Pitchfork

Four years after the release of his first solo record, Fantastic Damage, Def Jux label head El-P is finally finishing its follow-up, the previously reported I'll Sleep When You're Dead. The always busy producer-rapper said, "It just feels good to be on the mic again," when he spoke to Pitchfork Monday about the album, which he hopes to release March 6 on Def Jux.

His collaborators on I'll Sleep When You're Dead include Trent Reznor, the Mars Volta, Aesop Rock, Cage, Mr. Lif (whose track "might end up becoming a bonus cut" due to scheduling), Tunde Adebimpe (TV on the Radio), Matt Sweeney (Chavez/Bonnie "Prince" Billy/Zwan), James McNew (Yo La Tengo), Rob Sonic, Mr. Dibbs, and Cat Power (more on that later).

El-P qualified their involvement by saying, "I don't really like records that are all about hardcore collaboration. It's really just about friends, and when I'm making shit people drop by, you know? So they'll pop up on little things, background vocals, but most of these people won't be listed, except in the credits."

El-P met Trent Reznor and the Mars Volta in separate instances of mutual fandom, which led to him remixing their songs. He called his remix of the Mars Volta's "The Widow" "probably the best remix I've ever done." When it came to the collaboration on the new record, he said, "I had them come in at the end of a song and kind of built something up around Cedric [Bixler-Zavala] singing and Omar [Rodriguez-Lopez] playing guitar."

As for Reznor, who contributes to a song called "Flyentology", "he basically does the choruses and breakdowns, and he also plays guitar and bass in a section of it. I've had the comment thrown at me for years: 'You're the Trent Reznor of hip hop!' I like his shit, so I was perfectly happy to take that, and it started to make sense to me: 'Hey, that would be a pretty crazy collaboration.'"

An even crazier collaboration is the one with Chan Marshall, who El-P said he knows from "bumping into each other here and there." Working with Marshall on "Poisonville Kids No Wins", the last song on the album, "made a lot of sense," because El-P originally wrote the song while "looping up 'Love & Communication' [from Cat Power's The Greatest]. I kind of forgot that I had done that, and then I went in and I sampled some heartbreaking James Brown shit that I threw in at the end. But I was like, "Well a) I can't pay for this ever, and something's wrong here. Then I bumped into Chan and asked her to do it, and it wasn't until after she said yes that I realized that I had actually written the song to her music. I didn't want to weird her out, but I told her afterwards."

El-P plans to remix "Love & Communication", as "kind of our trade, you know?"

In addition to the aforementioned "Poisonville Kids No Wins" and "Flyentology", other song titles from the 12- or 13-song tracklist include "The League of Extraordinary Nobodies", "Drive", "Everything Must Go", and "No King". The Mars Volta collaboration is "on the song called 'Tasmanian Pain Coaster'. I'm shooting for worst song titles of all time."

El-P described the sound of the record by saying, "As opposed to each change being represented by a different song with a completely different vibe, I'm trying to make a record where there are multiple vibes and even songs within songs. There are songs on this one that I would say are musically the best shit I've ever done. And there are also a lot of songs on this record that are more raw and down-to-earth, or maybe a better term for it would be 'less dense'. I don't think that there's a record out there that will sound like this record. And whether that's good or bad and whether that's successful or not, who knows? There will be people who freak out because it doesn't sound like Fantastic Damage, and there will be people who will be pleased that it's something else."

Other plans for the record include releasing "a construction kit/battle break thing. Essentially what that's going to be is the drums for the record and then using different aspects of the record and kind of creating a battle break feel to it. That's probably something that I'm going to do a limited edition press-up [of] on vinyl and on our digital download site as well."

He also hopes to cut down on the time in between records, saying, "I'm officially in my 30s now, and as much as I've always taken [a lot of] time to do my records, I don't want to do that again. I'm pretty sure I'm going to do a record again next year [for release in 2008]."

Before that happens, however, he will jump right back into the studio to finish writing the new Cannibal Ox record, which he hopes will be released "in the fourth quarter of next year. That's the next big record that I'll really throw myself into, and it's going to happen immediately."