But I feel like that can be dangerous for creativity. I really wanted to change it up. I needed a change. That's when I started moseying around my thoughts, trying to see what started becoming tangible.

Was part of it bringing in new people during that creative time that you blocked out for yourself?

As I was living life and going about things, I just kept writing down a bunch of different ideas and little song titles and nuggets of things. But the two guys who produced the record with me, Ian [Fitchuk] and Daniel [Tashian], they have always been people that I know through mutual friends. But I had never created a project with them, or even written with them together. It was in this period of creative free time that they were like, "Hey, we should get together and just see what we can come up with." The first one we wrote was "Oh, What a World."

I love the vocoder you use on that song. It feels super new for you, sonically.

It's so fun! It's this trippy perspective, this sound where future meets tradition. I was like, "What if the album was like this? Is there a world where all these things can live harmoniously?" Pedal steel [guitar], banjo, acoustic guitar, and my rootsy influences mixed with galactic Vocoder and stuff. That was fun to really explore.

I didn't have any preconceived idea of anything. I just knew that I wanted to follow whatever it was that was inspiring me. I don't think I'll ever make the same album twice. It gets boring for me. We've been playing the same material out for years now. And though I love those songs—they're a huge part of me—it's just natural to ebb and flow. I feel like I've always been somebody who can always straddle genre lines, and weave in and out of things.

I feel like when people hear this, they'll recognize the familiar parts of it that are me but also see this other vision that I had and hopefully they're along for the ride. I think it'll bring in new audience. But I also hope that it gives the people who appreciate what I do in country music something to hold onto.

As an artist though, it's not something you really think about when you're in the studio, right? What people are going to give a shit about?

Yeah. It's definitely dangerous to start thinking about that stuff just because maybe you had more ears on it, you know? I mean, at the end of the day, if I don't like something or something doesn't drive me, then I can't do it. So I start with whatever makes me feel good. If anybody else likes it, it's icing on the cake.

So there were no expectations this time around from your label?

Not really, no. It's hard to put confinements on those kind of things. Sometimes it just doesn't come. But luckily early on I found a stride with all these elements. One thought I had was, What would it sound like if Imogen Heap made a country album? Would it work? Would it make sense? I just really had fun—some of the most fun I've ever had. I feel like this album is my most personal.

Lyrically, this album feels like its own world as opposed to just—

Singular songs?

Yeah. It feels like you've left the town your first two albums focused on.

Exactly. I tried to approach the writing in a different way this time. I was still being as discerning about and picky about lyrics. I'm kind of a lyrics snob, meaning, to myself. I like to beat myself up. I love turn of phrase, I love wit, I love sarcasm. I love all those clever little songs that get wrapped up in a bow, but I feel like I've done that, many times. As much as I love that, I just don't want that to define me. I just think there are other colors that I could paint with that are really fun.