Interview: Chloe Tang fans the flames until the house burns down.
The pop newcomer bares her ferocious heartbreak with a new song.
Heartbreak is like tossing our heart into fiery depths. The flames consume our-once throbbing vital organ, and what is left is rarely more than ash. But Chloe Tang allows herself to feel it ⏤ every skin-melting burn and crushing pound to her heart. And there’s always a return. Her return emerges from a lake of fire in the form of “Fanning the Flame,” an arsenic-laced piece of dark pop. “I’m sick of the smoke,” she gasps through vocal distortion.
“Fanning the flame / Burning the house down,” she sings on the ghoulish hook. Such vivid imagery is extracted directly out of the singer-songwriter’s endless well of emotion, perhaps a bit “extreme,” she says. “Any emotion I have, I feel it deep. My thought process of making this song was tapping into that part of me.”
Co-writer Taylor Jamison offered up the latter phrase, fleshing out the intensity of raw human feeling, and alongside two other writers, Zulaica and Jacobi.e, both also producers, it morphed into a beastly performance. The song, blurring stylistic lines with a grim, thickly-coated paintbrush, evokes “a relationship so deep that you both love each other so much, despite the fact that that very act of loving each other is burning the relationship down to the ground,” Tang writes to B-Sides & Badlands over email.
In the song’s final version, Tang, whose voice lilts as lilac petals in summertime, embraces the empowerment that comes storming through her senses. “I felt like that was the first time I had acknowledged the situation I had been in… and this relationship I’m talking about in the song happened years and years ago,” she says. “But when I finally accepted it and had the emotional energy to write about it, I felt like I could see the situation for what it really was and that felt empowering.”
Below, Tang reflects on her emotional journey, classic background, and what’s next.
The verses feel more languid, but the chorus strikes up with a more indelible melody. Was that something you became aware of during the process?
It wasn’t something we were consciously thinking about. I think the nature of the song called for the chorus to be very straight forward and dynamic. I think the melody adds in this beautifully haunting element which is very much the vibe I wanted from the beginning.
Did you find yourself reconciling yourself in such a bad relationship?
Absolutely. This relationship was years ago. It was my first love. I had no idea what love was supposed to look or feel like, and now six years and a few more relationships later, I have been able to just be like “yeah, that was something I had to go through.” No matter how painful and destructive it was, it taught me that there is a stopping point, and that point is when you find yourself more negatively affected than positively. And that doesn’t mean anything about me or my ex, personally. It can really hurt realizing that someone isn’t good for you. I think it can be harder than even being cheated on…cause you have to just walk away when it doesn’t feel like there’s a reason to.
How did this song free you?
I think there’s something special about when I perform this song live that makes me feel some type of way. It shows so much vulnerability and my ability to finally admit to myself, “Yeah, maybe that was a mistake,” while also having such a dark, badass musical feel. It embodies me as a person and as an artist. It shows both extreme sides of me: the pretty and ugly.
There is something a bit unnerving about the visual and the imagery you used. How did you conceptualize how best to represent the lyrics?
I worked with a good friend, Brad Wong, on the visuals. I gotta give him credit because he did a lot of the concept work. He shot, produced, and edited the visual video and killed it. I loved how it turned out, and I’m so lucky to have such talented people around me. I knew I wanted to create a different world with the visuals and make it feel like an episode of ‘Black Mirror,’ where there are familiar aspects of the world, but there are a few things just subtly off to the point where you feel a little uncomfortable. Brad pulled it off insanely well.
You’ve said this song is “not what people think pop music should be.” Do you think mainstream pop music has lost a bit of soul?
I don’t know how I would word this. Pop music just means popular music, so I don’t feel comfortable putting my opinion out on such a broad genre, but I will say the kind of pop music that I fell in love with at a young age and the kind of pop music that I find most inspiring tends to have some depth to it. I gravitate towards pop writers like Jon Bellion and JP Saxe because you can just hear it in their voices how honest they’re being. They’re not hiding anything from the world, and it takes balls to do that. I just want to make music that is honest and genuine and has a little bit of edge.
You grew up playing classical piano, guitar, and then saxophone. Does having a strong musical base really inform how you write or record music?
100%. My first idol was Avril Lavigne, and my mom used to tell me I have to learn about all kinds of music or else I can’t be the next Avril Lavigne. I think she was right in some ways. I am able to make a living by teaching piano and voice lessons, which allows me to make the music I’m passionate about now. I wouldn’t have been able to do that if I didn’t have proper training. I also see music in a different way because of my classical background. I see chord progressions in my head, visually, and when I’m writing music, I picture melodies as certain climactic moments in a classical piece. I’m a theory geek, so I like all the weird patterns of music that some people don’t care much about.
Musically, what does this song signal for you next?
I have lots of music just kinda sitting, ready to be released. So I’m currently figuring out the best way to do that. It’s been a little hard to anticipate or plan because of the global climate, but I’m just going to have things ready and be prepared for when I feel the time is right to release it. I also want to go on tour this year. I have lots of ideas and goals, just no set plans quite yet. But I’m getting there!
In the age of quarantine, how are you feeling, creatively?
I just sang in my head “The Age of Quarantine” to the melody of “The Age of Aquarius.” I am feeling a little slow, creatively. My natural instinct in all of this is to stay safe and keep my family safe. Now that it’s been a few weeks, though, I’m ready to jump back into writing. I just have to find a groove with doing FaceTime cowrites, which is hard for me because I like to be face-to-face when I’m writing with someone else. I am trying my best to stay motivated, just like everyone else, and I am taking things day-by-day to use all this built up energy and make it into something beautiful.
