The xx's new album is "coming" according to Jamie xx. "We've got quite a lot of songs that are not finished, but I'm excited about it," he told The FADER over the phone from London during a chat about record shops. "It feels a lot more free than when we were making the last record." The London band are known for the exhaustive world tours that swirled around their debut album xx, and their 2012 follow up, Coexist, but the road is not always the most conducive to getting the creative juice flowing, Jamie said. "I think the most inspiring thing, really, is just not being anywhere crazy and just being at home."

The softly spoken UK producer had just returned from New York where he'd been mixing his own debut solo album, which he said collects three years' worth of music and is nearing completion. "There's one track where I need to get the vocal on, but I don't know who the vocalist is going to be yet." Apparently there's only going to be one track on the record that features his beloved steel pans, but there could well be some more spoken word pieces in the vein of his recent "Girl" and "All Under One Roof Raving" singles. "I never really listen to lyrics, but I can understand [them] a little bit more when it's spoken word rather than singing," he explained. "It gets to my head a bit quicker." Sounds like 2015 is going to be a good year.