
Vampire Weekend's Ezra Koenig Teases New Album Details
Ezra Koenig, guitarist and lead singer for GRAMMY-winning New York City-based rock band Vampire Weekend, has made quite the habit of making big announcements lately.
Just two weeks ago, he announced that Netflix would soon be the home for an original animé TV show that Koenig had written and conceived, with acclaimed director Kazuhiro Furuhashi at the helm and Jaden Smith signed on to voice the lead character.
Then yesterday, when Koenig made an appearance on Zane Lowe's Beats 1 radio show to discuss the forthcoming TV show, the singer also happened to drop some hints about the status of his band's long-awaited fourth album.
It's been four years since the band released their Best Alternative Music Album GRAMMY-winning Modern Vampires Of The City, and while Koenig was tight-lipped on a specific release date, he did reveal that the album is around 80% done, saying if there were a "gun to [his] head," there was likely enough material to even release the album at present.
Although the forthcoming album's title had already been teased, jokingly, as the somewhat befuddling (but well within the band's typical faux-pretentious goofy-serious wheelhouse) Mitsubishi Macchiato, Koenig did clarify for the first time that the actual title had yet to be revealed.
Koenig was less free with the details of production collaborators. It will be interesting to see what choices get made behind the boards for this record, as all three previous Vampire Weekend releases were produced in-house by mutli-instrumentalist Rostam Batmanglij, who departed the band following the release of Modern Vampires Of The City to pursue solo projects.
Without giving too much away, Koenig did slyly admit that there would be, "quite a cast of characters" making appearances on the new record. Could this potentially include 2-time GRAMMY-winning producer Ariel Rechtshaid, who contributed to the band's award-winning third album, and won his second career GRAMMY at the 59th Awards for his work on Adele's Album Of The Year-winning 25? Fans might not have to wait too long to find out.