Charlotte Cornfield’s Hurts Like Hell (Merge) sprouted in the wake of the sort of life event that reframes one’s sense of time and self. The Toronto singer/songwriter’s sixth album hinges around the before-and-after events surrounding the birth of her daughter in 2023. If her earlier work often focused its gaze inward, Hurts Like Hell finds Cornfield loosening that self-absorbed grip, embracing characters and situations that may have been out of her comfort zone in the past. Tracked live with a full band by producer Philip Weinrobe (Adrianne Lenker) at his Brooklyn-based Sugar Mountain studio, the album hums with a country-tinged warmth and immediacy that feels at once communal and intimate.
When MAGNET’s Hobart Rowland caught up with Cornfield, she was still coming to terms with the realization that uncertainty and tenderness can coexist without a neat resolution.
Hurts Like Hell is your first album since the birth of her daughter. How did that monumental life event change you as a songwriter?
It freed me up in a lot of ways. There’s a huge vulnerability to being a parent, and you need to let go of a lot. I feel more uninhibited, less attached to form and structure, and more interested in storytelling. There’s an immediacy to the songs that I think came out of that. They took me on their own journeys. Songwriting has become a more playful process for me.
This LP has been described as your most collaborative to date. Would you give us a rundown of the recording process and a few of your personal highlights from the experience?
In the past, I’ve written in a very solitary way. But during the writing process for Hurts Like Hell, I was sending voice memos and ideas to Phil Weinrobe, and he was giving me feedback about what was landing with him and why. I found that incredibly helpful, and it helped shape the direction of this collection of songs. It was Phil’s idea to put a band in the room and let it all happen live. We asked our dream slate of New York musicians, and everyone said yes. El Kempner from Palehound played guitar and sang, Bridget Kearney from Lake Street Dive played bass and some piano and sang, Adam Brisbin played guitar and steel, and Sean Mullins played drums. We spent six days tracking, with everything happening spontaneously. We also brought in Nuria Graham and Daniel Pencer to play on a couple of tunes on piano and saxophone, respectively. We had a blast. The whole thing was fun, alive and emotional in all the best ways.
I have great memories of recording all the songs, but “Long Game” stands out as a special one. It took us a while to land on the arrangement—but when we did, it was very cool to see it come together. Then we had some guest singers after the fact: Feist, Buck Meek, Christian Lee Hutson and Maia Friedman. I’m such a huge fan of all of them, and it was so special to have their voices on the record.
How did your affiliation with the legendary Merge label come about?
It was via a few different channels. I’d been on their radar previously, and this record landed in their hands. They’re truly a dream label for me—one of the greatest catalogs of any label of all time. They’ve been incredible to work with.
Give us the juicy details about the memorable video for the title track. What was it like “starring” in that?
Acting is hard. Keeping a straight face while James Urbaniak was being hilarious was very challenging. I flew to Los Angeles for a tight 48 hours, and it was so cool to be part of. I’m so grateful to my friend Scott Jacobson, who wrote and directed the video—and to Rob Hatch-Miller and Puloma Basu, who produced it. Also a shoutout to Libby Buchanan, who choreographed the dance. The crew in L.A. were all such pros and denizens of the comedy world. It was really an honor to drop into that for a second.
How are you juggling your role as a new parent as you tour and promote the new album?
It’s an ongoing process. My daughter is three now, and she really understands what I do for a living—and that sometimes I need to go and perform. She loves coming along when it works and helping with setup and teardown. For me, including her in the process as much as I can is the big thing. It makes me feel like it’s a family business. I’m also so well supported at home by my partner and our families, so we’re really set up to make this work.