Fleet Foxes release Crack-Up — their first new album in six years — on June 16, coming after a hiatus while Robin Pecknold was attending Columbia University.

Regarding the distance between Crack-Up and their previous release, 2011's Helplessness Blues, Pecknold says, "I would rationalize it with, 'well you know Daniel Day-Lewis makes a movie every six years, Terrence Malick took so long off between movies' ... I wish it hadn't been as long as it was, but it was nice to have those touchstones to justify it."

The first single off the new album, "Third of May," is about the relationship between Pecknold and his bandmate, Skyler Skjelset, and reconnecting after an extended time. "It was interesting recording that song with Skye," Pecknold says. "We co-produced the record and he was the one manning the board when I was recording the vocals. The song addresses a problem that the recording of the song itself resolving. That was a very hopeful process."

Hear the entire interview by clicking the link above. Fleet Foxes will be appearing at the Palace Theatre in St. Paul, Minn. on Sept. 30 and Oct. 1.

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• Album Review: Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues