Alabama grunge-rockers Verbena will work this summer on the follow-up to their 1999 major-label debut, Into the Pink, singer/guitarist Scott Bondy said. There is no word on who will produce the album, although Bondy mentioned the possibility of working with Los Angeles producer Brendan O'Brien (Rage Against the Machine, Stone Temple Pilots). Verbena's current lineup is Bondy, drummer Les Nuby, new bassist Nick Daviston and guitarist Anne Marie Griffin, who had left the band midtour last year but returned shortly thereafter. "We're better than we've ever been," Bondy said. "We almost feel like we're a new band." Into the Pink, released on Capitol Records, was produced by ex-Nirvana drummer and current Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl. While critics hailed that album as a return to grunge, Bondy said Verbena's forthcoming record will "return to a certain kind of swagger that some of the songs on the first record had." The band's 1997 debut, Souls for Sale, was released on the indie label Merge. "[The new record] will be more diverse; it'll swing more," he added. The band will kick off a tour March 23 in Houston.