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"Vampire Weekend&amp;apos;s headlining gig at the Pitchfork Music Festival in July will mark the band&amp;apos;s first live performance in nearly a year, but the Brooklyn-based indie rockers have been keeping busy. As bassist Chris Baio tells Rolling Stone, they&amp;apos;ve been hard at work on the follow-up to their 2010 LP, Contra. &amp;quot;We&amp;apos;ve started many songs,&amp;quot; Baio says. &amp;quot;Obviously we haven&amp;apos;t been rushing it. We take it very seriously. We&amp;apos;ll be incredibly psyched to share it with the world when it&amp;apos;s done.&amp;quot;\r\nThe band has amassed plenty of material, but as frontman Ezra Koenig echoed in a recent chat with Rolling Stone, they aren&amp;apos;t working with any deadline in mind. &amp;quot;We do have a ton of stuff,&amp;quot; said Koenig. &amp;quot;It would be cool if it was [released] this year. I always want to release music as soon as possible, but more and more I&amp;apos;m realizing it&amp;apos;s something you almost have no control over. We just never want to be in a position [where] when we put out something, we feel could&amp;apos;ve benefited from more time.&amp;quot;\r\nBaio, in particular, has been making the most of his time off the road. On May 21st, the 27-year-old will release his debut solo EP, Sunburn, under his DJ moniker Baio. A three-track set of undulating dance grooves that capture a vibe the bassist describes as &amp;quot;hopeful melancholy,&amp;quot; it&amp;apos;s the culmination of a hobby Baio took up half a decade ago as a student at Columbia University in New York.\r\n&amp;quot;I had always really loved electronic music and dance music,&amp;quot; says Baio. &amp;quot;Then when the band started, that kind of got put aside for awhile. But I found that while on tour a lot of nights, I would still feel like I had a lot of energy. And there are opportunities when you play in a band to go out and DJ.&amp;quot;\r\nGiven the band&amp;apos;s extremely light tour schedule last year, Baio had time to reacquaint himself with his love of DJ&amp;apos;ing. &amp;quot;I&amp;apos;d lock myself in my little office in my apartment with CDJs and a mixer and just practice mixing all day,&amp;quot; he says. &amp;quot;I did that quite a bit while we were touring the last record and realized when we finished touring that I really wanted to pursue it.&amp;quot;\r\nBaio started work on the EP last February. His first completed track was &amp;quot;Sunburn Modern&amp;quot; &amp;#x2013; a cut whose title, Baio says, was inspired by a nasty, &amp;quot;modern art&amp;quot;-looking sunburn he received last year while on a trip to Mexico with his girlfriend.\r\nThe bassist says he plans to continue releasing additional solo tunes; he says he already has &amp;quot;a bunch of songs&amp;quot; completed and several others he&amp;apos;s currently working on. &amp;quot;It&amp;apos;s definitely something I plan on pursuing in the foreseeable future,&amp;quot; he adds.\r\nBaio does admit that there are drawbacks to going at it alone. &amp;quot;When you DJ, people can be incredibly rude to you in a hilarious way,&amp;quot; he says. &amp;quot;A lot of times there will be pretty drunk people who just come up to you and tell you they really hate what you&amp;apos;re doing. Something like that will sting for two seconds, but it&amp;apos;s not worth not putting yourself out there as an artist.&amp;quot;\r\nAdditional reporting by Matthew Perpetua"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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