July 10, 2009 10:26

Vampire Weekend: We've almost finished our second album

Band give NME.COM a tour of their New York studio

Photo Gallery: Vampire Weekend

Vampire Weekend have told NME.COM they are close to finishing their second album.

The band are currently recording the follow-up to their eponymous debut at Treefort studios in Brooklyn, and expected to wrap up sessions in time for a September release.

The record is being produced by keyboard player Rostam Batmanglij, with tracks including 'White Sky', 'Taxi Cab', 'California English' and 'Cousins', which the band played live for the first time while supporting Blur last week, are all in consideration for the finished album.

Speaking about the recording process Batmanglij told NME.COM: "I'm only successfully producing bands that I'm in, because I start changing everything (laughs). I think I've stepped it up as a producer and a songwriter on this album. I think all of us have on this album, and the fact that those are connected allows us to do more.

"If we want to approach a song that had totally different sounds having a producer in the band allows us to mould that process in a unique way. With modern music the production and the songwriting are the same process, so to have everything within the band is an important part of what we do."

Check out Vampire Weekend's exclusive video tour of their studio below now in the NME Office Blog, plus get this week's issue of NME – on UK newsstands now