[6][7] The music that inspired Michael Timmins the most during the visit was found at Renmin Park, where a variety musicians would gather throughout the day, bringing their erhus, pipas, shangxians and various percussion instruments, and a mix of singers would perform.

About halfway through their visit, Timmins was introduced to Eric Chen, who was passionate about music, and had taught himself English by watching American movies.

The two which appealed to Timmins the most were Xu Wei (The Cure-meets-Steve Earle pop) and ZXZZ (Leonard Cohen meets Nick Cave by way of Tom Waits).

The Junkies also asked ZXZZ to contribute an original lyric and vocal performance for a track on the album, "A Walk in the Park".

Alan Anton, who also lives in British Columbia, got involved in the looping exercise, and the two built music structures which used some of Michael Timmins' community noise recordings as the foundation.

Once the basic structure was complete, Michael Timmins wrote out melodies and lyrics, which Margo then came in and transformed into Cowboy Junkies songs.