Thirty Seconds To Mars’ long-awaited fifth studio album is coming in 2017—but don’t expect frontman Jared Leto’s recent trek into DC’s world as the Joker to have any impact on the LP’s overall content.

“I think I've had enough dark and twisted with Thirty Seconds To Mars over the years,” he told NME in a recent interview. “I don't need any Joker input, we've gone through our dark, twisted period. We're more in our aspirational, self-reflective period or something, I don't know.”

Read more: Thirty Seconds To Mars tease return with new video—#MarsIsComing

He continued, “But we are working on our fifth album right now. We've written about 40 or 50 songs and we're getting closer and closer to being finished. I always want to put an album out sooner. Every time I make an album I go on tour and say I'm going to make an album fast this time, in a year or two, but it always takes me four years. I'm just so slow.”

In July, a new teaser video titled “THIRTY SECONDS TO MARS / INTERSCOPE: 2017” was released. The band officially severed all ties with Virgin Records in 2014. They had previously been involved in an extensive legal battle with EMI (the overseeing label of Virgin).