“I don’t think I ever thought it was normal,” she said over dinner a few days later during an intense conversation that spanned several hours. A lace maroon top covered her black bustier, and a glow-in-the-dark cross dangled from one ear. “But they basically instilled the idea that creativity is a route to heal,” she continued, “and that applies in such a huge way to my life now.”

Since leaving home at 13, Tamaryn, born Tamaryn Brown, has spoken only sporadically to her mother. (She never met her late father, but knows he was a competitive bridge player.) Before settling in Los Angeles three years ago, she lived in San Francisco and New York. Denizens of the Lower East Side in the rapidly gentrifying early aughts might have bumped into her at Mondo Kim’s on St. Marks Place, where she was a salesclerk (“I would sit there and listen to Lydia Lunch really loud,” she said), or behind the bar at the similarly defunct club Tonic, where she also performed one-off shows with various outfits.

“Dreaming the Dark” is her first album since the 2015 LP “Cranekiss,” both of which were written and produced alongside Jorge Elbrecht, known for his collaborations with Ariel Pink. Driven by lushly orchestrated synths and emotionally intense vocals, the record’s nine songs invoke a range of influences, including Sisters of Mercy, the composer Angelo Badalamenti and Kanye West circa “808s & Heartbreak.” (She said she specifically wanted to mimic “the whipping sounds” from Depeche Mode’s “Master and Servant” for the industrial number “Victim Complex.”)