Red Hot Chili Peppers have spoken about how work on their new album has been affected by the recent California wildfires, ensuring that it will be delayed – but the band have also announced an exciting new gig on the site of the Great Pyramids of Giza in Egypt.

The Chilis are currently working on the follow-up to their 2016 LP ‘The Getaway’, which was their eleventh studio album.

Drummer Chad Smith spoke this week about the progress on his band’s new material, revealing that their plans to write and record were adversely affected by the devastating Woolsey Fire which spread through southern California late last year, killing four people and destroying scores of properties and homes.

“We started to work on [the new album], which, for us, is just getting in a room and making some noise and putting some notes together,” Smith told Sirius XM’s Volume West (listen below). “And then the fires came, and the house we were working in – there was no damage, it didn’t burn down, but we couldn’t get back in there. So that halted our [progress].”

Chad Smith Says Chili Peppers Album Put on Hold Because Writing House Burned Down by SiriusXM Entertainment

Chad Smith explains how Red Hot Chili Peppers album production was put on hold due to the Malibu Fires. Catch the full show on-demand or listen live to Volume West every Monday at 7pm ET / 4pm PT on Volume, SiriusXM 106.

While that will almost certainly delay the arrival of a new album, the Chilis have confirmed that they will play a huge show at the site of the Pyramids in Egypt in March.

Taking place on March 15, the band announced the gig with a short video on their Facebook page – check it out below.

The Chilis hosted a benefit concert for the victims of the Woolsey Fire last weekend, with the ‘Malibu Love Sesh’ show witnessing performances from the likes of St Vincent (who covered the band’s ‘Breakin’ The Girl’) and Beck.

The post Red Hot Chili Peppers confirm gig at the Egyptian Pyramids and give update on new album appeared first on NME.