Making a sixth album comes with its own set of challenges, especially when you’ve spent years establishing a sound that listeners have come to recognize. For Oso Oso, that sound has always made room for contradiction: bright, direct melodies that carry a more complicated emotional weight. Jade Lilitri admits that surprising himself has become harder the longer he makes music, and that sometimes the biggest surprise is simply writing a song that he likes.

On an exchange of information, Oso Oso’s sixth full-length and first release for Feral Twin, Lilitri continues to work through that tension. We caught up with him to talk about the making of the record, a songwriting process involving a tiny bass player in his brain, and the music that first made a lasting impression on him.