Quinnie Talks Creative Process, Inspiration, Lyrics and More
Interview by Eli Nava & Tallulah Totten with words by Eli Nava
Photo by Tallulah Totten
After the release of her debut album flounder in February, Quinnie has continued to make waves with her music. Releasing her EP gold star in 2019, the singer-songwriter emerged with an ethereal folk-pop sound. A similar, more evolved sound can be heard in flounder alongside lyrics that instill feelings of nostalgia and hope. Quinn has undoubtedly crafted a stunning body of work that is memorable and dynamic, urging her audience to listen closely to the natural world around them. Performing alongside her band in Toronto, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles, she played a run of headline dates, showcasing flounder in all its beauty. 1127 had the opportunity to catch up with Quinn at the Troubadour—on the last night of the run—to talk creative process, writing lyrics, and her love of nature.
1127: Before we dive into the serious stuff, what’s your favorite sea creature?
Quinn: Sea turtle! One of my favorite animals.
1127: Love that! How has the experience of touring been for you? Are there any memorable moments or stories that you can share?
Quinn: It’s been easy since we’ve done such a small run of shows that it was just compartmentalized into two weeks, so I was gone for one week doing our first three shows, and then I was gone for a couple of days. And now I’m back home from my last show. It kind of feels like tour-light. Stories-wise, the most notable one is we were in San Francisco for one day—I actually wasn’t there for this—we were in San Francisco for one day, and the van almost got broken into within ten minutes of being there.
1127: Oh wow, what area of San Francisco?
Quinn: I have no idea, but I know they were at an In-N-Out!
1127: Always the In-N-Out.
1127: So, flounder is a stylistic shift from your EP gold star, can you tell us what influenced this shift in sound?
Quinn: The largest shift is that I don’t produce my music anymore, and I made my first EP when I was in high school. I had no access to good producers or people I wanted to work with, and then I went to college. I met a couple of key people who have worked on my music ever since—the most notable being Jake, who’s sitting right over there. I mean, I had this dilemma when I used to produce my own music. I was never very technically proficient. I had this dilemma where all my songs always ended up sounding not the way I wanted them to, and they still ended up in a cool place, but it wasn’t what I was aiming for. Now I’m able to have a song end up where I want it to and be like this is what I want it to sound like.
1127: Songs from the EP like “talk abt” and “buggin” have a more ambient, shoegaze-y sound, could you tell us how these specific songs came about?
Quinn: Honestly, as I said—not technically proficient—so I would just like fuck around on Logic until I found something that sounded cool to me. Not necessarily ideal, so they kind of ended up ambient mush at times, but I was like, I love it.
1127: We’re big “buggin” and “talk abt” fans!
Quinn: Hell yeah, thank you so much. They were just by chance to be honest, but they were also influenced by what I would listen to in high school.
1127: You and your friend/producer, Jake, have a side project called CRITTER, how did this project come about?
Quinn: We were in college, and we were making a ton of music, and a lot of it just felt really pop and not as introspective as a lot of my solo work. Also, we were collaborating more on songwriting and stuff like that. It was kind of more like the music we were just doing for shits and giggles, for fun. We were like, we should make it into a side project where it’s just a duo, pop situation. Everything else that felt way more vulnerable became my solo stuff. The way I see it is that it’s the same combination of people with different outputs.
Photo by Tallulah Totten
1127: How has playing with a full band impacted the way you write your music? Has it impacted the process at all?
Quinn: Honestly, not yet. It’s really hard for me to write around people, so I’m curious if I might feel differently in a couple of years or within the year. It’s so hard for me to write around most people because I have to be super comfortable in order to write properly that I haven’t really experienced it yet. It’s still an on-my-own thing.
1127: One of the most prominent things about your music is your lyrics. Your lyricism is so unique to your artistry, what headspace or emotions do you find yourself writing from the most?
Quinn: When I was younger, most of my songs were very sad. I guess my first album, flounder, was a lot from a point of that melancholy yet hopeful space. Now, I feel like I’m moving in a direction that feels, for lack of a better word, curious. None of that curious feeling music is out yet, but definitely a hopeful and melancholy combo. I try not to be too sad these days without there being a little twist at the end.
1127: What’s been your most recent source of inspiration?
