t-shirt + trousers. LIBERE
long sleeve top + necklace. Yenesai
shoes. Y-3
Movement is muscle memory for spill tab. The singer-songwriter-producer is well versed in global life – she grew up between Bangkok, Paris, LA and New York – and is in Paris when we meet her, preparing promo for her debut album, ‘Angie’. She’s fluent in hybridisation – writing and singing in both French and English – and her sound follows suit. The world she’s carved out with ‘Angie’ is equal parts electronic shimmer, experimental indie and bedroom pop. She masters the layers and complexities of her vocals with ease; the album has a live-tracked grit to it and touches on a multitude of genres that enrich and enthrall. From homespun to hyperreal, spill tab relates IRL moments, with a feeling of intimacy and proximity. Schön! catches up with her in Paris, somewhere between shows, sleep, and a slow-building love affair with the music scene there.
How long have you been in town?
I got here a couple of weeks ago. So the jet lag should have eased off by now, but I’m still waking up super early and stuff. One nice thing is, in reverse, when you go back to LA from Europe, you wake up really early and feel kind of like a badass.
What is your relationship to Paris now, since you grew up here in part?It’s cool because when I was younger, I would come here for vacation, so I always associate it with friends. During the summer holidays and Christmas, I would visit my family and then go to the south to see my grandparents, who lived in Toulouse. During middle school, I moved here for a year and went to school, so I made a group of friends – my little squad-which was really nice. I then studied abroad in Prague during college, which isn’t too far away. So now, being able to come here for sessions and shows is great-I’m slowly building my own perspective on the music scene in Paris and finding the counterparts to the LA scene here.
What’s your verdict?
I mean, it’s a lot bigger than I thought it was. People always say LA is such a big music city, so there’s just generally a ton of people making music. The circles are very wide – you could be doing this for ten years and still not have met someone who’s also been doing it for ten years. Paris is vast and cool. I’m discovering it.
left
dress. Solène Lescouët
accessories. Stylist’s Own
right
jacket. Ouest Paris
shirt. Solène Lescouët
trousers. Y-3
shoes. Empty Behavior
neck ribbon tie. Stylist’s Own
bracelet. Mathilde Hiron
You moved around a lot when you were young – I was trying to figure out your family history.
I went to Bangkok and then moved to Paris for eighth grade. After Paris, I moved back to LA and did high school there. I then went to college in New York for four years, and finally moved back to LA.
Because your parents are also musicians, right?
My mum was born in South Korea and got a job as an air hostess. So she traveled a lot and met my dad in Thailand-they were both working there at the time. Then they moved to LA. My family story is very international, and I definitely inherited that from them. I love traveling and moving around, finding a home everywhere and anywhere.
What would you say were the main kinds of music you were immersed in growing up?
Before I had my own taste, my mum would pretty much just play classical music. She still loves it. My dad was more of a jazz head – he played the sax and the flute, so his world was jazz. When I was around eight or nine, I got into Disney Channel and Radio Disney and started listening to those classic songs. The rest went from there.
left
shirt. Y’s
dress. Limi Feu
choker. Wens
right
dress. Solène Lescouët
accessories. Stylist’s Own
How would you say the spill tab project began?
It started around college. I reconnected with a guy I knew in high school – I’d posted a video and he commented that he loved my voice and said we should do a session together when I was back in LA. That summer, I had an internship in LA, so I was in town for two months, and we just started making music. We went to a lot of shows, ingested a lot of music, and began creating. I released my first music in 2019, right before COVID hit.
So you survived the challenges?
We’re doing what we can out here! I mean, COVID was devastating for so many. It was a weird, weird time. At the time, my dream job was to tour manage. That was right before COVID hit-and no one toured for a year or two after that.
I’m grateful I ended up making music. It makes me wonder what I’d be doing now if I’d just stuck with the TM thing. Crazy.
When it comes to your album – it’s a real journey, really intimate. What was the process of recording ‘Angie’?
It started with two songs that I really loved – ‘Angie’ and ‘Pink Lemonade’. They didn’t really fit with anything else I was making at the time. I tend to sit on music for a long time and really let it marinate. I rewrite and change things a lot before they ever make it into the world. Those two songs represented a lot of what I wanted to explore production-wise – the convergence of organic and electronic. Also, combining the mastery of a well-engineered track that’s recorded and processed beautifully, with intentional texture.
