The New Folk Implosion

Lou Barlow, singer/guitarist/songwriter of the group, described how the album came about during a 2010 interview with Crawdaddy!:

I had a record deal with Interscope Records. John [Davis] and I signed to Interscope Records, which was really big. We were gonna be this boutique act on Interscope Records – us and Ron Sexsmith and all the rest would be alongside Limp Bizkit and all that. We were gonna be part of this great weird label and they were gonna really, you know. But when we signed to them, simultaneously every other label collapsed, so Interscope actually sucked up half the industry.

So it was a tumultuous time, and John quit the day [One Part Lullaby] was released. I went out and toured, playing the songs myself with a four-track. It was like, “I’m just gonna do it,” you know? Because I thought the record would be big, because it was really beautiful. I liked the songs and I was really proud of it. So I kinda set out, and I had a two record deal with Interscope, so of course I had to try to make another one, and I had to use the name.

Interscope dropped me halfway through that, and then I just kept the name because the next person that would give me $20,000 to do a record wanted to keep the name “Folk Implosion.” That was totally it. And I had a manager at the time who was sort of pushing me. So that record came out as The New Folk Implosion, which I thought was – I was really into that record. But then of course the label hated it and my manager quit, and it all just kinda came to an end. It all just sort of petered out. That was the New Folk Implosion in a nutshell, I guess.

But to me, it was just a really textured record. Most of my records I don’t think of as textured, other than the four-track stuff that I really worked on and crafted, and a few early Bakesale and Harmacy and even One Part Lullaby by the Folk Implosion, I thought there was a sort of flatness to. That’s what I wanted to get away from. I wanted to make a record that had what I felt – ups and downs and almost a sensual sound to it. And that was my goal. I worked pretty long on that record, and worked really closely with Imaad Wasif and Russell Pollard. And when I was finally done, it sounded really dark. It was just something about that period in time for me. It was just getting me beyond a really negative period.