(CNN) -- If you didn't know that Perry Farrell, Dave Navarro and Stephen Perkins were members of Jane's Addiction, you might think they belonged to three different bands -- and Farrell is the first to admit it.





"One guy's just a ball of sunshine. That's Stephen," the singer said. "Then Dave is like a black hole sometimes, like places where he goes. And me? I'm just like a pingpong ball put in the cosmos, man."





And that, ladies and gentlemen, pretty much sums up the genius of Jane's Addiction -- the friction of three disparate parts rubbing together, until finally, it explodes into a glorious musical fireball. It's a chemical reaction that, throughout the band's 26-year-history, has all too often imploded as well.





"I'm not really sure how many times we've parted ways," said Navarro, the group's guitarist. "I wasn't really one of the people who thought we wouldn't be back together, primarily because we've gotten back together so many times over the years. We don't break up anymore. We just go on five-year hiatuses."





The alternative rock pioneers are prepping the October 18 release of "The Great Escape Artist," their first studio album in eight years.





"The sound is definitely updated on this album," Farrell said. "The differences are that we are now working with synthesizers and computer software that goes with guitars, so you'll hear a lot of very modern sounds mixed in with what people call the ageless, or timeless, sound of Jane's Addiction."





With original bassist Eric Avery, Jane's Addiction put a soundtrack to the gritty Southern California underground arts scene of the late 1980s. The group's first studio album, "Nothing's Shocking," was an examination of love, lust, violence and drugs. By 1990, the band was all over rock radio with "Stop!" and "Been Caught Stealing," a pair of hit singles off its sophomore disc, "Ritual de lo Habitual." The new CD is only the group's fourth studio album.





"We pull from the environment," said drummer Perkins. "Jane's Addiction wrote our (first) music in Hollywood in 1986. You hear Los Angeles. You hear that Mexico is only 100 miles away from us. You can hear the struggle, and also the glory, of being a musician in L.A. Our music was never negative, but it had that strong urge. You wanted to go f**k, not to go punch. And I think Jane's still has that."





CNN visited the band during a video shoot for the new single, "Irresistible Force," on a Hollywood soundstage. Farrell, the lyricist, said the song chronicles how the universe was created. "I say the big bang was actually a conscious act of cosmic lovemaking."





Perkins, the pragmatist, has a different interpretation. "To me, the 'Irresistible Force' is what pulls me, Dave and Perry together. Ever since I was 13, I've been playing with Navarro. I met Perry when I was 17. And no matter how much we stopped playing with each other, and tried to get away from each other, it's the magnet -- it pulls us closer."





The band members discussed their reunion and new album and how they've avoid fistfights for nearly two decades:





CNN: How does it feel to have Jane's Addiction back together again?





Perry Farrell: I love performing with Jane's Addiction. I hope I get to do it all my life. It's healthy for bands to take a break every now and then. People are really looking forward to this new record because they're a little starved. I'm pulling the old woman's trick of making them want, and want, and need and desire.





CNN: Who's the peacemaker who calls and says, "Let's try this again?"





Dave Navarro: I don't really know how
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