Cholly: Stepping Outside The Box
Back in September I spoke about electronic artist Cholly and her latest single at the time entitled ‘Good Angel’. One of the great things about making electronic music is that you don’t need a big studio or an ensemble of musicians to help you realise your songwriting. It means you can be inspired by an off-the-cuff idea and run with it, taking it exactly where it needs to go. Consequently, Cholly has released a couple of singles since September, her latest is entitled ‘Stepping’.
Cholly is prolific in ideas, all it takes is a visit to her YouTube channel to see this in action. For example, a short video shows her manipulating a sample of Nintendo video-game character Kirby in real time, and how that can be incorporated into music. Not only does she sample existing sounds to create new ones, she also plays keyboard and violin, as well as singing over the top of her sound collages. This is what makes her music so unique. When you’re sampling sounds you’ve created, it steers you away from the presets, the same sounds other people might use, and creates something entirely new. Cholly released the follow-up single to Good Angel in October, entitled ‘Opposite’.
The driving force behind ‘Opposite’ is the beat Cholly has created for it, with guitar work from Conor Amos (who also mixed and mastered the track). Overall, Opposite is one of Cholly’s less darker pieces, almost sounding like grime in the beginning, and her gentle voice a contrast to the noisier elements (did you hear the screaming early on?) Once the beat switches up it becomes something you can dance to. I think this would really work with a live audience. Cholly’s set-up for that can already be glimpsed in her live take of ‘Let Them Know’, but more on that in a minute.
How can we not talk about that music video? Cholly was already teasing clips of this when I published my last article about her music. Sometimes what you really need is a good old fashioned food fight to sort out your differences. Featuring two teams of bakers, is Cholly the judge or the referee? You decide, but be prepared to shower afterwards.
‘Let Them Know’ immediately evokes a club vibe, which is almost negated by Conor Amos’ heavy guitar playing and the beat that accompanies it. Amos’ wah effect loosens the chug of his picking, fitting it in with Cholly’s backing vocal loop and occasional effected lead vocal. The effect in question is a harmoniser that Cholly is using, where in a recording she would build those harmonies up organically, here an effect does the same job with more of an inhumane edge. That bassline is simple, but acts like an anchor, pulling everything together. Taking away a live bass player means the bassline doesn’t deviate in terms of the notes or the sound, it remains a constant throughout.
This is what I mean about Cholly’s live sound, all the components are there with a mixture of live instruments and loops, lead vocals, great mixing, and obviously the lighting helps to set the mood too. I might pipe this through a PA in my living room with the lights off and pay someone to spill their drinks down my top. I know I miss gigs but Cholly really didn’t have to come that hard for me.
Cholly’s latest single ‘Stepping’ is an example of her sampling expertise, with everything but the drums and the vocals created using a single clip of her singing ‘Ooo’. You might get a flicker of that early on, but largely that fact is hard to decipher with the rest of the music. Here the instrumental leans more towards the electronic without the addition of electric guitar, and Cholly’s lead vocal is clear, cutting through, giving more focus to it. The music for Stepping reminds me of something Grimes would release, especially with the airier vocals at the beginning. I particularly love that climbing arpeggiated synth line, with a cloud of sound behind it, a mixture of more atmospheric keyboards. Lyrically, there’s a lot that can be left open to interpretation, which I thought would be great for a remix. It turns out that Cholly has done just that, using both the audio and visual counterparts for a different take on her YouTube channel.
In terms of the visual element for Stepping, this is the best video accompaniment Cholly has made for a single so far. She uses older footage screened on a small CRT television set infused with static, mixed in with new shots of her performing the track in colour, while the former is in black and white. This video shares some of the lighting effects used in the live performance video for ‘Let Them Know’, as spots of colour dance across the more intimate shots. As well as the source footage being vital to the mood of the video, it’s the editing that makes it essential to being a success. Cholly usually steers more towards narrative-based music videos, but it’s the disorientating style of this particular video that aids in the ambiguity of the lyrical content, making this one such a winner. Hopefully this is the first of many single releases for Cholly in 2021.
Conor Amos and Cholly.
1. 'Stepping' is your brand new single - what was the lyrical inspiration for this track?
I went through a point of feeling really good and kind of hyper, like everything was great. I was still struggling to sleep every night because I was full of ideas and I was full of energy and motivation. I felt confident too, which was very unusual because when I'm feeling confident it's not for very long. I was enjoying this new confidence but also it was intimidating to me and I worried about becoming over-confident and too impulsive. I kept wondering why I felt so good because I'm used to just being full of self-doubt 24/7. I decided to have a chill day with a bubble bath and my mind was racing so much I just came up with the whole song in the bath and made it the same day. I kept the song sounding quite busy because that’s how I felt. During the couple months I was feeling like that, I made 4 other tracks which I'll also release this year.
