CREATIVE CONVERSATIONS 164: CHELSEA CUTLER ON HER DEBUT AUSTRALIAN TOUR

Interview by Zac Farr.

Platinum American singer, songwriter and producer Chelsea Cutler is preparing for her debut Australian dates in May which will see her play shows in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth.

Futuremag Music caught up with Chelsea to talk about the upcoming tour, and her latest album, Stellaria, which was inspired by Chelsea’s nerdiness for Latin.

FMM: How's tour been so far? I've heard you've done 29 dates in North America and you finished at Radio City. How was that?

Chelsea: Big. Yeah, we did 29 shows and it was awesome. It was really, really fun. It was honestly the first time that we got to the end of tour and we weren't all exhausted and ready to go home.

FMM: That's such a win.

Chelsea: Yeah, that's like the mark of a special one when you've done 29 shows and you still would do more.

FMM: Were you doing it with the same team? How many tours have you done before?

Chelsea: So we had about twelve crew members. A solid handful of them have been with me for a minute. I think what's cool about tour is when you're living on a bus for seven weeks with people. You become really acquainted so it feels like you've known them forever.

FMM: And you kind of get to see the whole of North America, too.

Chelsea: Yeah, yeah. I mean, America's huge, dude, like Australia’s massive, right?

FMM: I think, like, land size, about the same, if you take out Alaska.

Chelsea: Yeah. Okay. It's pretty huge, so big. Geographically, everything is so diverse, so it’s pretty cool.

FMM: What was a highlight of the 29 nights?

Chelsea: Ooh, something that was pretty crazy is we got stuck in a snowstorm driving to Colorado. We thought we had to cancel the show and we were still a seven-hour drive away and we'd have to essentially make the call by 2pm, so we could get there and go on by 9pm. At 1.30, the road finally opened, so we were, like, 30 minutes away from having to cancel the show. They had to literally FaceTime with the crew on the ground there in Denver to build our whole rig and everything and we made it. It was such a sick show, and everyone's adrenaline was just going crazy and we were like 30 minutes away from having to cancel it.

We’re actually gonna be coming to Australia kind of as it's getting cold.

FMM: We've just had our summer, so it's kind of not, like, cold cold, though. Just like, like 15 to 20 degrees.

Chelsea: Oh, that's pretty warm for us.

FMM: Have you been to Australia before? Like, just for fun? You've never toured, but have you just been for, like, a holiday?

Chelsea: No, first time coming down under.

FMM: So why Australia? Why bring the album to Australia?

Chelsea: Honestly, it feels like the right next step, you know? Obviously, it is generally expensive and hard to get over there, but something that's really interesting that we noticed is there was an uptick in data of people who were listening in Australia, and so we're like, we gotta make this happen, and we're like, it's about time. You know, we've never gotten to go.

FMM: Well, we're very excited to have you. Now, talk to us about the actual album, Stellaria. Why is it called that? Where was your mind at when you were making it? You have a beautiful way to bring such an authenticity and rawness into your music, so just step us through kind of that process.

Chelsea: Well, I'm a little bit of a nerd, and I studied Latin pretty much from when I was twelve to 18, and then the second component is, I knew I wanted one word to kind of describe the world. I kept seeing the word Stellaria pop up because we were shooting content out in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, which, for context is, like, this beautiful.. like, Yellowstone National Park is there, a beautiful national park, and it's just gorgeous. It’s such a departure from anything that I've done. We kept seeing the word Stellaria. There's a Stellaria Lane and a Stellaria Creek and again, me being a nerdy Latin student was like, oh, I really like that word. I don’t know, I just saw it and was like, I think this is a great word for this all.

FMM: Yeah, I love it. Your way to kind of create a whole world of its own in an album is quite beautiful. And like I said before, you bring such a rawness and you merge that head and heart so beautifully with so many lovely metaphors. Talk to us about your production. You mentioned you're kind of nerdy and I've heard you like to do everything as an artist, which we love, so nerd out with us. Are we a logic person? Ableton?

Chelsea: Logic.

FMM: All right, so did we always start on Logic, in the bedroom, just grinding? Downloading the plugins? What kind of mics do we like to use when recording? Do we load out on the gear?

Chelsea: Yeah, yeah, totally. This last record, the last two years, I have done everything on a telefunken. The 251.That's the main thing I do. Sometimes I do background vocals with a handheld. I just like to have a bit of sonic diversity.

FMM: We love that, and then guitar and piano. We've heard your incredible brent: live from the internet with the one and only. And with that, are we more of a guitar person when we start writing? Or do we start with the keys? Give some inspiration for some Aussie artists.

