Drain Gang’s perfectionist speaks about the thousands of miles of brainspace and physical traveling that went into his ambitious new solo record Echo , his first in seven years.

Photo by Hendrik Schneider

The day Ecco2k shot the video for “Sky Burial,” he was running around the streets of Hong Kong searching for antennas. He eventually found two pieces from a vendor, zip-tied them together, and only then could he hike to the top of a mountain. He ascended into a cloud: no visibility, unbelievable humidity. He didn’t have as much daylight as he needed to shoot, but coming down the other side, he noticed a structure with orange lights gleaming like beast eyes in the night. In the video, he dances with a crucifix-shaped antenna, soaked in the glow of what looks like a bloodletting sun. “I do realize that it becomes biblical and symbolic, but it wasn’t my intention,” Ecco2k, whose real name is Zak Arogundade, tells me over a video call, laughing and nibbling on a wedge of cabbage. “But I don’t know.…