Carl Barât says he’s putting new band The Jackals ‘on back burner’ for Libertines reunion

The group released their album 'Let It Reign' in January

Carl Barât has revealed that he’ll be shelving work with his new band The Jackals for a while to work on his upcoming album with The Libertines.

Barât released an album with The Jackals, ‘Let It Reign’, in January 2015. Speaking at the band’s show at London’s Scala on April 16, in the new issue of NME, on newsstands now and available digitally, Barât said that he was signing off from Jackals duties.

He revealed: “I’ve been waking up in the morning with Libertines lyrics in my head, hurriedly getting the typewriter out, then figuring out brass arrangements for The Jackals in the evening. But I’m off to Thailand tomorrow for a month’s recording. This is the album. The big push.”

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Barât describes his time with The Jackals as a “tumultuous ride” and admitted that they’re at the “sunset” of their time together, at least for now. “It’s dawned on the band that we’re at the sunset of this [album] cycle now,” he said. “We’ve been in the trenches together, but now they’re going to knuckle down and figure out what it is they’ve got to say and what I can bring to it.”

He added: “As much as I prize this thing with The Jackals, and doing the hard work touring on a shoestring, with The Libertines we’ve done all that and more. It’s been a tumultuous ride. When I’m back in a room with those boys, that’s all that exists. We have history, and songs that we can just lie back and fall into. If I lie back in this band I’ll just fall into the drumkit.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Barât confirmed that The Libertines are making their third album with Ed Sheeran and One Direction producer Jake Gosling. He said: “We wanted someone who is getting their thing going, rather than someone who is just going to put us through their machine. This isn’t a heritage band making a heritage album.”

Barât previously said that The Libertines were trying to make “surprisingly upbeat” music ahead of their third album. The long awaited new record from the band is expected to be released later this year. It follows a series of reunion gigs in 2014, including a sold-out date in London’s Hyde Park and three nights at Alexandra Palace in the UK capital.

Pete Doherty recently confirmed to NME that the Libertines will be recording their first album in 11 years at Karma Studios in Thailand. Doherty left a rehabilitation facility in nearby Chon Buri after completing treatment for his drug addictions.

The band released a short video in December that showed them signing a record deal with Virgin/EMI in Thailand in lieu of the release.

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The Libertines have been confirmed as the headliners for both T In The Park and the Reading And Leeds festivals this year.

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