Photo: Eric Johnson

up in the interim.“ And I really like that idea, that metaphor,” says the Brooklynite, now 43, who took that long to release his fourth album, BLACKsummers’ night, and the same protracted period again on its followup, the sleek new BlackSUMMERS’ night, the second in his planned trilogy which will end with the following Blacksummers’ NIGHT. He swears that chapter-closing disc is already finished.“ So it will come out a lot sooner than the others, because I can’ t do another seven years,” he chuckles.“ I mean, I’ ll be 50 then, and to have the same album title for 21 years? My audience will have literally died already, and I’ ll be headlining a

of being forgotten shuts me down a bit, but nothing should be written or done out of fear. So I’ ve had to process that. But I would say that for the 14 years that I’ ve taken these seven-year breaks – which I never imagined that I would do, considering how much I wanted to get signed and how much I wanted to make music – I kind of really, well … lived. And now I can write about more stuff. There is no factory here – when I’ m writing, I’ m trying to put as much emotion and passion into this experience from real life, to deliver whatever it is that’ s expected of me. So the pressure and the anxiety grows even more, because you want to be sure, sure, sure.

But then you have bills and taxes to pay, so you really have to figure it all out.

IE: What amazing places did you visit in your travels? M: Oh, wow. Well, going to Africa, going to Namibia, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia. Going to Miami, Kazakhstan, South Korea. Going to my fridge to get my bottle of whiskey. It was those types of things. It’ s just living, living, living. And sometimes I’ ve been afraid to release stuff. It’ s funny – I love music, and I feel it. But it’ s never mine, never my own music that I listen to. But I never want to lose that thing that makes you go,“ Oh, my God!” and makes you want to put a song on repeat, over and over again, until you’ re so sick of it that you’ re mad at yourself that you played it

so much. I want to always have that appreciation. And I don’ t have a machine – Columbia Records is probably the freest company – you don’ t even know. Records just get delivered, and that’ s it. There’ s no one guiding me, saying,“ You need to sound more like this,” or“ You need to reflect what’ s happening in the world right now.” No, they just give me free license. Which can be a good thing, or a bad thing, depending on how you look at it. But I get complete creative freedom, and it’ s amazing. So there are no complaints, and I put myself through things to actually experience things to write. And it’ s really fantastic when you wake up in the morning and you have your eggs waiting, and people like you want to talk to me about my career. So how can I write a song