Welcome to BuzzMusic Jae! We are loving your single "chimera!" What was the songwriting and production process for it like?
Working on Chimera was very interesting. I had been working on my upcoming debut album titled Everything is Strange for about a year and some months. One can describe the term chimera to be something that is hoped for but is illusory or impossible to achieve and the end of the project seemed to be out of reach after months of various struggles like computer problems and so on. But through all that I had amassed various techniques that I was keen to test out and this song came to be as a result of it.
The vocals transform in an incredible way in this release! Was this something that came from the initial songwriting or did it come after the recording? How were these effects achieved?
I had been playing around with pitch correction and pitch manipulation a lot during the first stages of my album process by the time I was working on chimera I had the understanding of how moderation is golden. By starting the second verse with the deeper vocals it gives of an otherworldly energy that switches up the song without being overwhelming. I dropped the vocals about by about 5 semitone and played around with the mix to try and eliminate as much interference as possible.
There are a lot of great things happening here! What was the inspiration behind this release? Did you have any idols that you looked up to?
The major inspiration for this song was frustration. I really just wanted to finish the album and as the song states in the outro I felt like I was on the verge of losing my mind. After working on many different sounds I needed something that would work as the icing for the preverbal cake I had been baking. But in hindsight there is a bit of Travis Scott influence in this particular song but that probably happened subconsciously older Travis projects were very experimental and that always fascinated me.
At what point in your life did you decide that you wanted to become an artist? What were some of the challenges you faced along the way and how did you overcome them?
Music has always been part of my life, my older brother (Tapiwa) had a group of friends that used to make music when I was a kid and that resonated with me for a long time. Some years went by and my love for music was reborn after countless battles with mental health and it slowly became the only thing that gave my life meaning. Through introspection, I realized that this is what I was meant to do regardless of all other factors. With the help of family and the homies (Twelve07) I have managed to overcome all hurdles that come my way be it release issues, production problems, or anything else really I have a solid team backing me up. How could we not succeed?
You can listen to "Chimera" here.