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Calling from a six-week writer\u2019s residency in the small mountain town of Banff in Alberta, Canada, Lindsay Kay is feeling a creative high these days – while also enjoying a much-needed recharge. \u201cThis place is really fantastic. They literally cook all your food for you. You\u2019re sort of living in a hotel, almost, so you don\u2019t have to make your bed, even,\u201d she says with a laugh. \u201cIt\u2019s so wildly privileged\u2026 but it\u2019s completely immersive. All you have to do is music. They fund you to come.\u201d<\/p>\n

Banff lies roughly 90 minutes away from Kay\u2019s hometown of Calgary, and so, it feels a bit like a homecoming. She previously attended this same residency four years ago as she prepared her debut album, 2018\u2019s For the Feminine, By the Feminine<\/a><\/em>, an especially moving and timely collection centered on womanhood and the meaning of femininity. Every collaborator on the album, from producers to studio musicians, was a woman.<\/p>\n

Now, she offers a glimpse into the great depths of her songcraft with her new EP, showcasing the same song in three different versions. \u201cFor D\u201d\/\u201cI Had This Friend\u201d is a study in songwriting, and each iteration is a puzzle piece to a much bigger story. \u201cI was actually, funnily enough, at another artist residency when I first wrote this. I was in this really small town called Noyers-sur-Serein in Burgundy, a couple hours south of Paris. It was very different than here. It\u2019s very small,\u201d she recalls. \u201cYou\u2019re sort of living in this tiny, medieval house. It was just me and one other woman in residence together – my dear friend [writer] Kelsey Donk. We were there for a couple of months working and writing. That was real seclusion.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI Had This Friend\u201d moves from the rough cut of the original 2016 iPhone demo to something more visceral and tangible in the second demo to a finished product that marries creamy studio work with a still jagged presentation. While the final version remains unmastered, it still allows the listener to feel an emotional richness that drips from Kay\u2019s voice and the steady heartbeat of guitar and piano.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe worried all of the time \/ He\u2019d never get any sleep \/ There was no time to be wasted \/ He had to earn his keep,\u201d she sings. Her words paint faint, foggy images of a person who quickly, sorrowfully faded from her life. \u201cIn life, some people are there for a long time, and some people are there for a short time. This person was in my life for a shorter amount of time,\u201d she offers with a palpable heaviness. \u201cWhen I wrote this song in France, we were still dear friends and speaking pretty regularly. He was present in my life, and I felt inspired to write a song about him.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI cared about him very much, but I worried about him for all the reasons that I list in the song. He overworked himself. He sets too high expectations for himself. I felt I wanted to put that into words. Coming back to this song later, things had changed slightly. I was figuring out how to deal with that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Listen to AudioFemme\u2019s exclusive stream of \u201cFor D\u201d \/ \u201cI Had a Friend\u201d and get even more insight into Kay\u2019s work below.<\/p>\n