7. “Kept Me Crying”

Rostam Batmanglij co-wrote this one, right?

Danielle: Yeah. We recorded this at Vox, and the drums were literally recorded with one mic on the opposite side of the room. Rostam is so awesome in the studio. He’s like our cheerleader. He was just playing some chords, and this song came out. He was like, “At the chorus, sing the highest note you can sing! Keep going! Higher!”

Este: He definitely pushes you. When we write, we pass around the microphone, and we’re very much in our own comfort zone. He kicks you the fuck out of that. He’s like, “No, you can do it!”

Danielle: We don’t really write with a lot of other people, but we love writing with him. When it’s just the three of us, we can be like, “This sucks! I don’t know about that line!” But with Rostam, he records everything. I’ll sing the weirdest little [half-hearted] “nah nah nah nah,” and he’ll be like, “That’s amazing! That’s the chorus.” And we’re like, “Really?”





8. “Found It in Silence”

Danielle: Those are real strings on this song. They came from this girl Serena McKinney; she’s so good. Her arrangements are insane. She brought in a whole crew [of musicians]. Ariel had worked with Nico Muhly on Usher’s “Climax,” so we had Nico do some of the arranging in his own way. And then we had Serena go over it with all of her people.

Este: That was actually one of the main reasons we wanted to work with Ariel—because of “Climax.”

How do you plan to recreate all this elaborate production live?

Alana: We… figure it out? We don’t always stick to the record when we play live. I only have two hands and I’m playing 14 different instruments. If I had another set of hands I could rule the world! I’m doing everything that Este and Danielle don’t want to do...

Este: Yeah, we’re like, “Alana, you can do that, right?”

Alana: “You’re gonna play keys for four bars, then you’re going to have to get from keys to guitar instantly, then you’re gonna be on guitar for another eight bars, then do claps for 16, then do a cartwheel!”

How does this track fit into the record thematically?

Danielle: After “Nothing’s Wrong” and “Something to Tell You,” this is the end of a trilogy of songs on the album. We wrote it as charging forward, like a march–it’s about knowing what we want, being empowered.

Alana: Realizing you can heal yourself. You don’t need anybody else to do that for you.

Danielle: And then the bridge is a reminder that there’s a human element, that even though I feel like I’ve moved on, it still fuckin’ gets me sometimes.





9. “Walking Away”

This one is way more R&B than anything you’ve done before—it’s got a bit of Janet Jackson in there.

Este: We grew up listening to Mariah Carey and Janet Jackson, so it’s just such a part of our DNA.

Danielle: Rostam programmed this beat on his computer. It’s a very minimal track. Lyrically, it’s like, “I’m just gonna fucking forget about this shit,” but at the same time, you’re dancing away your fears.

Alana: This song lent itself to doing a lot of different things with our voices. Instead of adding more percussion, we just put in weird syllables in weird places, and let our voices be the instruments.

Danielle: Here’s Este’s slap bass again.

Este: I couldn’t get away from it on this record! Just livin’ my truth.





10. “Right Now”

You first released this song as a video directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. How did that come together?

Danielle: Paul came into the studio as we were trying to figure this one out and he said, “I just want to record you.” So a lot of the stuff we recorded while he was filming us was stuff we used in the final recording of this track.

So he approached you?

Este: Yeah. I mean, obviously, we’re fans. We’d hung out a couple times before. So when things were in a good place, I was like, “I’m gonna call that guy up to see if he wants to just come over and hang.” The way he listens to music is so fun, because he gets so into it. So we invited him, and he was like, “What if I just brought a camera and had some homies come with some lights and stuff, and you guys just do what you do, and pretend I’m not there?” And we were just like, “Yes?! [pinches self] Are we dreaming?”

Alana: I had the demo of this on my phone, and when it connected to my car Bluetooth the other day it was really just the chorus and Danielle singing, “Right now, right now,” over and over again. And it transformed into this very powerful song that honestly gave me strength in a weird way.

Danielle: And then everything comes in on, “You gave me your word,” which we wanted to feel like, BOOM. Because you’re realizing someone has lied to you. It’s that feeling of rage, fury.