INTERVIEW: UPSAHL on new single 'Into My Body': "I just decided if I wanted to make a dance song, I was gonna make a dance song"
Interview: Jett Tattersall
Image: Sarah Pardini
America’s Upsahl has been releasing music since 2018 and with every release and live performance is building on her reputation as one of the most mesmerising and powerful young artists releasing music today.
She has just completed her first headline world tour and in the midst of it released her latest single ‘Into My Body’. It sees Upsahl embrace a whole new sound - moving firmly into the middle of the dancefloor. It is an invigorating, glorious track with a heavy beat, delicious melodies, multiple vocal tracks and instrumental breakdowns paired with distorted vocals that bring to mind 1990s house and techno. Lyrically the song was inspired by getting stuck in her head and having an out-of-body experience while at the same time being an ode to self-pleasure.
The single is the latest taste from Upsahl’s upcoming new EP Sagittarius which is due to be released on December 9. Paying homage to her star sign and personality, each track on the EP will represent a unique Sagittarian quality.
Upsahl is an artist who is always a joy to listen to. Constantly defying genres and always experimenting with her sound, she is a special artist who has everything it takes to be a future superstar. We recently caught up with her to chat about ‘Into My Body’ and her creative process.
Hi Upsahl. First of all, thank you for releasing probably like my favourite song of the year. ‘Into My Body’ is such a jam. You’ve clearly had that song for a while, how does it feel to have it out for everyone else, but also to be able to be sing it live?
It's been fun. Because before it was out, I was touring the US and got to play it live as an unreleased song at all my shows for a month, which was so fun. As I was finishing up the record and working on arrangements and mix notes or whatever, every night I was playing it for the crowd and seeing what parts of the song they liked more. I ended up changing some of the arrangement based off how people reacted to it on tour. I feel like my fans played a big part in the song too, honestly, without really knowing it.
That's awesome. Quite often, you'll also do a construction video for us on how the song was made. ‘Into My Body’, like all your music, is just a plethora of all sounds and genres, however, it's much more of a dance track. And I'm really interested to see how you created this one because it's something a little different for you.
Totally. Going into writing at the beginning of the summer, I knew I wanted to work on a new project and I didn't really know what that project would be. So I just decided if I wanted to make a dance song, I was gonna make a dance song. If I want to make a song that just had drums and nothing else, I would do that. I got to experiment writing this entire project and ‘Into My Body’ was one of the first ones where I was like, ‘I literally just want to make a dance record’. It doesn't need to even sound like anything I've done before, let's just lean into how see dance music. So we did that the day that we wrote it and then my friend Pete Nappi did the final production on it and made it sound a little bit like me and still alt, but it was really freeing for me to just be like ‘fuck the genre, we're just going to make a dance record and then figure out how to make it feel still like me’ after the fact like it was a really new process for me which was fun.
What I love about this track is the melody and the production almost act as backing vocals themselves. Was that how you heard it when you were coming up with the song and did you always want to deliver the vocal quite subdued?
That's a good question, thank you for asking that. When I was writing, during the time, when I wrote ‘Into My Body’, I was listening to a lot of dance music and I was also listening to a lot of Prince. I loved how when he sang, especially on ‘Kiss’, it's quiet and understated. I remember talking to my team and everyone that I was working with I was like’ I want to do a song that just high falsetto vocals like Prince’. So we brought that energy into this song, so that's why on the chorus it's just this high breathy vocal, it was honestly inspired by Prince, then there's that post chorus that's very talky. I think it's cool to treat the vocals like they're like an instrument themselves and making that a part of the production. Especially towards the end of the song, we definitely leaned into using vocal layers as production elements instead of another instrument, which was fun. So thanks for noticing! That's cool.
It sounds phenomenal and I imagine as an artist, it takes a while to get there, with regards to trusting yourself and your sound to be able to pull it back. As a soloist, we're told you have to project, so the confidence to go ‘this one's going to be a whisper, this one's going to be a conversation’ is amazing.
For me, when I'm listening to music, if an artist or a singer just does something that is a little bit unexpected for them. I'm like, ‘oh, I want to listen, what are you saying?’ Especially when people are whispering or singing quiet. As a listener, you're hanging on to every word they say. We definitely tried to utilise that with the song, to get people to listen to lyrics for sure.
Thematically, you have always delivered songs and videos that have always promoted self love. And it's come from a place of ‘guys, I really fucking struggled with this too, so I'm just going to help you out where I can.’ ‘Into My Body’ is again self love, but what I love about it is there's an integrity in the way you sing it, where you really are coming off the ceiling, and you're aching to be yourself again, which is why I think this song really rings true for people as their power up anthem.
