[Transcript edited for clarity]

Absent Sounds: Right now we're sitting here at The Dickens in Calgary. I'm talking to Salami Rose Joe Louis, aka Lindsay Olsen. How are you today?

Lindsay: I'm very well. How are you doing?

Absent Sounds: I'm doing pretty good — and especially glad to talk to you today, because your last record, Lorings, was a beautiful piece of work. It felt like a bit of a diversion from your other stuff, and there's so much I'd love to pick your brain on.

Lindsay: Aw.

Absent Sounds: The first thing I want to start with is a thread I keep noticing in your work generally — your music will start off in one place, and by the end of the track it feels like we're in a completely new field or setting. You almost don't notice when the shift happens. How do you know where you want to take a track? Are you following a thread, or is it planned out already?

Lindsay: It's so different every single time. Sometimes I'll try to come up with a story beforehand, and sometimes I'll just make the music first. It's pretty chaotic.

Absent Sounds: The chaos falls into place really well — you're very good at managing it. Is chaos something that excites you most about music?

Lindsay: That's a really good question. I think, yes — I love happy accidents. I love tinkering around until something unexpected happens. I rely a lot on accidents, chaos, unexpected coincidences.

Absent Sounds: I love that in contrast to Lorings being more stripped back — "undercooked" was the word you used. What does it feel like when you're undercooking something? Are we the steak in the pan — what are we feeling?

Lindsay: It's funny, because right now I'm working on a record where I'm overcooking everything — making the songs, then re-recording and re-imagining them twenty different times. But with this record I told myself, "let me not overthink it, let it be almost journal-entry style" — this represents the emotional state of a couple years. It was a period of a lot of change, moving cities, touring constantly, so the little moments were like capturing pockets of calm between the chaos.

Absent Sounds: Moving is such an interesting thing to me — I hate it, but it forces you to lose the desire to bring things with you. People say, "I don't collect vinyl anymore because I move too much." That's a cool connection to the record. I also want to pick up on something — that period of the past few years sounds like it was one of the hardest. Track one, Inside, is where a lot of what you're working through starts. What does it feel like to work through something within that track, and within your music generally?

Lindsay: That one was really tricky — I was in a tough place, feeling trapped by a lot of external forces. Music is so beautiful, and I love making it when I'm happy, but when there's a lot going on and you're really low, music can be a refuge to say things you wouldn't be able to say in your normal life. That one came as a really real form of self-therapy. I'm so grateful to have that, because it's helpful to have a creative outlet when you're going through it — but sometimes it feels a little weird to share it and be like, "hey, I was going through it."

Absent Sounds: I know that feeling. My sister and I have recently been trying to write auto-fiction, and it's hard — I wrote something two years ago and I don't want to touch it again. If I kept going, I'd want to fine-tune it forever, but there's a lot of me that doesn't want to revisit it.

Lindsay: No, I feel that. It's really hard to revisit old feelings, because sometimes you feel sad for your old self — you've changed so much. I relate to that a lot. I think that's part of why, when I play live, I love to reimagine the songs — it feels too weird to actually play them within the emotion that's still there.

Absent Sounds: That's such a cool picture — reimagining the songs while playing them live. That brings me to the track that feels most direct to that idea, Wet Log. The idea of it being a journal feels so open. Tell me a little about Wet Log.

Lindsay: [laughs] You picked the two most "therapy song" tracks on the album. That one — it was late at night, I'd had a couple drinks, my partner was on tour, so I was at the house alone. I put a lot of pressure on myself to make music all the time, and it can feel overwhelming and isolating if you're not making a lot of good stuff. I'm trying to be more social now — "no more hermiting" is my motto. But that night I was just reevaluating my whole life and feeling down bad.

Absent Sounds: Down bad but fierce warm — that's the best way to describe it.

Lindsay: There's humor in there too, because sometimes I catch myself and think, "man, my life — I'm so blessed in so many ways," so when I'm feeling really down bad I try to ask myself, "is it really so bad?"

