“The album is almost finished”

Ten long years have passed since Kelis last released an album of new material. This dry spell is coming to an end.

“I’ve been recording my new album for a while now,” the “Milkshake” singer explains in a phone call from Nairobi, Kenya, a place she admittedly fell in love with.

“The problem is, if I start and don’t keep the momentum going, it’s like I’m a new person when I start again and then I don’t care about what I’ve already done,” she tells Rolling Stone AU/NZ. When I feel new and improved, “I start again. That’s happened a few times in the last few years.”

That won’t happen again. The R&B star admits that she’s kept the momentum going and is now “in a situation where I’m closer to the end than I’ve ever been, which is a very good thing.”

How close? “The album is almost finished. I’d say I’m at 75-80%.”

The successor of 2014 Eatrecorded with Dave Sitek of TV On The Radio. Her latest dish was shot mostly on her farm, a 26-acre property in Temecula, California, where she lives with her family.

The experience was “just so enjoyable and I really felt like myself,” she explains. “I didn’t feel like I had to step outside of myself to create something that was really good.”

As a creative person, “I’m an extremist,” she says with a laugh. “Either I travel as far away as possible, or I want to go absolutely nowhere and everything should be on the farm.”

In the coming days, she’ll tick the first box. Kelis will deliver a keynote presentation at BIGSOUND 2024, the music industry’s annual conference and showcase extravaganza in Brisbane, Australia.

“It is a very Kelis record. I don’t know how, but it sounds like me. It fits exactly who I am and where I’ve been. I love this record because it feels like an honest evolution of who I’ve been all along.” She continues: “That’s also why sometimes it takes me so long. I have to step back and live my life. Then I come back and have something to say.”

With the release of “Midnight Snacks,” Kelis had something to say in 2022, continuing a foodie theme that has run throughout her recording career and blossomed when the Harlem-born artist completed her training as a chef at Le Corden Blue.

These talents led Kelis into the world of celebrity chefs, with several television cooking specials on Netflix, Cooking Channel and Food Network as well as the cookbook My life on a plateinspired by her travels.

Kelis has had seven songs chart on the Billboard Hot 100, with 2003’s “Milkshake” reaching her peak at No. 3. Five of her albums have charted on the Billboard 200, including a top 10 appearance for 2006’s “Milkshake.” Kelis was herewon Brit, Q and NME awards and was nominated for two Grammys.

Kelis, 45, a mother of three, is “really content,” she tells this reporter. “Even in the midst of all the things that have happened. I’m really grateful. I’ve had a really great career and I’ve enjoyed every second of it. Now I’m in the next phase of my life and it’s fantastic. I feel really good.”

Don’t expect “a bunch of singles” from her next collection. “You have to put the thing on and let it go. It’s kind of that vibe.” If you had to pigeonhole it, imagine: “If Wu-Tang and Sade had a baby, we’d be about there now,” she reveals. “It’s not like it is now either, is it?”