BILLY: It’s a great cover.

DAISY: It’s iconic.

KAREN: Recording was really starting to wind down. We were back in the studio putting finishing touches on stuff.

EDDIE: I think it was sometime after we finished the overdubs on “This Could Get Ugly” and I was at the studio listening to some of the tracks with everybody. Well, not Warren and Pete or Billy. They weren’t there. And then Teddy left at some point. And then Rod. And I think even Artie left. And then I was gonna call it a night so I went out to my car to go home and I realized I forgot my keys so I came back real quick. And I heard two people screwing! And I thought, Who the hell is getting off in the bathroom?

And then I heard Graham’s voice. And I saw, through the crack in the door, Karen’s hair. And I just ran right out of there. Got in my car. Drove home. But when I got home, I realized I was still smiling. I was happy for them. They made a lot of sense together. I thought, I bet they get married. And I never thought that about anybody.

WARREN: I think I finished my last tracks somewhere in December. I remember thinking I was ready for this album to be done so we could get back on the road. I wanted the crowds and cheering and the groupies and the drugs. Also, something they don’t tell you when you buy a houseboat…it’s very easy to get cabin fever. That’s really meant to be more of a weekend thing.

KAREN: As we all got done with our parts on the album, we started taking off. Taking a much-needed break. When Graham and I had laid down everything we were supposed to, we rented a place in Carmel for a few weeks. Just the two of us, a cabin, the beach, the trees. Well, and shrooms.

GRAHAM: I think Eddie and Pete went back to the East Coast for their mom’s birthday or something.

EDDIE: I needed to let loose. After our parents’ anniversary party, Pete and Jenny stayed with our parents and I spent about two weeks in New York.

DAISY: There wasn’t anything left for me to do. I’d recorded my vocals. The album cover was done. Our tour dates weren’t set yet. I said, “Screw it, I’m going to Phuket.” I needed a trip to clear my head.

BILLY: I took a little bit of time off but then I went back in the studio with Teddy and we went through that album second by second, track by track, and we remixed and remixed and remixed until it was perfect. Teddy, Artie, and I were in the control room for what felt like twenty hours a day for three weeks or something.

Occasionally, I’d get in there and rerecord some of the instruments when we felt like a riff wasn’t exactly right or we wanted to add tack piano or a Dobro or some brushes on the drums. Simple stuff.

ARTIE SNYDER: It was one album when everyone left and when everyone came back it was…it was a different album. It was much more nuanced, layered, innovative. Teddy and Billy went in and filled in all the air. They added cowbells and shakers and claves and scrapers. I think at one point, we even recorded the sound of Billy’s fist hitting the side of the arm of a chair because we liked the hollow sound it made.

Teddy and Billy had a real vision. They had a keen sense for how the songs needed to build and Teddy had a real focus on momentum.

You take a song like “Regret Me,” which, when they started with it, was just the one vocal and a pretty simple shuffle and Teddy pretty much forced Billy to get in there and do a whole second vocal layer. Billy didn’t want to at first, but by the end of it, he’d put a big stamp on that song. He rewrote and recorded the main riff, he and Teddy pulled Warren’s drums back until the prechorus. I mean, they made it a new song.

On “Aurora,” Billy slowed it down, thinned out Karen’s keys, and turned Graham way up. It became much cleaner.

Teddy and Billy—and it got to be me, too—we had a shorthand. We were having fun with it. I think that really shows. I think it shows on the final cut. The final mix of that album is dynamite material.

BILLY: When we had the songs how we wanted them, Teddy and I gave a lot of thought to the song order. People like it when you make them sad, I think. But people hate it when you leave them sad. Great albums have to be roller coasters that end on top. You gotta leave people with a little bit of hope. So we thought for a real long time about the track list. We had to get that just right. We ordered it, thematically and instrumentally.

You start big and bold, “Chasing the Night.”

Things start getting more intense with “This Could Get Ugly.”

Then “Impossible Woman” is wild and dark. It has a haunting quality to it.

“Turn It Off” takes off running. It’s an anthem.

“Please” is desperate, there’s urgency and begging.

You turn to side B.

“Young Stars” is tortured but up-tempo, it’s a little dangerous but you can dance to it.