Absent Sounds: I know that feeling too — sometimes I think, five years ago I wouldn't have even imagined this problem existing, so I guess I can be grateful.

Lindsay: Totally, totally.

Absent Sounds: Let's use that as a transition — from staying home to going outside — with the track Motorways, featuring Flanafi. Tell me about that track first.

Lindsay: That's a really cool one, because it was the first thing we ever made together. My cousins were playing a show, and he was on the bill too, in Philly — we made some music a couple days later, and that song came out of it. It felt pretty cosmic. That's been a really strong, special connection in my life, musically.

Absent Sounds: How do you know when a track wants somebody else on it — Flanafi, or Titus, for example?

Lindsay: With Flanafi, he's probably been my main collaborator — we just make a lot of stuff together. With other people, usually what happens is I'll send a track to someone and they'll send something back. That's actually what happened with Drips and Drabs, with Luke on it — I sent him Arm Fell Asleep and asked him to play on it, then took his drums and flipped them. I love flipping drums. He's actually playing tonight, and we're going to play Arm Fell Asleep live for the first time — I can't wait.

Absent Sounds: Let's talk about Arm Fell Asleep, then. When I was listening, it struck me that it almost doesn't have to be about an arm — it could be about so many other things. Where are you coming at it from?

Lindsay: That one — sorry, I feel like I'm talking about Flanafi so much — but when we first met, we were also starting to date, and we sent each other track titles to write songs to. He sent me a bunch, I sent him a bunch, and that was one of the titles he sent me. I built a whole story out of it.

Absent Sounds: That's funny. Do you find it easier to build off someone else's prompt? Your creative process seems to really love storytelling and world-building, which is interesting compared to this record, which isn't as conceptual as your previous ones. You'd think the conceptual side would be harder — but is it actually easier to follow a big story or arc?

Lindsay: Maybe — if there's a story, I feel like it's a little easier to make the music cohesive. There are so many different styles I like to make music in, so it's hard to focus on just one thing. Right now I'm like, "I want to make an ambient album, I want to make a rock album" — there are so many different versions of myself. A storyline kind of helps keep it all on one path.

Absent Sounds: I get that. One thing that always comforts me is hearing musicians who aren't afraid to shift like that. Another track that touches on something similar is Hobbies — you feel like such a varied person, and I think you paint now too. Do you feel pressure to make your hobbies "work," or to monetize them?

Lindsay: That's a good question. With painting, I've just been bringing pieces to shows — it's fun to share them. But I think there's a real danger in monetizing things, because once something becomes a source of income it can taint the purity of the experience. It's a slippery slope. So I try to sell my paintings for very cheap, just to keep it feeling like a cute little thing I made.

Absent Sounds: Let's go to This Must Be Hard For You — the title felt so ironic to me, like a crazy thing to say to anybody. Where's that one coming from?

Lindsay: Honestly, I was really upset when I made that. I was going through a tough time, on tour by myself in another country for a while — a pretty tough passage. I was looking for support from various people and kept hearing, "oh, that must be so hard" — like, okay, but can you actually help me? It became kind of my rage song, which somehow always turns into a cute little jam.

Absent Sounds: The words alone convey it. That reminds me — there are certain phrases I never want to hear as comfort. "This must be hard for you" is one. For me it's when people say, "but at least..." — I don't want to hear the "at least."

Lindsay: For sure. That's so real.

Absent Sounds: Next is Sauna Sized Pill — all your titles are a little eclectic. What's the smallest detail on this track, or the album as a whole, that you're disproportionately proud of?

Lindsay: [laughs] Honestly, my brain's a bit blank right now — we just rehearsed and I haven't eaten yet, so I can't quite remember what that song sounds like. Sorry!

Absent Sounds: That's okay — what about tonight's set? What are you most looking forward to playing?

