The next time Seven Mary Three don their rock crowns and hit the touring trail they'll have a new arsenal of American standards to choose from.|

Only eight months after the release of RockCrown, 7M3 are in a Memphis studio finishing work on their fourth album, tentatively-titled Gather Round.

According to drummer Giti Khalsa, the quartet has already recorded eight songs, with 10 or more to go. The majority of songs that will appear on Gather 'Round were written on the RockCrown tour, and some of them -- "Flagship Eleanor," "In Between" and "Over Your Shoulder" -- were taste-tested live.

"Record companies and radio stations always do [music] research ... and for us the best research we can do is play stuff [in concert]," Khalsa says. "If you can get a response from people and they've never heard something, then that's usually a good indication that you've done something right. Most of the time it takes seven or so listens before someone catches on and says, 'You know, I like that song.'"

As for putting out another record so soon after the last one, Khalsa says it's all part of the master plan:"We first got our record deal and things starting working out for us. We said we would like to be a band that puts out records every year to year-and-a-half."

The group will finish work on Gather 'Round in early March, two months prior to its release. (Blair Fischer for Rolling Stone Network)