It's spill tab season. French-Korean singer spill tab aka Claire Chica's debut album has arrived. ANGIE is a 12-track showcase of her thoughtful songwriting, lo-fi production and clever collaborations alongside her LA-based community of producers including David Marinelli, Solomonophic, Wyatt and Austin, and John DeBold. Raised by a French Algerian composer father and a Korean pianist mother, Chicha spent her childhood immersed in and influenced by the music at her parents' post-production studio. The now LA-based singer, who recently opened for Sabrina Carpenter and Wallows, said: “It became this beautiful experience of only following ideas that I really believed in and exploring all the musical avenues I hadn’t before. I’ve never been more excited about the songs on ANGIE, and I’ve never felt like a project is more mine.” We spoke to spill tab about crafting and releaing her debut album:

‍Congratulations on the album. Hold Me is my favourite, I love the video. me like out in the world now because that's one of my favourites.

Thank you. A few of my friends have also flagged that that's one of their favourite songs on the album, and it's really nice to be able to share it with everyone. The video initially felt like it was pretty scrappily put together, but the way it’s turned out, I love it so much. To have my mom in it, my partner and all my good friends I just feel like so much shines through even though we didn't have like a crazy budget or anything to make it happen. So I'm really stoked on the video and I'm just happy it's out and it's in the world. I’ve had a few family members reach out and say how special they thought it was.

I'm so intrigued with what the process was making this song because I love when a song doesn't do what I expect it to do and drops in those first few moments, it's just the best feeling.

So I think it's, it started off initially with that first verse. I think we were playing around with different chords and I think Will was playing guitar. We had a foundation and we knew for the chorus we wanted to do something more positive. Something that was simple but effective in the melody and to have it be very sweet and sparse to let the instrumental shine through. We had this sick toy, the kind of toy you buy a kid to teach them how to play drums, with six pads on this machine and you hit each circular pad with a stick. There was a button you press that has a wedding march thing going on. It was so fitting because this song is about a relationship falling apart and realign with that grief. I just thought it was a nice contrast to have a wedding march vibe. Then it cuts to the grief of it all.

You mentioned Will and the people you've been working with, how do you think that they helped to shape the direction of this project specifically?

I've been so grateful to work with like a ton of people across this project. Austin and Wyatt have been people that I've worked with before, and they're collaborators that I know I work well with. This song was the first one we made with Will, who was a new addition but came with such wonderful ideas and just such a willingness to be open and experiment. I feel like there was something really magical with the dynamic that was just completely different from the dynamic of just the three of us prior.

Have the single releases and the reception you've got to them impacted your view of the album?

The songs are quite different in energy and vibe. it’s been interesting to see different people tell me like what their favourite song so far is. I'm sure in ways that I am not even conscious of everyone’s feedback has shaped my view of like the album and like what songs I think will do well down the line or like what songs I think will do well live and how I want them to be portrayed live.

Do you think that the next album cycle you would do something differently?

I feel like the creation of this album is sort of really singular in the sense that it covers so much. There are songs that I've pulled from 2020 and then there's songs that I wrote last year. There's like totally a world where I wait like another five years to make an album and then it encompasses the next five years of my life. The way this album has gone, even if I tried, it wouldn't ever be the same set of journeys that I went through and it's not going to cover the same range of growth. Just my discovery of the music industry and of the world and of myself. I won't be able to do this twice. Which I think I was putting so much pressure on this first album and spent so much time kind of mulling over every detail and literally every second of the project because I just wanted it to be perfect or at least perfectly encapsulate what I want to show about what Spill Tab is now.

In terms of the visuals, because obviously that's such a big part of it as well, what's been inspiring you for that? Did you have a very clear idea of what you wanted to do for music videos and the album artwork?

I wasn't highly specific, but I knew that I wanted it to have a very dusty, gritty aesthetic to it. I think that is really well represented. It feels very like like if you were in the shot with us, you would be covered in dust and kind of gross and kind of gnarly. I knew this feeling that I wanted to have, but the directors that came on to help with all the visuals, brought so many great ideas and so much of their vision I think was really beautifully executed.

It’s all very cohesive. What about your style and fashion? Is that important to you?

Thank you so much. To be honest I've never really been a big fashion head. It's always been something that I think I've been intimidated by because I didn't quite understand it very well. I sort of shied away from it a little bit and always left the most stressful parts about the music video to the night before when I'm pulling shit from my closet to try and figure out what I'm going to wear for it. It sort of feels weird to have a fashion identity that is different from the clothes that you wear every day. I think in some sense I felt a bit like a fraud to be in my music videos or in photoshoots wearing something that's more elevated and more crazy my usual day-to-day fit which is like an oversized t-shirt with baggy jeans. Through this album I’ve been able to get to a place where I love and appreciate fashion. There’s certain things I do and don’t like and working with stylists and doing shoots has been really exciting.

There's so many like different sides of yourself to explore with your style.

Exactly.

Who are some artists that you are excited about that you've been listening to?

I’m such a Saya Gray fan. I’m also a big fan of Hovvdy. A band from the UK called Jadu Heart, I’ve become such a fan of their new stuff coming out.

What's next? Is there a tour?

Let’s see, I have some shows in Europe coming up. One in London, one in Glasgow, one in Manchester. I have one in Bristol, one in Brighton. I’m playing a festival in Paris, same day as Charli XCX, which just means I'm gonna lose my absolute mind when I see her live. Then doing some shows in North America and Canada which I’m stoked for. Then just going to kick back for a little bit, do some more festivals in France, and then hopefully more to come.

Listen to spill tab HERE.

@spilltab