‘ALIEN’ Track-By-Track With Venice Qin

A few months back, I had the chance to chat with Venice Qin for the Life on Music podcast (listen here). We spent a considerable chunk of that chat discussing Venice’s love/obsession with alpacas. But in between the Alpaca facts, Venice also teased an EP she had coming out. Well good news, that EP is called ‘ALIEN’ and it’s out now.

To celebrate it’s release, Venice has been kind enough to put together a little track-by-track for us. Take it away Venice…

ASSHOLE

This song started with me saying in the studio (as a joke): "I really wanna tell you you're an asshole!" For me, it's about having the courage to acknowledge and stand up for yourself when you've been treated poorly but doing it in the most CAMP way possible… duh. 

 It's very special to me because it was the first song that Ben Malone (producer of the Alien EP) wrote together. To be honest, I don't know what that says about us, but somehow, through this silly yet empowering song, we connected as songwriters. 

SOMEBODY NEW

My friends and I were going through rough times in our relationships, and it was starting to get to me. Then one day, I woke up with the thought: "This person thinks that they are going to find someone else who is going to put up with their sh!t and is hotter, cooler, kinder, smarter than me?.... HUH? Sure." With this track, I want people to know that they are irreplaceable and deserve to stand confidently within their individuality. 

ALIEN

ALIEN is one of the most vulnerable tracks on the EP. I've always struggled with fitting in; as a Chinese person who grew up in New Zealand, sometimes I wasn't Western enough to be a Kiwi or Chinese enough to be Chinese. I couldn't relate to certain human experiences or thoughts. This has always been an insecurity of mine, which sometimes made me feel incredibly isolated. 

 I was really inspired by Caroline Polachek's melody lines, and the way that they jump so effervescently and smoothly. I wanted this song to sonically feel like you're floating mid-air and can't come back down to the ground. However, I mainly just wanted to convey to people through my experience that they are not alone. 

TROPHY WIFE

Suppose anybody says to me that they've never dreamed about being a trophy wife, driving around in a Mercedes, going out for bottomless brunches every day, being taken away for exotic vacations, and essentially doing nothing; I'm convinced they're lying. TROPHY WIFE is a character piece. It's essentially two and a half minutes of fun, and brings you into a fantasy world. 

The lyric "Pretty knows no karma" is one of my favourite lyrics in the EP, and I'm considering getting it tattooed onto my ring finger. 

NOT CRYING

This song is about when I found out that the guy I was in love with was going to ask another girl out. Delusional little me thought I was going to be perfectly fine and… I wasn't. I cried on the couch for an hour with my kale salad #tragic. Ultimately, I got my heart broken and tried to be in complete denial. 

 Over the past year, I've learnt that as much as I try to hide and lie to myself about my true emotions, I can't deny what I actually feel inside. If anything, it builds up over time and comes back to bite me worse than ever. Since then, I've told myself I'm not doing that anymore. 

VILLAIN

I've always felt that VILLAIN sums up the EP the best for me. I can hear all the colours I see in the other tracks, and it mixes them up perfectly. I once said the most terrifying thing in a therapy session: "I don't ever want anyone to know everything about me because I'm scared that they won't like what they see". Since then, I've realized how terrifying it is to open up to people truly. I am still a confident person, but like most people (excluding narcissists), I sometimes doubt that people could love and accept every part of me. 

I love that the production conveys strength and lets the vulnerability emerge in my vocals. Vocally, I'm so proud of this one. Whenever I listen to it, I think, "Wow, this song is… me."

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