Last week during our podcast interview with Travis O’Guin, we couldn’t help but ask as much as we could about Tech N9ne’s next record:

• When’s it coming out?
• What does it sound like?
• What can we expect?

Travis was gracious enough to indulge us without giving too much away.

Here’s what he had to say…

Tech’s getting beat submissions right now for his next records. The producers that we’ve talked to said that Tech has just stated that he wants something “big”. What can you tell us about these beats that are coming in?

We’ve already got, I want to say over 18 beats selected for the new album.

Killer part two?

Eh. It’s not intended to be a double album. We always do a lot of extra songs. You have to have extra songs because Best Buy wants this package, and FYE wants their own exclusive, and iTunes wants their exclusive, so it never hurts to have additional music. We always try to get it to the fans in one way or another anyways, like maybe with an EP or something like that of follow-up tracks.

But the beats that we’ve purchased right now…Tech is on some other shit. When he says that it needs to be “humongous”, that’s exactly what he’s getting so far. Michael Seven Summers has done the largest majority of the tracks. I want to say that out of that 18, he’s done 10 of them and the shit is gigantic. It’s some other shit. If I didn’t tell you that it was Seven you probably wouldn’t even know because that dude is so diverse that he’s going to areas that I didn’t know he could go and it’s based on Tech’s influences. Tech had a lot of ideas that I can’t give away here to incorporate into the beats and into the production and Seven has done a masterful job of doing that. My favorite beat ever bought, Seven did for this new album. I play it in my office frequently just because I fucking love the beat that much. That boy is incredible. Youngfyre has done several beats for the new album. I think we have something from WillPower. I know that he has some stuff setting down there from J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League. I’m not sure if those are confirmed yet but the music that has been selected for this new album, it has to be better than the last shit that we dropped. It has to be better than All 6’s and 7’s. That’s the thing. Every album has to be better than the last album, so with that being said, this album has to be far bigger, far more epic than anything that he’s ever put out before, and he knows that and he’s got plenty of ideas and the beats that he’s selecting are beyond belief man. You guys are going to be happy, that’s all I can say.

Is there a release date or are you just playing it by ear depending on what can get done?

There’s a tentative release date. I care not to share it here because I’ve learned a long time ago not to state a date if you’re not 1000% certain, so we are definitely not 100% certain because Tech’s been out on the road so much. We’ve gotta see how productive he is when he gets back here. If there are any chicks that commonly talk to Tech or text Tech that are listening in right now, do me a favor and leave him alone for awhile when he gets back so we can get some music done. So needless to say we need to get in the studio. I don’t want to rush creativity so I’ll give him a deadline and we’ll come up with that deadline collectively and if he meets it then great, we’ll be able to make that release that we have scheduled, and that is indeed this year. If we don’t make it, we’re not going to rush and put the shit together. If there’s any minute possibility of any compromising going on, I’ll yank it and move it to a later date. Whether that fits in with this year or whether that’s even next year, I don’t care, I just know that the album has to be phenomenal.

I’m going to give the fans something this year, hopefully it’s the album. I’ll give them an EP, some music to hold them over. A fix until then. But I want this album to be huge, and I’m not even necessarily saying that Tech can’t do it within the timeframe that he has, because he has a larger time frame for this album than most of the other albums that we’ve done, even All 6’s and 7’s, he has more time to do this album than he had to do that album, however it’s not ever Tech that holds shit up. If he wants a specific feature, or a variety of features, that process, normally not with the artists but with their fucking labels or with their management, publishing or whatever, getting them cleared is sometimes the most difficult part. So that’s when myself and Dave Weiner and our attorney Mr. Lieberman go through utter hell trying to get everything cleared prior to going into mastering and manufacturing. We had some stuff on All 6’s and 7’s that wasn’t even cleared and we had already mastered and went into manufacturing and that’s a nerve-wracking, ulcer-creating situation. I can’t do that to myself. The way that makes you feel is so terrible. It’s going to be huge. Let’s just say that – massive. I know that we say that a lot, but Goddamn we deliver. So until I fuck up and you guys can call up on this phone and check me, like “Hey you said this album was going to be bigger than this album, and dude, I disagree.” Alright. Well we’ll have that conversation when that time happens, but it ain’t happened yet.

• What did you think of what Travis had to say about Tech N9ne’s next album?

Leave your thoughts in the comments section below!