2008 arguably marked a massive paradigm shift. How did that affect the album?
At the end of doing a lot of other projects, we [entered] the Obama era, so a lot of political stuff [on Homeland] I started to take out. I thought I’d switch over to the more poetical part of the record. It’s a hybrid. [But] all of the work I have done has been a hybrid. It’s not really live or studio because what I do is drag studio equipment onstage so it’s already kind of weird in the beginning.

What was the first song written?
Something called “Bad Guys”, which is on the cutting-room floor, about the torture revelations. That really shook me. It really did. I don’t think of myself as someone who depends on the United States for my identity, but I kind of do. [laughs] That rocked me. That was a shock…. I just got an amazing book, Capitalist Realism [by Mark Fisher]. The thesis of the book is that it’s easier for people to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism. There’s something really eerie about that. In a way, at this point in American history there is no alternative. That’s it. If I started writing this record now, it would be even darker than the one I was writing in the Bush era. I just look at the pelicans straggling out of the Gulf, and it’s not even considered a disaster. [sarcastically] Well, it’s a bit of a problem we have to resolve. Probably have it done by August or September even. [raises her voice] What are you talking about? Are you insane?