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In an evocative dialog with Unusual Tides, the artist delves into the profound themes encapsulated of their newest EP, ‘Differentiation’. This assortment of songs emerges from a decade of transformative experiences, reflecting on private progress, familial roles, and religious introspection. With a candid exploration of breaking away from previous influences to forge a singular identification, Unusual Tides discusses the intricate technique of songwriting that mirrors their journey in the direction of self-definition. This interview not solely reveals the artist’s battle with religion and identification but in addition showcases their dedication to genuine expression by genre-fluid music.
Unusual Tides, thanks for the chance to take a seat down with you and talk about your latest EP, Differentiation; the thematic undercurrents within the lyrical poetry are past compelling; are you able to inform us a little bit bit concerning the idea of the discharge and what impressed its creation?
Thanks a lot for the chance to speak with you! I’m so grateful to have the prospect to dig a little bit deeper into this little packet of songs.
“Differentiation” got here out of a technique of perpetual disorientation and reorientation that unfolded by my twenties. On the floor, this included loads of maturity firsts: first bereavement (Ides of March) and first expertise of doubt as an individual of religion (Out of Deep Waters, Father of my Father) being the clearest. Extra abstractly, I additionally discovered myself reassessing loads of assumptions for the primary time. Specifically, this stage of life noticed me analyzing my position in my household as an grownup, my position as an individual of religion, and God’s personal angle in the direction of me and humanity at giant. Whereas analyzing these concepts, I spent loads of time contrasting myself in opposition to these round me, or in opposition to my previous self…. However I regularly bumped up in opposition to the great actuality that, regardless of all our variations, we’re unavoidably formed by others. These tensions: connectedness within the presence of distinction, and the brand new and outdated self, have been soil from which this report grew.
There’s a robust lyrical emphasis on autonomously figuring out your personal values and objectives; how exhausting do you assume it’s to separate your self from social and familial conditioning to know what you actually need and wish?
I think the reply to that’s some mixture of an individual’s character and the dynamic of their household or neighborhood of origin. I need to admit, with some embarrassment, that I’m simply influenced by others, so it’s lucky for me that my mother and father inspired me to maneuver away in order that I might acquire some autonomy and perspective. If not on condition that freedom externally, I believe I’d have discovered it exceptionally troublesome to know. Even so, the expertise of pondering otherwise from individuals I like or admire was nonetheless painful. There’s a core group of individuals with whom I’ll at all times belong, at the same time as my convictions and outlooks shift, however these adjustments nonetheless upset the present stability of relationships. As I modify, there’s a little bit of effort required of my family members to remain interested in me, and in addition to remain rooted in their very own values, whereas nonetheless being prepared to be shaken up each on occasion. And I owe them that very same effort in return. Certainly, in Father of my Father, you see me within the midst of a battle between my very own disappointment with different individuals’s adjustments in perception, and my want to maintain my thoughts and coronary heart wholly open to these individuals.
Your advocacy for authenticity is made all of the extra convincing by your distinctive songwriting and genre-fluidity, was this intentional, or did it simply occur naturally?
Thanks! I pleasure myself on my intentionality in stepping out of my typical habits and matching musical to emotional tone, however there are actually genres I gravitate to. Breaking out of these requires some effort. I’m unsure I can fairly assert that I’ve succeeded in doing this, however I’m actually taking steps in that course in songs like “Out of Deep Waters”. That is an instance of a tune for which I put a substantial amount of thought into breaking my typical patterns: the verses and bridge make use of completely different chord progressions than I normally go for, and I needed to push myself towards a better tempo than I ever naturally land on. Nonetheless, the choruses in that tune embrace a serious key walk-down that may be very instinctive for me (and which exhibits up once more in full drive in “Lighthouse”).
We love how your releases can meld grandiosity and intimacy concurrently, how was this achieved with singles reminiscent of Out of Deep Waters?
I believe the reply right here is straightforward: I’ve loads of emotions. Conveying these many emotions within the context of a single tune creates loads of drama!
“Out of Deep Waters” particularly took me a very long time to get round to writing. I wrote “Lighthouse” in 2018, which I knew would function a decision to some sort of pressure; this meant I wanted to put in writing a tune that will lead into Lighthouse, and which might put throughout some heavier feelings. I had in thoughts the concept of utilizing gritty instrumentation and quick pacing, as heard within the verses. But it surely wasn’t till I used to be correctly writing the tune in the summertime of 2023 that the lighter choruses bubbled out of me. I felt that the switches between the heavy verses and the lighter choruses might successfully seize that which I had been struggling to convey: pleasure and despair have been each dwelling in my chest, and the frequency with which I bounced between them was dizzying! At the same time as I used to be completely dismayed within the face of my very own mental unbelief, a way of kinship with the divine, and a connection which appeared to stay by no effort of my very own, was a supply of pleasure.
Can we delve deeper into the emotional themes of Out of Deep Waters and the ultimate single on the EP, Lighthouse, and the way the instrumentals visualise metaphors for disorientation and determination?
“Out of Deep Waters” feels more and more just like the manic creation of anyone who has given up on attempting to make sense of issues, and maybe that’s what it’s.
This tune is at the start concerning the loss (and rediscovery) of my religion, which is why it employs a lot resurrection imagery. The expertise of letting go of religion is completely different for various individuals – in the direction of the tip of the tune you hear me consult with a pal who was relieved to seek out herself in a spot of unbelief. However for me, it was a profound loss, and you may see me processing that loss within the tune’s verses.