Chelsea: Yeah, I think what's so fun about it is I don't really have a set routine. I was saying just a few minutes ago, in my last interview, actually, I was saying, I just try to go to the studio every day. Like, any day I'm home. I just try to go to the studio even on weekends, and I just try to spend a little bit in there, even if it's just doing, like, emails, you know? Just so I'm in there. The way I have it set up in there is basically my upright piano and a bunch of guitars are kind of within arm's reach for my desk So, naturally, you just start fiddling or you pick something up. I feel like that's a big way that things happen, is like, I just force myself to go in there and noodle around. But it happens, like, there's so many different ways. Sometimes I’m just making stupid little beats and idea will come, you know?

FMM: Yeah, you've got such a diverse range. You kind of started out in that dance space, and now you've kind of mellowed out, and we love it. Are you sticking to this sound? Are you kind of just letting it happen? Or have we been writing on tour? Are you one of those artists that pulls out the voice memos and you just put in samples into your phone?

Chelsea: Yeah, 100%. Yeah. I just bring a little interface and handheld mic with me on the road, too. I wrote a bunch on the road and I love reading. I'm sitting on a lot of stuff, which is really fun.

FMM: Sitting on a lot of stuff? So how did we pick the 15 tracks for Stellaria? I'm sure you've got a crazy library of all of these incredible songs. Is it with a PR team or do you do it yourself?

Chelsea: You know, the label is wonderful, and they really do give their artists a lot of creative control, which is amazing. At the same time, they also are great because they kind of contribute their input as well. So we get a lot of opinions, which can sometimes be a lot to navigate and kind of work through, because obviously, everyone has different opinions and stuff. But, I think what's helpful when you have a lot of opinions is you can kind of survey a lot of people and see at least, like, okay, where do opinions align? Where are people disagreeing? And where opinions align is generally, obviously where, like, a lot of the good songs are, or the songs maybe are more likely to make it onto a record. So, yeah, it's tough. Yeah, I think for Stellaria, there's probably… I mean, we definitely wrote, like, over 50 songs, I would say. I mean, for sure more than that. A lot more than that. But, yeah, I like, we even maybe finished and, like, actually were choosing from, like, I don't know, we narrowed it down to, like, 20, and then, you know, get it down to that final 15. It's crazy how many songs by your favourite artists probably just are in a Dropbox folder somewhere.

FMM: Now, you've probably been asked this question a lot, but I think just with the data, the data is bringing you to Australia in the sense, if you've seen that spike up in the Spotify streams and things like that, and we're very grateful for that, how do we not let the data and social media impact your music? Because you seem to have such a pure form to your artistic way of creating things. Do you have a process of how you keep that our? Or do you feel like it is coming into your creative process? Just be aw with us there with the real-life stuff.

Chelsea: Yeah, that's a great question. I mean, I think it's inevitable that it's gonna kind of creep into your brain, because we all want success. We all want a song, obviously, to go viral, and social media is kind of the platform where that happens now. Obviously I think the best music that stands, that, you know, the base test of time is music that comes from a real place and is sonically interesting. I think, just kind of reminding yourself, that instant gratification versus, like, longevity, you know, because I think I always say things that I'm sure the label doesn't appreciate, but, you know, short term virality is less interesting to me as an artist than making sure I have a long career and people are buying tickets and the music means something to them, so that's just something I like to keep in mind.

FMM: That's actually a really, really beautiful perspective. Thanks for being so raw there.

FMM: What are we keen to see in Australia outside of the music stuff? I'm sure you've heard fun things, so what are you keen to experience?

Chelsea: Yeah, I feel embarrassed because I think that all the things I want to see are really touristy. It’s embarrassing because that's, like, people saying they want to go see Times Square in New York, and as someone who lives in New York, I'm like, no, don't do that. I want to see the Sydney Opera House, because you see that in movies all the time, so seeing that would be really cool. I really want to see a kangaroo and a koala really bad. I'm excited for all the slang.

FMM: The slang? We're pretty raw. You're gonna be sworn out, most likely. One fun thing, have you ever done a shoey?

Chelsea: I’ve heard about it.

FMM: You're most likely gonna get chance to do a shoey. That'll be exciting. You don't have to, but the crowd will get behind it. Well, that's all my questions. It was so lovely to meet you and we're quite excited to have you over here.

Chelsea: Are you able to come to a show?

FMM: Yeah, I think I'll be at the Sydney one at the Metro, which is quite beautiful.

Chelsea: Awesome. All righty. Thanks so much, Zach. Nice to meet.