Words by Annie Barber
Cover photo by Paul Cruz
Dialling in from London, Tanis is calm and collected as she talks to Karma! on the run up to the release of her first EP. Born to a French writer-producer and a Singaporean top model and raised in 6 different countries across the Caribbean, Asia, and Europe, Tanis’ multicultural upbringing translates into her music. As we talk, she has succinct answers, which is a skill that can also be seen in the way she writes her songs. They’re to the point and very relatable.
Tanis’ upcoming EP is called ‘Just Some Stories’, a simple but fitting title. She reveals that the name came to her during a conversation with her family: “it was kind of through my mum because one day we were all talking and… my brother was asking about the lyrics and the meanings and I was just telling him that they’re just snippets of experiences that I’ve expanded into stories, because at some point he was like, ‘are you okay?’ He was getting very concerned about my feelings and I was like, ‘I’m fine!’ You know, the truth is that we all have [lives] that are filled with experiences and we can kind of pinpoint these moments and turn them to stories and turn them into songs [so] I was basically just telling my family, ‘don’t worry, they’re just some stories’.”
Her latest single, ‘Turn Off The News’ features on the EP. The track is inspired by her brother’s experience with an ex who started posting more on social media following their breakup: “she’d be looking really beautiful in all her posts, and he would kind of get jealous and regret his decision [to break up with her] and it kind of just made me think that that’s actually quite common behaviour… that’s what inspired the song, this kind of post-heartbreak or post-breakup behaviour that we all kind of naturally [do].”
Out of the unreleased ones, the song Tanis is most excited for people to hear is ‘Child In The Empty Forest’. She says “it’s a song I wrote quite a long time ago. Maybe, six or seven years ago but I held onto it and reworked it because I loved the song, but I didn’t feel it was ready yet… So I think because of that anticipation, I’m very excited to share it.” She reveals that it’s a song about struggling to fit into a new place, saying “I wrote it when I first moved to New York and it was kind of, [with] New York being such a crazy city, it felt like this giant forest and I felt very alone and a bit detached from everything.” She originally produced the track on her own but decided that she wanted a collaborator to work on it with her: “I worked with a producer called John Roffe-Ridgard, who’s amazing… and we brought in a bunch of singers to sing that choir at the end to get that lift and that build that I think it really needed.”
Most of all though, she hopes that each person who listens to the EP finds a song that resonates with them: “I think each song has its own identity. I don’t think the EP itself is telling a singular message… I just hope that listeners, you know, they may not like the entire EP. If they do, that’s great, but I hope that within it they can find their favourite song and something that they identify with.”
She says that the EP is inspired by a range of music, due to the mix of genres she listened to during her childhood. She says that “generally it’s a pop album but I grew up listening to my father’s music [which] was very much more the 70s and my [mom’s which] was more of the 80s. So at home we had a lot of 70s rock and a lot of 80s disco music… I wanted to incorporate that because I think that, especially now, I don’t want to write music that makes people feel heavy or feel down and I feel that that eras of 80s music was very uplifting.” For Tanis, music and the arts are essential to the human experience and a form of escapism. She says that “art is such a powerful tool for larger global issues, I guess, but even on a smaller scale in your own life, for me at least, there are moments where, if I don’t feel so well and I listen to a certain song, it might help me feel better or more motivated, and I think that’s the beautiful thing about music.”
On the topic of global issues, Tanis is committed to humanitarian causes and has done charity work such as selling photo books which document human rights issues. Although she hasn’t done much of that work in recent years, she says she’s grateful to have had those opportunities and would love to do something similar again. Recalling those experiences, she says “I was a teenager and I was living in Beijing at the time and started traveling to Indonesia… I volunteered at a nearby orphanage in Beijing and through them I met another charity organisation that asked me to shoot some photos of under-privileged kids in Indonesia that are basically too poor to pay for even a passport and identity card so in the Indonesian population, they basically don’t exist and [are] not accounted for… it was something that I think most people are unaware of.”
Tanis says that her international upbringing is something which has bled into her music: “I think the mix of textures and sounds comes from me having a mixed heritage and growing up in many, many different places. That being said, I don’t like to forcefully inject things into an arrangement that shouldn’t be there. For example, my mom is from Singapore. She’s of Chinese ancestry. I never found it appropriate to stick in a Chinese traditional instrument to any of the songs just to make a point.” She adds that the influence is instead organic and natural and that ‘Turn Off The News’ has a “slight Caribbean flare to the percussion… I grew up in The Bahamas [and] that rhythm is a lovely rhythm. It felt good to put it in there and that was my little nod to my life in The Bahamas.”
Despite being fluent in 5 languages, she has previously said that “music remains the language that I love the most.” Speaking about this, she says “I’ve always been and very much an introvert. I’m still very shy” She admits that, as a child, she found speaking in class daunting. Finding solace at home playing piano, she saw music as a sort of language, “not so much to communicate with others, but I guess to communicate with myself or deal with, my stress or my emotions.” She adds, “I work sometimes in film composition when we write scores under film, there is a dialogue but the music we put underneath can change the meaning of that dialogue and that’s why I think it’s a language in itself because it changes the tone of the words entirely.”
Although this is one of the similarities between composing for films and writing her own music, Tanis says that there are many differences. She says that “it’s almost like two different parts of the brain,” because when she’s writing her own music, she’s writing about her own lived experiences, whereas when she’s composing for films, she’s building the music around an already finished story. She continues, saying “it’s almost like a reverse process from songwriting in that you already have the story fully formed and now it’s [like] how am I going to write music to support the story, as opposed to change or create a story.”
I turn next to the two mandatory Karma! questions, the first being ‘if you or your art were a colour, what would it be?’ Tanis picks green. She says “I think maybe it’s a combination of who I am and a combination of the songs [on the EP]. I tend to feel green as quite a non-conflictual, welcoming, happy colour but not to the extent of the positivity of the yellow.” She laughs before adding “I’d say it’s a more tamed version of that but it’s still nothing angry [or] upsetting and I feel like that’s kind of where the EP lands. It’s there to let you get in touch with certain feelings, but it’s not meant to upset you.” Lastly, the song recommendation she gives is ‘Right Thing’ by Bayonne. Speaking about the song, she says “it’s quite a chill vibe. It’s very nice to listen to when you’re walking, it has a nice rhythm [and] I like the way it’s produced. You feel good listening to it.”
Tanis’ EP ‘Just Some Stories’ is out today and available to listen to now. On it, Tanis’ astute perception of the world around her and the experiences she has gone through are translated into shimmery pop tracks. Follow her on Instagram and TikTok to keep up to date with her and grab a ticket to her show in London on the 29th if you want to see her live.
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