There are very few Vampire Weekend songs that could be summed up in a sentence, he says.
I used to be proud of that, and now Im a little ashamed of it.
Koenigs desire to create something new extended to the bands process.
Credit: Jason Squires/WireImage
(Were working on some songs in the exact same way weve always worked, Koenig says.
We have some stuff that we started a pretty long time ago.)
Songwriting as a concept is the single most important thing on this record, he explains.
To me thats the untapped frontier for Vampire Weekend; nobody wants to hear the Vampire Weekend trap album.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: You took some time off afterModern Vampires.
You worked onNeo Yokio, you wrote with other folks.
It suddenly becomes five years in the blink of an eye.
It was really intense and stressful.
And its useful, but another part of me is like, Thank God Im not in that position.
It makes you think of yourself more as a songwriter, because youre not the singer anymore.
When I first started thinking about this album, I had big ambitions.
Increasingly that seems like thats the way that people work.
Its not just pop; that pop way of working starts to encompass the whole music industry.
I was always interested in that.
I was like, I want to try that.
Im cool with it.
Maybe Im an introvert.
I cant constantly meet new people and make small talk.
I take it Ariels on the album?Ariel is a huge part of this album.
I gathered this huge collection of ideas.
Once he finished the Haim record, he and I started working more consistently.
Thats when the record really started to develop a sound and a vibe.
You campaigned with Bernie Sanders, andNeo Yokiohad some themes about economic inequality.
That may take the form of critique or analysis.
Sometimes it may take the form of just vibe.
I think every album I make has to speak to its times.
Its a reflection of whats happening and what your relationship to it is.
Its a song I worked on for years.
I was proud that people came to that song and found it to be deep.
You get this funny thing where people tell you, Finally, you got serious.
Finally, you wrote something with meaning.
Then in the back of your head its like, I dont know about all that.
Its way harder to write those seemingly simple songs.
Those songs just come less often.
Thats something Ive thought about a lot on this record.
Because the truth is, a lot of days I dont want to get out of bed.
A lot of days I feel overwhelmed and disheartened by whats going on in the world.
Of course thats going to be all over the album.
Im really proud of Hannah Hunt.
It feels like an important Vampire Weekend song.
But then, Im equally proud of Oxford Comma.
And then you realize, all of these things are part of who you are as an artist.
Im just trying to figure out how to maintain those things.
You want your music to grow up with you.
You want to age gracefully and not boringly.
I just like simple songs.
I went with Ariel to see Kacey Musgraves at the Greek Theater in L.A. [in September 2016].
The music was really clear and her voice was really clear.
Im proud of the surrealist moments in the Vampire Weekend catalog.
I think they have meaning, even if its not a very direct jot down of meaning.
A song like Step [is] a very wordy song, theres a million references.
Who are they for?
What are they doing?
Its like the elevator-pitch version of the song.
I felt like that was an interesting challenge.
I cannot say every song rose to that challenge.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
