On a lackluster stretch of Melrose Avenue, a faded sign affixed to a chipped stucco building advertises Conway Recording Studios. It’s meant to throw passersby off the scent. The parking lot is packed with shiny black Escalades and matte black sports cars. In the kitchen, Justin Timberlake, wearing a trilby, is fixing his own tea, while a whiteboard indicates that the Red Hot Chili Peppers are recording down the hall. And in the cavelike studio where I meet Abel Tesfaye, aka The Weeknd, the walls of flickering electronics resemble a supercomputer.

This spring afternoon, Tesfaye has on a black bomber jacket and utility pants that zip up the sides, a militaristic uniform that he wears more or less every day: “My closet is like Bart Simpson’s,” he jokes. He’s not tall but stands at nearly six feet if you include the hair, perhaps his most talked-about accessory. “It has a life of its own,” he observes, crediting Jean-Michel Basquiat and the L.A. rapper Murs for inspiring the look. He’s recently pulled out of almost every major upcoming commitment—most notably, the European leg of Rihanna’s Anti tour. “Creatively, some magic is happening right now, and I don’t want to lose it,” Tesfaye says. (One exception to the hiatus? The Met gala, where he performed with Nas in a four-song set dreamed up with director Baz Luhrmann. Tesfaye electrified the room—by the end of “Can’t Feel My Face,” even Apple CEO Tim Cook was dancing—and proved himself a consummate performer, with the vocal power and presence of an icon in the making.) The new work is why we’re meeting at a recording studio. “It could be an album or it could be something else, but whatever it is, music is being made.” And for anyone who listens to the radio—or Apple Music or Spotify or Tidal, for that matter—that is big news.

Music blogs recently celebrated the five-year anniversary of House of Balloons, The Weeknd’s first mixtape and de facto mission statement. Full of “fantastically foul stuff,” according to The New York Times, the album was, as Tesfaye puts it, “anti-everything.” “Nothing sounded like what we were doing, because R&B was hard to listen to back then,” he says. “The genre was dying.” As Taylor Swift, who shared the stage with Tesfaye on her 1989 tour, says, “He was like nothing else out there.” No wonder fellow Torontonian Drake was The Weeknd’s first high-profile fan. By the end of 2011, The Weeknd had given fans three EPs and more than 30 songs­—but not a single interview. “What I love is that he kept himself hidden for so long, not showing his face,” says his friend Naomi Campbell. “The music speaks for itself.” Tesfaye says that he modeled his anonymity in part on the pioneering French electronic band Daft Punk. (“One of my biggest dreams is to work with them,” he says.) The Weeknd’s next album, 2013’s Kiss Land, debuted at number two and was a success by any measure, but Tesfaye’s ambitions went much further. Soon The Weeknd was touring with the aforementioned Timberlake, contributing songs to the sound tracks of both Fifty Shades of Grey and a Hunger Games sequel, and appearing on Ariana Grande’s hit single “Love Me Harder.” Tesfaye, Toronto’s indie darling, had infiltrated the industry at its highest levels. The lyrics of “Tell Your Friends” explain the trajectory: “Last year I did all the politickin’/This year I’mma focus on the vision.”

That vision was Beauty Behind the Madness. Featuring collaborations with Kanye West, Lana Del Rey, and Swedish Svengali producer Max Martin, the album seamlessly translated The Weeknd’s twisted, viscous R&B into irresistible—and eventually inescapable—pop music. Full of tributes to Michael Jackson, the album has been compared to Thriller. “He’s a part of my family,” Tesfaye says. “When I was born, that was the music my mother was listening to. Michael Jackson is a third parent to me.” Even Quincy Jones, who produced Thriller, was impressed when he met Tesfaye in Las Vegas last year: “He has a sincere appreciation of his roots,” Jones says. “And frankly, he doesn’t lead with his ego.” Beauty Behind the Madness earned an Oscar nomination and seven Grammy nominations, resulting in two wins; it was also the most-streamed album of 2015, even though it dropped in August. The album is now in its “Japan phase,” as Tesfaye puts it. “It’s like breaking on a whole other planet over there.”