With his woozily elastic new album, “COMETA,” released so recently it’s still hot to the touch, Nick Hakim finds himself highly in demand. On a crisp late October morning, Hakim hustles from the barber shop straight into the hot seat at KCRW HQ to give us the skinny on how “COMETA” — which expands and deepens the Brooklyn artist’s trademark hazy-R&B — came together courtesy of extra attention paid to instrumentation and production details. He also shares some fire tracks that are brand new to us, and the sultry classic that we will now forever associate with spooky season. Plus, he reveals how “COMETA’s” breakout hit “Feeling Myself” originated from a need to get out of a bad headspace.

Catch up with Nick Hakim live in the new year at the perfectly intimate and just-far-enough-away-from-it-all Pappy & Harriet’s in Pioneertown. We’re sending five pairs of humans off to celebrate Hakim’s first visit to the Joshua Tree area, soundtracked by the man of the hour himself. Enter here if you haven’t won anything from us in the past 90 days. This is a special one.

And Hakim’s visit is just one top notch stretch in a show full of ‘em. Volume all the way up for impossible-to-sit-through-cuts from Genesis Owusu, Hope Tala, ESG, and more. Keep that heart rate climbing as you move through the week.