In a new interview on BBC Radio 6, the Cure’s Robert Smith said that he’s planning on recording new music, and that he’s booked time in the studio next month, as Pitchfork points out. Smith says that the impetus for writing new music was the shows that he’s planning and performing later this year: the 40th Anniversary Cure concert in Hyde Park and Meltdown Festival, which Smith curated. “Funnily enough, doing this Meltdown thing has actually galvanized me and I’ve booked studio time for the band,” he told the BBC. “Some of it’s good, some of it’s not so good. I never wanted to be in a position where I was forcing myself to write.”

The interview coincided with some lineup additions to Meltdown Festival. New acts include Death Cab For Cutie, Low, Suzanne Vega, the Twilight Sad, the Soft Moon, and more. Smith says that he wrote handwritten notes to the acts that he wanted to play, and pretty much every one accepted, except for the Rolling Stones, who “politely declined.”

He says that the Cure technically won’t play Meltdown — since it “wouldn’t be fair” to those that bought tickets for the separate Hyde Park show in July — but that he’d be joined on stage in a headlining slot by “four other people that I know really well” and playing “interpretations of Cure songs.”

Smith hopes that he’ll have new music to perform live by the time the Hyde Park show rolls around. That takes place on 7/6. Meltdown Fest goes from 6/15-24.

Listen to the full BBC interview here.