In a new interview Billy Howerdel from A Perfect Circle talks about progress on their next album. For those who want the tl;dr version: writing is pretty much done, and they are using Dave Sardy to produce it:
How is that process affecting work on the new recording?
It’s great to be able to sit back and have someone at the helm driving the computer. It frees me up to ask for things I’d like to see happen. There’s an ego thing in play at the beginning that says, ‘Yeah I wanna do everything myself.’ Sometimes it’s faster to do it yourself and having someone else’s opinion sort of derails that something you have in mind … and you feel you can’t get there quick enough. But it eventually will come to be, anyway. You’ll get there because, ultimately, it’s cool letting someone else have some input and letting go. Then it becomes a collaborative process. Our producer, Dave Sardy is very strong-headed; he has strong opinions. It’s great to work with someone who has made a lot of records, who has seen a lot of records being made. There’s a meeting of the minds there. It’s all interesting and exhausting, a wonderful endeavor.