Dio Disciples drummer Simon Wright said it would be wrong for them to turn their debut album into something that tried to sound like Dio.

Manager Wendy Dio recently confirmed that the officially sanctioned band, which was put together to pay tribute to the life and work of Ronnie James Dio, was gearing up to record in September.

“We started doing this to celebrate Ronnie … and it kinda spawned off to, ‘Let’s try and do a record,’” singer Tim ‘Ripper’ Owens recently told The Metal Voice. “We’ve already worked on, like, four songs or so … we’re all busy doing stuff all the time. ... It’s an exciting thing for us to do. I think people wanted us to do our own music.”

You can hear the interview below.

Wright said lead guitarist Craig Goldy had “good ideas” for the album, and that the rest of the band was also ready to make contributions. “We’ll try to make the band have its own stamp,” he explained. “Ronnie will always be with us, his spirit and all. We’ll see what the hell comes out. So far it’s sounding really good.”

Asked what would make Dio Disciples sound distinct, Wright admitted they didn't know yet. "We’ve all got different influences – hopefully it’s going to be this big mishmash of something that’s going to be us. Obviously our influences will come into it.” “We’re not making a Dio record,” Owens noted. “No, we couldn’t do that," Wright added. "That would be wrong. … The songs that we’ve already done do have a bit of originality about them.”

Along with Wright, Owens and Goldy, Dio Disciples include Oni Logan, Brjorn Englen and Scott Warren. The band plans to tour the U.S. in 2019, once some changes are made to the Dio hologram they previously toured with in Europe.

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