George Lewis Jr – AKA Twin Shadow – has just finished up a long and frustrating day in the studio when we get him on the phone. The Florida native, now living in Brooklyn, is bunkered down in Los Angeles, working on the follow-up to ‘Forget,’ his stellar 2010 debut album; but it’s not coming easy.

“I was working on lyrics for a few new songs,” Lewis says.

“It didn’t go so well. I might throw them in the trash,” he laughs.

All in all, it may be one of the few hiccups Lewis has encountered during a seemingly blessed run in the last few years, after the release of ‘Forget.’ Produced by Chris Taylor of Grizzly Bear, the record gives a hazy, swooning take on 80s pop, infused with a dark, moody energy. Variously calling to mind New Order, Joy Division, The Smiths and Depeche Mode, it’s a sound both alluringly familiar and startlingly new. Keyboard melodies are chopped, warped and stretched before being reassembled and combined with dark, throbbing bass and dense, haunting synthesisers. It’s a complex, dense record that made its way into many “best of” lists for 2010, but Lewis says the album came to him very quickly.

“It comes fast to me… that’s the way that I work, I shut myself in, I work long hours,” he says of his creative process. ‘Forget’ was completely written and recorded in a matter of months, while he says that the entire new album will likely be completed in just over a month.

“I don’t like the idea of working on something for an entire year. I work quickly to capture a consistency, a moment in time, rather than to purposely make a masterpiece… I try to capture the essence of the time I’m in.”

While many musicians spend months, even years putting together their albums, it hasn’t all been smooth sailing for Lewis. Spending years hopping around the world – Berlin, Copenhagen, Boston, New York – Lewis finally reached a fork in the road in early 2009 after becoming disillusioned working as a composer for dance and theatre companies,

“The motivation for starting Twin Shadow was writing music for other people, and hating it,” he says.

“I hadn’t been in a band for a long time, and I just wanted to do something. I said to myself that Twin Shadow was my last chance for doing something successful in music; if not, I was going to switch paths, start making movies or something.”

Luckily for Lewis, the success of ‘Forget’ has seen Twin Shadow move from a pie-in-the-sky dream to a legitimate and respected musical project. Now for the follow-up.

“I don’t think the new record will be worlds apart from ‘Forget.’ It’s still the same universe, but I’m a different person now than when I wrote the last album,” says Lewis.

“I don’t even know who that person before is.”

Renting a studio in Los Angeles, Lewis is producing the record himself. He says he has “a lot more tools at [his] disposal,” and promises “a bunch of new stuff.”

“But its all top top secret!” he laughs.

“I just had a meeting with the label, actually; we’re not sure about the timetable, but it’ll be out in 2012.”

Lucky for Australian fans, then, that we will be among the first in the world to hear new snippets of Twin Shadow material. Lewis is heading our way next month for the Laneway Festival, and promises that audiences will hear a taste of the new album during their performances.

“I’ll be actually be mixing the record during the time we will be rehearsing for Australia, so I don’t think a lot of the songs will be ready to be played… but we’ll be playing a couple of new songs,” he says.

Lewis also promises that the band are “going to try new things with our live setup and performance in Australia,” so here’s our hot tip; these shows are not to be missed.

Twin Shadow play the Laneway Festival through February, as well as some sideshow dates with Anna Calvi in Sydney and Melbourne.