Tommy Shaw, James “JY” Young and Lawrence Gowan of Styx recently stopped by the studio at Q104 in New York to talk with Jim Kerr about their forthcoming album The Mission, their connection to Pluto, and how they’ve survived the ups and downs of the music business.

Listen and watch below.

The Mission, due out June 16th, chronicles the trials, tribulations, and ultimate triumphs of the first manned mission to Mars in the year 2033. From the hopeful drive of the first single, “Gone Gone Gone” to the stargazing machinations of “Locomotive” to the rough-riding blaze of glory that permeates the hard-charging “Red Storm” to the elegiac optimism of the closing track “Mission to Mars,” the album succeeds in delivering the greater good from a band that continues to fire on all cylinders, 45 years after signing its first recording contract.