Photos by Damien Gordon-Sekera
Taking a moment in the cathartic space after the release of their sophomore LP, Earthly Delights, and the accompanying tour, Zilched’s Chloe Drallos sat down with Alt Citizen to discuss love songs, her writing process and inspiration, and Early Netherlandish Renaissance art.
Earthly Delights has been out for a couple weeks now – how does it feel to finally release the LP into the world?
Chloe D: It’s been about a month, so I’m kind of in the decline/waiting period once most of the press is done and people are just sitting with [the album].
There’s a huge catharsis in it, and I am really glad that it’s part of my public life and not just my private life now, because I’ve had [the album] for a while.
How would you describe Earthly Delights in relation to your previous album, DOOMPOP? Is this new LP a sequel, expansion, or an evolution of its predecessor?
Chloe D: I guess it’s a sequel in terms of it’s the next few years of my life. But I like to think it’s an evolution because there are some sounds that I might have recycled. I’ve gained a lot of skills since I was 19 making the first record, and broadened some horizons in that sense, too.
Were there any specific types of ideas or concepts that you carried over or some that you decided to leave on the previous album and start with a clean slate?
Chloe D: The last album, and when I started Zilched, I didn’t like a lot of negative space. I was not a fan of any silence in the songs. I loved the idea of the constant guitars and things that you hear on DOOMPOP, and the constant vocal layering. DOOMPOP felt more like a consecutive sound concept, I feel like I had constraints that I was gladly working within.
For [Earthly Delights] I was way more song-by-song, letting them go where they needed to and opening up to where I can pull away in order to make the song itself the best it can be.
You’ve crafted a heady sonic cocktail, with elements of shoegaze, pop, post-rock, goth, and grunge all bubbling to the surface. The result is referential but deeply original and organic. How do you approach creating the Zilched sound and bring all these elements together to form your own voice?
Chloe D: I’m just a huge music fan. I have had a lot of my favorite artists and sounds for a long time.
I think especially the genesis of this project was my idea of taking my favorite things and combining them. Like, “I love this one song from this artist, but it’s only their one song that sounds like this;” and “I love this one song from this person, and I wish there was a band that just sounded like these songs all the time.” That’s kind of how I approach the sonic side of the music, “what sounds good here, and what do I want to hear more of?”
Speaking of all these different genre sounds, the album features some incredibly lush production. “Out Of The Blue” is a standout with huge guitars and a colossal, driving rhythm – as is the densely layered dance-y track “Loveless.” Talk to me about your reference points for how you wanted Earthly Delights to sound? Were there specific albums or moods than influenced how the final recording was produced?
Chloe D: I was thinking a lot about early 80s, dancier rock albums that sometimes have shitty production. There’s a really particular sound at the start of alternative [music], with drum machines but still with the live band; like The Cure album, Faith, and their song, “Charlotte Sometimes.” I was thinking a lot about albums like that. And Unknown Pleasures! I even use some of the samples that are on Unknown Pleasures, we found a plugin for the same drum machine they used.
I was also thinking a lot about 2010s alt pop because that time was also influenced from this early 80s type thing. I love Arctic Monkeys, I love Sky Ferreira, I love Grimes. Such an interesting time for alternative pop.
I saw a headline not too long ago about how there’s something magic about good albums that have shitty production that, to your point, makes them feel really alive through a kind of natural process.
Chloe D: Definitely. I love pop songs, but I like pop songs that are made by not so “industry” type of people. I love SSION. He was a punk growing up, but he makes this insane pop music that is just so perfect because it was made with such a different ethos. That’s why people were so drawn to Grimes’ first pop album. It’s more for the people.
Regardless of the genre, Zilched comes across very much as a singer-songwriter project featuring complex but honest prose that is immediately accessible. How do you approach songwriting? Are these personal stories or are they character studies based on true events or purely fictional?
Chloe D: It’s all very personal. I write through everything that happens to me. It’s how I connect the dots. Writing a song is a perfect way to package whatever you’re going through. I had a lot of fun being intimately personal with some of these songs, but it’s a little scary now because people can listen to them and I have to now sing those things! But that’s what my favorite artist do, and it’s something that I appreciate so much that you just have to suck it up and do it.
Do you think going forward you’re going to continue using personal experiences as inspiration for your music? Or do you think you might expand into tackling more conceptual ideas, too?
