Grimes Says She Made an Album Called Psy Opera

Grimes is the subject of a new Interview Magazine feature. In conversation with science-fiction author Nnedi Okorafor, the singer discussed a forthcoming album called Psy Opera that’s apparently close to finished. Several track titles from the project are mentioned, including “The Light Ages” and “Eve Is Online.”

While she never made a public announcement to the effect, Grimes also told Okorafor that she “totally quit music a couple years ago.” It was being asked to write a rap for a K-pop artist, she said, that creatively reinvigorated her: “I was like, ‘This is too good. I’m keeping this because it’s crazy.’ But then we had a problem for eight months where I was just a white rapper.”

The singer later claimed to be working on a documentary about “machine consciousness” called First Contact, and told Okorafor that she doesn’t employ generative AI in her own music. Then she clarified that one song on Psy Opera, “DeepSeek,” features lyrics written by the Chinese open-source AI model of the same name. “Did it feel like you crossed the line when you did that or did it feel logical?” Okorafor asked, to which Grimes answered, “It felt awesome,” before diagnosing herself with what she called “AI psychosis.”

Grimes shared her last album, Miss Anthropocene, in 2020. She signed to Columbia Records the following year, but dropped only a couple of one-off singles before parting ways with the label. In 2023, Grimes sued Elon Musk over her parental rights to the three children she shares with the tech billionaire. Last year, she released “idgaf,” a demo from the Miss Anthropocene sessions, and a new song titled “Artificial Angels.” Both came out on Grimes’ own label, Nazgul Recording LLC.