Nowadays fans get itchy for new material if a band hasn’t released anything in three and a half months, so the fact that Floater hasn’t released any new material in three and a half years (2010’s Wake) is saying something. Of course when you’ve been around for two decades, you can get away with it, but that’s not to say the band is making people wait on purpose; the timing just hasn’t been right.

“We have a hard time being together in the same room without new songs forming, just because of the creative energy involved,” Floater frontman Robert Wynia says. “The tough part is getting the band together and finding the time to get a collection of songs finished, recorded, mixed and all that. We’re definitely putting [something] together — just not in much of a hurry.”

And while there is no title or release date to share, Wynia is willing to drop a few hints as to what fans can expect from the next record whenever it happens to come out.

“We get so much crap for being eclectic and not adhering to any one sound … that it’s tempting to just always say, ‘Oh yeah, this one is gonna be really different,’ just because apparently people will think that no matter what we do,” Wynia says. “What I can say is it will definitely be rock. There is an ongoing theme in these songs that keeps rearing its head and asserting itself too, so we’ll see how that treats us.”

Floater plays with Hell’s Belles 8 pm Saturday, Jan. 11, at McDonald Theatre; $20 adv., $25 door.