By Sandy Cohen
Associated Press

will.i.am has a lot on his mind, and it shows.

Sitting on the patio at his manager's house, the 32-year-old producer and Black Eyed Peas front man changes subjects without warning, breaks into spontaneous song, imitates various accents and checks his BlackBerry constantly.

... it's called "Mother Earth," because the ultimate girl on the planet is the planet ...

It's easy to believe him when he says he doesn't sleep or eat much. He hardly has the time. Besides being the main creative force behind the Black Eyed Peas and producing music for stars such as Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey and Michael Jackson, will.i.am is preparing to release his third solo album, "Songs About Girls," along with a new digital application that turns any social-networking site into an online music store. His clothing line is set to debut in the spring, he's releasing his band mates' solo albums on his will.i.am music group label later this year, and he'll spend the first months of fall visiting more than 20 countries on the Black Eyed Peas world tour.

Just days before the band's tour began in Jerusalem, the dreadlocked artist talked with The Associated Press about his workaholic lifestyle.

AP: How does your sound differ from the Peas'?

will.i.am: Black Eyed Peas is unique because we do all kind of (stuff). For me on this record, I don't have any collaborations, just one song with Snoop Dogg. But all the other songs it's me singing and rhyming, playing instruments and doing mostly everything. ... And it's really melodic from what I usually do with Black Eyed Peas, but it's cool. I'm really happy and proud of the record. It's pretty fresh. My mom likes it.

Did you have something different to say on this record?

It's a complete thought, you know? With the Peas, each one of us put our thoughts on the record and they're tangents, from three, four different points of view. This one, it's a complete thought, a journey through breakups and makeups, broken hearts and regrets.

Are you finished with the Peas?

No way. The Peas still got a whole lot more they can do. We got a new record coming out in November (2008).

What are you releasing from your will.i.am music group?

The first two releases were Fergie and Macy (Gray), and then my record. Then apl's and Taboo's next, and "Black Einstein," and not the Black Eyed Peas. Oh, and I'm also doing "Madagascar," so I'll be working in the movies. I'm working on my albums. And then the Talib (Kwelis) and the Commons, and the Mariahs and the Whitneys, and the Michael Jacksons. And then I've got to run over there and do the voice-overs for "Madagascar 2." I play a hippo that falls in love with Jada Pinkett's hippo. It's awesome. And then I'm scoring the music for Hans Zimmer for it.

What's going on with Michael Jackson?

Just working on records, making music, working on stuff for his next project ... I'd be like, "Hey Mike, you like this?" (He imitates Jackson's voice) "It's all right, it's cool. But I think we need something a little bit bigger." OK, if you don't want it, I'll just put it over here (on my album). Ain't nothing to me, just drag the little folder to the "will" folder.

Do you ever take time off?

I don't know how to take time off ... People say the day is short. It ain't. I know I can do a lot in one day. It all depends on how you do it. Maybe I don't eat. I don't eat or drink water so my knuckles are always ashy, anyway, and my hair's brittle, but that's cool.

Do you ever worry about doing too much?

Music is fun, you know, it's fun making music. But lately I've been thinking about some real progressive stuff, and maybe if I ever do those things, I worry about how that's going to affect things and the repercussions of that. Sometimes if you rock the boat and shed light on things, that can be bad for some people ... Like the song that I wrote for Al Gore. We performed it on "Live Earth." It's not on YouTube anymore, you know? All the other shows from "Live Earth" are on YouTube, except for that part. So I don't know, it's cool. The lyrics were pretty heavy. (He rhymes the song a cappella.) That's on "Songs About Girls," and it's called "Mother Earth," because the ultimate girl on the planet is the planet.

Do you think artists should get more political?

There's some things happening that are going on, but there's so much distraction. There's no Malcolm Xs, there's no Martin Luther Kings, there's no Gandhis. There's really no leaders.

Talk about this new Musicane player. It's a digital application for Web sites?

This album that I made was designed for the player, and it's that experience. The player wasn't made like, "Download this player and make loot." It's like, "Download this player and have an absolute connection to my channel of music, so I can always upload it." This album doesn't just have 15 songs on it. This album has however many songs I put on it.

Who are you looking to work with next?

I want to make a project called Imagine That. It's say, for example, ?uestlove from the Roots on drums, Herbie Hancock on keyboards, Stevie Wonder on lead vocals and keyboards, Flea from Red Hot Chili Peppers on bass, Prince on guitar. And who else? Michael Jackson on lead vocals, and one girl: Whitney Houston or Aretha Franklin. But yeah, imagine that?

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