Twin Shadow

I have to come clean: Cadet uses the same lyrics and many of the same vocal takes from Georgie—but the music has been completely rebuilt from scratch. The spark for this record came from wanting some distance from myself as the artist and as producer. I’ve been producing a lot of other folks records recently and I wanted to see what would happen if I treated my own songs the way I’d treat another artist’s: That space made the process fun. I wasn’t trying to make a remix record—far from it. “Remix” is a word I’ve been trying to move past. I wanted To take the mood of Georgie and turn it toward something more energetic, more carefree, more alive. I worked on Cadet nonstop for a couple months as soon as Georgie was released. I brought in people close to me—Blackpaw, Nest Acoustics, my longtime friend Ray Brady, and Little Coyote, who literally walked down the street one day and ended up singing on a track. It felt communal, immediate, and rooted in the excitement of reshaping something I thought I already knew. Cadet isn’t Georgie reimagined so much as it’s a modification—me treating my former self as a collaborator, and my present self as a kind of guide, architect, builder, or wrecking ball. The result, I hope, is a record that makes a case for ownership as a creative tool, not just a business term. — Twin Shadow