Claire Chicha, the frontwoman of spill tab, has been playing with the boundaries of indie rock and alternative rock for years now. With the release of her debut album ANGIE, she’s put on a complete display of her dynamic songwriting. I recently got to interview Claire while she’s been on tour, asking her about her thoughts on performing, the French, and how live music influences her artistry. Read below to see what she has to say, and be sure to buy tickets for her ongoing tour!
Fin: I guess we can start on my first question, which is how has touring been going?
Claire: Oh, yeah! I mean it’s been good. We played our New York show last night which was sick. I lived there for four years, so I have like a handful of friends that still live there and it was really good to see them and catch up. We never get to stay long enough. I wish I could always spend like a whole week in New York, but it was just nice to be there and play a show. The crowd was great, the show went well, so yeah–it was an all-around 10 out of 10 I’d say.
Fin: Sounds lovely!
Claire: Yeah!
Fin: And you just did a show, I think two nights ago, in the Boston area.
Claire: Yes, I did.
Fin: Which is where we’re adjacent to [at WMFO].
Claire: Nice.
Fin: So, I was wondering how was that show? How are how are the people here representing themselves to you?
Claire: Representing Boston? Haha, no I mean Boston always goes hard, though. We’ve played a show at Brighton before like, I think, two or three years ago, and like same thing; Boston always turns up and has like a great energy and and that night two nights ago was no exception! So yeah, it was great and it’s really cute to kind of get to meet people, just say hi, and yeah. So it was a great show. I again didn’t get to spend time in Boston but it’s a good city and the people are good.
Fin: Awesome, it’s great to hear that! I was also wondering, especially with bringing up like previous tours and stuff, how has touring ANGIE been different than past tours and shows?
Claire: Yeah, I mean, my favorite difference is that like we’ve got way less stuff on playback and way more stuff live, which I feel like a lot of people’s goal. You start touring and it’s really expensive, so you have a lot of your band on backing tracks, but it’s been really nice to be able to evolve out of that and bring out more people and have these instruments represented in a live space, because it just fills up the room in a very different way.
Fin: Yeah.
Claire: And also the energy of the show can evolve and get better. So I’m really grateful. I feel like touring this album has been… I think like a bigger puzzle just like figuring out where things fit and where we can transition.
Fin: Mhm, yeah, that’s so awesome. What’s been your favorite song from the record to be performing?
Claire: I feel like… let me think, I mean I love playing “by Design,” because my bassist and drummer, Caleb and Gabe, like sing the harmonies live, so we get to do a three-part live harmony which is such a little dream of mine.
Fin: That sounds really beautiful.
Claire: Yeah, yeah, so I love playing that song live. And the first half is like more digital and raunchy and abrasive and but then the back half has this more organic open feeling to it, so it’s a fun one to play live because I get to kind of explore both sides of that.
Fin: I really love when tracks have like the two the two sides to them.
Claire: Yeah.
Fin: Like when there’s a part one and a part two it’s always really fun, especially live. I really wanted to be able to make your show a few nights ago but I was not able to.
Claire: Oh, that’s okay!
Fin: But at least I mean we were able to give away another pair of tickets then, so yeah.
Claire: Hell yeah.
Fin: I was also wondering, with “PINK LEMONADE,” which I read on Genius had some jam session clips like stitched together, what are your thoughts on the idea of like using more jam session clips or live music clips from tour or something on future projects? Like how does that jibe with your artistic process?
Claire: Yeah, I mean the genesis of that song was, yeah like you said, it’s a 40 minute jam that we just kind of snipped together and then sped up and then pitched and then kind of like messed around with quite a bit. I don’t know… I really loved making it that way. I think that was like the first time I’d made a song–or like started a song that way.
Fin: Mhm.
Claire: But to be honest, like most of the time I’m not really like… I feel like my favorite way to make music is to just like catch something that’s happening in the room, versus coming in with this very strict and rigid version of how I think the day should go. I’ve done that before and I just feel like it doesn’t really represent everybody in the room correctly ‘cause, you know, the best part is when you get to kind of like mesh together what everybody is excited about in that moment. It’s like maybe the producer I’m working with is like really into this like one new pedal that he found or I’m really into this new synth I like, and I feel like just being able to capture that excitement has always been my favorite part about creating a new song. So, yeah, I try and keep it kind of more open-ended so we can all have a good time.
Fin: Nice, like very fluid in the yeah process.
Claire: Yeah, I think so.
Fin: Riiiiiight, right. I was also wondering, I know you speak [and write and sing in] French.
Claire: Mhm.
Fin: I… I do not speak French, unfortunately.
Claire: *Laughs*
Fin: Um, but I was wondering do you go to France often? I know French is of course spoken all over the world but I was just wondering since I went to France for the first time just a few months ago.
