Vampire Weekend released their fourth record Father of the Bride back in 2019, which came a whole six years after Modern Vampires of the City, the last VW record to feature Rostam Batmanglij as a full-time member.
However, in a new interview with Mark Hoppus for the Blink-182 frontman's Apple Music Hits radio show After School Radio, Koenig hinted that the band's fifth LP might (just might!) come sooner than expected.
Here's what Koenig told Hoppus about what the band's been up to since Father of the Bride:
It is crazy that it's been three years. I mean, about a year and a half of it doesn't count because of COVID but, yeah…We've been working on music and, yeah, we were just recording in England for a while, now back in LA, working with everybody and, yeah, I mean, I think we're… I'm always hesitant to… Sometimes I oversell how close we are with the record because who really knows?
But we almost have an album's worth of songs. As you well know, you could tinker with a song forever; change the arrangement, change the lyrics, whatever. But in that sense we're close. I have no idea how long it'll take to finish, but we're feeling really good about the new material. So yeah, a lot of studio time to come after the holidays.
That sounds relatively promising, but maybe don't get your hopes too high? Only time will tell.
Further in the interview, Koenig also talks about watching Licorice Pizza, which of course stars friend-of-Vampire Weekend Alana Haim and features the entire HAIM clan, including Danielle, who featured pretty heavily on Father of the Bride.
About the movie, Koenig said:
It's weird seeing all these people you know. Like the whole Haim family's in it, but then also just, it's such a hyper specific vibe. It's so funny. It's a very cool movie, great music, so many good cameos. The casting is amazing, and that actually got me going back to all the earlier PTA work and checking it out and it's really given me… People always say sometimes that the valley is the New Jersey of LA? It's outside the cool part. People kind of hate on it, but it's an important part of the area. It's a little funkier.
And so, this movie really helped me understand the connection. That's that place just outside the big city. It's in the glow of it, but it's not quite there. And there's just a slightly different type of person, a different type of struggle, or something.
You can listen to the whole episode here.
However, in a new interview with Mark Hoppus for the Blink-182 frontman's Apple Music Hits radio show After School Radio, Koenig hinted that the band's fifth LP might (just might!) come sooner than expected.
Here's what Koenig told Hoppus about what the band's been up to since Father of the Bride:
It is crazy that it's been three years. I mean, about a year and a half of it doesn't count because of COVID but, yeah…We've been working on music and, yeah, we were just recording in England for a while, now back in LA, working with everybody and, yeah, I mean, I think we're… I'm always hesitant to… Sometimes I oversell how close we are with the record because who really knows?
But we almost have an album's worth of songs. As you well know, you could tinker with a song forever; change the arrangement, change the lyrics, whatever. But in that sense we're close. I have no idea how long it'll take to finish, but we're feeling really good about the new material. So yeah, a lot of studio time to come after the holidays.
That sounds relatively promising, but maybe don't get your hopes too high? Only time will tell.
Further in the interview, Koenig also talks about watching Licorice Pizza, which of course stars friend-of-Vampire Weekend Alana Haim and features the entire HAIM clan, including Danielle, who featured pretty heavily on Father of the Bride.
About the movie, Koenig said:
It's weird seeing all these people you know. Like the whole Haim family's in it, but then also just, it's such a hyper specific vibe. It's so funny. It's a very cool movie, great music, so many good cameos. The casting is amazing, and that actually got me going back to all the earlier PTA work and checking it out and it's really given me… People always say sometimes that the valley is the New Jersey of LA? It's outside the cool part. People kind of hate on it, but it's an important part of the area. It's a little funkier.
And so, this movie really helped me understand the connection. That's that place just outside the big city. It's in the glow of it, but it's not quite there. And there's just a slightly different type of person, a different type of struggle, or something.
You can listen to the whole episode here.