New M.I.A. Album Coming This Summer With a Little Help From Verizon Tech Support

In her short career, M.I.A. has assembled quite the roster of collaborators, from the Wilcannia Mob, the quintet of aboriginal Australian boys featured on Kala‘s “Mango Pickle Downriver,” to international tastemaking sensation Diplo, who co-produced Kala with DJ Switch. But Filipino Verizon tech supporters? Even we wouldn’t have guessed that one.

M.I.A. revealed her unexpected guest vocalists (on a track titled “I’m Down Like Your Internet Collection”) and other juicy bits about her upcoming third studio album in a recent interview with Rolling Stone.

The maker of Paste’s #6 album of 2007 recorded much of her new material with producer Blaqstarr, who she says “simply makes music that sounds good, and I needed that… I just want to be real, whatever that is,” the 34-year-old Sri Lankan singer said of her new LP. “I definitely needed to come to music on this album, to make music. I don’t want it to be gimmicky or silly or hipstery.”

After spending her last album concentrating more on production than on singing and rapping, M.I.A. promises a shift in focus on her as-yet-untitled summer release. “The last album, I didn’t actually sit anywhere long enough for it to really be in my life and to really think about it,” she says. “Now I’m putting out my next album, and the world has changed. I came up talking shit about Bush, and it’s great that it’s changed, but I don’t know how much it’s changed, and I’m exploring that.”

Sounds great, but what’s the Verizon connection? “I was having issues with my cable and wireless, and I was on the phone [with tech support] for three hours, and I thought, ‘Maybe this needs to be part of my music, could you just learn these lyrics and sing it down the phone to me?’ Ten phone calls later, I have Internet that sticks and a song.”

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