“I’m gonna leave me camera off because I’m so ill, dude, I look gross,” Claire Chicha, aka spill tab, admits on a dull and dreary spring day. Thankfully, she brings forth an attitude so exuberant and sun-soaked that, if it weren’t for the odd cough and splutter, you’d never know anything was wrong. This exact energy is saturated throughout her delightful debut album, ‘Angie’.
‘Angie’ is a record that documents every aspect of Claire’s life, from her initial years in Thailand, youthful jaunts in France, and finding home and self-discovery in the sunny climes of Los Angeles. At various points, all of these influences take centre stage, from the effortlessly cool LA-focussed opener ‘Pink Lemonade’ and the slacker-soul vibe of ‘Adore Me’, right through to the jazzy-yet-sultry Europop vibes of ‘Assis’ and ‘De Guerre’, and the computerised beats of club-pop banger ‘By Design’.
Already, you’ve probably got the idea that there’s a lot going on across this record, and you’d be right. Journeying from bouncy dance-driven hyperpop, soul-bearing alt-pop, as well as Calypso and Southern jazz, it’s a soundscape that encompasses around 70 years of music, with not one track or sample that sounds out of place.
“Because it’s a debut album, I went in thinking, ‘Ok this needs to encompass everything I like’,” Claire reveals, “so the concept is definitely not focussed because it’s an ode to all the music I love. I’m always drawn to music that sounds like whoever made it was having fun, that they knew they were doing something exciting or experimental.”
And experiment she did, bringing in new ideas that she would previously never have considered, speaking to her newfound confidence in her ability as a songwriter, producer, and musician. “Experimental just means something that’s new to you; it doesn’t have to be some really weird idea that’s never been done before. So, for us, it was using trumpets and live strings and then maybe putting it next to a psychedelic element. I didn’t put too much pressure on the studio, it was more about finding something that felt fun and that moved everybody in the room.”
“There was a period when I hated writing music because I just thought I was so shit at it”
As much as ‘Angie’ is a debut album, Claire isn’t exactly a new hand in the game, having released three spill tab EPs and countless singles across the last five years. All of that experience led to a writing and recording process that allowed her to take full control over the project, realising that the most important thing to have in an album is self-belief.
“I thought about having an executive producer to oversee the whole project, but I realised I was already doing that anyway. I was giving my input into instrumentation, song structure, and production, so I didn’t need to bring anyone else in. It felt like a risk, too; it’s like adding a new spice that you’ve never worked with before: it might have made it even better, but it also might have overpowered it.”
“I also think that now I’m older, I’m not as much of a people-pleaser; if I feel like something doesn’t work or I don’t like it, I can tell people. My team inspire me; I’m surrounded by really amazing musicians, and I realised that actually, I’m just wasting everyone’s time if I try to run with an idea that we end up ditching at the end anyway.”
In many ways, ‘Angie’ could only have happened now, with Claire needing all of the experience of the last five years to get to a point where she felt confident enough to call the shots, sewing together all the highs and lows of her music career thus far to create a tapestry that accurately portrays all of the emotion, stress, and heartache that have naturally made their way to the surface in amongst all the exciting new opportunities and fan adoration.
“I only wanted songs on this album that I absolutely loved,” she remembers, “so it had to feel more organic because it’s a release, it’s a cathartic journey. ‘morning dew interlude’ was made five years ago, but other songs were made at the top of last year, so it covers a huge chunk of time where I found love and lost it, then found it again.”
“There was also a period of time when I hated writing music because I just thought I was so shit at it. That’s part of the reason why the album is called ‘Angie’, because I wrote that song when I was coming out of that phase where I was just imposter syndrome-ing my way out of this career that I desperately wanted. That song was me finding my taste again; it was like me saying to myself, ‘You did it, kid’.”
Covering a period with such intense highs and lows – one that also included Claire giving herself “stomach ulcers because I got so stressed in my first year of doing music as a career” – would be difficult enough to tie together, not to mention when trying to introduce sonic influences as wide-ranging as 1950s cinema soundtracks, 1970s folk-rock, and 2020s rave-pop. The album needed a sense of cohesion that only Claire herself could find.