Lindsay: We haven't played Arm Fell Asleep live before — we did it once at rehearsal a while back and never again, so I'm excited for that. We're also playing with a new guitar player tonight, Tim Watson, since Flynn Duffy is on tour. It's our first time playing together, and he's injecting all these new ideas into songs we've played the same way for a long time — it's going to feel really different, which is exciting in a live setting.

Absent Sounds: That is exciting — I imagine even if you're not tired of your songs, playing the same ones over and over can wear on you.

Lindsay: Dude, I'm so sick of myself, honestly — I always have to play things differently.

Absent Sounds: The track that lives in my head constantly is Drips and Drags.

Lindsay: Oh, that was a really fun one to collab on with those three.

Absent Sounds: Let's do Upstairs — it feels very sparse. What's "upstairs" — what's hiding up there?

Lindsay: Honestly, that's just a straight-up love song — falling in love with someone, wanting to spend time with them and sing songs together. As cheesy as it gets.

Absent Sounds: You pulled it back on that track though — it doesn't feel untamed, more like it wasn't overcomplicated.

Lindsay: Thank you — we're actually playing that one tonight.

Absent Sounds: I'll bring it down to track 15, A Pool to Cry In — another wonderfully offbeat title. What's that one doing for you?

Lindsay: That one came from a tough time too — before Flanafi and I were dating, but we were both going through something and had just formed a beautiful friendship. It was a complete improv — one take, no preconceived notions of anything. It captures the raw essence of just being in whatever headspace you're in. It's kind of crazy that it just happened on the cuff.

Absent Sounds: Do you feel like a song is less valid if it isn't wrought over a long time — if you're not fighting with it?

Lindsay: Normally I try to record things and take my time. But this one — it's the only track on the album like that, and there's something special about it. We were both like, "I can't believe that just happened." It's rare for a whole song in that form to be improvised — and some elements literally couldn't be redone, because the vocals and keys were going through the same channel. It just had to be what it was. It fits the spirit of the record, which is really intimate and low-key. The next record I'm trying to go the opposite direction on.

Absent Sounds: It's shifting — I can't wait for that. One more track I want to make sure we cover — Crow Friendship. It starts in one atmospheric, ambient space and then jumps somewhere else entirely. Where does this one come from?

Lindsay: That was another one of the track titles I got from someone. It was fun to build a story from it. I borrowed a friend's microtonal Casio keyboard — I forget which country it was from — and that's how the drone started. The other part is inspired by Sakamoto, more playful, better spirits.

Absent Sounds: Are you friends with crows?

Lindsay: I try to be friends with animals as much as I can — but our bass player, Tone, is really good friends with birds. He's like an animal charmer.

Absent Sounds: Birds scare me a little, honestly — I'm always tiptoeing around them, waiting for them to do something.

Lindsay: No, for sure — birds can be scary. But we've all seen birds.

Absent Sounds: Is there another track you want to make sure we hit before we wrap up?

Lindsay: You've covered so many great ones already.

Absent Sounds: They're all worth talking about — we're going to play every track on the show tonight. Anything else you want to point out about the record that we didn't touch on?

Lindsay: No — it's just really sweet that you listened this closely and asked such thoughtful questions. Thank you.

Absent Sounds: It's a great record, I'm very glad you put it out. One last question — since you're working on a new record now, do you feel like a part of you was changed by taking this different approach, and is that influencing how the new one is coming out?

Lindsay: That's a good question. I do think that because I went so far in that direction with Lorings, now I'm curious what happens if I try to make something as hi-fi and well-produced as possible, and really take my time redoing it. I actually already have an album done in that stripped-back style, but I'm taking it into the studio to redo everything. I feel a little sick of myself and my sound, honestly, and I want to try something different — I think it's always good to try new things.

Absent Sounds: That's reassuring, honestly — it feels like your sound is always shifting into something new, even though it always still sounds like you. There's so much variety to pull from.

Lindsay: Thank you — that's so nice of you to say.