mia van de loo On the Making Of “fairytale”
What was the initial spark or idea that led to the creation of "fairytale?"
Back in high school, there was a boy in some of my classes that was widely admired by many of my friends. Watching my friends crumble around him bothered me, because I hated that any one person could have such an impact on so many people close to me. We never really spoke, but I started to allow him to take up residence in my mind, and my own thought process was an enemies-to-lovers plot. I wondered what my friends saw in him, so I took what I had seen of him and concocted an irresistible idea of him. Throughout the entire crush, though, I felt so torn, devoting undue attention to someone with far too much to spare. After a few months of wrestling with the idea of this boy, I overcame myself and decided once and for all that my thoughts and attention ought to be spent elsewhere, upon much more worthy things. I wrote “fairytale” to offer a platform for my feelings, but also as a promise to myself that my idealization of a boy that didn’t deserve it was over.
How did you work with the producer or engineers to bring your vision for "fairytale" to life?
I worked with Laiko at Studio 42 in Brooklyn, New York to produce this song. It was my first original song that I’d ever recorded in the studio, and I wanted that to be the case because I knew that starting with this song would set a solid precedent for everything to come. It was a blast to hear all of the ukulele tracks overlapping with one another in a way that I had never heard before, especially supported by Laiko’s instrumental prowess. I’ve lived with this song for around five years now, so my favorite part is actually something I had never thought to include that Laiko threw in: there are two bars of harmonies and echoey piano at the end of the song that I fell in love with the moment I heard it. I imagined the boy in a grand room, playing piano for a crowd of girls, while I watched from afar, abandoning him once and for all. It added such a beauty and composure to the memory that I hadn’t had before.
What did you enjoy most about making "fairytale?"
Honestly, the best part of producing this song has been the chance to create something so beautiful, so substantial, so meaningful, out of something so trivial. I beat myself up about this crush, and more than anything, it caused frustration. So I wrote this song, thinking nothing of it as a fifteen-year-old. I don’t think I expected it to heal me the way it did, let alone that I’d invest so much into it five years later. It has felt like such a gift to my younger self to validate my emotions, validate my songwriting, and validate the potential I had even then by pouring money, time, effort and emotion into this song for two years. I just know that if I could go back and talk with her, she’d be elated to know that a stupid crush turned into my debut single, produced by an artist I admire, in one of my favorite cities, and that it’s only the beginning of a dream she’d never feel she could ask for.
What is your songwriting process like? How do you usually start crafting a new song?
Writing a song sometimes feels like an out of body experience to me; I go into a new headspace and when the song is finished, I wonder where that hour went and where I was that entire time. It does tend to start with an idea: maybe a line I want to include, a story I want to tell, the title of the song, or a melody line I can’t get out of my head. Sometimes I’ll structure the song like you would an essay (because I’m lame), but most of the time I start with the first line of a verse and the rest of the song just flows, as I add lyrics and music, piece by piece. With “fairytale,” I started with a chord progression I was excited about, then returned to that chord progression a few months later and wrote from the first verse through the rest of the song. The one thing that was unique about the “fairytale” writing process was that I had written a verse, a pre-chorus, a chorus and a bridge, and until a week before recording in the studio, I would piece each of those together in whatever order I felt like that day. The released “fairytale” follows a very typical verse, verse, pre-chorus, chorus, verse, pre-chorus, chorus, bridge, chorus format, but it existed in so many other orders throughout its life.
Are there any upcoming projects or releases that you are particularly excited about?
Just recently, I announced my debut EP, ‘open book,’ out on December 8th! “fairytale” is the first track on that project, and if you like it, you’ll love the other four songs. On the down low, you can also look forward to a music video and a merch drop, which I’ll be announcing officially soon!