INTERVIEW: Pania on her debut EP 'burnt ur clothes & changed the addy': "I'm burning everything and destroying everything that held me back and stopped me from being the best version of myself."
Interview: Jett Tattersall
Image: Jade D’Amico
Ever since Melbourne’s Pania first released music in 2020 she is proving she is the luminescent future of the Australian R&B scene, with music that embraces traditional R&B but infuses it with a left of centre sound, bringing in influences from multiple other genres.
She has just released her debut EP burnt ur clothes & changed the addy which explores the conflicting feelings of confidence and vulnerability that come with everything to do with love, relationships and their breakdown.
“{It’s} the journey of everything we feel when it comes to love – excitement, loss, heartbreak, starting over,” Pania says. “It’s raw and it plays with feelings of vulnerability, but it’s still hard-hitting.”
Opening track ‘with/without us’ encapsulates everything the EP is about. After a relationship ends, Pania explores the hurt, anger and pain but also knows she will rebound better than before ‘with or without us’. It’s a gorgeous track, with Pania’s vocal tinged with melancholy and a sense of resignation before developing in power by the end. Sonically the track is the most pop sounding song on the EP while losing none of its R&B authenticity.
‘10’s & 8’s (no 4’s or 5’s)’ explores a relationship where trust is non-existent and the subsequent anxieties that brings. It is a low key R&B track with a shuffling beat and traces of pop and soul. ‘Dnt Wanna Rush’, featuring I.E., is another slower R&B track this time with elements of rap.
Three previously released singles and an interlude round off the EP. ‘tiki’ is a celebration of the lust that often consumes the first stages of a relationship against a moody, sultry soundscape. ‘LETHIM4ALL’, featuring Unamii leans into more of a hip-hop and rap sound, while the EP closes with ‘MY CREW’ and brings reggae and Latino into an R&B foundation.
burnt ur clothes & changed the addy is a remarkably assured and confident debut EP and lays the groundwork for what a talented artist Pania is. We can only expect more incredible music from her in the future, and we recently caught up with her to chat more about the EP and her career to date.
Hi Pania, so lovely to see you in. Let's talk about burnt ur clothes & changed the addy it’s brilliant sentiment. How does that encompass the EP as a whole?
burnt ur clothes & changed the addy someone would read it and be like, ‘yes, she’s just burning her ex’s clothes’, but it's actually a rebirth. I'm burning everything and destroying everything that held me back and stopped me from achieving what I want to achieve and stopped me from being the best version of myself. All the songs are a reflection of what I was going through and the stages of healing from a relationship, relationships as a young adult, and growing pains. So it encompasses all of that healing and reflecting like ‘I kind of did hurt that person’, going through the party phase, going through getting into new situationships and be like, ‘Damn, I'm not ready’. All of that. That's the EP as a whole.
I think that's gorgeous and I also like the fact that you've taken it like you're looking at someone else, to look back as an artist and go, ‘Okay, I also appreciate what that was’. You have spoken in the past about growing up in West Melbourne and you and your friends were just infatuated with this idea of getting out. Do you feel like that's who you are dressing on the EP, the young person that just was busting to get out of where they were?
I feel like everything I do is embracing that. Like, everything. My fashion, the places I go to, the way I move. Everything is encompassing all that stuff. It's definitely a unique experience the way I grew up and all my writing is so deeply personal, so it's just throughout it all. Anything I do is will represent that.
We've just had the latest single release ‘My Crew’ which is so beautiful, and so fun and it’s about the people that that got you were you are today, made it fun but also listened to you when it wasn't so fun. How important was not just penning that track but I putting it on this collection?
That track was literally a freestyle that I wasn't even going to drop but it kind of came about and people liked the melodies. I was gonna switch up the lyrics a little bit, but it just stuck, all those words stuck so I was like I'm gonna keep it like exactly how it came out.
People that know me and people that follow me know how much I love the homies is and they all know I always want to put them on and into everything I do. Before I ever made music, I was taking photos with them so they've always been a part of everything and I feel like I always just want to keep them as a part of something because for me, it's like comfort as well. If I'm in a room with a whole bunch of people that I don't know and there's just one homie there, I'll feel comfortable. I always want to have that feeling of home in my creative realm as well. So it was super important for my first EP and putting it on there is special.
Absolutely. You're navigating an industry as a soloist, and not just as a soloist, but a young female soloist. There are countless stories of how daunting and sometimes dangerous that can be. Having that network with you, and then celebrating, it must be incredible, but it must also assist your songwriting and creative inspiration, because you feel like you're always got your touchstone of people.
With creative direction, outfits, anything like that they're also creative so I know I can lean on them and be like, ‘Does this look good, what do you think of this idea? And they'll just tell me straight up, ‘do this, or add this’. From the start, it's always been like that. My footprint, they've got speckles throughout it.
I love that. We've also had your beautiful collaboration ‘LETHIM4ALL’ with Unamii, this duo is something else! Tell me how that came together?
Shout out Unamii, she’s crazy. I heard a track of well Unamii rapping and I was like, ‘she's so fine, who is she?’ We weren't ever going to have her feature on ‘LETHIM4ALL’ it was just going to be a voice memo of someone yelling, but after I saw that video of her rapping I was like ‘No, we need Unamii’. We hit her up, and she was down from the go. So she laid a verse, it was crazy, and then we shot the video in Sydney and it was such a long process. It was crazy, but it was so much fun. Everything that could have gone wrong went wrong, our director had COVID that day, so it was so stressful. But it was it was sick.
I know people are gonna look back on all the videos I have done and be like, ‘damn, she really thought about that’. I feel like I'm still chilling now, but when everything kind of takes off I love the fact that people have all these videos to go back and look at, and videos that I'm proud of
How much creative control do you take when it comes to your videos? Do you always see them when you create a song?
Yeah. Sometimes when I create a song, or just after I’ve made it, mainly after listening to it and sitting with it, I'm very specific with my vision and how I want everything to be when it comes to colours, imagery, lighting, everything. I always have a very strong vision and I create mood boards, and write out the ideas, all that stuff and then get the director’s input and the creative director’s input. But it's always from the go I know what I want and it's just bringing that to life. You obviously need other people to bring it to life, but I always know exactly what I want.
Absolutely. When you were growing up, what were those music videos for you were you went ‘that's it’?
All the Aaliyah videos, all the early 2000s videos like TLC, Pharrell videos. Growing up, I was always super, super drawn to artists where everything was just a whole package, iconic from everything: the outfit, the aura, the videos, everything. Aaliyah is a very good example, even Pussycat Dolls, their videos were crazy. I was always drawn to artists like that so when I do my music and my videos and the way I dress, it's always inspired by that.
It’s always good to have a benchmark and go, ‘that was my hero, here's what I'm gonna do’. Now you've got some shows coming up. Talk to me about those?
Yes, I've got my first headline show, it's called Stargirl Tour. November 17 in Melbourne, and November 19 in Sydney. It's my first time with a band as well, it's usually just me and a DJ. So I'm really excited, it's gonna be fun. I usually dread shows because I always want to give people the full experience and I feel like with a DJ and artist you can't. So this is going to be cool, to have a full band. I'm excited.
burnt ur clothes & changed the addy is out now via Say Less / Warner Music Australia. You can buy and stream here.
To keep up with all things Pania you can follow her on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.
EP LAUNCH SHOWS
17 November - Workers Club, Melbourne, VIC TICKETS
19 November - Golden Age Cinema, Sydney, NSW TICKETS
