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Decemberists’ Colin Meloy Eyeing Broadway Musical

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The Decemberists have just wrapped up their new album The King Is Dead, which comes out on January 18, but Colin Meloy is already eyeing his next project. And it’s way more ambitious than a studio album: dude’s looking to write a full-blown musical.

The Decemberists frontman has revealed he’s been in talks with the director of Green Day’s American Idiot musical, Michael Mayer, for a Meloy-penned Broadway musical. “[He’s] the guy that got me going about doing a musical,” Meloy told Billboard. “We’re still talking and there’s potential for a musical down the line for sure.”

Meloy isn’t sure about the concept of the musical — he said he has thought about writing a storyline about miners in Butte, Montana at the turn of the century — but he’s definitely comfortable with the terrain. The Decemberists’ 2009 album The Hazards of Love was a prog-rock fairy tale about a woman named Margaret who tries to escape abduction by a villain known as “the rake” in order to find her true love.

Before Meloy sits down to work on musical material, he’ll hit the road with his band for a three-month winter tour, which kicks off January 24 in New York City and wraps in March 16 in London. Check out complete dates here and revisit SPIN’s recent interview with Meloy, where he breaks down the secrets of the band’s new album, The King Is Dead.