She recorded an album singing into a built-in laptop microphone, hiding in hotel closets for acoustics, then years later earned a Grammy nomination for Best Engineered Album. This deep dive into Caroline Polachek explores how an artist who refused to be pigeonholed proved that embracing your own eccentricities can be the key to pop success.

We trace her unusual musical wiring, from Japanese anime themes and Enya to DIY punk shows, her breakout with Chairlift and the iPod commercial, and her secret alias Ramona Lisa. Then we examine how she stepped into the light under her own name, blending disparate influences into acclaimed avant-pop.

• Her formative years in Tokyo and pentatonic melodic instincts
• The Chairlift iPod commercial and the flattening effect of fame
• Recording Arcadia with MIDI and a laptop microphone ...