Quinn: My most recent source of inspiration has been this little book called A Box of Sun that I found at this really special used bookstore. They have a rare section, and there’s this book that I really wanted there in the glass compartment in the back because it was really special and expensive. I got it for my birthday, actually. It’s this children’s book that was written by this priest, and it comes in a box set of four. I don’t have the other three, but they all represent the seasons, and they’re just like these beautiful poetry books with illustrations that are commentary on life. It’s by Joseph Pintauro, if anyone wants to look into that.
1127: What song of yours has the best memories attached to it? Whether that has to do with what it’s about or if the process of making it was enjoyable.
Quinn: Definitely not what the song is about, but in terms of making it the song “man,” probably. Music-making-wise, it was one of those really special moments where the song takes a very minimal amount of time for whatever reason because you’re just in this flow state. I made it with Jake and my friend Jackson. It was just this very beautiful experience where we made it in just about three days. It just came out of us and felt it had to be done.
1127: What’s your favorite lyric that you’ve ever written?
Quinn: Probably an obvious pick because it’s most people’s favorite lyric of mine is in the bridge of “touch tank,” and it’s “you took my breath away, so now I can’t suck in my stomach around you anymore.” Not because it’s my favorite song I’ve written, but it was one of those lyrics I was like, yes. I was like, hell yeah, I wrote it. I really didn’t want to write it. I remember I was singing it in the studio and was like, “here’s the bridge guys”, and whispered that line. I was so embarrassed by it.
1127: Do you have a songwriting process you normally go through, or is it one of those things where it’s sporadic?
Quinn: It’s varied for me a lot of the time. Most of flounder was written lyrics first, and then melodies. I’m always writing lyrics in my notes app, in my notebook, and all that stuff. Then I’ll find a lot of lyrics that go well together, and I’ll form them into a whole song. For flounder, I was doing that, and then I was putting them into melodies. These days, a lot of the time, I find myself playing in open tunings and singing melodies and filling out where things go and filling in the words. I wanted to approach it from a different angle.
1127: You’ve released three stunning music videos that each tell their own story and have their own cinematic universe, can you tell us about your filmmaking vision?
Quinn: Luckily for the past two videos, “itch” and “man,” we got to do with a whole crew and a little bit of budget behind it, but it all came from a DIY space. Especially “touch tank” because for our project CRITTER, Jake and I used to make a lot of our videos, and so we did “touch tank” all just the two of us. I painted the backdrop, he built the backdrop. We built the platform. We were just working with the materials we had as cheap as we could. For the next two videos, we had some budget, so we were able to flesh out the ideas more. But even on “man” I was doing all the animations by hand with Jake grouping them together. It comes from a place of what’s the weirdest, craziest thing we can do and how we can execute it in the smoothest fashion. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it’s a real pain in the ass.
1127: Were there any specific visuals or films you were inspired by?
Quinn: Honestly, this is a hot take, but I barely watch any movies. I just don’t really watch TV. I can only really do it if I’m with people.
1127: How have physical mediums like art and drawing helped bridged you over into the creative process of making music?
Quinn: Art was something I really wanted to pursue professionally when I was probably fifteen or sixteen. I was considering that as a path for myself. I kind of got to a point where I was like, if I’m going to commodify one art, then this isn’t really the one I want to because I need to do it when I want to do it. I can’t have any pressure on it. It’s one of those private things. Luckily, I still get to use it to contribute to my music, but it’s just a creative outlet that doesn’t have much pressure on it at all—which is its biggest value in my life.
1127: You’re influenced a lot by the beauty of nature and the sea, can you tell us how this has shaped your identity as an artist?
Quinn: The biggest origin of that is that my grandma lived at the Jersey Shore, which is not exactly the nicest nature, but I grew up spending all my summers there. I really fell in love with the “wildlife,” which is maybe three hermit crabs. I was enticed by it. I went to all these marine biology camps, and then as I kept getting older—whether it was just the ocean or any part of nature—it felt like the place where I liked to go to be by myself. It’s also why I moved away from New York because now I can have trees near where I live. It’s just where I feel good.
1127: So our last question before we wrap up, what direction do you see your music going in the next few years?
Quinn: I would say the biggest distinction is both my melodies and lyrics are getting more abstract. Definitely more complex melodies.
Quinnie has released a new song, “fade,” which is out now on all streaming platforms. She is set to release a deluxe version of flounder this summer, and the newest song from the deluxe version, “shape”, will be available to stream on May 26th.
Keep up with Quinnie!