It feels strangely clairvoyant that Baauer’s new album concept is about a sort of apocalyptic scenario where the Earth collides with another planet to become one, where all humans accept and love each other as well as aliens, and engage in ritualistic dances. But this wasn’t his intention at first. “I know that the story will be perceived differently from the original intention,” he says when asked about it. “For example, you talk about a ‘dystopian future,’ which is not my intention at all. I envision the planet freaking people out at first, but eventually they learn to love it,” the Brooklyn-based producer affirms.

As his website states, his new LP was conceived “within a movie-like plot of a new world appearing above Earth, a vision executed in the new video, Planet’s Mad takes us through countless micro-genres where we’re exposed to the sound of alien creatures, children, news forecasts, burps and cosmic atmospherics.” However, his new release coincides in the middle of a planetary health pandemic, the Black Lives Matters protests in the US and the global anti-racist demonstrations worldwide, and even the Pentagon publishing officially UFO videos, which altogether give the album new layers of meaning and interpretation.

Staying away from collaborating with household names as he did in his previous album, Aa, which sometimes “are just a selling point and not about the music,” as he himself admits, Harry Rodrigues (his real name) now focuses on his personal vision, creativity and instinct to publish his most personal album to date. With influences of drum and bass, grime, industrial techno and UK dance music, Planet’s Mad is an amalgamation of electronic sounds that, thanks to Baauer’s musical craftsmanship, make sense together and create a new, distinct sound on its own right. Today, we interview him to discuss the end of the world, his collaboration with Actual Objects on the incredible music videos he’s been releasing, and speaking up in times like these.