Matthew Koma Confirms He's Working On New Britney Album

Singer/songwriter/producer Matthew Koma reveals he’s collaborating with Britney Spears on her new record.

Britney recently told us a new studio album will drop eventually, but right now it’s not urgent, “I’m gonna do [a new album] slowly but surely… I’m gonna try to do my best to do an amazing album, but it’s not my full priority right now.”
Perhaps that was her brilliant marketing tactic to throw us off her tracks, or quite simply is working on one “slowly but surely” because she wants to do her “best to do an amazing album.”
Let’s just get our hopes up anyway and assume she’s tricking us because a surprise release is in the works, because… because.
So the news we might possibly hear her work with Matthew Koma, who’s worked with Zedd, Shania Twain, Bruce Springsteen and Steve Aoki, doesn’t seem so distant!

Vice asked Koma: How has working with Britney changed things for you? That’s a different realm when you’re writing for that level of pop star.

“For me to keep sane, I have to be working on stuff that’s a little all over the map. It helps my process to be focused on different things so when I come back to whatever was on the last plate I have a little bit more perspective on it. Working with someone like Britney is refreshing when you’re coming out of spending a lot of time on your own record or working on Zedd’s new album because it is a different headspace. Or working with Springsteen. I did a couple days recently where I wrote with Rivers Cuomo from Weezer and that was a totally different experience. After Ultra I went down and worked with Shania Twain on her new record. Doing all these different things for me just keeps it exciting and fresh. It’s not so much that I’m conscious of it; it’s more of just a constant flow of vibing out. It helps me keep really balanced in my craft and fresh when it comes back to the centerpiece, which is always my records and the things I’m going to wear as my t-shirts. It’s all so different but it’s also part of the same picnic.”

When you’re working with other people do you come up with songs that you would rather hold on to for yourself?

It depends. With Britney, for example, one of the songs she recorded was a song that I had been working on, channeling Squeeze. They’re one of my favorite bands and when she heard it she was really digging it.

It’s reassuring to hear from Koma, because Britney proclaimed she needed an “artsy fartsy” album, and her latest musical endeavor features rapper Iggy Azalea A.K.A. the female Pitbull. Not quite the artsy road we hoped she’d journey.

What do YOU think of Britney working with Matthew Koma?