Thanks. I think all the songs that I write that are cocky, or overly confident all come from a place of me feeling quite the opposite. I feel as a writer, and also as a fan of other artists, you listen to empowering songs when you don't feel empowered, because you need something to help you get there. So when I wrote ‘Into My Body’, I was in a very weird place. I was coming off of touring a bunch and my life had been very chaotic for a second and then I got back to LA, and let everything settle in my mind for the first time. And I completely just did not feel like myself. I was like, ‘What is going on?’ And so naturally, I just went to the studio, and when we wrote the song, I looked at my friend Elijah who I write with a bunch and I was like, ‘I think we need to get super vulnerable, I feel like shit right now, can we make a song about that, But make it feel fun and energetic and low key make it about masturbation?’ And he was like, ‘let's go, let's do it, it'll be great’.
Last time we spoke you had released Lady Jesus which I remember the time you said you went into it thinking it was going to be a breakup album and then partway through you went ‘oh no, wait, I'm over it, this album is actually album about me’. As a creative and as a human, we're constantly developing and having to remind ourselves, ‘this is good, this is good’. How how hass your music changed with regards to your own self growth in the last couple of years?
I think my music is always changing just because I'm changing and I'm young and, like, quite the mess! So like my music’s always sort of reflecting that. Musically and production wise, whatever music I'm putting out just really depends on what other artists I'm listening to at the time and where I'm drawing inspiration. I look back at songs on Lady Jesus, where I was so angry over this boy or whatever, and I'm like, ‘I do not relate to that anymore’. But me at the time needed those songs and I hope that if somebody else is going through something similar, that song is perfect for them now. It's really funny, and it's really cool, that as an artist you get to look back at all of your past music and it's literally like a screenshot of your life at the time. I try to always write from a very personal, autobiographical standpoint, and my journal is my Spotify, I guess. It's really fun. If you feel strongly enough to write a song about it, then the feeling is very worthwhile, which means even if you don't relate to it now, somebody else does.
With music today, genres are becoming a very archaic thing, your music is a prime example of this. But also because artists such as yourself are writing their own songs and producing their own songs and uploading their own songs and so all those voices of insecurity and broken hearts that never used to be sung true because they had to sing someone else's words and now they are being sung in real time. The connection to the audience must be something quite special. How have you found your audience writing such fun, but also confronting lyrics?
I guess for me for a while I used songwriting as therapy instead of going to actual therapy. So I would just work through my feelings or problems or however I was feeling in my sessions and they all came from a very vulnerable place. And there's a lot of songs that are out now where when I wrote them, I would say the craziest shit and there would be this voice in the back of my head ‘who knows if the song is ever going to come out, like just say it and you can fix it later if it's gonna come out’. And then they came out and I never fixed half the shit I said. That kind of unapologetic, fresh energy on the day of writing the song is what makes music so magical. It's been really, really special being on my first headlining tour the past month, getting to see certain lyrics that I wrote, and honestly thought they were too aggressive to put in the song that ended up on the record, and seeing fans scream those back. As a fan, and as a listener I want to go to concerts for artists who just speak their minds and say whatever the fuck they want, because that's what I want to do as a person. If I can be that for other people, it's really, really fun.
I love that and you have been kicking arse on this headline tour. I keep hearing again and again of your mesmerising performance. This is incredible considering it's your first headline show as well. How's that been going for you?
It's been the best month of my life. It's been so fun. I started touring and opening for other people before COVID, and then did some more opening slots but these are the first shows that feel like mine. Getting to hang out with fans and we can relate over the same shit and just be present and in the same room dancing and sweaty and we all get to share that moment all over the world. It's the craziest thing ever. I’m so over the moon, being on tour has made me the happiest I've been. It's so much fun.
That's so good to hear, I don't want to hear a jaded tour story! We have my current favourite ‘Into My Body’, and I can't wait to hear you break that song down. You are headlining the shit out of the planet at the moment. What else, if there is any room, is coming up for you?
I'm finishing this tour, which is going to be really sad when it's over, and then when I finished I'm going to be dropping my EP that has some of the songs that are already out and then some new ones. This summer, in between tours, I was just in the studio writing about my life and myself and each song on the EP represents a different character trait or personality trait about me. I’m stoked for people to hear it. Right now, I'm just gonna be playing the shit out of ‘Into My Body’, playing the shit out of these shows and just meeting as many new and old fans as possible.
‘Into My Body’ is out now via Sony Music Australia. You can download and stream here.
To keep up with all things UPSAHL you can follow her on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.
