Name: ChiaraOscuro
Nationality: American
Occupation: Musician, composer, multimedia artist
Current release: ChiaraOscuro’s Rancor:Succor, mastered by Heba Kadry (Slowdive, Diamanda Galas, Julianna Barwick) and produced by Marta Salogni (Holly Herndon, Bjork, Nyx Electronic Drone Choir), Daniel Knowles, and Skot Brown, is out now.
Recommendations: “On the Road 2” by Roy Montgomery; “Distance” by Flying Saucer Attack; “Turbulent” by Sussan Deyhim; “The Resonance of Goodbye” by The Angelic Process

If you enjoyed this ChiaraOscuro interview and would like to find out more about her music, visit her on Instagram, and Facebook.



When I listen to music, I see shapes, objects and colours. What happens in your body when you're listening? Do you listen with your eyes open or closed?

It depends on what I’m listening to and the context the music or sound is happening in. Some music gives me a rush of energy, a tingle down my spine. If it makes me feel enraptured, it might move me to dance or close my eyes in a trancelike state. Some sounds, like the dronelike hum coming through an air vent, might intrigue me and make me swoon.

I’ve been known to whip out my phone and record an impromptu vocal improvisation over a noise that I randomly encounter out in the world.

What were your very first steps in music like and how would you rate the gains made through experience - can one train/learn being an artist?

I studied violin, recorder, flute, and voice when I was very young, and by the time I was a teenager, I focused my musical energies on studying voice. In college, I felt the urgent need to bust out of the classical and showtune box and dove into jazz improv, Indian, and Eastern European vocal lessons.

All these years later, I continue to develop a technicolor vocal palette. This ongoing sonic exploration has continued to open many different portals for me.

I think we are all innately artists. Humans are inherently creative, and experiencing and creating art is our birthright and salvation. The training can help us to refine and develop our creative expression, but it does not make us into something that we all already are. Also, overtraining can sometimes, in fact, hinder creativity.

According to scientific studies, we make our deepest and most incisive musical experiences between the ages of 13-16. What did music mean to you at that age and what’s changed since then?

That was a very intense period of music exploration and appreciation for me. I found a lot of emotional solace in my music collection at that time that I couldn’t get from the people around me.

Violator by Depeche Mode was a watershed moment for me musically at 13; that opened the gates to explore all kinds of moody, eclectic, and electronic music from the 80s.



That eventually inspired me to keep going further back in history and I became fascinated by 70s Krautrock. I was heavily into Kraftwerk and Kate Bush in that era as well, both acts that my friends thought were completely weird and off-putting.



I still find emotional solace in music but I’m not looking for the same kind of escape or guidance through music that I was back then. I think I now have more of the things inside myself that I was looking for in music when I was younger.

What, would you say, are the key ideas behind your approach to music and what motivates you to create?

I am very intuitive and instinctual when it comes to composing and performing music. Authenticity is also vital to me. I don’t do things that I don’t feel—and sometimes that means making sharp pivots aesthetically and staying true to my evolution and vision.

I have a lot of reasons for making music, despite the many challenges it presents—mainly because it feels essential for me. There’s nothing worse than backed-up, unexpressed creative energy. I feel that unexpressed music can literally make me ill.

So create I must.

To quote a question by the great Bruce Duffie: When you come up with a musical idea, have you created the idea or have you discovered the idea?

I think both are possible. I would say with creating the idea, that involves more of my thinking mind.

With discovering the idea, that involves more of my improvisational, intuitive, non-thinking mind. With the latter, I might be picking up on something in the collective unconscious.

Paul Simon said “the way that I listen to my own records is not for the chords or the lyrics - my first impression is of the overall sound.” What's your own take on that and how would you define your personal sound?

Yes, I would agree when it comes to listening to my own music--I hear it holistically. Capturing a vibe, an essence, a mood, is really important to me.

My sound is rather ineffable to me but “experimental ethereal” is one phrase I use. I’ve also heard it described as “cinematic,” “haunting,” “deeply emotional,” and, quite hilariously, even “medieval choir synth blues.”

Sound, song, and rhythm are all around us, from animal noises to the waves of the ocean. What, if any, are some of the most moving experiences you've had with these non-human-made sounds? In how far would you describe them as “musical”?

I’ve had some pretty amazing experiences with encountering industrial sounds out in the world, as well as the natural reverb in structures such as Battery Townsley, an old WWII-era artillery battery where I recorded my first EP, as well as The TANK in Rangely, Colorado (an old steel water tank turned recording center), where I recorded two tracks on Rancor:Succor.

From very deep/high/loud/quiet sounds to very long/short/simple/complex compositions - are there extremes in music you feel drawn to and what response do they elicit?

I feel drawn to many extremes in music—most notably, playing with extremes in my vocal expression. I love exploring the tension between refined and raw vocal sounds.

Could you describe your creative process on the basis of one of your pieces, live performances or albums that's particularly dear to you, please?

I was very happy with the creative process for the song “In the Manner of Serpents,” which is on Rancor:Succor.



About a year and a half prior to recording the track at The TANK, I started feeling a tug inside to experiment with an accordion plugged into various guitar pedals. While I wasn’t sure where this tug would take me, I trusted it, and I’m so glad I did, as the droning accordion undergirds the song and allows the vocals to float and soar.

The accordion parts weren’t improvised in that song but most of the vocals were. I loved interacting with The TANK and how it drew different things out of me vocally. It felt extremely freeing, powerful, and spontaneous.

The mixing process was also highly creative—co-producer Daniel Knowles and I collaborated on the mixing remotely (he in LA and I in SF) and our creative alchemy infused the track with such originality and wildness.

Do you conduct “experiments” or make use of scientific insights when you're making music?

Yes, experimentation is integral to how I make music—everything from experimenting with different singing styles to different modes to different instruments and collaborators, to different techniques for writing lyrics and coming up with thematic ideas.

There is always an element of being inventive, raw, and playful; that’s part of the joy and discovery for me.

How does the way you make music reflect the way you live your life? Can we learn lessons about life by understanding music on a deeper level?

I approach both music and life with a spirit of authenticity, innovation, experimentation, and intuition.

I certainly think we can learn life lessons and learn about our humanity and spirituality by appreciating the music and musicians of the world, past and present.

Do you feel as though writing or performing a piece of music is inherently different from something like making a great cup of coffee? What do you express through music that you couldn't or wouldn't in more 'mundane' tasks?

Yes, I do feel like composing or performing music is different from doing a mundane task.

I express my fullness as a person and as a woman through music in a way that I often feel like I can’t in other situations and aspects of life.

Every time I listen to "Albedo 0.39" by Vangelis, I choke up. But the lyrics are made up of nothing but numbers and values. Do you, too, have a song or piece of music that affects you in a way that you can't explain?

Of course I had to put that on right now as I’m writing this! Yes, I’ve had experiences of music (both live and recorded) that have completely stirred me in a way that’s ineffable. I’ve also fallen in love with music sung in languages that I don’t know—but something gets through to me anyway.

A lot of Georgian music feels like that for me—for example, Georgian tenor Hamlet Gonashvili’s recording of “Satrpialo.”



If you could make a wish for the future – what are developments in music you would like to see and hear?

I would like the institutions, organizations, and corporations that disseminate, promote, and educate about music to become far more inclusive, equitable, and reconnected to soul.