To mark the occasion, we connected the two artists in the most casual, contemporary way possible: over text. What unfolded was a leisurely, layered conversation between friends and fellow travelers—touching on analog recording, the mysteries of artistic timing, the history of Etobicoke, and how sometimes the best thing you can do for your work is to get out of its way.

Meg Remy: Good morning, Amy. This is Meg. I realized I could text you from my computer! Thought I’d start a thread for us. I am currently in Nashville in a Dolly Parton-themed Airbnb, no joke hahaha. I listened to your album yesterday at the airport. I was very moved by how textural the sound is, including your voice. And I have questions for you around that… but first I wanted to ask you about the Etobicoke School of the Arts. I live in Etobicoke, not far from that school. I am curious if you grew up around there. Either way, can you tell me about your memories of that area? What was Bloor and Royal York like back then? Any spots you used to hit up after school? I want the Etobicoke scoop! (Just gonna leave that there and there is no rush to respond. Perhaps we can just go back and forth at our leisure over the next few mornings and see what happens? Ha!)

Amy Millan: This is great! Yes, leisure is how I shall proceed (a sick kid at home, boo). Are you in Nashville to play? Write? Nashville always breaks my heart. The boulevard of broken dreams is more prevalent to me in Nashville than Hollywood. That strip where every bar has a star sans there’s two people drinking and one playing slots. I lived in Cabbagetown and trekked the 13/14 stops out to Etobicoke. I had gone to Jarvis Collegiate and was miserable, so my mom got me a late audition to the school for my grade 11 year. Emily Haines (Metric) happened to start at the school the same day and we met lost in the halls looking for music class. I kind of consider that the first day of the beginning of my life. 

MR: Wow. I can’t imagine that much travel every day as a teen. Would you listen to music on the subway?

AM: Weirdly Emily lived one stop away at Sherbrooke St., so we would take the subway together back and forth from school everyday and, as teenage girls, always had a lot to talk about. We could also just spend HOURS on the phone (we called it hot ear). My daughter is 14 and the tradition continues. But now with FT, ha. I have been in a whirlwind of family affairs but today carved out some time for a walk so I can mentally disappear into your new album. Curious: Where did you make the album? 

MR: Hot Ear! Ha! Yes, I know the hot ear well. I have strong memories of my mom coming into my room in the morning, pulling my covers back, annoyed, trying to find the cordless phone that I had fallen asleep with that was now out of batteries ha! I made the album in Nashville which is why I am back down here now. We will play the album in full on Wednesday and film it. I think it’s a good walking album so it should be a nice companion for you today. 

AM: Making a record in Nashville sounds so dreamy! Just an epicentre of such legendary music.

MR: It all kind of came together like a dream. Very little pushing, it just unveiled itself and continues to… I had a festival to play in Arkansas last April and I couldn’t afford to get my Canadian-based backing band down for it. So, I looked at a map, saw Nashville, and remembered I knew a killer guitarist from there. I reached out to him and asked him to put a band together to play the festival. He said yes. I flew in the day before the festival, we rehearsed, the band was hot and had everything ready to go. I felt very cared for. Then sitting at the hotel bar the night after playing the festival, I admitted I had never made an album to tape. They emphatically encouraged me to. And so then and there we decided to make an album together. Then suddenly it was August and we were recording! It all happened very fast. 

AM: I LOVE THIS. The alchemy of the muses at work and how they want us to manoeuvre. I have a similar kind of magic intervention. I wanted to take a break from Stars, so we agreed to take a year off. Our last show on the books was Dream Serenade and that same night I met Jay McCarrol and the next day I asked him to write a record with me.

MR: Yes. This is how it works. Or how it can work if we sit back and let things reveal themselves/follow our intuition.

AM: Yes, I definitely felt when I loosened my grip on what I thought needed to happen it all of a sudden made room for what could happen.

MR: I love how “taking time off” is like some sort of signal to the muses…they hear that and storm in, “Oh yeah, you wanna take time off now? You sure?” 

AM: Ha! I more meant a break from the cult-like mentality of 25 years of relentless (fun amazing privileged wild) work with this same (best friends family brothers) group of people. Change is scary. The muses really took care of me by bringing this new collaboration which I never would have anticipated at this stage of life. How did it feel recording to tape? I’m so excited I know this before listening. My first album is on tape and I loved it. Different pressure and more zeroed in focus on what to track as it can’t be endless like digital. Such delicious warmth in tape. 

MR: Ah I see, that kind of break…wow. To have a new, excited collaboration start after a change like that must have felt like a nod of encouragement though. Like you had made the right choice for yourself and your flow. Recording to tape was a revelation. I don’t know if I can ever go back to staring at a DAW ha! 

AM: That rewind sound?! Heaven!!!

MR: I loved the laser beam focus it encouraged in all parties involved. No one wanted to waste tape or waste time. We were all on our toes but also so rooted. Embodied. I was really nervous going into it but it ended up being painless! Kind of like my C-section hahaha. It was wonderful to just do two takes of a song and then choose between the two. And then move on. Not endless digital comping and fussing and layering. And the sound of it all…Yeah, there are tape emulators and all that good, accessible digital trickery now but you can’t emulate the material conditions of the tape and the musicians actually hitting said tape in real time. And now I feel like I have a new understanding of all the albums from the past that I worship…

AM: “Not endless digital comping and fussing and layering.” This is the beautiful focus freedom in tape for sure. 

MR: Focus freedom! Love that phrase. I really do think limitations are freedom.

AM: Drowning in choice can be such a creative killer.

MR: It’s like going into a grocery store without a list… Gotta have that list or else you are gonna come out with a bunch of whack ass shit you don’t actually need. 

AM: And hungry.

MR: Exactly. 

~~~

MR: Morning! Picking this back up…can you tell me about the stunning artwork for your album and how that came about? What body of water are you in? (Again, no rush to respond, just leaving this here for ya…)

AM: Good morning! Sorry, still a little sick kid at home, so navigating all the things. Also loving your album Meg! It’s so timeless and lush and original. “Dear Patti” – this SONG! I’m guessing Patti Smith??? “There were only two women on the stage that day.” So much relating to this song. Chasing children around backstages. Resonating so much for me. Just beautiful. And the tape sound! I feel like tape just LOVES drums in particular. Such a home there. It sounds incredible. Congratulations. The artwork was conceived by my friend Rachelle Dupere and her creative partner Evan Kaminsky. 

The photo was shot by Tess Roby. All these continued alignments. I loved The Weather Station’s photos and went on a dive and found Tess who happens to live in Montreal. I was so excited she lived in my town and we had a magical day of photos. The lake I am in is a part of the incredible land where the record was recorded in Lost River. I went swimming in the lake every morning before going into the studio. There is a dahlia placed there in honour of a person we lost in our community. Is the cover of SCRATCH IT what I see with the link? Is it a treated photo or painting? I can’t quite tell… Delicious, most clean crystal lake. Swimming before recording – what a gift – it is the greatest way to greet the day. I’m water-obsessed. Many bodies of water in lyrics.