As Maroon 5 embarks on another tour, the band is hard at work on a new album.

"It's still sort of in the early stages," Maroon 5 guitarist James Valentine told Billboard in a report published Tuesday. "We definitely have a couple of amazing songs that will be on the record."

As for the type of sound they'll be going for on the new album, Valentine said that it could be darker than their recent radio-friendly hits, such as Payphone, One More Night and Love Somebody.

"There was a first batch of songs that seemed like they were darker and maybe a little more organic-sounding, but now there's some other songs that -- it's hard to describe, and I think we're going to really find out where it's going in the next few months," he explained.

Maroon 5 Love Somebody New Music Video

Though the band is already working on a new album, fans should not expect it to be released any time soon. Valentine admitted that it will be a while before the record is released. He added, "so maybe some of the stuff we're doing now will fall by the wayside by the time we actually put it out. But we've got some great stuff started, and we're all very excited."

Valentine told MTV News in May that the new songs would sound more like their debut album, Songs About Jane. He added that they were trying out many different songs to see what worked for them. Lead singer Adam Levine said that they had some "great songs in the can" already.

Maroon 5 is going to be touring with Kelly Clarkson on the Honda Civic Tour starting on Aug. 1 in St. Louis, Mo. The tour will wrap up on Oct. 6 in Los Angeles, Calif. Starting in January 2014, the band will conclude their Overexposed Tour in Europe. See the full list of tour dates here.

Watch Levine and Valentine talking about tour preparation here:

Tags: Maroon 5