writing third album Strange Mercy

Clark spent much of her time in Seattle writing her third album, Strange Mercy , in October 2010. In an interview with Julie Klausner for Spin magazine, she recalled: “[Death Cab for Cutie drummer] Jason McGerr had an office that was closing. He offered me the space for a month, for all of October. I was alone. I stayed at the Ace Hotel downtown, in one of the rooms with a shared bathroom. I would just get up in the morning and caffeinate, and run, and go to the studio for 12 hours, come back, eat dinner alone with a book, have a glass of wine, and go to bed. And do it all over again.” On January 12, 2011, Clark announced via Twitter that she was working on Strange Mercy , a follow-up to Actor . In early March 2011, producer John Congleton , who also worked with Clark on Actor , said that he and Clark were nearly a third of the way through recording it.