Dominic John Davis:

We recorded the album during breaks from touring in 2012. There were many songs that Jack came to the studio with that had already been written start to finish, while others began as experiments or ideas. He works very fast and sometimes likes to get an idea or sketch on tape and see what we can make of it. This song started as more of an experiment.

Jack worked with both of his backing bands, The Buzzards and The peacocks on these sessions and we recorded a lot of music. I would guess there’s another 12 tracks that we had been working on that didn’t make the album. The song “Lazaretto” was interesting because initially there were no lyrics. The riff came together and Jack wrote a few of the chord changes along with the breakdown and tempo shifts. We ran through it just a few times and moved on to some other material very quickly. Months later I would listen back thinking he would make some tape edits and give the song more of a traditional structure, but Jack liked it as is. What you hear on the record is what we had put down originally. Start to Finish.

It was great seeing this record come together. Sometime in 2013 he called me into the studio to hear what he was working on. I had heard a lot of other tracks that we had recorded but had forgotten about “Lazaretto” because it was more of a sketch or a studio exercise. Hearing it with lyrics for the first time was a remarkable moment. I couldn’t believe what he had come up with. The song doesn’t have what you would call a traditional chorus or verse form, but it’s so powerful. Both musically and lyrically.

—via Songs for Whoever