Traces as a stripped-down affair came out of the blue during the album s promotional tour.
He d invited a camera crew into the studio where Perry broke down the multi-tracks for each song. While showcasing individual parts like vocals or guitars, he suddenly found that new meanings were revealed.
“I started realizing that my original love for the song, when it was first written, was that naked, Perry tells UCR in an exclusive interview. It was that simple, because these things are always either acoustic guitar and a voice or a piano and a voice. That’s all you’re writing, really. I mean, what you decide to do with it and where you decide to take it, is a whole other conversation. [But] I never forgot what that felt like, soloing all of those multi-tracks for the video crew.