Ezra Koenig was a guest on a new episode of Mark Hoppus’ After School Radio on Apple Music Hits. During the interview, Koenig discussed Vampire Weekend’s forthcoming fifth album. “It is crazy that it’s been three years,” Koenig said, referring to May 2019’s Father of the Bride. “I mean, about a year and a half of it doesn’t count because of COVID.” He continued:

But, yeah, we’ve been working on music and, yeah, we were just recording in England for a while, now back in L.A., 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. And, 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.

Koenig and Hoppus also discussed the former’s song for I Think You Should Leave, the new movie Licorice Pizza, Blink-182, and more. The interview begins around the 51:57 mark of the episode; the album discussion occurs at 1:18:17. Listen to After School Radio on Apple Music Hits. (Pitchfork earns a commission from purchases made through affiliate links on our site.)