The verses describe the whole lot from these early, defensive feelings (e.g. disgruntlement, denial of the scenario) to later, deeper ones (grief and loneliness). Musically, they hit exhausting and quick, as a result of that’s how unbelief got here to me. Each verses additionally comprise a church organ second: an apparent nod to the theme at hand and meant to sound a little bit unnerving. Moreover, The predictability of the three-beat pictures we hear in verse one is damaged in verse two, the place one beat is lacking from every set of pictures, creating a way of confusion.
And but, hope lies beneath the chaos: the choruses are available with main chords, clear guitar tones, and a few charming pizzicato work on the cello to provide voice to the uplifting moments that have been peppered by an in any other case darkish season. Within the second refrain, a background voice enters (“Yoohoo! The place are you?”) with an absurd playfulness, as if all I’m doing is taking part in “Cover and Search” with the divine. Godself echoes this sentiment within the bridge, the place a few phrases of regular however gentle baroque piano gives the spine for a message of assurance in God’s voice.
Nonetheless, the strain which characterises this tune is just not but resolved. As an alternative, it reaches its apex in the course of the transition into “Lighthouse”, the place ever-changing chord progressions, an rising tempo, and more and more crowded instrumentation convey a couple of sense of urgency reflective of my very own deepening desperation and confusion. Within the climactic second, a wide range of family members pull me from the physique of water by which I didn’t realise I used to be drowning. The baptism metaphor, which was opened with the road “[I] was laid within the sea as they lifted him up” is dropped at an in depth with, “this baptism isn’t fairly what I’d imagined I break by the floor, and see I’ve been drowning”, leaving the tune to resolve with a peaceable bass melody, earlier than flowing into “Lighthouse”.
The place “Out of Deep Waters” is jam-packed with completely different instrumentation, chord progressions, and emotional tone; “Lighthouse” is an image of musical predictability, with heat, main chords carrying the listener gently to the tip of the album. The voice of God exhibits up one final time, within the type of a name to depend on family members for knowledge and power (and to offer the identical in return, when the time comes). The regular rhythm thumped out on the ground tom and bass guitar throughout this part gives a way of confidence and assurance that was conspicuously absent by most of “Out of Deep Waters”. The piano, cello, and lead guitar workforce as much as construct to an ending which I hope evokes related feelings to the expertise of receiving kindness from somebody throughout a second of want.
How did your inventive journey begin, and the place has it taken you to this point?
My musical journey began on the age of six, within the basement of my first piano trainer’s home. I started studying songs utilizing the Suzuki Technique (by ear), earlier than studying to learn music and shifting by Canada’s Royal Conservatory of Music for piano and idea. I expanded to different devices across the age of ten once I first started to play the guitar and write songs. From there, I used to be fortunate to be part of a church the place my musical presents have been deliberately fostered by leaders and fellow congregants; that is the context by which I first discovered to drum and play the bass. I’ve since developed these abilities additional by classes and by taking part in in bands by which I’m held to a excessive commonplace!
As I honed extra devices, my at-home recordings of the songs I used to be writing turned extra refined, and I started to develop an intuition for manufacturing. To today, making a dialogue between many musical voices is my favorite a part of songwriting.
Throughout my undergraduate years, I picked up the occasional espresso home gig, however it wasn’t till I met my former bandmate, Victoria, that I started gigging frequently. It was at a pub gig collectively that we met Sound Engineer and Producer, Dan Ponich, who has recorded all of Unusual Tides’ songs however one. With Dan’s assist, I used to be capable of develop right into a co-producer position for this most up-to-date EP: an expertise that has formed my imaginative and prescient for future initiatives.
How has your songwriting type developed for this EP?
This EP marked fairly a number of shifts for Unusual Tides. That is the primary Unusual Tides report since Victoria’s departure, and for me, it was a return to the follow of writing alone. I took the chance to re-examine some outdated songs that I had written, however not recorded, and noticed the “differentiation” theme tying them collectively. This motivated me to create a report whose sole function was to look at this theme and helped me to crystalise my imaginative and prescient for future EPs. Moreover, having made a few significant connections within the music world over the previous few years, I had entry to musicians able to doing issues I might solely dream of doing, so I used to be capable of write with different individuals’s ability units in thoughts. The presence of cello and upright bass on this report is an actual deal with!
Is it exhausting to seek out the stability between following your experimental muse and releasing music that may resonate along with your new and present followers?
I believe that is in all probability an issue that almost all musicians grapple with. I profess that the very best artwork comes from no matter is really inside (tacky, I do know), however then I discover myself questioning the place I ought to bend to the tastes of the plenty in order that maybe reveals a paradox inside me. That being stated, there’s a Venn diagram of that which is marketable, and that by which I discover pleasure and that means in creating. So maybe my aim is to seek out the world of overlap when that which naturally pours out of me can join effectively with the listeners.
What’s subsequent for Unusual Tides?
If solely I had countless money and time to dedicate to this mission; I’ve so many concepts I’d prefer to execute. For the foreseeable future, I plan to proceed releasing 4-6 tune EPs that every discover a single theme, and I’ve themes in thoughts for the subsequent two or three of these EPs, with the themes informing their musical form. My plan for the rest of 2024 is to play some gigs (doubtless extra intimate ones), write heaps, and create a number of demos in order that I can report the subsequent report in 2025.
Hearken to Unusual Tides’ EP Differentiation on Spotify.
Interview by Amelia Vandergast
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