“The thing I was most afraid of was the album not sounding cohesive; I knew there was a lot going on,” she chuckles. “I’m super lucky that I had the time to create stuff that I didn’t like and have time to step away, come back, and then decide if there was a way to make it work. My team is also unbelievable, so on the days I went into the studio saying, ‘Guys, I got nothing’, they would play something, and I’d be super inspired again.”
“Early on, I decided that my goal was to be in charge of vocals, the way that they felt and landed, which gave me this thread to weave throughout the album. I was involved heavily in production and mixing, too, so we could find through lines and make sure nothing was mismatched; I’m super proud that we managed to get everything tied up because I honestly didn’t know if it would happen at first!”
There was a core sense of clarity when making this debut album that allowed Claire to keep control amongst all the era-clashing ideas and genre-bending sounds, manifesting itself as the acknowledgement that she was paying tribute to the music that has inspired her throughout her life, but in a way that retained an identifiable spill tab sound and pushed at the boundaries of alt-pop.
“I’d been searching for something important to create an album around, but it wasn’t until I had ‘Pink Lemonade’ and ‘Angie’ that I found the concept. I knew I wanted the organic side and a super digital side, and these two songs cradled the middle because they started as super raw, natural tracks that ended up totally different.”
“I’m such a fan of tracking when everyone’s in the room playing together, that Fleetwood Mac style, but then I also love the manipulated, hyperpop, SOPHIE-type music, so I wanted a body of work that talked about these elements.”
Given all the previous stress that Claire openly accepts was an unhealthy response to her determination to “make it” in the industry, she was careful to bring a much more laid-back approach to each recording session.
“I basically used those sessions as free therapy; I wrote whatever I wanted and felt like I needed to get off my chest. I didn’t want to go into the studio and say, ‘Ok guys, this is an album session; this has to be great for the album!’ because it put too much pressure on me, and I would choke when I got there! So, instead, we’d go in and just be like, ‘Let’s see what happens; there’s no pressure on anything’, which fixed my anxiety around music-making.”
“You have to be producing in service to the song and not your ego”
Being so relaxed helped Claire and her team stumble across ideas that swerved the album’s direction in exciting new directions, an unintentional but much-welcomed byproduct of her desire to draw inspiration from the widest possible range of concepts, nowhere clearer than on delectably digitised ‘By Design’. A track that encompasses both the glitchy, dance-pop vibe and the soft acoustic side of ‘Angie’, it would never have taken on its ominous, metallic persona had it not been for Claire playing around on the mixing desk.
“I’ve spoken to so many producers and artists who have said that their best work has been happy accidents, and ‘By Design’ was one of them. I’ve never used autotune before, and we discovered that if you double-click on the tab, it adds it on super heavily; I looked at one of my band and went, ‘Yoooo, we have to keep this in!’.”
“It decided the mood of that section, but it also made me realise that, actually, the most important thing you have to do in the studio is keep your ears open; you have to always be listening to whatever you’re making. That was probably the biggest lesson I learned in this process: you have to be producing in service to the song and not your ego, and you have to be listening to the vibe in the room and trust that your gut will get you to the right place.”
This maturity comes from a life now more well-rounded than when Claire first started making music as spill tab, spending her mid-twenties trying to figure out the world and her place within it. Standing tall at the grand old age of 27, the more relaxed approach to her craft has permeated its way into her life outside of music, which has enriched both the sound and the stories she poured into ‘Angie’.
“This means everything to me, and I’ll do whatever I can to make sure I get to make music for as long as possible, but I’ve developed a separate sense of self away from the art. I’m super aware of how lucky I am to have everything I have, but I’m learning that there are so many important things outside of the studio. I have amazing friends and a great partner, and my mom lives close to me now, too, which I love; I know now that music can’t be the only thing I think is important.”
It’s this attitude that she’s carrying forward into the post-album release cycle and beyond, one that sees her take on shows on both sides of the Atlantic. “I’m manifesting good health and good wealth for everyone that I love. I’d love for the world to be a less shitty place; it feels like everyone’s struggling to find stability. I hope we all find a way to get through it and that something gives, honestly!”
It’s not often someone on album one speaks with such wisdom and clarity on the industry and their relationship with it, which is what makes spill tab such a special prospect. Brimming with ideas while proving she has the talent and skill to execute them, ‘Angie’ marks spill tab out firmly as an artist to watch.
Taken from the June 2025 issue of Dork. spill tab’s album ‘Angie’ is out 16th May.
Leave a Reply