The last time Tift Merritt found herself in the space between releases, a refuge was needed. The city of Paris became a place to be, a place to breathe. The result was 2008′s Another Country, although writing another release was hardly the goal. If anything, it was about finding some perspective amidst the machine to see if another release was even a possibility.

Now, Tift says such space isn’t nearly as essential. The songwriter’s learned a few lessons along the way — ones she’s afraid might sound hokey, but are instead substantive lessons essential for staying the course. See You On The Moon is the latest release and it’s a fine offering worthy of inclusion in a beautiful catalog. Working with producer Tucker Martine (The Decemberists), Tift’s latest features My Morning Jacket’s Jim James and another dusty dozen tracks to cling to, lined with the lessons she’s passing on.

SSv: There’s a lot in your own press about this being ‘a direct record’ and wanting the writing process to be ‘less labored.’ How much of that is a reaction to Another Country or your own recording history?

Tift Merritt: That’s such a good question, because I think sometimes you really do react from record to record. I think you react to what you experience or what you thought went right or wrong. I will say that making a really direct record just started from something really personal — which was when I sat down to write, I was at a place, and I am at that place, where I was just bored with any nonsense. I really wanted to be in the moment as much as possible and not doubt and not get hung up on doubt or waste time on angst. I didn’t want to waste time on anything that wasn’t essential.

I think it’s not so much a reaction to the record before or even my records. It was just where I was at the time. I just thought, ‘Well, I’m going to sit down and write this and not mess around with feelings that aren’t productive or stories that aren’t strong enough and I’m not going to make a big deal about that.’ I think once the songs were written when that was engrained in their process, the songs that came out were really direct and they were what I was hoping for. So the musical choice had to echo that.

SSv: Can you help me understand that a bit more? When you say ‘nonsense’ or the stories that weren’t strong…

Tift: In terms of the writing process, I would say the things that wouldn’t help, those were angst and fear and doubt and the places within myself that I am just bored and tired of. I realized that those things don’t do anything. They don’t help. From a writing point of view, it’s a bit more complicated, but I would say that I just wanted to not just write flowery stuff. I wanted to write things that carry weight and drew a punch and were mental and not dancing around the surface of things.

SSv: I’ve heard so many songwriters when they speak of their craft mention that they are often so surprised by the unexpected things left laying around. Or there are songs that emerge later that weren’t so grand when they first met the artist. So I’m wondering when you edit those things out in the beginning…

Tift: Well, I think it’s an editing out of silly judgment. This is back to writing process, but it’s just so easy to do the things that I don’t know that they’re any good to anybody. You do this early on, but when you say, ‘Oh, this is no good,’ that is really no good to anybody. There’s no reason to beat the process up. Some stuff will fall away and others won’t. But just be present in that moment and let the things come that need to come and you will figure it out. I feel like when I really dedicated myself to that, I was a little more open and some good things came without struggle. It was when I gave up that silly nonsense. [Laughs]

SSv: I want to jump back before Another Country. Everything I read about that time and album references your time spent in Paris and this need of yours to regroup. How true was that need? And did you find you needed another regrouping time after that album? Is that the way that you work?

Tift: Oh, yeah, that story was real. That story was not manufactured. [Laughs]

SSv: Sometimes you never know since press bios are usually exaggerated to some degree.

Tift: Yeah, I know, but that’s definitely real. [Laughs] I pretty much had my ass kicked by the road and by the music and just by life in general I think. I was really lucky that the city kind of took me in and took care of me and nursed me back. Or maybe it just righted me. When I came back from France, I had this record that I wrote accidentally and that I believed in. Sometimes it’s easier to believe in your work than it is yourself. But just having those songs in my pocket, I realized I had to take care of them. That really got me going again. That got me back on the road and in the studio.

I think I learned a lot. So I didn’t need to regroup quite so much after that record. I always write, especially in the beginning, in an isolated way. I go off by myself and get real quiet and still. I did do that. But I did it for about a month twice at different times. So I didn’t feel that I needed to majorly rework things. Hopefully I’ve learned a few things.

I think Another Country was this record with a very clear cut story to it to frame it. This record, the stories are in the music much more because it wasn’t the same situation.

SSv: You said that you learned a few things…

Tift: What did I learn? [Laughs]

SSv: Yes, the question kind of asks itself. [Laughs]

Tift: I learned some things that probably sound pretty hokey. But I think first and foremost, I was really questioning whether it was worth it to be touring in the music industry and whether I was any good and left to my own devices when no one was around. So I think it really affirmed that I’m a writer and that I’m gonna make things. I’m not going to take it back anymore. One of the ways that I put it was that I don’t know that we know very many things in this life. And I think what it taught me was that it’s okay. You know a couple of things and you hang on tight to those.

SSv: You know I’m gonna ask you about that.

Tift: Yeah, I know. [Laughs] I think it’s about savoring the every day and appreciating all things large and small. To live by yourself in a big city like Paris that’s so full of beauty was really an experience. I just don’t think we know very much. Truly, truly for sure. We just don’t know. But you have these strong feelings about a few certain things and you think, ‘No, I know that one.’ You have to hold onto those and not question them.

SSv: What were the things that you thought you knew when you were first starting?

Tift: Oh, it’s funny when I think about those things. On an essential level, I think I had a feeling that I wanted to be an artist and a writer and I wanted to make something, but I didn’t know what I was doing. I don’t know that I knew a whole lot more than that. I’m not sure that I thought that I knew a whole lot of things. [Laughs] I was determined. I was sure I could work really hard, but there wasn’t a lot that I thought that I knew. Luckily. [Laughs]

I would say the same thing now, but I’m pretty resigned to the fact that I don’t know a lot. [Laughs]

SSv: You mentioned that the last album was easier to frame. Does that make this one a slightly less personal effort?

Tift: No, if anything, it’s even more personal. You work as you go and hopefully you’re getting better and you’re taking the things you learned the last time and using them again. I think my work always gets more personal and it has more of myself in it every time. This is a record that’s not so clean cut, but it’s a record of endings and beginnings. I was getting married. My grandmother died. My husband’s grandmother died. It was a lot of endings and beginnings happening at the same time.

That sort of elemental kind of circle — this sounds hokey when you talk about it — but it’s what this record is about. As far as I’ve been able to tell, it’s definitely very personal.

SSv: With that editing process that you had, were there things you were able to do on this album that you couldn’t before?

Tift: This record came faster than a lot of my work in the past has. A couple times, songs popped out whole. I believe in the eraser. I believe in cropping a lot out and reworking things, so I don’t generally write and go, ‘Oh, there’s a song.’ But that’s happened a handful of times on this record, and I think that’s part of putting myself through this process a bit.