of characteristics musically, even when I make the crack that they are the most rhythmic—or at least rhythmically layered and textured—band on the planet without a drummer.

“You know, what is cool about Sixx:A.M. is we are always evolving,” figures DJ. “No album has the exact same sound, although it all sounds like Sixx:A.M., which is really the hardest thing to do when you’re creating any type of band, is creating your own sound, and Sixx:A.M. just has a sound to it. It’s hard to describe, but it’s easy to recognize when you hear it. But it’s hard to put your finger on it. But I would say, our sound is definitely... every song we write is very dark, in a sense, but every lyrical message has somewhat a bit of hope in it. We really like kind of sending out a message along with the dark and twisted and demented music. It’s very dark—but it has hope. So it’s this nice collage of dark and light in our lyrics, against the music we write. It’s hard to describe. It’s just this magic that when me, James and Nikki get together, it just naturally comes out of it. It’s not like we try to sound like a certain way. It’s just Sixx:A.M. when we all sit together—those are the three ingredients that make up the Sixx:A.M. sound.”

So again, famously, the band is a trio with no drummer. Yet as with the records and the mounting pile of live shows under their belts, they’re gonna need one moving forward.

You know, right now, we haven’t locked in on one person. We love Dustin (Steinke); he did a killer job and has a great vibe. You know, I can see us using him more. But he has his band, Bleeker Ridge, which is awesome, and we are not into, obviously, stealing anybody from anyone. Right now, it’s like, Sixx:A.M. has always been the three of us. You know, it was never supposed to be a band. But yeah, I can see us locking into a set drummer moving forward from here. Because me and Nikki are both putting Sixx:A.M.—and James—we’re all putting this as our main priority. We’re very excited moving forward. We’re going to come out swinging.”

Again, digging into the Sixx:A.M. sound, besides the sophisticated audio quality of the thing from the bottom up, this is one heavy band that seems to understand that there’s a pop world off to the side, a genre that makes little sense to mainstream rock fans.

“Yeah, well, I think all three of us have a good understanding of how important different genres are, including pop. When we set out to do Modern Vintage, we wanted to make a much more poppier record without being too pop, you know? And, you know, as far as James, we all sing melodies to each other. And it’s kind of like, I know James sings the songs, but it isn’t like he writes every single melody. It’s definitely a team effort. We sit down... same thing with my guitar solos. I don’t necessarily come up with every single note, although I perform them and play them. We all three are bouncing ideas constantly through the process of making a song, because we don’t look at it like, okay, I’m just a guitar player, I’m just a singer. We look at it like, you know what? We’re songwriters and we’re producers, let’s make the song as best as it can be. So I love their input when it comes down to laying down a guitar solo. I lay down a couple different ones, and they’ll have ideas. Oh, why don’t you do this crazy thing here? And we’re always down for trying every single idea. I think that’s what makes us: we push each other. And I think that’s what makes the process so fun, working with the guys, is that no idea is a stupid idea. We try everything. I’ll pick up the bass, and Nikki will be like, ‘Oh, why don’t you pay that part on the bass? Show me how you were doing that.’ He’ll go, ‘Oh, why don’t you use this pedal on this solo? That would be great.’ We’re just very experimental when it comes down to the recording process.”

“It’s all going streaming,” answers Ashba, in closing, on the subject of how in the hell a band makes it in the modern day. I mean, Sixx:A.M. looks like they are doing some leading edge things deftly or correctly, and it seems to be paying off.

“It’s encouraging your fans that were used to buying records, like the Mötley Crüe audiences, and to get them interacting with you on social networks. And get them all hearing you with Spotify and different companies like that. Because that is the future of music. And in the long run, it allows musicians to keep doing what they love to do, and that’s celebrate great music with the fans. Right now, the way the industry is set up, you used to get paid once per record. Now you get paid a lot less, but get paid every time it plays, or every time it streams. And to me, that is the way it should be set up. So the industry is definitely moving in a bit better of a direction for the artist, thank God. But I think it’s super-important to get the base very interactive with you online, and use the power of social media.”

Plus the most promising part of the business is now the live component—are you surprised?

“Yeah, because, I mean, it used to be where you could make a great living on publishing and album sales. Now the album sales are kind of like... you’ve got to look at the album as like being the spoon that gets the food to the mouth—it’s just a tool to advertise your live show, basically. And like we talked about streaming, that’s all going to change it. And it will go back to where we can actually make a little money on the songs that we create, which is better for artists in general. But live is something you can’t download. I mean, you can download a live concert, but you can’t download the emotions and the lights and vibe and the interaction of actually going out with your friends and having a few drinks and just forgetting about your problems. Because at the end of the day, that’s what music is: an escape from reality. And you can’t download that. And so that’s why, you know, the Internet is able to kind of crush album sales and close Blockbusters and close music stores and stuff with iTunes and Spotify and all that, but it can’t capture the feeling of going to a live concert—and that’s why it’s where all the money is.”