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Lorely Rodriguez, the artist known as Empress Of, recorded her new album, Us, all over Southern California. Topanga Canyon. Ojai.

It was the first time she tried to record music this way-sequestered, for a month at a time, in between touring and performing, alone but for the company of a cricket. She would later invite collaborators-Dev Hynes (aka Blood Orange), LA production duo Sam Griesemer and Jerome Potter of DJDS, Spanish electronic producer Pional-but the resulting project remains a showcase of Rodriguez' skill both as a lyricist and a producer, though she is wont to admit it.

The artist is modest about her skills as a instrumentalist ("Lorely plays every instrument half-assed," she says, "Put that in the bio.") and coy about her process as a writer ("I don't write out chords for my songs. Everything is intuitive in production. I don't have one piece of sheet music for my songs.")