Erick the Architect Embraces Improvisation On “AFTERBURNER”

Erick the Architect made much of AFTERBURNER by improvising in the booth, changing a routine that once meant writing every line first.

Most sessions took place in 2025 and followed the eventual track order. At times, he recorded with his eyes closed. Prince and D’Angelo helped shape his plan for music that flowed from one track into the next.

That approach differs from how the Flatbush Zombies member put together his 2024 debut, I’ve Never Been Here Before.

He explained that the record brought new songs together with material recorded five years earlier.

“When I first started making this album, it took so many different forms in my mind after my debut, I promised myself that things had to be different this time around. This album is music in propulsion
momentum. As philosophy it’s a testament to how far creativity can stretch in a time when so much of what we hear and see every day feels mundane and boring as fuck,” Erick the Architect explained.

His older songs were part of a plan, too. Speaking with Brooklyn Magazine about that debut, he said he held some records until he found the right music to place around them.

He also recalled a listener who only understood “Parkour” after hearing where it fit on the album.

“But I made an album. I didn’t make a bunch of singles,” he told Brooklyn Magazine.

He wanted listeners who already knew him to hear what else he could do as a solo artist.

AllHipHop covered “Instincts” with Westside Boogie during that rollout, which also included plans for his first major solo tour.

Working with other producers had already changed his role in the studio.

In the Brooklyn Magazine interview, Erick credited T-Minus, Linden Jay and James Blake with helping his writing. He still worked on arrangements and brought musicians into the process, rather than playing everything himself.

He had also described writing “Ezekiel’s Wheel” quickly, in a way that felt like a stream of consciousness. That was his account of writing a song for the debut.

The new announcement describes improvisation during recording across much of the next album.

AFTERBURNER, his second solo album and first full-length for Mass Appeal is due January 22, 2027.