Chloe D: I don’t know. I’ve tried to write something about a movie or a book that might be inspiring me, but I really always just end up relating it to my own life. It’s just how I write. I think it might be the only way that I do it.
“A Valentine,” which was released a single in 2021, appears on Earthy Delights and features the standout line “this world is rough enough without love, how could you fuck it up?” It hits like a ton of bricks, and almost feels like a thesis statement for the entire album – is that an appropriate assessment?
Chloe D: Yeah, honestly.
I’m singing about love in every single song. It’s not all romantic love, there’s a couple songs about friendships too. My friendships and my relationships are so important to me that when there’s something wrong it’s difficult, it really affects my whole life.
I really didn’t realize it until listening through [the album]. Once the album was finished I was like, “these are all love songs.” It’s the fact that it’s important to me that’s causing me to write about it.
You’ve covered some pretty massive tracks in the past, the anthemic “Material Girl” by Madonna and the progressive genre breaker “Stand Back” by Stevie Nicks. Both are defining tracks by powerful women in pop music, how do these covers serve as platforms for your own self-expression through Zilched? Is there a sort of well of strength that you tap into?
Chloe D: “Material Girl” was a bit more for fun, that one was kind of a little satirical. I love Madonna, and that was fun to do, but with “Stand Back” I felt like I “got it.” I could be singing this and it would still feel personal.
When you relate on a personal level with a song that is so different from the type of music you usually play, I think that’s the best time to do a cover and to just sing it with your own voice.
Although there aren’t any covers on Earthly Delights, how does recording them help you with your own creative process? Do they help you get into a specific headspace or serve as a sort of writing prompt?
Chloe D: Oh, definitely.
When covering another genre of music you really have to think about your own sound and you have to think about your own approach a lot and that is definitely a good way to get out of a rut.
Production wise, too, it’s really fun to produce a cover because you’re breaking your voice and your craft down a lot for this thing that wasn’t necessarily personal to begin with, so it can be very inspiring in that way.
Sometimes when producing a song of my own, it’s like, “OK, I wrote this song but what if it was more like Trent Reznor was producing Stevie Nicks?” Just thinking of combinations like that for your own songs is really fun to do.
The title Earthly Delights is a direct reference to Hieronymus Bosch’s iconic painting “The Garden Of Earthly Delights,” interpreted as an admonishment of physical pleasures and the peril that befalls souls who succumb to the desires of the flesh. How does this align with the themes of the album? Do you think of these songs as modern perspective on love, lust, faith – a decision to embrace fleeting earthly delights or shun them in favor of the hope of some sort of spiritual or emotional salvation?
Chloe D: It’s like all of that at the same time! That’s how I see that painting and how it affected me; it can look almost like a celebration, or it can look terrifying.
On [Earthly Delights], there’s these three different phases of being I was going through. There’s a few songs that are from the perspective of just being so alone and really longing for something. Then there’s, “OK, now I have something, but it’s not the right thing. It feels wrong.” And then there’s “now I have the right thing, and it’s a huge responsibility!” There’s just constant fear and celebration, it’s heaven and hell at the same time no matter what.
Zilched is very intimate and all about personal connections, from the lyrics to the production. The Earthly Delights tour is wrapped – how did audiences connect with the new material in a live setting? Were there any particularly memorable moments?
Chloe D: It was pretty nice because we played in a lot of new places for people that had never heard of us. Especially with the slower songs like “Rosy Crucifixion,” that’s a really cool song to see people react to because they’re not expecting it. People seem to find it refreshing.
We’re playing in a lot of DIY scenes and around punk bands, post-punk, and heavier indie bands that are pretty straightforward. I’ve I heard a few times from people that it was refreshing or kind of surprising and they liked the songs. It’s always nice to me when people compliment the songs themselves, they’re not just talking to me about my tone or something.
So what is next for Zilched? Are there plans for additional tours, a third album, or are you just taking a moment to enjoy the accomplishment?
Chloe D: I’m kind of taking a moment, at the moment.
We’ve got a couple shows coming up and I’d like to get back to thinking about another tour, going to some new places or maybe returning to the places we went this summer. For now, I’m just trying to balance my life out a bit and enjoy myself and enjoy this time.
Earthly Delights is out now on Young Heavy Souls and available on limited vinyl and other formats here. Stream the album on Spotify and follow Zilched on Instagram.
Upcoming Shows
—-
10/4/2023 – Detroit, MI @ Lager House w/ Knifeplay and Zastava (TICKETS)
