The change gave her space to write lyrics that felt truer than ever. “I usually try to say something more profound than just my immediate feelings, some connection to my internal world, or a theme that connects what I’m feeling to a broader social or cultural experience,” Mason says. But this time, that impulse gave way. She was sick for most of the album’s recording, both physically and mentally worn down, and the overwhelm became the only thing she could write about. “There’s no metaphor or literary device to shroud my exact experience,” she says. “It ended up being a very honest song.” 

For Mason, the process of songwriting is constantly evolving in this way: the spontaneity of artistry, the gravitational pull of a new idea that suddenly eclipses the one you’ve been chasing. It’s a constant experiment, but this one, she says, felt especially right. “I always get this idea in my head of, this is how I want the album to come out, and never once has it actually translated that way. There was something kind of relieving about the hard part being done first,” she says. “Coming up with instrumental parts is not my forte. Writing is definitely my more natural skill, so shout out to Ben and Evan for picking up my slack.”

With the help of Wulkan and Dangerfield, the pivot changed not just the record’s sound, but her process for making it. Still, “Doing Damage” wasn’t the hardest song on the album to write. That distinction, she says, belongs to “The Fear”. “I didn't wanna record it, really. It’s a really personal topic, and it felt a little obvious. If the person it’s about heard it, they’d immediately know, and that was really intimidating,” Mason says. But Dangerfield championed the song, and Mason struck a deal: he could do whatever he wanted with it. “If it turns out cool and it makes sense on the record, we’ll go for it,” she remembers thinking. The song became, in her words, entirely his baby, and she thought it was too pretty to let die. 

Releasing the song might have given Mason pause, justifiably, but she says it was cathartic to see something painful transform. Honestly, she says it’s rarely ever the innate vulnerability of the songs she writes that scare her anyway; it’s the act of being on a stage itself. “The contents of the song don’t really have much bearing on my mental state when I’m performing, but I’ve had bouts of social anxiety on and off throughout my life,” she says. “I get onstage after saying hi to a million people and meeting the other bands, and I feel like a fish out of water. It’s still ultimately very fun to perform, and something I’m grateful to get to do, but being in an environment with a lot of people and a lot of social expectations is a lot of pressure.”