The Power of Chan

Photography — Curtis Buchanan Styling — Dree Hemingway 123 Chloé dress & jewellery The frst time I heard Cat Power’s new record I got chills. It rolls in with Wanderer sung a cappella – a rich low call to you, that is part lullaby, part hymn and my frst thought was, what a holy and beautiful sound, my second: Oh Joy! She’s back.

Interview by Gemma Lacey

One of Chan’s gifts has mouths who won’t speak it or even genuine to me? Do they tell the story always been how she sings about the out our own mouths to proclaim it, I want to tell? Do I feel anything? hardest things in life in a sensitive and try to find beauty there, because Does it feel the same as when I wrote and nuanced way. Never has it felt there’s so much loss and pain.” it and if that is all honoured, then it more relevant. In hard times, her Honesty and authenticity becomes part of the album together.” records serve as a comfort to so are strong currents in all her songs, That’s not to say there’s many. Meeting her, I find she’s an from the raw beauty of Nude as the no finessing of her sound though, incredibly warm and tender person News to the grand swell of The Great- she compares it to tailoring. “Like a and the care and feeling you sense est, but it’s expressed in her music in sleeve that’s too baggy, I may decide in her songs is as palpable in real other ways. The often slow plinkity to crop it and cinch the elbows tight- life. Her intention with this record plonk of piano keys at the start of er as I go. When I try to do a formula was to “create a place of protection, songs reflects her sense of playfulness of a song structure it never works. I serenity, and grounding, some kind too. This lightness is often over- never feel my subconscious calm or of personal space for us not to leave looked, which is a shame because relax.” She cites John Coltrane’s Bes- the world, but to let us enter a deeper she’s hilarious! Her British accent sie’s Blues as a song that demonstrates connection with whatever this life rivals my own, but she explains it’s the sense of depth or “honey to my is.” Because right now it seems we’re not just for humour but also a tactic beehive” that she searches for. all feeling like we have “that little she employs when, as a woman Her interactions with the voice inside us, that wants to scream touring, she has to ask several times world and her fans are not just our heads off and tell the truth”. to get her needs met. It’s a testament through her music though, on social There will be interviews to her Southern manners that she media she’s vocal about vital issues around this record that focus on has found a way to be so charming almost daily and a champion of Chan leaving her longtime label, but about it. activists. Patti Smith once told her, to focus on music industry politics Even the often focused on “It’s your responsibility as an artist would take away from the real dia- erratic behaviour in articles for me to stand up if you believe in some- logue of creating this record, which seems out of context, Chan is a heart thing.” is far more interesting. on her sleeve type person. Yet, she’s Initially, this was over- This album is Chan is refreshingly self-accepting and says whelming, “I was like, I’m trying returning to herself. Wanderer is a the only time her vulnerability is an to keep my head above water here. truly pure expression of love and issue is when it’s met with malevo- I don’t know if I can handle that.” hope. In her own words, “The idea lence and then she might internalise, Then she had a realisation, she might of the record is that with great love, but there’s also another part of her not be The Beastie Boys and able to comes great loss and there we are that says “Fuck you!”. save Tibet or tell the world about the as humanity. We’re alive and this This assurance also mani- Dalai Lama but she had “this stupid is our life on this planet today and fests in her process for songwriting, tool” that she could share stuff with, tomorrow. Going forward, but never approaching it from a purely intuitive even if it was sometimes subject to abandoning our curious nature and and instinctive place. “The way I censorship. our path to hopefully searching for craft a record is by being with songs She’s under no illusions the beauty in all this truth. A lot of and melodies in my mind and the about the impact though as she says, truth is unavailable to us but we all ones I choose to record, are those “When I see Kanye attempting to know it, we see it, we smell it and try that I feel have done their job as preach the gospel of love and uniting to uncover it, pull it out of people’s a song. Are they honest? Are they with Trump, for me that’s taking a

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“I earn my living from singing to people and to me that is a perfect world because I get life experience and I get to meet the world and that’s a true gift.”

horrendous wrong turn. It breaks a very intense emotional place as message, your realistic intentions, everyone’s heart, when we believe she dealt with the loss of someone intensity and you’ve got soul. And that spreading awareness will catch she loved very deeply. Now though, soul, it has manners, grace, dignity, on like wildfire, it just isn’t so.” she loves the emotional resonance pride and a beat, a rhythm, a groove. She also found many fans turned of it as she says it “has a real stable It’s like folk – it has a story. It’s all-in- away and her account was subject to confidence, a closure that is essential clusive music.” censorship which frustrated her. She in loss.” That sense of inclusivity is had bigger plans for her activism but The record also includes a what strikes me in talking to Chan, a friend’s death and her pregnancy Rihanna cover, Stay), a song whose she radiates energy, passion and also rerouted those “so that path I was haunting lyrics could have been writ- compassion. She’s also never shy to on quickly came to a halt and I had ten by Chan herself. There’s also an champion her female companions, to reassess my personal priorities.” upbeat number in You Get which has Lana Del Rey “is an angel” whilst She says part of the problem with a slow danceable groove. She’s a fan Natacha Ramsay-Levi of Chloé is activism is people focusing on their of hip-hop and this shines through someone who helped fortify strength immediate needs, but acknowledges her work in the way she brings in her. “I think that’s what, as wom- how vital that is too. She’s far from together multiple worlds through en, we need from each other. There silent though, her Instagram posts covers and the way she merges styles isn’t a whole bunch of arenas to com- pack a punch and it’s rare she doesn’t in her music. municate this love for one another bring some important issue to the For her favourite hip-hop and profound, almost dedication to spotlight, often before you’d catch it artists, she immediately cites Tupac each other, because of our mutual on the news. for the “positive vibrancy of his story- understanding and co-existing with This insight is her gift and telling and calibration of lyrical flow the fucked up issues we have to deal nowhere is that more evident than he delivers that in.” She compares his with and navigate in society”. her lyrics, such as Taking People, style of rapping to the passion and I ask her what she’d like where she manages to simultaneous- energy with which Aretha Franklin people to take away from the record ly reference the idea that taking a sang. “It’s almost gospel-ish in that it and the answer is a generous one, “A picture of someone can be compared makes you feel good and aware and sense of personal freedom, empower- to capturing their soul and explore makes you feel. You feel positive and ment, self-acceptance, self-validation, how we, as people often train our that’s magic!” Through Biggie she perseverance, a ton of shit I guess! focus in the wrong direction. “If I finds comfort, “Everything is going Fortitude of self, that your story was a photographer, picture taking, to be OK when Biggie’s rapping. It’s is relevant, your life experiences beautiful people, I guess I’d make fine because his voice is amazing and are valuable and your individual a mistake, cause I’d probably take a he has this calm energy.” message that you can conjure from picture of you.” She waxes lyrical on the real yourself can heal.” This is Cat Power On Wanderer, her favourite appeal of “razor sharp emotion in in a nutshell: inspiring, generous, song is Me Voy which translates as hip-hop that I enjoy because it speaks warm-hearted, but not about to take “I’m going”. She wasn’t sure if it that truth which is what I search any shit. Welcome back Chan, you would make the record because when for as an artist and in life.” This is got here right when we needed you. she wrote it she was coming from a beacon for her, “You’ve got your

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Chan’s own shirt

Makeup & hair: Adrienne Herbert at Art Department Photography assistant: Andrew Arthur Chloé dress & jewellery 128 129 Styling assistants: Liberty Padre & Quan Nguyen