One night in suburban Detroit, a twelve-year-old Rosie Thomas lay sleepless in her bed, obsessively dwelling on what she perceived to be her lack of life purpose. Then, well after 2 AM, it suddenly hit her. She sprung up and raced down the hall. “Daddy, Daddy, I know what my mission in life is,” Rosie exclaimed, poking her father. “I just want to entertain people.”

Fast forward one decade later, recently transplanted to Seattle and frustrated with her decision to attend theater school, Rosie sat one night voicing her disappointment to new friend, singer-songwriter Damien Jurado, when he promptly turned to her and said, So, Rosie came to the city, trading the stiff route of producer-led studio recording from her previous album for the modest confines of a Brooklyn apartment with Sufjan and another songwriter friend, Denison Witmer. They set no deadlines or official recording schedule. The group of friends simply set up one or two microphones in a bedroom, living room, or kitchen and captured the songs as they happened.

“Whether you are a musician, painter, or whatever, there is a passion that sometimes gets lost because all of the sudden you have to clock-in or have deadlines. I sort of wanted to get back to that time when I played music for nothing,” Rosie says.