soulDecision singer, guitarist, and keyboardist Trevor Guthrie has spent the last three weeks in Los Angeles collaborating with fellow Canadian Ryan Gosling, an actor who recently appeared in football flick "Remember The Titans" with Denzel Washington.

Guthrie and Gosling have known each other for years from the Vancouver entertainment scene. They started writing together at the beginning of the summer for soulDecision's next album, says manager Garry Francis.

Meanwhile, co-vocalist/guitarist David Bowmanand keyboardist Ken Lewkowere in Toronto last week writing with Justin Gray, Troy Samson, and Mike James. Bowman has also been writing with Chin Injetiin Vancouver.

The three principle members of the pop band will reassemble in Vancouver this weekend to continue writing together for the follow-up to 2000's "No One Does It Better", which went gold in America, signifying shipments of a half-million copies.

According to Francis, the band has written about a dozen songs, covering "everything from Gap Band feel, bit of Steve Miller feel, some that are very funky and very guitar heavy." Another eight songs are in the works, he says.

soulDecision has had its own portable studio since June, which is housed at Guthrie's home in Vancouver. In the next month, Francis says the group will be looking at producers.

The band, who co-produced "No One Does It Better" in Australia with Charles Fisher(Savage Garden) and Femi Jiya (Prince), will produce much of the second album themselves, but there will be a big name on a couple of tracks. "We're pulling out all the stops," says Francis. MCA in America is committed to a simultaneous release with Universal Music in Canada, where "No One Does It Better" went platinum (100,000 shipped).

--AllPop

SoulDecision will kick off their stint as the headliner on this summer's Psyko Blast tour Friday night in Vancouver.

The pop trio has come a long way since they toured with the YTV concert last year as an opening act for Christina Aguilera, along with acts such as Mytown and The Moffatts.

The past year has seen them travel Canada on their own tour and make their way to the U.S. where they tirelessly pumped their album "No One Does It Better" by doing mall shows, radio performances, charity work, and meet-and-greet sessions.

Now, soulDecision's Ken Lewko says he and his bandmates, Trevor Guthrie and Dave Bowman, are just happy to be back home in Canada.

"It's going to be nice to be actually home and seeing our Canadian fans again and seeing Canadian money," he says over the phone from Vancouver.

As for what fans can expect from the show, Ken says soulDecision's performances will be comparable to their previous shows, although he is promising a few "little surprises" for the audience this time around.

Now that the group is more than accustomed to touring (having opened for *Nsync and Christina, in addition to launching their own tour), Ken says he isn't too worried about being suddenly struck with stage fright before Friday night's show.

"We've learned just to go out onstage and just relax and have a good time and to give 110 percent," he says. "We've also learned that on the road you've got to be very aware of your health, because it's so easy for you to get sick. We learned that the first time, 'cause I know the first time we went with Christina, by the second week everyone was totally sick, and that was just because no one was taking care of themselves. This time, definitely, it will be different."

But Trevor, Dave, and Ken have more on their minds than the tour. Once Psyko Blast wraps up in Toronto on June 25, the three musicians plan to take about a week's vacation before starting the entire recording, releasing, and promotion cycle again with a new album.

"The record company would prefer us to have the album ready next week, but that's probably not going to happen," laughs Ken. "We've got our recording studio set up here, and we're just going to pool our ideas and then see what we've got and then go from there and hopefully be in the studio by late August or September. I think September is more realistic, personally."

Ken says fans can expect the new album to have a "harder edge to it", although it will be similar in sound to the group's first album.

"Maybe more guitar, maybe more electronica elements and stuff like that," says Ken about possible differences between the old album and the one soulDecision plans to record. "I think songwriting-wise we've gotten more mature, lyrically more mature."

--AllPop

Think TV shows such as Popstars and Making the Band do justice to pop music today? Ask soulDecision's Ken Lewko and he'll beg to differ.

 "They're making the climate worse, because the more people see which bands have been put together, the more they're going to get turned off by pop music," the keyboardist-singer for the Vancouver R&B-pop trio says by phone during a break from tour rehearsals. "And that's not how most bands work, anyway."

 Lewko's solution?

 "Maybe there should be a Making of the Real Band, demonstrating all the hours of rehearsals, wrestling with the songs, trying to get that perfect line ... "

 Perhaps a modern take on The Beatles' film Let It Be, minus the overwrought tensions? "Yeah, there you go," he laughs.

 That's not to say soulDecision is dissatisfied with the boy-band-crazy world of pop music. On the contrary. They've benefited greatly from hopping on board tours with mega-selling pop stars Christina Aguilera and 'N Sync last year.

 "Those tours were awesome; they gave us a good opportunity to meet new people, a cool experience all around," says Lewko who, along with cohorts Trevor Guthrie and David Bowman, make their headlining debut at the National Arts Centre tomorrow night, along with newcomer Ricky J.

 "'N Sync's show was absolutely amazing. Every special effect you can think of, they've got. But we weren't intimidated by that. They're doing their thing, we're doing our thing.

 "We were surprised by how much people liked us. They weren't saying, you know, 'Booooo! Get off the stage! Put 'N Sync on!' They were interested in what we had to say. And it's helped increase our fan base."

 The year 2000 was very good to soulDecision. Already platinum-sellers in Canada with their debut, No One Does It Better, soulDecision is charting admirably south of the border: The disc went No. 1 on Billboard's Heatseekers Chart a week after its American release.

 "Even MTV is giving us major love right now," Lewko says of their exposure on the U.S. music network's Total Request Live.

 Up next is a video shoot in Cuba for their next single Let's Do It Right, due out next month, not long after their appearance at the Juno Awards in Hamilton on March 4.

 Lewko, Guthrie and Bowman are up for three Junos: Best single (Faded), best album and best group. Along with a European release of No One Does it Better (with some new tracks thrown in), the guys then fly off for a tour of Australia, Germany and Singapore.

 Lewko admits he's not overly bothered if soulDecision often get tossed in the market-friendly boy-band hoopla.

 "People first see a picture of us and go, 'Okay, they're clean-cut, good-looking guys,' so naturally they're going to think that," he says. "And the pop scene is big right now ... But come see our show first. It's all us. Then you won't be calling us a boy band anymore."

--AllPop