Selling Things [Exclusive Green]

Although Dunne’s songs tend to be intensely personal, which might have made recording them a daunting task, he says it helped immensely that his longtime friend Andrew Sarlo produced Selling Things.

“We’ve been really close for a decade,” Dunne says of Sarlo, who’s also produced Bon Iver and Big Thief, among others. “Our friendship enriches the experience because I really trust him, so if he tells me something is not cutting it for the record, we toss it.” This trust was truly tested when Dunne presented Sarlo with the songs he’d written for the new album – and Sarlo told him to cut half of them from the list. “He said, ‘The songs are good, but they’re not the songs we need. I need you to write me two more, and we’re going to fill out the record this way.’

— American Songwriter