Interview: Rainbow Chan

Sydney’s premier synth-pop queen Rainbow Chan is back with a brand new album ‘Spacings’, which came out last month to eagerly awaiting fans. Between photoshoots and dead phone batteries, Rainbow found some spare time to chat to us about everything from her break from live music, her music video for Work, and even what her fans can expect to see at her live shows.

You took a bit of a “Long Vacation” after your debut EP, what did you get up to before jumping back into the studio?

The record itself took about a year, and the process of writing the songs took a while too. A lot of things were happening around me at the time, I went through a few personal relationship breakdowns and did a lot of growing up in that time. Then the actual process of refining the album and getting it mixed a few times took a little while too. As well as in the two years I expanded into other art forms like installation work in gallery context and teaching. I kind of wish it was a “Long Vacation”… (laughs)

I had no idea you did visual art works, what made you move into that?

I guess the record process was taking a while and I wanted to explore a few other avenues to deepen my interest in music and art!

I saw you made a massive Facebook post about making your new album, and you mentioned previously how you had the album mixed a few times. Are there any unreleased tracks from ‘Spacings’ or any tracks that kind of changed through the process?

There were a few songs that weren’t coherent with the narrative of the album, or maybe was kind of a double up of something that already existed. I knew from the beginning I wanted it to be a pretty neat 10-track record. I didn’t want any fluff or excess, and in that kind of refining process I cut out a lot of that. Even when I produced the one of the first mixes of the album some of the songs sounded more full. So I guess thematically the name of the album ‘Spacings’ relates to that, learning the process of stripping things back and leaving space for it to breathe.

How does your new album ‘Spacings’ differ sonically from ‘Long Vacation’?

I think with ‘Long Vacation’ I was still learning a lot about production at the time and putting things together quite haphazardly. But with ‘Spacings’ I felt a little bit more confident to make the record a bit more polished without it being deliberately sheen. It’s still a little bit gritty and there are still element of rawness.

Can you tell us a little bit about your music video for your single Work?

When I wrote the song it was up-beat and very high energy, and when I played it live I got the feedback that people where empowered or they’d been going through something recently and needed something like that. I thought that if I was to make a music video I’d want the look of it to be quite empowering and quite strong. As I was chatting to a few friends they all said “why don’t you do a pop-dance video and really go for it?”. And when I was a kid I was obsessed with the idea of becoming J-lo’s backup dancer, [so] I’m really happy with how it turned out!

Is there any chance we’d be seeing your instillation art merge with you sounds or music videos?

Yeah, I believe so! I try to make sure that the context is right for whatever I do. If there’s a space that I feel that the type of art I’m making is applicable to the medium then sure, it’d be interesting. Even when I do create art based works I do sometimes include pop-music based elements.

I like exploring those intersections where people have pre-existing ideas of high-brow and low-brow art. I wouldn’t want to do it for the sake of doing it and saying “hey everyone, I’m a multi-disciplinary artist, look at what I can do!”. It’s gotta be respectful to the context at make sense.

Fair enough. I think a lot of bands now kind of do that just for the sake of it which can feel tired a bit. Now to your tour, are you excited to be hitting the road again?

Yeah! I think because I’ve got a new live set up with two other artist in my band. Moon Holiday’s not only playing in my band, but they’re the main support for the whole tour. So having them on stage with me has given the live show a new stage presence. It’s freed me up to sing and dance a bit more and not be so self conscious trying to hit a lot of buttons! (laughs)

What can fans expect from your live shows? Are they going to hear a lot more newer songs from ‘Spacings’ or some throwbacks from ‘Long Vacation’?

It’s pretty much gonna be all new songs, I’m gonna try and do as much of the new album as I possibly can and if I have time now and then I can drop in some of those older tracks. I think there’s an interesting lag between when you finish writing tracks and you present them live to an audience. Sometimes as artists we can get to a point where those older songs just aren’t us anymore.

A lot of your songs are more electronic too, so how do you go about bringing those sounds into your live shows?

For me, I use all synths and keyboards because I feel like the idea of trying to translate certain sounds into a live aspect is a little bit contrived. Just because it’s trying to meet the aesthetics of a rock ideology which isn’t really what my music is about.

Rainbow Chan ‘Spacings’ Tour

FRI 9 SEP
Rocket Bar, Adelaide
SAT 10 SEP
Jack Rabbit Slim’s, Perth
FRI 16 SEP
Newtown Social Club, Sydney
SAT 16 SEP
Boney, Melbourne
THU 22 SEP
The Foundry, Brisbane

Get Tickets HERE