Q&A: Dear Dear Paves Her Own Path With Empowering Single “Natural”
WITH A SOUND TRULY ALL HER OWN, CAPTIVATING AND NOSTALGIC — Dear Dear delivers her second track, “Natural,” off her long-awaited debut album, death of a fairytale. Dear Dear, also known as Chase Cohl, is a Canadian artist whose creativity spans many artistic mediums. She simply cannot be labeled or placed into a specific type of mold — Cohl would much rather happily construct her own. With her brand new single, “Natural,” Cohl is drawing out nostalgia through sound and music, with punchy lyrics that communicate a strong vision of empowerment that, as a woman, is very gratifying to feel.
With her first single off her record, “A Women’s Fault,” being released earlier this year, Cohl established who she was as an artist, as well as what sort of message death of a fairytale was set to exhibit.
She explains that with “Natural,” it’s based on how one should learn to accept the person they are, internally and externally. We all have unbelievable expectations put on us, especially women. But whether they’re set by other people or stem from ourselves, we have a choice: we can choose to give into it and face being unhappy, or accept who we are and learn to love ourselves. It’s easier said than done, but when there’s music like Cohl’s around, it only emphasizes the belief that we are enough — we are “magical individuals,” she states.
Continue reading below to learn more about Cohl, her other successful endeavors, and how she’s scrapping the rules of music making to pave her own way in the industry.
LUNA: First off, how are you? How is everything?
DEAR DEAR: I’m doing well! Currently up in north Ontario watching a rainstorm over Lake Country. Overjoyed to finally be putting out all of this new music into the world.
LUNA: Congrats on the release of your new single, “Natural”! How are you feeling about the release? Any nerves, good nerves?
DEAR DEAR: Thank you! I feel relief, mostly. The word “release” takes on a new meaning when you make art. Once it comes out, it doesn’t belong to you anymore. I just hope people embrace it and give it time and attention to make it their own.
LUNA: Talk to us about the single. It’s surely a self-love anthem — how did you come about with the lyrics and concept of the song?
DEAR DEAR: I wrote it in my car in LA, honestly in about 10 minutes, then tossed it away. Sometimes these things just come to you. Almost divine. It just kept bouncing back into my head, and that's when I brought it to my co-writer, Barry, thinking we should consider dressing it up for the record. I just was feeling so disturbed by this modern instinctual desire to fix and change things about our physical selves before actually looking in the mirror and accepting what’s there.
I have zero judgment over what people do to themselves to feel good, but it seems that with such an intense plethora of superficial and cosmetic options being so readily available these days, self-acceptance actually feels like kind of an old-school concept. I needed the song to feel empowered, uplifting, something that really genuinely forced us back into our bodies. Even if just as a gift for myself to dance in the bathroom.
LUNA: The sound of “Natural” feels very much like a feel-good, ’70s soul track. To me, it was giving Dolly Parton. What artists influenced you to produce the music you make?
DEAR DEAR: Oh man, there’s such a wide variety. There’s no one specific artist, but the idea behind this record was definitely to draw from familiar sounds. Modernizing one’s own nostalgia became a really obsessive concept for me. For the project as a whole, the immediate jumping off points were the great girl groups Darlene Love, The Crystals, The Shirelles, but it quickly spiraled into a million more directions. It's impossible to make a record in California for me without thinking of Brian Wilson daily. For “Natural,” in particular, I kept coming back to Dusty Springfield — the idea of a folk voice dancing along the line of soul music interested me sonically.
LUNA: You are a multifaceted artist, from being a published poet to having created your own accessory line, Littledoe. Is there another art medium you see yourself dabbling in?
DEAR DEAR: I would give everything in the world to be able to paint, but alas I cannot. I’m sure I haven’t discovered the next one yet, but there is no end to the things that inspire me within the mediums I work already, so I imagine the well isn't tapped yet.
LUNA: As a poet, do you find it easier to write song lyrics, or is it a different process than when you’re writing poetry?
DEAR DEAR: I find it to be starkly different. Writing a song is like coloring within the lines to me. I visualize music in a much more linear fashion, although I know that's not the case with many songwriters. I work surprisingly well within that container, with those golden shackles on, so to speak. I like to set boundaries for myself then push against them. Poetry is boundless and just an entirely different playing field. That’s why I find it so freeing.
LUNA: With “Natural” being the second track off your upcoming LP, death of a fairy tale, what can we expect from the new album with this single being a peek into that world?
DEAR DEAR: I think this record is much more cinematic than my previous projects. I was really able to dive into the character, playing with this big band and having a quest to complete. With “A Woman’s Fault” being the first single, I kind of wanted to come in kicking with a really clear mission statement. It sounds familiar, but here we are really sneaking in a lot of [less-]discussed subject matter. “Natural” was a continuation and a deeper dive into that concept. It strikes you as another fun summer dance tune but is really an attempt to push people to look within and accept themselves in all of their magic individuality.
LUNA: While creating this song, was there something you were proud of yourself for doing? Like a challenge you faced head-on or a new skill you learned, or even something random that you learned about yourself?
DEAR DEAR: Totally. Sonically, “Natural” is a step in an unexplored direction for my writing. I think because my last release, Far Away & Gone, was such a personal and intimate record [and because] being a solo indie musician can be an incredibly lonely path, it can be easy to forget that it doesn’t have to feel that way at all times. This song feels like outreach — it's really community-based. [It] requires a bunch of people to pull off live and honestly is just so much fun to move to. It feels like the joyful beginning of something else for me.
LUNA: Last but not least, any goals you’re hoping to aim for by the end of this year? Whether that be in your literature or your music.
DEAR DEAR: I’m currently working on a new book of poems, a new fashion project, and I have a sprinkling of tour dates throughout the fall leading up to and surrounding the release of the record. Just hoping to get as many people to listen to this record and build as much of a family around it as possible. It’s meant to be shared, so that's just what I plan to do.
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