Q&A: Multimedia Artist Crystal Chen Creates Diary-Intimate Visual Narratives By Meshing Music and Visual Art Together in New Song “let’s kiss not fight”
NEW ZEALAND–BASED ARTIST — Crystal Chen is the epitome of a modern creative. A visual artist as well as a musician, she frequently combines mediums in her work to create beautiful, ethereal multimedia projects. Greatly inspired by jazz music and its powerful historical significance, much of her art pays homage to this poignant artform. Chen takes pivotal and emotional events from her life and stages them through a romanticized lens in order to find beauty in and make sense of her inner world.
A film photographer, videographer, and musician, Chen’s aesthetic brings to mind visuals of low lit speakeasies, smokey rooms, and classic beauty. One of her upcoming unreleased projects, not another love song, is an ode to her love of jazz and filmmaker Spike Lee’s iconic film Mo’ Better Blues. After writing the song, Chen went on to direct and perform in the music video, a sultry, comedic satire of stereotypical love songs.
Her latest single, “let’s kiss, not fight,” has been described as “a love letter to herself.” Poetic and intimate, the song — along with the self-directed video — is a tender glance into the artists’ mind. She creates an intimate dialogue between artist, viewer, and subject and is able to evoke emotion in a very soft and subtle way, as if you’re flipping through her diary.
With an already impressive portfolio and a slew of new projects, both visual and musical, on the way, Chen is sure to keep expanding her ethereal realm to infatuate an ever-growing audience of viewers.
Read below to learn more about “let’s kiss, not fight,” Chen’s favorite projects she’s worked on, and more.
Shot by Johnny de Silva
LUNA: I'd love to hear more about your background as an artist as well as your background in music. I saw that you have a large photography portfolio, but you're also a musician. I'd love to hear about those identities and how they intersect.
CHEN: It all started from music. I actually started as a classical singer, because that was the only kind of music made available to me through high school. I was in this boring-ass choir. It was really intense. I was classically trained. And then what happened was I got so bored in choir ... I was like, “Why are we singing music written by old white men from hundreds of years ago, having to sing every note exactly the way it is? It’s not creative at all.” I got so bored one day I started harmonizing in choir. The conductor told me off in front of everyone and I was just like, “I quit, I'm gonna go make my own music.” So then I just started making beats, like really bad beats, and just started recording.
The cool thing was, with photography, I was actually trying to figure out a way of making money for music because booking recording studios is so expensive, as well as working with producers [and] getting session musicians, and music just could not pay for music, if that makes sense. So I was like, I need to find a more sustainable way. And then I was like, “Dmn, I'm actually really good at this,” and I really got super obsessed with the chemical process and everything [about] how film works. I just fell in love with that whole process. Now I'm, like, a full nerd, and I spent my money on cameras instead of music But yeah, it's really fun when those two worlds collide. I'm on set for a music video, and it's really cool to use different film techniques that correlate with the music — when the music goes from verse to chorus, builds up, … the shots can go from still shots to more hand-helds. I just love when those two collide.
LUNA: I love it. I'd love to hear more about your new song that's coming out, “let’s kiss, not fight.”
CHEN: So that song I wrote over a year ago, when I was still with my boyfriend at the time. That was interesting because usually I write songs over a span [of time] … but that one was instant. It was all the emotions I had after the fight. In the beginning after you have a fight, you're apologetic, and then I started writing the song and I was like, “Wait a minute, there's so much more; I'm actually angry at you.” And then it all just came out. I think it's a really personal song for me, and I really love how I was able to incorporate jazz in it and the fluctuations of moods, going from 6/8 to 4/4. It was super special. The producer that I worked with, Christian Tjandrawinata, allowed me to record it not to a click track, which is really crucial, because producers actually get really annoyed about that idea because you can't loop anything. So I was really grateful when he was like, “Yeah, let’s do it.”
LUNA: Do you have any touchstones or themes that come up a lot in your work?
CHEN: I think, phases of my life. And if anything, jazz and the influence of it. But kind of just random aspects of my life or what my brain goes through, and what sticks. I think of songwriting as a diary, like writing in my diary and adding melodies to the words. It's different every time.
LUNA: Do you have any musicians or visual artists who really inspire you, who you look up to?
CHEN: Definitely. Spike Lee is one — I watched his movie Mo’ Better Blues and I wrote a whole song about one of the scenes in it. I also shot a music video that was based off the ’80s jazz club that inspired me in that movie. I just love his writing, his dialogue. In terms of musical artists, it's so, so endless. I'm really inspired by the Love Below side of the OutKast album, by Andre 3000. I've also been getting into ’70s soul. I started working with a producer Matt Hunter aka Kenny Sterling who is crazy — he just plays almost every instrument he has in a track, he rarely uses any samples, and he's really inspired me to get into the ’70s soul kind of sound. This man posses such talent, I’m grateful to call him my friend.
LUNA: You mentioned a couple of times that jazz is something that you are really inspired by. What's your relationship with jazz?
CHEN: I think with jazz, with the scatting and the trumpet and sax solos, they kind of to me feel like the vocalists of the band. The history of jazz comes from a lot of pain and prejudice, and it's really cool that through that, happiness comes out of it. I just like how it comes from a place of hardship but it's almost making the most of all the hardship and turning it into a positive thing. Whenever I feel anxious, I listen to jazz, and it just makes my mood so, so good. Yeah, I'm obsessed with jazz.
LUNA: I love that so much. If you had to describe your music with three adjectives, what do you think they’d be?
CHEN: I recently got reviewed by one of my favorite editors, Laura McInnes and she said that the song was like a love letter to myself. And I was like, yeah, that's so true. I wrote it obviously about a boy, but it actually does feel like a love letter to myself. As far as adjectives, I guess maybe “romantic,” like, you know, when you romanticize things. I guess “disoriented” is a word too. It's different for each song. “Dreamy” too, and maybe “chaotic”?
LUNA: Do you have a favorite project you've done, either a favorite shoot or song?
CHEN: Probably my next single, “not another love song.” This is the first film I properly directed and it was on 16mm. It was really challenging because I was directing it and also in front of the camera. I just love that project so much and the people that were on there.
LUNA: That sounds so cool, could you tell me more about that?
CHEN: Yeah, so that’s the song that is inspired by Spike Lee's movie Mo’ Better Blues. The movie is about a jazz trumpeter who actually is in a love triangle whilst also figuring out his career. He ends up prioritizing his career over his friends and his love life and kind of pushes everybody away. I think I relate to that movie a lot as a young person who's in love and also in love with music. [The song] kind of disses on all the stereotypical love songs. I talk about the lovey dovey, “I'm so in love with you, my love is wider than a river” [trope]. I rap in it as well, and then I talk about the sexual side of those love songs, and then I go through this other part talking about cheating. Then the last part is female empowering love songs, like, “You don't need no man.” So that song goes through all those themes.
LUNA: Do you have anything else coming up that we should look out for in the near future?
CHEN: Yeah, definitely. That song, “not another love song,” and then after that an EP. After that, that producer I was telling you about Matt Hunter [who] I've worked on some ’70s soul–sounding things with, that [project] is going to come out, possibly on vinyl. I'm also working on a zine and other photography projects and visual stuff.
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