Now Wood and her father, John Would, a sound engineer, were collaborating with Apple on building mixes from hundreds of homemade takes. (Apple also worked with Dave Way and, later in the process, Tchad Blake.) The earliest glimmers of “Fetch the Bolt Cutters” began in 2012, when Apple experimented with a concept album about her Venice Beach home, jokingly called “House Music.” She also considered basing an album on the Pando—a giant grove of aspens, in Utah, that is considered a single living being—creating songs that shared common roots. Today, Apple still bridles at old coverage of her. Yet she remains almost helplessly transparent about her struggles—she’s a blurter who knows that it’s a mistake to treat journalists as shrinks, but does so anyway. She’s conscious of the multiple ironies in her image. “Everyone has always worried that people are taking advantage of me,” she said. “Even the people who take advantage of me worry that people are taking advantage of me.” Fiona Apple performs at the Midland". The Kansas City Star. July 17, 2012 . Retrieved June 10, 2018. Zelda Hallman, Apple’s housemate, had been sitting with us, listening. She pointed out that self-help books like “ The Secret” had the same problem: they made your suffering all your fault.

Battan, Carrie (March 7, 2012). "Fiona Apple Reveals Album Title". Pitchfork. Archived from the original on July 15, 2012 . Retrieved March 7, 2012.

Pelly, Jenn (September 12, 2013). "Watch: Fiona Apple Covers "Pure Imagination" From Willy Wonka for Chipotle Ad on Factory Farming". Pitchfork . Retrieved April 19, 2020. Beviglia, Jim (June 13, 2012). "Fiona Apple: The Idler Wheel..." American Songwriter. Archived from the original on July 31, 2020 . Retrieved April 19, 2020. Her wit sharpens to undress those affectations. For Her is a whole play in under three minutes: a breathless close-harmony chorus line of women (Apple, infinitely layered) observing a film executive manipulating the world to his will, degrading starlets, getting “his girl” to clean up his mess and confident in getting away with his abuses. Apple leaves him nowhere to run. She uncouples from her harmonies, the golden layers of her own voice fading to a ghostly coo, and roars: “Good morning, good morning / You raped me in the same bed your daughter was born in,” lifting the melody from Singin’ in the Rain’s Good Morning. The musical classic promises a bright new day. So does Apple. Lorusso, Marissa (January 25, 2019). "King Princess And Fiona Apple Collaborate On New Version Of 'I Know' ". NPR . Retrieved April 19, 2020.

Galifianakis, Zach; Apple, Fiona (September 18, 2008). "Up In Them Guts". Stereogum.com . Retrieved June 8, 2011. The Idler Wheel..." Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on January 1, 2021 . Retrieved April 10, 2016. Murphy, Chris (April 1, 2020). "Fiona Apple and Her Dog Announce Fetch the Bolt Cutters Will Arrive This Month". Vulture. Archived from the original on April 17, 2020 . Retrieved April 17, 2020. Williams, Elliot C. (March 30, 2021). "Fiona Apple Ditched The Grammys To Shout Out This PG County Courtwatching Group. Its Membership Soared". DCist. Archived from the original on July 31, 2022 . Retrieved June 23, 2022. Cohen, Jonathan (April 19, 2006). "Fiona Taps Rice, Garza For Summer Trek". Billboard. Archived from the original on April 17, 2020.Skinner, Tom (June 17, 2020). "Fiona Apple and Blake Mills to appear on Bob Dylan's new album 'Rough and Rowdy Ways' ". NME . Retrieved November 22, 2020. McDougan, Farfel (September 20, 2012). "Fiona Apple Arrested". New York Music News. Archived from the original on September 23, 2012 . Retrieved March 26, 2020. Sheffield, Rob (November 25, 1999). "When the Pawn Hits the Conflicts He Thinks Like a King…". Rolling Stone . Retrieved April 19, 2020. During her hiatus, Apple contemplated retiring from her recording career. Apple sang with Johnny Cash on a cover of Simon & Garfunkel's " Bridge over Troubled Water" that ended up on his album American IV: The Man Comes Around and was nominated for a Grammy Award for " Best Country Collaboration with Vocals". She also collaborated with Cash on Cat Stevens's " Father and Son", which was included in his 2003 collection Unearthed.

