Tilla On the Making Of “Keep Your Head Up (I'm A Mermaid)”
What was the creative process like for this particular "Keep Your Head Up (I'm A Mermaid)?"
Maybe you know the Stoic saying, “hard decisions, easy life - easy decisions, hard life”. Maybe it was like that for “Keep Your Head Up.” I started with this song in 2020. It was a House demo at the time and I was not at all satisfied with what it sounded like. So I put it away for three years and listened back to it last month and it still sounded like crap. After that I deleted everything, I made a hard decision. I deleted everything but a sample of the piano and part of the lyrics and started to redo the song. And at once it got so much easier, I went into a paralyzed flow state and after 16 hours I had the whole creative work done, including mastering and artwork, which was really unexpected.
Can you talk about the recording and production process for "Keep Your Head Up (I'm A Mermaid)?"
It took like 10 hours to finish the recordings, mix and master. I started based on the structure of the old song version, verse, and chorus. With that I started looking for a drum sound. So I took an old, crappy Telefunken mic from the 60s that was used with old voice recorders and put it between snare and kick, compressed it heavily, processed it a little further in the box and I had my drum sound. I built everything else around that energy. The bass is a Moog that is not sequenced, but played. I distorted that one heavily and it worked. For the vocals, I had this epic vision of a siren that is just sitting on a rock in the sea and singing their heart out. I just really went after what my ears told me without taking in regard the technical stuff I learned over the time. It was really freeing to do that.
How does this track fit into your overall artistic vision?
Vision is a big word, a big topic. I believe, with this, my solo project, I want to be free of expectations, even if this means I’m genreless, which is a major problem. If you listen to my solo discography, which is pretty small at the moment, but will be filled up during the next year, you can hear many different influences, ranging from Massive Attack over Mark Ronson to Kyuss. I had a long break between releases. I released three songs in 2020, Mermaid is only the second song that was released in 2023. I was able to get back to releasing songs because I decided to let it go. I just decided to let it go and do my thing and see how I feel about it and so far I feel pretty good.
Can you tell us more about you as an artist?
I'm one of these guys who have been into music for all their lives. I think music saved me, literally. Music always helped me through bad times, made it possible to express emotions I couldn't express otherwise and I believe that shows, I hope that shows, musically speaking, to be a vehicle for people who have a feeling of being lost or not knowing their way or feeling trapped in their lives to get that easy way out for a moment.
Where do you find inspiration for your songs or musical ideas
Honestly, as long as I grab a guitar or sit at the piano, ideas start to take shape within me. I believe it’s a combination of two main influences. One, being able to listen to all the great music that is out there, inhaling that, and two, the feelings inside me that are looking for a way out.
