Justin Bieber working on transition album

Kuk Harrell, the longtime vocal producer of teen idol Justin Bieber, spoke to MTV News about the direction of the young singer’s next album. Harrell mentioned how the 17-year-old pop singer hopes to make a career transition similar to Justin Timberlake, who successfully made the move from teen idol to adult musician.

"The only conversation we’ve had about Justin’s album that we’re about to do is it’s really important that it’s the proper transition because we’ve seen him [with] ‘Baby,’ now we’re watching him grow up," said Harrell, who also worked with Rihanna on Talk That Talk. “And we can’t just throw him into the adult game right away. It has to be the proper transition. There’s a record in between.

"That’s why I think this Christmas album was really important because it gave everybody the opportunity to hear him, see him and get used to his voice changing," Harrell added. "That was a huge thing going into this album. We were able to get a running start on where he’s at vocally ’cause it’s a natural thing.”

Although few details are known about Bieber’s 2012 album titled Believe, lately he’s been very busy promoting his Christmas album Under the Mistletoe, and the music video debut of his All I Want for Christmas is You duet with Mariah Carey tomorrow (November 30).