Bad news for fans of American indie band The Shins - they will not release their new album in 2016, as was previously expected.

James Mercer and co. will play their first Irish gig in several years at Electric Picnic in just a few short weeks - but their setlist may not be as heavy on new material as it might have been.

The band, perhaps best known for their song 'New Slang' which was featured prominently in the film 'Garden State', have pretty much finished the follow-up to 2012's 'Port of Morrow' - but as Mercer revealed in an interview at the weekend, it has been postponed til 2017 so that the band can basically get a better slot at next year's Coachella Festival.

He told Portland radio station KBOO: “The record is done basically and mixed. We’ve been making little tweaks just because we have extra time. My intention was to have the the record to come out this year, but there’s inevitably these reasons that the label or whatever wants to postpone release just so that they have more time to set things up and do whatever sort of marketing and things that they have to do. So it looks like it’ll be coming out next year. Early next year, like January hopefully.”

He added: "Coachella was a factor in my label wanting to postpone the release of the record. Because Coachella is such a powerful influencer, it’s such a high profile festival, that we want to get as good a placement as we can in it. And I guess apparently when you release your record has some sort of an influence on that.”

Hear the full interview with Mercer below:

H/T: Stereogum