And then you go right into “Regret Me,” which is hard and fast and raw.

And then come down off it with “Midnights,” which gets a little sweeter.

You lead into “A Hope Like You.” Slow, and tender and wistful and spartan.

And then, you know, the sun comes up at the end. You leave on the high note. You go out with a bang. “Aurora.” Sprawling and lush and percussive.

The whole album…it’s a great ride. Start to finish.

SIMONE: I was in Manhattan when I got a postcard from Daisy from Thailand.

DAISY: For the first few days I was in Thailand, I just wanted to decompress. I had this idea that I would go somewhere alone and maybe reflect on myself. Obviously, that didn’t happen. Two days in, I was going stir-crazy. I was almost about to book myself a flight home, five days early.

SIMONE: The postcard she sent just said, “Come to Phuket. Bring coke and lipstick.”

DAISY: But then I met Nicky.

I was laying outside at the pool, looking out over the water. High off my ass. And this incredibly handsome, tall, elegant-looking man came out and he was smoking a cigarette and I said, “Can you put that out please?” Because I hated smelling smoke unless I was smoking.

He said, “You think just because you’re gorgeous you get what you want?” And he had this fabulous Italian accent.

I said, “Yes.”

And he said, “Okay, then. You are right.” And he put out the cigarette. He said, “I’m Niccolo Argento.” And I thought that was such a great name. I kept saying it over and over. Niccolo Argento. Niccolo Argento. He bought me a drink. And then I bought him one. And then we did a line or two off the side of the pool, as you do, and then I realized he had no idea who I was. Which was sort of a novelty, at that point. Because most people at least knew “Honeycomb.” So I tell him about the band and he tells me about himself, that he travels from place to place, never staying anywhere for too long. He calls himself an “adventurer.” He says he’s in search of a “full life of experiences.” Then, it comes out that he’s a prince. He’s an Italian prince.

The next thing I know, it’s four in the morning and we’re in my hotel room, listening to records at full volume, and the hotel staff are telling us to keep it down and Niccolo has LSD and he’s telling me he loves me and I’m saying that I know it sounds crazy but I think I love him, too.

SIMONE: I wanted to see her and I had a few weeks off between gigs and I was a little worried about her, which at this point was just status quo. So I bought a plane ticket.

DAISY: Over the next few days, I told Nicky everything. I bared my soul to him. He loved the music I loved. And the art I loved. And the pills I loved. He made me feel like he was the only one that could ever understand me. I told him how lonely I was and how hard it had been to work on that album. And how I felt about Billy. I didn’t hide anything from him. I opened up and just let it pour out. And he listened to it all.

At one point, I said, “You must think I’m crazy.”

And he said, “My Daisy, everything about you makes perfect sense to me.”

It seemed like there wasn’t anything about me, any truth that I could tell him, that he wouldn’t accept. Acceptance is a powerful drug. And I should know because I’ve done ’em all.

SIMONE: I flew into Thailand and I was exhausted and jet-lagged and I got on a rickety bus to get to the hotel. I checked in. I asked the concierge what room Lola La Cava was in and…she’d checked out. She was gone.

DAISY: Nicky and I were out at this disco in Patong. And he got this idea that we should pack up and go to Italy. He said, “I have to show you my country.” I must have called somebody and booked two tickets to Florence at some point because these tickets just showed up at the door one morning.

So Nicky and I flew to Italy. And I swear I was halfway there before I remembered Simone was on her way to meet me.

SIMONE: I tracked her down by pretending to be her while talking to her credit card company.

DAISY: Nicky and I were in the Boboli Gardens in Florence when he said, “Let’s get married.” So then we flew to Rome and got married by some family friend of his who was a priest. We said I was Catholic. I lied to a Catholic priest. But I was wearing this gorgeous ivory off-the-shoulder cotton lace dress with huge bell sleeves.

I regret that marriage, but I do not regret that dress.

SIMONE: I finally found Daisy in this grand, massive hotel room overlooking Vatican City in Rome. In Rome! I had to fly halfway around the world and back to find her. And when I did, she was completely bombed, naked except for a pair of underwear. And she had chopped her hair off into this shaggy bob.