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So the film was a perfect place to do it.
Id never seen anything like it; it just felt so modern.
Im a massive fan of his and anything he touches.
When did you write it?Not that much earlier than when Jane originally contacted me.
Are you even there?
Im setting up this life for us in this house, but where are you?
So for him, having his guitar era was pretty wild.
I kind of forgot about it, forgot it existed.
Starburned and Unkissed couldnt fit this film more.
And I was like,Wait a minute.
This is it.I sent Jane a rougher version of the song, and they freaked out.
They were like, Im building a cue around this song.
Its going to get this hallway sequence.
I experienced it through MTV.
I experienced it through bands like Silverchair, which were late-generation, glossy major-label teen grunge.
I was obsessed with Kittie.
But it was about Kurt Cobains suicide, and that film was adapted into opera.
So I was living in the periphery of all these conversations about grunge music without the grunge actually there.
So Kurt Cobain became a kind of symbolic fixture in the house for the last couple of years.
What kind of conversations did you and Jane have about the movies tone?
Later, seeing the film, I could really understand where that was coming from.
But that was a sort of footnote for me while I was finishing the music.
What does that mean to you?
And of course, those are all things that I felt as well.
But I think especially in the narrative of queer experience, it feels super synced up.
I was at my grandmothers 80th birthday, which was sort of a family reunion.
We all went down to Florida.
Im wandering around this golf course, which is closed, in this kind of impossibly dense sunlight.
And I was just like, Oh my God, I didnt know that art could do this.
I was just so rocked by that album, and still am.
I had a very similar experience with that album at that age.
It blew my mind.Where were you?
Whats the most recent thing that has done that for you?Ooh, thats a cool question.
Okay, let me simmer in alienation.
Am I allowed to open my Spotify?
I take this question very seriously.
I would love that.
[She disappears for a minute.]Okay.
Astral projection?Yes.
It gives me that same kind of hyper modern, lonely, astral-projected feeling.
This artist Malibu, her work does that as well, but all in very different ways.
But I think there is a question of responsibilities too, once people do go all the way in.
What is your relationship with them?
What do you owe them?
What do they owe you?
I find it very easy to ignore that.
Im not describing in very narrative musical theater terms the actual events of my personal life.
Im not an open book, and I never really have been.
Theyre not meeting me in the reality space.
So theres no leverage in the reality space either.
And maybe that just comes with getting older and feeling less defensive and less scared of people.
The older I get, the more I see it all as one playground.
I want to talk a little bit about your made-up words.
Wikipediated, mythocological, hopedrunk.
Do these come fully formed to you?
So its sometimes just economic to do it.
So I had to add.
This environment is so Martian.
I dont even feel like its the sun.
I feel like the atmosphere isnt even there.
I always start with just a scratch non-lyrical vocal.
Not much to respond to, just turning up without any charms.
The lyrics are fun pictures, but they really actually were very personal, all of them.
You just finished your tour, right?
Are you home for a while?
Are you working on new stuff?Yeah.
Ive taken a couple weeks just to rest.
Just getting ready to plunge myself into the next album.
But it feels like a massive luxury just to be able to take a beat before getting into writing.
I had to write a lot ofDesirewhile I was on the road touringPang.
So it feels like a luxury to just be able to stop and think.
And Ive been doing a lot of writing, which is interesting.
So musics going to take precedence over anything else being booked in.
So yeah, itll be finished when its finished, which is, again, a massive luxury.
