Chelsea Rifkin (Wilt)

"It's trash that evokes emotion," says Chelsea Rifkin of Wilt referring to her junk journal. The singer for the LA-based band uses this journal as an important part of her songwriting process. The title is literal: "It's a scrapbook of trash that I get throughout the day."

Rikfin showed me one of the journals. It was filled with napkins, stickers, cards, menus, wrappers--literally anything that might evoke a memory later on. This makes perfect sense because touching and seeing a concrete object from a past event would seem to evoke a more powerful memory than re-reading just your thoughts about that past event in a more traditional journal. It absolutely works for Rifkin. "The junk journal unlocks a memory for me and exactly how I was feeling at that time." And it's often those memories that start the songwriting process for her.

Wilt's debut album "When No One's Watching" (produced by Carlos de la Garza) is out now.

*photo by Sara Eiseman