There were more stops and starts. A three-week group visit to the Sonic Ranch recording studio, in rural Texas—where some band members got stoned in pecan fields, Mercy accidentally ate snake poison, and Apple watched the movie “ Whiplash” on mushrooms—was largely a wash, despite such cool experiments as recording inside an abandoned water tower. But Garza praised Apple as “someone who really trusts the unknown, trusting the river,” adding, “She’s the queen of it.” Album review: Fiona Apple, 'The Idler Wheel ...' ". Chicago Tribune. June 18, 2012 . Retrieved June 10, 2018. Curto, Justin (April 17, 2020). "Critics Agree: Fiona Apple's Fetch the Bolt Cutters Is an Instant Classic". Vulture . Retrieved May 2, 2020. Ehrlich, Dimitri (January 5, 1997). "A Message Far Less Pretty Than the Face". The New York Times . Retrieved April 19, 2020. a b c d e Nussbaum, Emily (March 16, 2020). "Fiona Apple's Art of Radical Sensitivity". The New Yorker. Archived from the original on March 16, 2020 . Retrieved March 16, 2020.Then, one day, Apple’s band came to her house to listen to the latest mixes. The next afternoon, her face was glowing again. She had wondered if the meeting would be awkward—if the band might disagree on what edits to make. Instead, she and Amy Aileen Wood kept glancing at each other, ecstatic, as they had all the same responses. At last, Apple could listen to the album on speakers. Maerz, Melissa (June 7, 2010). "Margaret Cho's Murder Ballad". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on April 17, 2020.

Strauss, Matthew (March 18, 2019). "Watch Fiona Apple Tease and Record New Music at Home Studio". Pitchfork. Archived from the original on April 17, 2020 . Retrieved April 19, 2020. She tried a method for treating P.T.S.D. called eye-movement desensitization and reprocessing therapy, and—around the time she poured her vodka down the drain, in 2018—an untested technique called “brain balancing.” Articles about neurological anomalies fascinated her. The first day we met, Apple spread printouts of brain scans on the floor of her studio, pointing to blue and pink shapes. She was seeking patterns, just as she often did on Tumblr, reposting images, doing rabbit-hole searches that she knew were a form of magical thinking. Matt Chamberlain Talk About Recording With Apple". Seattle Weekly. Archived from the original on December 13, 2013 . Retrieved September 17, 2008. When I returned to Venice Beach, in September, the mood was different. Anxiety suffused the house. In July, Apple had been worried about returning to public view, but she was also often playful and energized, tweaking mixes. Now the thought of what she’d recorded brought on paralyzing waves of dread.This world is bullshit. And you shouldn't model your life—wait a second—you shouldn't model your life about what you think that we think is cool and what we're wearing and what we're saying and everything. Go with yourself. [28] Ortega, Mark (February 3, 2018). "WATCH: Shirley Manson and Fiona Apple cover "You Don't Own Me" ". Pass The Aux. Archived from the original on January 1, 2021 . Retrieved February 4, 2018. Apple, Fiona (November 21, 2012). "She is my best friend". Letters of Note. Archived from the original on January 21, 2013 . Retrieved February 12, 2013. Bailey, Jason (December 28, 2017). " 'This World is Bullshit': On the 20th Anniversary of Fiona Apple's Memorable VMA Moment". Flavorwire. New York City: Flavorpill Media . Retrieved December 18, 2018. Hallman said that she hadn’t recognized Apple when they met. Initially, she’d mistaken the singer for someone younger, just another Venice Beach music hopeful in danger of being exploited: “I felt relieved when she said she had a boyfriend in the Hills, to take care of her.”