2. Most of the music created in 'Stepping' is based off of one sample - what gear are you using for your recording and sampling? Did you form the track first and write the lyrics second?
For this track, I had the whole tune and lyrics for the song, plus the kind of sound I wanted in my head before I recorded it. That rarely happens to me! Usually I write up lyrics on my phone if I think of any, but it’s never a fully formed song before I start production. The sounds I decide to use and whatever mood I’m in at the time helps me to decide the rest. For sampling I sometimes hear a sound I like when I'm out and about, so I just use my phone to record it. Other times I will be sampling vocals I recorded on a better microphone. Occasionally I use my built-in laptop mic, as I share equipment with Conor (A Motion For Control & Zoomers), and sometimes he is using it when I get ideas. Ableton Live is the DAW I like to use.
3. The video for 'Stepping' is easily your best production so far, did you have the CRT television just lying around? How long did it take to make this edit?
We did actually just have that television lying around, because we'd used it for a project for our work. It was originally used for a short horror film we made about OCD called, 'Compulsion'. The edit for the music video really didn't take very long at all, because I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it straight away, though I did have some issues towards the end fretting over tiny details. I used footage that I shot in 2008 when I was messing about with my first camcorder, footage from 2018 for a music video I never finished (for a song that I never released) and stuff we shot in our living room.
4. I definitely feel a Grimes vibe from this single, do you have a favourite Grimes track? I still haven't heard Miss. Anthropocene.
I do like Grimes. I think one of my favourite tracks by her is probably Genesis from the album Visions.
5. I love the video for 'Opposite', what inspired the cake-off narrative for this single? Tell me about the filming from that day.
The song is about sexuality and misconceptions/stereotypes, for example, the off-hand comment that someone may make about bisexuals being ‘greedy’. This is why I decided to make it a cake-off. I also wanted to make a music video that was just fun, rather than taking it too seriously. The filming was very fun. I have never done so much baking in my life, and my friends who took part also contributed some sponge cakes for it. My mum and stepdad very kindly allowed us to film it in their garage, even though they knew it was going to be a ridiculous mess! My friend Rob (https://robpocknallphotgraphy.co.uk) volunteered to do camera work and my friend Sophie volunteered as a make-up artist (https://www.instagram.com/sophieolivermakeup). My friend Liam took all of the behind the scenes shots. Originally, I wasn’t going to be in the video because I’m not that confident on camera, but Conor thought I should, so I gave it a go and he took the role of director. For the end shot, I was having a lot of cake and flour thrown at me (by everybody including my parents), and eventually I did inhale some flour because I was laughing. I was coughing for a few days after! I’m glad we didn’t need to do multiple takes for that shot!
6. You released a live performance video for 'Let Them Know' back in December, were all those vocal samples created live? Is a studio recording coming for this song?
This song is quite an old one, so for that performance I was using a backing track and a vocal pedal for some effects + guitar by Conor. There probably will be a studio recording eventually, but I think it fits with some other old songs that I am also wanting to do properly, so it is going to be a while.
7. Every artist has one or two unreleased songs in the bank that are unlikely to surface. Pick one and tell us about it!
Oh dear. I have quite a lot of unreleased songs in the bank! I think eventually most of them will be released but it will probably take me forever (or I might sample them and make them into new songs, because I do that sometimes). There is one song that I made out of mainly vocal samples to portray a weird dream I had with a night terror. In the dream I was standing in a strange, empty space and I looked up to see black circle objects slowly falling down towards me. They went over my head and started to pile up around my neck and I started to suffocate. I wasn't doing anything in the dream, but in real life I was screaming a lot. That night, I had my sleep talk recording app on, so I was able to use the scream recordings in the track.
8. I think we've all gotten bored of making lockdown related art, how has Lockdown v3.0 been for you?
I've found Lockdown v3.0 very difficult. I feel a bit like I'm losing my mind. Although I'm very used to keeping in contact with friends and family through the internet, I struggle to keep up with group video calls and after a while it gets overwhelming. I much prefer seeing people in person, and I'm looking forward to being able to do that at some point! Creative projects have been keeping things 'interesting' for me, but I still need to figure out a balance between chilling out and making things.
9. You've spoken before about how you might have a second EP coming, where are you at with that?
I have all of the songs made and nearly mixed, with music videos planned for 2 of them. But I haven't made any decisions because decision making is not one of my strong points, and I'm very easily distracted by other projects. I will probably release them as singles and then have them in an EP afterwards if that makes sense. Every song was made on a Friday, when I was in a ‘Friday’ mood, so I feel they fit together quite well.
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Follow the adventures of Cholly across social media @chollymusic. Find her on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter!
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