It’s been two long years since Anderson .Paak’s magnetic album Malibu vaulted the do-it-all artist into the spotlight, but it seems that there’s new music on the way not only from .Paak, but also his separate band, The Free Nationals. In an interview with Triple J promoting their upcoming appearance at Laneway Festival in Melbourne, .Paak said we “can definitely expect it this year, sometime,” when asked about his upcoming LP. He revealed that it is currently at the mixing stage.

While that news is still somewhat hazy, the impressive guest list of the Free National’s new project was revealed earlier this year. The band is apparently working with Daniel Caesar, Mac Miller, Kali Uchis, and potentially T.I. as well. In an interview with Pigeons & Planes from March 2017, Free Nationals member Callum Connor talked about the artists they were collaborating with on their record.

“We’ve got some pretty good features on it. There are going to a lot of the people that we fuck with regularly, obviously Anderson, we’ve got a lot of the people he’s close with,” he said. “We got this song with Kali Uchis that I’m pretty stoked on.”

.Paak also talked about recording remotely for the Black Panther soundtrack, where he is slated to appear on “Bloody Waters” alongside James Blake and Ab-Soul. While he was less forthcoming about collaborations on his new project, he did reveal that Dr. Dre had a significant role in shaping the project.

“It’s dope to be around like legends like that and you can feel the mutual respect,” .Paak told Triple J. “That’s what I always did it for, I wasn’t really thinking about money or fame, I just wanted the respect from the people I look up to musically. It’s amazing.”

Photo Credit: Sharon Alagna