Anastasio stated that the recording process of the album "felt therapeutic to write" and that he "wanted to connect with our community in some way.

I had an electric and an acoustic guitar, a small amp, two microphones, some percussion, and two keyboards, including an old Kurzweil with very realistic drum sounds on it.

Anastasio stated that Lonely Trip was "my message in a bottle during this time, and I wish I knew how to properly thank all of you in our community for listening and responding.

[2] Phish member Jon Fishman plays drums on the album; as stated by Anastasio "For the previous few Phish albums (including Kasvot Vaxt and Sigma Oasis), I had been experimenting with writing songs, starting with drum beats that I had sung into my phone.

I used these beats as building blocks to many of the songs on Lonely Trip, and it explains how I could do a whole album in Rubber Jungle with such good sounding drums.