We’ve got a ‘Soft Spot’ for this dream-pop sad seduction.

Chelsea Jade’s sound is as complex as her background, born in South Africa, raised in New Zealand and currently living in Los Angeles, she’s learnt how to swing life’s weight from her shoulders into the heart(and body)moving songs. Following the success of her debut, self-released album ‘Personal Best’, Chelsea channels affection for RnB, pop and unobvious sadness into a second record, ‘Soft Spot’. She steps on thin ice, telling a solemn love story, unravelling as we take off with her gazing ahead with doubt and certainty at the same time. This time, Jade plays ambivalence and scores on both sides of the spectrum. Today, we sat down with her to understand the rules of the game.

Can you tell us who you are, where you’re from and about the music you make?

I was born in Cape Town, South Africa and raised in Auckland, New Zealand but I’ve been living in Los Angeles for 6 years. I just got my drivers licence two weeks before Christmas and drove through the South to New York, where I’ll be for the foreseeable future. The music I made for this record is both impish and elegant. You can hear my heavy heart in the subtext but it sounds like I’m having fun swinging all that weight around. I love RnB and pop and I hope my affection translates through these songs.

How are you feeling about the release of your new album Soft Spot?

It feels like stepping out onto a frozen lake without knowing how thin the ice is. It could send you into a beautiful glide or you could fall right through. I’m hopeful that what it took out of me to make is received with love.

What are some themes behind your new album?

The “Soft Spot” itself is thematically rich for me. It’s so charged in it’s physicality. At it’s most powerful, it alludes to sex. You can hear that most overtly in “Good Taste”, a coy record about the thrill of sleeping with a stranger. In “Optimist”, the sexual intimacy exists as a comfort. I’m looking for somebody to accept me but I'm asking from my worst place. There are a lot of repeated lyrical themes throughout the record. Pearls and fruit are all allusions to the body as it relates to emotion. Sinking, hiding, hoping to be found before it’s too late. Despite the certainty of a pop lens, this is a really yearning and vulnerable record for me.

We love the music video for your latest single Optimist. How involved in the making of the video were you?

I was teaching myself animation and special effects while I put this video together. It’s a collage of an era that includes the pandemic and precedes it. A lot of private moments juxtaposed with public facing moments. I included pictures from after an eye surgery and recontextualised clips and b roll from my other music videos. I've edited it to feel like a high speed rollick through a memory-filled dream. I shot the improvised pillow dance (inspired by a photoshoot with Pictvre, an auckland based art duo), the underwater footage and the drone footage with my long-time collaborator and friend Alex Gandar before taking it on a solo journey through the collating process. So I guess you could say I couldn’t have been more involved!

What was it like working with Leroy James Clampitt on the arrangement and composition of the album?

Each song has a different custodian for it’s arrangement and composition. Me and Leroy worked on Superfan and Optimist. My other friends Brad Hale, Simon Oscroft, Justyn Pilbrow, Tyler Spry and myself alone worked on the others. It’s a collage built over time and really, I'm the only throughline.

Can you tell us more about your song writing process?

I’ve been writing acapellas lately and then filling in the blanks myself or offering them to friends to work on with me. Starting from nothing is hell so I usually have a kernel - either a single lyric or a bassline that propels the rest. I keep them accumulating in notebooks and phone voice recordings. It’s never the same process twice, as much as I’d love for it to be.

How do you produce your music?

I use Ableton and Protools.

Do you have any gigs planned for 2022?

There’s a lot of financial insecurity with planning shows right now but I’d love to bring Soft Spot on tour.

Can you tell us something interesting about yourself that doesn’t have anything to do with music?

I used to make porcelain dolls in a woman’s basement when I was 9.

If your music were a film or TV show which would it be?

“All That Jazz”, ideally.

Name an album you’re still listening to from when you were younger and why it’s important to you?

When Jenny Lewis’ Rabbit Fur Coat came out, my friend Liz from The Beths and I re-recorded our version of the whole album with a skype headset microphone in our small New Zealand town. 10 years later we drove up the west coast of California to see the anniversary show in San Francisco. That record will always be a cornerstone of friendship and music for me.

What do you hate right now?

That weed isn’t legal everywhere.

What do you love right now?

My proximity to a subway stop that takes me directly to Lincoln Centre.

What comes next in the Chelsea Jade story?

I’m working on it.

Start Listening To: Chelsea Jade