Tones And I has confirmed a new album and collaboration with Macklemore is on her 2022 bingo card.
Speaking with triple j‘s Dave Ruby Howe on The Tally Room while sharing her Hottest 100 picks, Tones dished up some details on her recent writing trip to Los Angeles and the follow-up to last year’s Welcome to the Madhouse.
“I’ve already started this next album that’s coming out in August; it’s very different,” she told Howe.
“I kind of just told my managers when I started writing it when I was overseas. I was like, ‘I have to put this out’. I need to put it out quick because otherwise I’ll get sick of it. So I just told my managers, ‘I’m dropping an album’.”
We first clocked Tones together with Macklemore back in September, when the Aussie singer shared a pic of the pair in a studio together, and wondered if a collaboration might be on the cards.
Apparently, the two didn’t just go thrift shopping together.
“This year I might be finally releasing a song with my favourite artist – Macklemore.” Tones told triple j.
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“It’s been a long time coming since he first surprised me in Seattle in 2019. He wanted me to record vocals on a track we’re doing together so I had to do that in person [overseas].”
Tones described how it was easier to fly from Byron Bay to America than home to Melbourne last year, when she, Ruel, Gflip, Amy Shark, Illy, Peking Duk and more were in the US for work.
“Artists just needed to get out and go and work again, because it had just been too long and there was just no end in sight,” she said.
“It’s a great culture over there in terms of the work ethic; everything else I don’t really have an opinion on, but the work ethic is really great there because a lot of people are working so hard, and if you don’t want to work hard then someone else will.”
Tones described staying in an house that once belonged to Harry Styles with another well-known rapper.
“We stayed in this Airbnb, which we didn’t know but was Harry Styles’ old house,” she said.
“We kept getting letters to the letter box to Harry Styles, then we Googled it and it was his old house; me and Illy were staying in it one night, we thought that was very funny.”
Tones And I is currently touring up the East Coast on her busking tour, but announced this morning Brisbane’s show would be delayed due to RAT shortages.
“Unfortunately we need to make sure the whole crew and team are COVID free and with no RAT test available right now we will be staying out here until we can confirm we are all negative before moving forward!” she posted on Instagram.
The show was scheduled for today, Tuesday 11th January, to be followed by shows on the Sunshine Coast on the 12th, Noosa on the 13th, Airlie Beach on the 15th, Townsville on the 16th, Cairns on the 17th and Adelaide on the 24th.
