INTERVIEW: QUARE (JUNE 2024) -
Today we chatted with quare - a multitalented singer-songwriter-producer who released a new full-length project, Paris, late last year. We got the opportunity to discuss in-depth with quare about the album, as well as future plans, inspirations, and more. We hope you enjoy the interview! If you want to pick up a physical copy of Paris, they are available in our store, here.
You released your new album, Paris, in late December last year - could you tell us a bit about the process behind creating the project? What inspired you to go with the strong theming you used for Paris?
Pretty much since I started making music, I’ve wanted to make a concept type of album. In middle school I kinda discovered the fact that I have emotions and shit, and I wanted to tell a story of my self-exploration through my art. I made a few projects during that time. If you heard them, you could kinda see how I wanted to make it feel like a journey to listen to, and this prepared me to take on a project like Paris.
I first got the idea to make Paris sometime in late 2021-early 2022, interestingly enough because they were covering Romeo and Juliet in one of my classes. In the last part of the play, before Romeo dies, he kills the character Paris. Romeo was overcome with grief, and said that he loved Paris more than himself (which is a rough paraphrasing obviously, old english is weird lol.)
When I heard that, I thought that was really interesting. It turned into this whole thing about self-loathing and putting other things above yourself, and I wanted to explore that in the essence of my other attempts at coming-of-age concept albums. The title Paris turned into this triple-entendre of the Romeo and Juliet character, the city, and the chosen name of the narrator of the album. It’s sort of a convoluted mess, but I did it!
What did you aim for sound-wise when creating Paris, in comparison to your previous works? Do you feel you want to continue with this sound going forward?
Paris has a lot of variation when it comes to sound. I grew up on a lot of EDM, and that has always been a pretty big part of my music, but I’ve always been fascinated by the idea of pulling from different genres and influences.
Specifically on this record, there’s all sorts of new live/acoustic instrumentation scattered throughout (I actually bought my first guitar in the time of making Paris!) I tried to use these sounds to help expand the feeling of what the narrator might be going through in a given moment. I’ll absolutely be delving into this more, though I don’t think I’ll ever fully abandon my roots.
What's your favorite track(s) off of Paris and why - what makes them special to you?
Definitely paris (the title track) and heart of mine. Those songs were the longest and most ambitious.
For paris, I wanted to depict suicidal ideology-to really make you feel and understand why someone would be content with dying, and the ending of that song-when the narrator rediscovers their will to live.
For heart of mine, I wanted to make the most satisfying ending to the journey I could, trying my hardest to create a feeling of real love and rejoice. These songs came from a very genuine place, with a lot of feelings surrounding these really vast topics, and I think I pulled it off :)
Paris includes features from amaii, elliebell, nishith and Packtion - how did you decide who you wanted on each track?
How was it like working with these artists for Paris?
For everyone featured on the album, I had a specific idea in mind for what role they played in the story. I also wanted the songs they appeared on to match their artistic styles, as they all had a hand in the production of their parts, and if you’re familiar with all of their solo material (would highly recommend!) you can sort of see the parallels.
Working with all of these artists was really cool, and it’s eye opening to see their processes when it comes to making music.
If you could change one thing about Paris, if at all, what would you do differently?
I think the thing this project suffers from the most is that the songs were made over a course of 2-ish years. A lot of the messiness of Paris is simply due to the fact that when making certain songs, I wasn’t nearly as good of an artist as I was when making others.
That being said, this project has taken its own sort of identity that I’m very happy with, and even with its flaws it has its own sort of charm from the time period of when I made it. There comes a point in the creative process where you could stop at any time, and trying to continually tweak it leads to a sort of Theseus boat situation. I’m glad to be on a clean slate!
Dream collabs?
Firstly, Virtual Riot. Probably would not be here at all without him, one of my biggest influences starting out. Otherwise, Jane Remover, Quadeca, brakence, underscores, funeral and twikipedia would all be really cool because they’ve inspired a lot of my current sound and they would be awesome to work with. Before I could even dream of doing any of that though, I have aspirations to try and collab with as many people in the scene as I can. Expect some cool stuff in the near future!
Where do you see yourself going sonically?
In the past couple years, I’ve branched out a lot in terms of what music I like, and I want what I make to reflect that. I’m prone to make pretty much anything. You might see me make some weird indie folk project at one point, and then circle back to digicore later. There’s a bit of a stigma around artists changing their sound, but in my opinion, music is so vast and interesting and not exploring other genres is a wasted opportunity.
"Music is so vast and interesting and not exploring other genres is a wasted opportunity."
You are part of an online group called FISHGANG - how has being apart of this group influenced your music?
The thing with FISHGANG is, before being a music collective, it’s just a group of friends. Before any of us even really started taking music seriously, we already knew each other really well.
This makes it really easy for us to collaborate and share what we’ve been working on over the years-there’s no intimidation of who you’re reaching out to. We’ve learned so much from each other just being in call while making music, or showing what we’ve been working on to each other and discussing it. They’ve given me a sense of community and I wouldn’t be where I am without them.
What are your thoughts and feelings about similar online groups / collectives, such as FISHGANG?
I think online groups and collectives are an absolutely essential part of music currently. This scene thrives off of how connected everyone is, and being in it with people you know really well gives you a great footing in what you’re doing. I’d encourage anyone who’s been considering making a group and has friends who are interested to do it! Even if it’s not a “successful” collective, it can still be fun, and most importantly it can be super valuable to you.
Anybody you'd like to shoutout/mention?
rubyred. As a fellow member of FISHGANG, they’ve been a good friend of mine for a couple years now, and they started putting out music earlier last year. I’ve never seen someone hone their craft quite the way ruby has, it’s really inspiring seeing how far they’ve come and I’m glad they’re finally starting to get their flowers. Listen to rubyred right the fuck now!!!
Can you give us any information about your music plans coming up? Any closeby releases?
It’s gonna take a little while to make my next full album, but I’ll make sure to put out some smaller projects or EPs before then, since I still wanna maintain putting out music somewhat consistently. Making an album like Paris takes a few years, and it’s nice to tone it down a bit.
I have something in the works right now- I’m gonna try not to say much until I’m ready to reveal more, but expect a project of some sort this summer!
"girl it up one million percent"
- Jane Remover
Massive thank you to quare for doing this interview with us!
You can go listen to Paris, quare's recent album, here - as well as get your hands on a physical CD of the album from the link below!
Thank you once again to quare!
This interview was written by the Propyl Team.
Please contact us @ propylrecords@gmail.com for any questions or inquiries.
