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“I’ve found that if I don’t have some degree of ritual or marking of milestones, I get really sad,” Dacus tells The Hollywood Reporter on a recent Zoom from Nashville. “I make plans trying to be respectful of beginnings and endings.” She’s using the show to officially close out this important time in her career.

At the time of this conversation, she’s preparing to head to Seattle for Bumbershoot, a music festival in the city, but her Hollywood Bowl show is still top of mind. Sunday’s show will be different from the rest of the tour, as Dacus will be accompanied by the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra.

Taking the time to go through her discography, with the help of violinist Phoenix Ruziamani, to find the perfect setlist for these specially arranged tracks has given Dacus time to reflect. It’s been helping her feel inspired for the future but first she has to dive into her next big project — absolutely nothing. She explains, “I need to know what it feels like to not do anything for the first time in many years.”

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How did you go about choosing songs for the Hollywood Bowl show. What’s the process with the full orchestra?

Big props to Phoenix Ruziamani, my violinist, who did all the arrangements, because she listened to every song I’ve ever put out and sent me a list of the most exciting ones in terms of [adding] an orchestra. She picked some things that I wouldn’t have thought of at all. “Kissing Lessons,” that’s not even on a record. I don’t play it all the time, and I wouldn’t have thought a punky band song would work great with an orchestra, but it’s one of my favorites. I did choose a few based off of friends and family that are coming, who certain songs matter to them. I thought that would be nice, before I don’t do shows for a while, to play some of these songs for the last time.

When you’re playing those songs, knowing that someone is there, does it feel different?

You know when you re-watch your favorite movie and it didn’t change, but you did? So you see something different. When I play certain songs, I have that feeling. The words are the same, the chords are the same. But especially when there’s people in the audience that know my life and the core of the song, it can make me really remember where it came from and how far I am from that point. That can be very sentimental or really trippy and sometimes emotionally overwhelming, but informative. I’m a sucker for the passing of time in general and for that retrospective feeling.

Does going through your discography like you are for this show make you reflect? Are you feeling inspired by some choices you’ve made in the past?

The retrospective nature can show you maybe lessons you’ve more or less completed, or lessons that you’re still needing to learn or relearn. That can be very humbling. To realize you still don’t know the answer to this question. How stupid of me to think I completed this level of life. Life doesn’t work like that. Certain scenes and parts of my life, I do feel like I need to return to. Other things bore me now, or it just feels not important at the moment to revisit it. I guess, yes, I do feel inspired by this process.

What does that look like for you when you find yourself inspired by something? What is your first instinct creatively?

Sometimes I’ll go to the source material, which is my journals, or I’ll go back to Richmond, Virginia, where I’m from and just walk around. I think walking walks I used to walk, passing apartments I used to live in or even seeing people that I’m still friends with, I can just happen into an idea. There are some streets that have ideas floating like coins in a video game, and they’re invisible. Some streets are dense with the coins and other streets are empty. It’s every person’s chance to find those streets and walk them.

How do you continue to find enjoyment with the shows when you’ve been touring the record for a while?

It’s not hard. The magic is there, and I’m just crossing my fingers that it stays. If it ever left, then I’d have to really rethink some things. But every show does feel different. I try to play different songs and not do the same songs in the same order to stay, I guess, alive and not [on] autopilot. The people who are watching weren’t at the last show. It’s the first time for them. Looking into people’s faces really helps me.

Do you feel that throughout your time touring the album your engagement with the audience has changed? Does it feel the same?

I have really good crowds. I feel really spoiled. I like my fans. There’s so many artists that don’t like their fans, and that is so sad. I do think there’s a line that I feel like with Phoebe and Julian and Boygenius, we were definitely trying to set boundaries around how fans treat us. I think that a lot of my fans listened and are not as creepy. But I was saying this to someone recently that some people that I see repeatedly actually will put me at ease because I’m like, “Oh, I know you.” Like, oh, that’s comfortable.

I maybe shouldn’t reveal this publicly, but the band definitely has favorite fans, and they’ll be like, “Did you see this person [near] the front to the left?” Or, “Yeah, I haven’t seen them for a couple months.” You have outliers that can ruin your day, but for the most part, it’s been a nice experience.

That’s wonderful to hear. Do you think that experience with Boygenius, having to set those boundaries, taught you anything?

The real benefit of boundaries is how much time you get back from trying to decide how to act. It’s actually not that there’s less people being weird, it’s that I know how to behave within it more quickly, and I’m not entertaining it. I’ll be like, “nope.” Then it’s not a story that I’m recalling, whereas for a while it felt like, oh, this person waited at my hotel. They put in so much time waiting, they deserve something. It doesn’t take that long to sign something for someone at the airport. But then you realize you don’t want to reward stalking.

Once you know the boundary in yourself, you don’t give any time to that. It doesn’t make every fan interaction abrasive. There are fan interactions that are just nice because a lot of people are normal. I also like musicians, and if I saw someone I liked, I’d be like, “Your work rocks,” and it’d be as simple as that. With the internal boundary making, I’ve reclaimed a lot of time and wavering.

You’re putting a bow on a big chapter of your life with this Hollywood Bowl show. Have you thought about what that’s going to feel like?

I think it’s on purpose because I’ve found that if I don’t have some degree of ritual or marking of milestones, I get really sad. I make plans trying to be respectful of beginnings and endings. That is a huge part of why we even decided to do it. It could be extra sad. There’s a chance that I’m wanting people to come to this and putting all this work into it, and then I’m crying and my throat is closed and it’s not sounding good. That kind of freaks me out. The emotional ultimatum of it is a little overpowering, but I’m also trying to think of it as going to a Cat Power show, and that’s more exciting and less pressure.

Has it been difficult going through new arrangements for the show while you’re still touring? Are you a bit split brained?

Certainly split brain but on one hand, I don’t mind split brain. I like having a lot of irons in the fire. On the other end, I simply need to have no brain. I don’t want to be split between things. I want no things. I want nothing. I need to know what it feels like to not do anything for the first time in many years. That’ll be cool.

What do you think the first thing you’re going to do when you have nothing is going to be?

I was just thinking about this. You start to romanticize doing the dishes and looking at a mess and being like, “Actually, I’ll clean that now.” My brain just automatically puts a hierarchy of like, “Oh, I should do that. Oh, but this person’s expecting this of me.” There’s this backlog of taking care of myself that I really want to do — literally in my home, medically, mentally, emotionally, socially. I have to be a better friend to me than I am to other people for a little bit.

Is that something when you’re really busy, you struggle to get through? You’ve been consistently busy for so long now, do you feel like that is your norm now or do you still find it difficult?

It is my norm to be busy. Honestly, sometimes when I think of this nothingness that’s coming, I get really freaked out because I have so much of my self-worth in what I’m doing and what I’m actively contributing to. I don’t have a lot of self-worth in taking care of myself. I’m always looking outward for things to make me feel good instead of inward. It’ll be huge to see if it’s even possible. Meanwhile, I’m for sure going to pick something up. I’m going to clear some space and then something is going to fill it just because I do think that’s what life is about — following your passions. I feel very happy that I get to do that, so I don’t really want to stop doing it.

Do you have something that’s not music related that you find to be your biggest passion?

Yes.

Do you want to share it?

No, it’s too close to my heart at the moment.