With the abundance of home studios, there’s been a lot of beautiful stuff that’s come out of that – this sense of autonomy and democracy in music-making. And it also works beautifully with a well-tracked set of drums that really pop. I love that. My ear shifted toward live-recorded drums.
left
jacket. Ouest Paris
shirt. Solène Lescouët
trousers. Y-3
neck ribbon tie. Stylist’s Own
bracelet. Mathilde Hiron
right
jacket. LIBERE
dress. Limi Feu
chocker. Wens
chunky chain choker. Vitaly
That really comes through-the live instrumentation. It’s gritty, has an IRL vibe to it.
Yeah, a lot of it is live-tracked drums, which is awesome. A lot of it was taking a recorded thing and cooking the shit out of it-sampling it, chopping, cutting, distorting, re-sampling, bouncing it onto a new track. Doing a lot of heavy technical, digital stuff too. It brings the sound into a new space. So those two songs sat on opposite ends of the spectrum-completely organic and completely digital. They were like the grandma and grandpa of the whole project. It was fun populating the album with cousins, nephews, uncles, and aunts-building the album around those two. They cradled the concept.
‘Angie’ was the title track. What’s the story behind the name?
I just liked it, on a superficial level-that it was a baby girl’s name. Making an album really feels like making a child, even though it doesn’t only take nine months. It takes two years. (laughs) It’s so labor-intensive. And as with many creative processes, it happens in spurts-periods of intense productivity, and then six months working on a vocal thing that doesn’t improve the track even one percent. It comes in phases.
t-shirt + trousers. LIBERE long sleeve top + necklace. Yenesai shoes. Y-3
In terms of writing, how do you approach lyrics?
I’m really bad at writing conceptually. I’m much better at writing from experience. Honestly, the process is still mysterious to me. I’ve wanted to become a better writer over the years and I’m still figuring out how to challenge myself while staying truthful-writing about what’s happened to me and how I feel about it.
It’s like we’re following you through different chapters of your life.
It was written over five years, kind of. The oldest song is five years old.
You co-produce-and production’s clearly important to you-so who did you collaborate with?
Honestly, there were around 15 people across the album. (laughs) I see myself more as a co-producer in the sense of being a shepherd-not to be biblical about it. There are all these big, beautiful, insane ideas, and everyone brings something to the table. It’s about guiding that process.
There are these incredible layers of harmonies – your voice almost becomes 3D.
I come from a choir background, so vocal layering is always fun. The voice is just another instrument I can add to the mix.
Genre-wise, it’s super hybrid. Do you try to label it?
Travelling through Europe with my drummer and a ton of instruments, it’s clear we’re a travelling band. We get asked, “What kind of music do you make?” and I’m like, “Indie alternative pop rock…?” Whatever suits your fancy. I pull from all kinds of music-not intentionally, necessarily-it’s just what I like to listen to. I’m drawn to a lot of different sounds.
shirt. Y’s
dress. Limi Feu
shoes. Y-3
choker. Wens
gaiters. Solène Lescouët
Are live shows important to you?
Definitely. The nature of what I do is rooted in that. I love going to a show and seeing an artist kill it. That’s what I want with my project-to have fun and create a good time.
When I started touring, I wasn’t home for more than seven or eight weeks at a time. I opened for Gus Dapperton, then Sabrina Carpenter, and did my own headline tours in between. It was so much fun. That 10,000 hours thing – I haven’t clocked that many yet-but I feel myself getting better at the live thing.
The album cover is so cool. What’s your relationship to image?
Honestly, I don’t have a strong marketing brain. The visuals usually come from wanting to hang out with friends and literally hiring them to work together. That’s always been the genesis of any video or artwork.
My friend Alex Risk is a painter – I love her work and asked, “Wouldn’t it be sick if you painted my album cover?” It became a fusion of our creativity. A lot of it is just keeping it in the family and working with friends.
Will you have time to take time off over the coming months?
Honestly, I woke up this morning and was like, “I’m so tired.” Part of what I’m learning is endurance. I’ve basically been at home for nine months-mixing, finishing songs, mastering, prepping for the tour that’s happening now. Weekends don’t exist. I’m re-learning what it means to be regimented-I can’t be on my phone until 2 a.m. watching Instagram reels anymore.
What’s the Angie concert schedule looking like?
It’s a lot of festivals in France, some European headline dates in May – London and Berlin. Then more festivals, a mini headline tour in North America in June, and back to France for more festivals in June and July.
spill tab’s debut album Angie is out now.
photography. Hugo Palayer
creative direction, fashion + production. Alix Taccardo
talent. spill tab
editor. Patrick Clark
hair. Clément Billon
make up. Marine Guillerme
set design. Sarah Bouyssou
assistants. Thomas Boisson + Matteo Nicolle
special thanks. Maximilien Pegasus, Camille Dubois + Lola Braux @ Because Music
location. U122AE Club
