Aesop Rock goes in-depth with Pitchfork

Pitchfork just released a new interview with the one and only Aesop Rock. Within the interview, he discusses the path to making his upcoming album Skelethon, collaboration, production, and how personal loss and experiences shaped the new project. Peep an excerpt below and head to Pitchfork for more.

Pitchfork: Five years is the longest time you've taken between LPs-- was there a conscious decision to take a break after None Shall Pass, or was the creation of Skelethon a particularly difficult process?

Aesop Rock: The time between solo albums can be attributed to many things. Musically, I was trying stuff I hadn't done before: [producing the Slug/Murs album] Felt 3, Hail Mary Mallon, Dirty Ghosts, [Kimya Dawson collaboration] the Uncluded, etc. During all of this I was writing and re-writing solo songs, just trying to figure out where to go.

[In] 2008, my best friend died, and that was the beginning of a ton of things going haywire in my personal life. It's been a long five years, to put it lightly. Maybe I was taking on other projects so I could somewhat avoid the spotlight while still being active. Originally,Skelethon was to be co-produced by myself and [longtime collaborator] Blockhead, but as more of the demos started taking shape, hurdles seemed to continue to present themselves (we're still besties). I think the NY-SF thing was more difficult this time around, the distance was making it hard to find any groove.

However, the realest answer I can give is that in the last five years I have slowly become a more and more isolated person in every facet of my life, perhaps to an unhealthy extent. I wouldn't want to work with me. I hit a point with the songs where it just wasn't going to be possible to complete them if I didn't challenge myself to produce the entire thing.

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Don't miss Aesop Rock on tour nationwide this summer! More Info.

Skelethon is now available for pre-order exclusively from Fifth Element! Pre-Order Today and bundle with an album t-shirt to save. Your vinyl pre-order comes with a red translucent double red vinyl and poster, and CDs come with an 8-panel digi-pak with poster. Album available worldwide July 10th.

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