Grinderman's second album is in the can and ready to be released in 2010, Warren Ellis told The Quietus earlier today. "We finished the Grinderman album three weeks ago. I mixed it over the summer, and finished it before the [Dirty Three] Green Man show," he told us. "We’ve still got to do the track ordering, and a few tweaks on the mastering, but the album's there."

Explaining what we can expect from the as-yet-untitled long-player, Ellis said "It’s very different from Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! and it’s very different from the first Grinderman album. That was something we were very aware of, we didn’t want it to be like that at all.

"There’s an attitude in there that’s similar, but sonically it’s got some pretty weird things going on," he elaborated. "It’s probably more fleshed out than the first one, we’ve probably learned to play the instruments a bit more. I play lots of stuff on there, there's violin on it, which I didn’t get in the other one, and a lot of backing vocals.

"It’s kind of like stoner rock meets Sly Stone via Amon Duul. It’s very diverse, and there’s a lot fos tuff on there that doesn’t sound like anything we’ve done before. Nick’s got a different thing going on with the lyrics than he would have from the Bad Seeds, and he’s found a new thing from the first album. Less sex? I wouldn’t say that. It’s psychedelic, and I think it’s great. We’re really excited about it."

The Quietus is convinced that drummer Jim Sclavunos' beard cycle is in some way linked to whether he's working on Grinderman or the Bad Seeds. Can you shed some light on this, Warren? "He had it for the Bad Seeds, so I think he slipped up there. It did seem like he times it sometimes, I don’t know how he can be bothered. I guess he’s just organised. I couldn’t do that, it’d take me back to square one. When it goes, it’s gone."

Check the Quietus in a couple of weeks for a full interview with Warren Ellis talking about White Lunar, an album of his sountrack work with Nick Cave. White Lunar is release on September 21 2009.