Claire: Yeah, I mean I was just there in June. I played a festival there called We Love Green. I also have family in like a suburb of Paris, so I visit them really often and I up going there quite a bit to see my aunts and uncles and um my grandparents and my cousins so yeah. I have like a very long kind of history with being in France and kind of going back and forth, but I lived there for a year or two when I was a kid, which was crazy and I hated it because I was 13 and I hated everything, but I do appreciate that it gave me, I guess like a like a wider, broader perspective on things. And also just like a better understanding of like what it’s like to be a French person you know?
Fin: Yeah.
Claire: I kept being told that I had a really funny French accent which is cool.
Fin: *Laughs* I have some friends that have lived their lives just kind of bouncing from different countries and they like stitch together like… a really cool quilted accent and for them it was all over the place which is cool. But yeah, over the summer I was in France for like a study abroad thing and I was just like wondering how how your experiences were as someone who speaks French because I was just kind of like floating around there like not really knowing too much of what was going on…
Claire: No definitely, yeah yeah. That’s sick. And it’s really fun going with American friends because you’ll be at a restaurant and um and I’ll just be like, “Just shut the fuck up, like don’t say anything” because they’ll start being mean to you if you speak English and it is, I think, really part of the charm. It’s like you know they hear an American speak and they’re like “What do you want? You want that okay great. Oh you want it vegan? Can’t do it.” *Laughs*
Fin: No yeah! Like they can tell. Especially with the iced coffee!
Claire: For sure, they’re like “Oh you want your coffee iced? Like a pussy oh okay cool.”
Fin: Ooh yeah.
Claire: They’re so aggressive!
Fin: It would be like 80 degrees [Fahrenheit…] outside and they’re like, “No, no. No café glacé” or whatever.
Claire: Literally. But I think it’s also like French people have a lot of like this like pride and also–what I think the thing that I really like about France is that they’re never afraid to slam their own country. And historically they’ve, you know, protests have been like a huge part of French history. Coming together to take down the top.
Fin: Yeah.
Claire: So there’s never this neat like nationalism thing that we have in America. You can be proud to be a French person but that includes you pointing out what’s wrong with France.
Fin: No yeah, totally. It’s not like this blind following, it’s like actually taking the ideals of [Frenchness] rather than just kind of like the aesthetic of it.
Claire: Yeah exactly. And that also calls to you in a way to be more involved in what’s going on, and to be more informed, and to focus on local labor and produce. Just a lot of these things that I think are more niche in America is a very standard way of thinking in France, which I think I’ve pulled from quite a bit and I appreciate about France a lot. So yeah, I love it there. I would never live there again I don’t think… maybe, but I do like to pop in every now and then.
Fin: For sure, I get what you mean. I think my last question for you is, how has touring impacted your creative process? With remixes or completely new content, or just as a whole, like how has it really been impacting that part of you as an artist?
Claire: Yeah, I definitely feel like it’s made me want to create music that’s fun to play live. I think a lot more about the dynamics of a show more than I did before like when I was making the album. I was like “I want these moments to feel very soft and these other moments to feel really big.” I’ve been to shows where it’s just like one energy the whole time and it’ll be an artist that I’m a huge fan of and I’ll still really enjoy the show, but I think I just have more you get taken on a ride more when you can create big moments and very small moments and soft moments and then really aggressive moment, so I definitely think that was like something I was thinking about when I was making the album. I wanted it to feel dynamic and not just monotone. I hope that translates live but that’s definitely something that I’ve been thinking about.
Fin: That’s so real. there’s like a whole different, again, dynamic. It’s so much more theatrical to do things live, yeah.
Claire: Yeah, exactly.
Fin: Very fun! I’ve read a bit about like in antiquity with some of these like ancient philosophers’ aesthetic philosophies like from Aristotle, they were talking about how live music and plays and such, it’s like it unleashes something really cathartic in in the performer, and the audience, too. And you can’t really get that anywhere else.
Claire: For sure.
Fin: And I feel like especially going back to when you were talking about now being able to have like the full live band there, that’s just… ugh I’m getting more FOMO now since I wasn’t able to make the show!
Claire: Then i’m doing my job right I guess!
Fin: *Laughs* Yeah, that’s just really cool to think about for me. And at some point I would love to witness it live from you!
Claire: Yeah! I mean there’ll definitely be more shows in the future whether in Boston or close to Boston I hope.
Fin: I trust.
Claire: But yeah, it was that was a really good show I feel like it’s cool that Boston’s a college town because I feel like the people that come by are like all really excited and good energy and yeah. So I’m always excited to go back.
Fin: That’s amazing! I wanted to say thank you so much for everything.
Claire: Thank you Fin.
Fin: Of course! I hope you have an amazing rest of your drive and tour and everything.
Claire: Thank you!
Fin: I’m sure everything will go super swell.
Claire: Yeah and good luck with school and such and the radio and hope to see you at the next one for sure!
Fin: For sure! I hope to be there.