Diaries from the studio

This is a dispatch from the last stretch of the record. Not a review. Not a press release. Just the log of what happened when the lights got low.

Week one — the loop that wouldn't leave

There was a loop — four bars, one broken sample, a hi-hat that clipped in the wrong place. It followed me into the shower, into calls, onto a plane. I tried to write past it three times. On the fourth try I stopped writing past it and wrote with it. That became the opening minute of Diablo.

Things that didn't make the cut

• An 8-minute ambient piece built from cassette hiss.
• A Yoruba vocal chop I couldn't clear.
• A field recording of rain on a tin roof in Ibadan.
• Three verses of a song I might finish next year.

The album is quieter than people expect. That's on purpose. If you turn it up loud enough, you can hear the room I made it in.