As Tanukichan, Bay Space musician Hannah van Loon is acquainted with the transformative potential of distortion. Nowhere was that clearer than on her first launch with Firm Information, 2018’s Sundays. The dream pop stylings she leaned into captured the multidimensional contemplation that occurs throughout a bout of Sunday Scaries: nervousness stemming from instability, the doldrums that include respite, an underlying need for one thing extra. Within the years following Sundays’ launch, van Loon has endured even much less stability. She centered herself by adopting a canine she christened Gizmo, whose personal sense of caprice rubbed off on her. This newfound companion’s brightness interprets brilliantly on GIZMO, her second LP as Tanukichan.
Whereas the ethereality of dream pop and the depth of shoegaze stay a few of her favourite instruments, as heard on document opener “Escape,” van Loon leaned into radio rock to generate the uplifting, pop-sourced sensibilities that make a lot of GIZMO’s brightest tracks so memorable. The melodic, nu metal-invoking “Don’t Give Up” possesses this precise shine. Her gently frolicking vocals pair brilliantly with grungy riffs that construct into eyebrow-furling depth earlier than plummeting into light rocker “A Dangerous Dream.”
Whereas Toro y Moi’s Chaz Bear stays a major collaborator throughout GIZMO’s manufacturing, Tanukichan additionally invitations PNW rockers Enumclaw to hitch her on “Skinny Air,” a rumination on impermanence. Whereas van Loon grapples with despair and ephemerality fairly nakedly, her manufacturing decisions don’t let listeners languish in stillness, as an alternative instigating moments of beating and bouncing. Whereas, tragically, Gizmo the canine handed away simply as van Loon accomplished the document, GIZMO is a testomony to the gorgeous ways in which a contrasting companion can encourage all of us to channel our feelings in new, distinctive methods.
To have a good time Tanukichan’s lovely, bombastic new document, van Loon shares with us the inspiration behind the album’s 10 tracks, shining a lightweight on the challenges she seeks to confront and the programs she balances whereas composing good works of rockstardom.
1. “Escape”
This tune is about somebody I fell for actual laborious, however we solely noticed one another a couple of occasions a yr. It was actually complicated and stored resurfacing, so I gave up making an attempt to recover from it. He mentioned I ought to be myself, be extra assured, however being shy is simply a part of me.
2. “Don’t Give Up”
This tune is about feeling I haven’t accomplished something with my life, but in addition realizing that I’ve completed rather a lot and it’s solely getting higher. I began writing the lyrics after I was on tour opening for The Drums after my first album got here out. We have been enjoying sold-out reveals in entrance of a whole bunch of individuals, however I knew it might change immediately. I felt like I hit all-time low emotionally—I wasn’t prepared for the street and it killed me. I felt so disconnected from the band despite the fact that they have been my spine and have been making it occur. The one factor that actually helps me at that time is feeling like I can simply let all the things go, and all of us die. Simply accepting the truth that I can’t management something and that in the long run it doesn’t matter. We are going to all disappear.
I wrote the refrain years later after I was ending a bunch of the songs. I didn’t need it to be miserable, despite the fact that that’s the place it got here from. It got here from giving up, however I needed to maintain going. I needed it to imply one thing, shifting on from the damaging, and I got here up with a ridiculously constructive refrain. Don’t surrender now, you already know there’s one other day, simply know you’re going to get to a greater place—a greater place that means a greater place in life, or “heaven,” simply nothingness the place all of your worries are gone.
3. “A Dangerous Dream”
This tune is about experiences out of your previous coming again to hang-out you, and making an attempt to attach with individuals out of your previous who have been a part of these experiences. I’ve felt an immense rift the place the nearer I attempt to get to them the additional away I notice I’m. A number of the lyrics are fairly literal depictions of my experiences, however I selected these lyrics as a result of it additionally feels like I’m breaking apart with a lover. It additionally has connotations of that for me, too. Somebody who is just too connected, thinks they’re simply best for you, but it surely’s over.
4. “Been Right here Earlier than”
That is about making an attempt to get away from all of it, feeling prefer it’s inconceivable for me to reside on this world/society. It’s nearly like a reset, as a result of you may’t do something however simply wait to really feel higher. “Take into consideration all the good issues everybody has mentioned.” I really feel like I’ve some social nervousness and typically I spend hours going over all the things flawed I did, however must maintain reminding myself of the great issues in my life so I don’t spiral uncontrolled.
5. “Make Consider”
This tune is about totally different sorts of perception in my life. I grew up non secular, and I’m so over individuals with religious inclinations making an attempt to persuade me that issues you may’t see are actual, or that there’s something on the market to consider in. It’s empowering to me to simply accept that I can let that go. It feels good to not consider in something, not maintain on to something, however simply do your finest.
6. “Like You”
This tune is about feeling that I can by no means actually be near somebody. Even when I had all the things I needed, I nonetheless felt empty and like life has no that means. Trying again on my life I’ve at all times simply moved on to a different accomplice, I simply need one other excessive, one other drink. I’ve felt like that’s what life is, and why ought to it not be? I’ve been making an attempt to return to phrases with the truth that I’m allowed to really feel that method. My life is my life, and that’s what the refrain is about: Simply realizing that it’s OK to be nevertheless I’m.
7. “Skinny Air”
This tune is about exes, some people who I actually cared about however finally didn’t need to be with. The unhappiness I really feel after I’m hurting somebody, and lacking them, and realizing you received’t ever have that closeness once more. It’s about how vital they’re and the way a lot they’ve taught me, or helped me, however how I additionally know that folks come and go. The refrain has a double that means for me the place I really feel like I can’t prioritize relationships as a result of I have to maintain specializing in myself. The opposite is feeling like I’m damaged, and maintain ending up with the flawed individuals and hurting them.
8. “Nothing to Lose”
This tune is partly about psychedelics. I simply need to expertise all the things in life. I simply need to really feel all the things and take a look at all the things, and there’s a sure realization you will have while you’re actually excessive that your life doesn’t matter, and sometime I’ll be useless and received’t keep in mind something. I really feel like I’ve had extra success than I ever imagined I’d, however even then I felt like I had nothing in my life and will danger all of it. It’s unhappy to appreciate that, but in addition very liberating and empowering.
9. “Take Care”
I wrote this tune after I was feeling particularly depressed. I felt so down and bummed out that I began chopping individuals out of my life. I felt like each time I had interactions with others I used to be such a drag that I’d deliver down the temper. I had nothing I needed to speak about, so I simply reduce off from individuals. It was painful to really feel remoted, and I craved companionship or friendship much more, however I knew that sometime I’d come out of it, and hopefully we’d be mates once more.
10. “Mr. Rain”
That is about the identical individual that I fell for. It felt like an dependancy, and possibly led to me feeling like I had a form of addictive relationship with substances. This tune is about that…and accepting that that is how it’s, and that is how I’m. It doesn’t assist to combat the sensation despite the fact that I’ve tried. It’s about giving up being OK with it.
