SZA famously toiled for years on the follow-up to her star-making 2017 debut Ctrl. In 2020, she accused her label TDE of holding up her new music, but it sounds like she was still working on sophomore effort SOS up until the last minute.

In a new interview with NME centered on her appearance as Sally in a live version of The Nightmare Before Christmas, SOS guest Phoebe Bridgers says she recorded her parts for “Ghost In The Machine” a week before the album dropped. Sitting next to Danny Elfman, Bridgers declared, “That record is insane,” then explained how the collaboration came about:

She just hit me up. She just sent me a DM. And then it all happened so fast. I wasn’t really used to that in that pop world, because vinyl isn’t so much of a consideration until way later. It’s just like, “Do you want to be on this record? OK, it’s out next week.” It was so recent, which I really like. I like that turnaround time. Personally, I sit on stuff for so long and it takes me years to make albums. I like seeing someone else’s world from that angle.

Bridgers also named SZA as “my favorite rapper” despite SZA not being a rapper. The subject comes up at the 10-minute mark of the video below.

I like the part where the interviewer says it’s weird to interview Bridgers while she’s dressed like a skeleton and Elfman replies, “Imagine being dressed as a skeleton!”