Elaine Stritch Singing “Here’s to the Ladies Who Lunch” in the 1970 Documentary Original Cast Album: Company

We recorded the album live—music going, vocals going, all at the same time. I was nervous about it, and I’d been working with my vocal teacher to prepare. She sent me this video like, Just watch this, watch what this woman had to go through. The song comes from a Sondheim musical [Company], and it’s [Broadway great Elaine Stritch] being put through the ringer. But also, she’s so embodied in the studio. It helps to move sometimes, and in a live setting, I dance and use my hands to express and pull words out of my mouth. Previously, I didn’t do that when I was tracking vocals.

That’s another thing about singing: Even if it’s an intense song, you need to be relaxed and let your energy flow, or else you’re never going to get it. And she [Stritch] gets it the next day, after she does her hair and makeup and comes prepared. That was something we brought into the studio: Show up each day like it’s a show, do your hair, be in that mode. And it really worked for us. We were able to focus and we did it in eight days.

I watched this clip endlessly. Especially when we were tracking the record, I would watch it almost every day, before going into the studio or after, just to be reminded of my body.

Canadian Folk Singer-Songwriter Basia Bulat

Basia and I met in 2012 or 2013, when I was working at this tiny café in Toronto and she was a regular customer. The minute I saw her face, I was like, I love you. Eventually she started coming in more and we started talking about music and hanging out. We sang together at a festival in Calgary and that was the first time I realized I could sing with other people. That changed everything—after that is when I made Half Free, the first 4AD record that had other singers on it. It really opened me up to collaboration, especially vocally.

I knew I wanted to do this record in a way where I was going to challenge myself by not working with my usual people. Sometimes you can get too comfy and then you’re not pushing yourself. I wanted to have my fingers in everything and not have my normal safety net. But I knew I needed somebody. From day one, Basia wanted to do it. She had experience recording live like this. She’s a crazy multi-instrumentalist. She knows all my previous work. She understood my references. She’s the one who was like, You should record it in Montreal, you should use this engineer. She helped me find the bass player. She’s an honorary member of the band, pretty much. The material was really vulnerable for me, and she held my hand through it.