2. “Let It Go”

Courtney, you wrote this one, right?

KV: That’s my favorite one.

CB: I wrote the instrumental part of it years ago, when I was in my early 20s. I was playing slide guitar in this other band, and my guitar was tuned all funny, and I came up with it one day. But for years I just could not put words to it. It was really hard to sing and play, ’cause it’s kind of finger-picky. Then, when we organized the studio time together, I was like, “Oh, shit. I need to bring a song.” It was good, because if I don’t have any sort of deadline I’ll keep putting things off. I was doing the lyrics that morning.

KV: A lot of getting a song done is booking the studio time. I’m the kind of person who will set time aside to do something and then do everything but that thing.

So did the lyrics you came up with at the last minute fit easily?

CB: The lyrics weren’t finished when we tracked it. I had these placeholder lyrics, and the chorus was something that sounded weird.

KV: It was, “You’ve got to take the pip with the pulp.”

CB: I thought it was really clever, but then I was like, “Actually, that’s dumb.”

KV: Well, I liked it.

3. “Fear Is Like a Forest”

Courtney, this is a cover of one of your partner Jen Cloher’s songs. Why did you decide to take it on here?

CB: Jen wrote the song around 10 years ago. I play guitar in Jen’s band, and sometimes we play it live, and it’s such a Crazy Horse song. So I was like, “This would be really cool if Kurt was on it.” We shredded it out.

4. “Outta the Woodwork”

This is a remake of the song “Out of the Woodwork,” from Courtney’s 2013 EP, How to Carve a Carrot Into a Rose. Kurt, were you nervous to put your spin on this track?

KV: I originally tried to record this on my own while I was on tour, but it just wasn’t good enough. I needed Courtney as a muse. So when we met up to record together again, I was sitting in the studio playing this song acoustic. I still was self-conscious. I was like, “I don’t know if it’s gonna work out.” But I just had to fake myself out. The next day, I had an electric guitar and sang it in a more rock’n’roll style, and Courtney was in the other room singing backup and playing percussion. It turned into this different animal. I love it.

5. “Continental Breakfast”

When did this track come together during the recording process?

CB: We recorded it a year after doing our first session together. We were both doing a million other things in that year. I knew Kurt was coming back to Melbourne, so we booked some more time to finish the record.

KV: I sent Courtney a demo of this song while I was on vacation with my family in Hawaii. I wanted to show her that I had something legit and also to see if she liked it—and she did.