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Singer / songwriter Chaz Cardigan has swiftly followed up his early August release 'Rashomon' with the second single from his upcoming LP, entitled 'It's Gonna Be Great (Hallelujah)' via AntiFragile Music.
The track can be summed up as simple, earnest indie-folk pop about getting older and the anxiety monologue running through Chaz Cardigan's head. "If it doesn't kill me, it's gonna be great". We had the chance to speak with Chaz on the release and more...
Introduce yourself to our readers and tell us a little about you!
"I’ve been writing and playing shows since I was about 10 years old, and most of my life has been spent in bands or producing for other artists. I grew up in Kentucky, around the Midwest, and then moved to Nashville to chase music when I was 18. I’ve had a weird little career throughout COVID, songs in a few movies, a few record deals, and now I live in Los Angeles. I just finished an album that’s coming later this year, which is were my new song fits in."
For anyone who is just discovering your music , how would you sum up your musical style in a short sentence?
"“Extroverted music for introverts” was a good one that I picked up from somebody."
Was there a specific point in your life when you knew that you wanted to pursue music as a career?
"The boring answer is that it was always the obvious choice. A lot of kids my age grew up with Idol or Hannah Montana, so this story feels more and more common for artists. The idea that you could turn performing into a career, or singing into a lifestyle - that was magnetic to me. Some of that might have been the tension in the air after 9/11, and the general white-knuckling going on the culture. There’s no way to articulate that when you’re 7 or 8, but there’s a gut intuition that everybody seems tense and that music seems to make everybody lighten up."
Who would you say you take the most musical influence from? Do you feel like these artists or people have a direct impact on the music you release currently?
"I used to obfuscate this so much when I was younger, but the honest answers are Lana Del Rey, Lady Gaga, and The 1975. Sufjan Stevens and Nirvana are my all-time favourites, but they only show up occasionally as influences. Lana, Gaga, and The 1975 have really shaped my music pretty directly over the last decade in a way that, like, Bowie and Genesis don’t, even if they were in my head at a younger age. Lana’s consistency and commitment to a single voice, Gaga’s reckless commitments to her inconsistencies, and The 1975’s total freedom to just write good pop songs without genre borders."
Your new single 'It's Gonna Be Great (Hallelujah)' is out now! Can you tell us a little more about the track?
"Yeah! As I get older, there’s a constant monologue in my head, saying: “You’re not doing this right. Everybody knows something that you don’t. Great job trying so hard, you’re still gonna die.” I don’t know whose voice it is, or when I learned to talk to myself that way, but it’s deafening. Nate and Noah from Sleeping Lion are both nervous dorks like me, and we wrote “It’s Gonna Be Great” on the day that we met, in about 40 minutes with barely any effort. We each probably sweat out 10 years of therapy into this song."
Is there one strong or overall message you wanted to get across with this single and why is the track important to you?
"“Stop being anxious, start being better.” The whole album is about joy being radical, with the world sort of falling apart. No one cares what you do, or how you do it, just stop overthinking it."
How long did the track take to come together, right from the initial stages to the final product you've just put out?
"This one came wicked fast. I wrote it in February, I finished the track with Sleeping Lion in 2 sessions, and I knew as soon as March that I wanted the song to come out over the summer. Around the same time, I started negotiating a new record deal so the summer became a series of emails back-and-forth finding the best way forward for everybody. This is one of the quicker clips I’ve put moved at to release anything."
Do you have a favourite lyric from the track?
“"Ask my dad how he’s hanging, he talks a lot with age; likes, I could start living…if it doesn’t kill it, it’s gonna be great”."
What can we expect from you for the rest of 2023?
"I have a few more songs that will drip out this year, but the next big thing is a full-length LP."
'It's Gonna Be Great (Hallelujah)' is out now. Listen HERE @chazcardigan
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