WALLICE
Telling a bittersweet story of growing up, Wallice is back with her second single “23”. Following her debut single “Punching Bag”, the jazz school dropout has already carved out a space in the indie rock scene for her sound: characterized by her rich vocals and hand-banging grooves. Wallice sat down with us to ruminate on the pressures of growing up and growing old, and how she felt inspired to shatter those expectations in “23”. Check out the interview and a playlist she curated for us below.
INTERVIEW
Interview by Bridgette
February 24 2021
Welcome, Wallice! Thanks for being here!
Hi thank you for having me!
So much fun to have you here, especially since your new song “23” came out yesterday! Congratulations! How does that feel?
Thank you so much! I’m so excited. I’ve been working on this song for a couple months now, and it’s been four months since my last release so I’m very anxious to get it out. So far I’ve had really good positive feedback about the song, and I hope people like it!
Awesome! I’d love to just get into that song. The first lines reference your childhood bedroom; was this a quarantine song?
I didn’t think of it like that until I read a question asking if it was, and I guess it is in a way just because it did put my plans of moving out on hold, and the world stopped this past year, more or less. I think the pressures of quarantine did led to this song, but I don’t think I went into it like that. I almost purposely— with my co-writer/producer Marinelli, we were both like “We are not writing a quarantine song,” like a straight up quarantine song. But this is as “quarantine song” as we’ll allow it to get. [Laughs]
It’s kind of cool because, as people do with music, they’ll interpret it the way they want. That line off the bat is really cool because I think a lot of people will be able to relate to it, being back in their childhood bedrooms. So even if that wasn’t the intention, it’s kind of a cool side effect! I love the escapism here because it’s not even like you’re wishing for something crazy. You’re just hoping to grow up and have a normal life. I’d love to hear more about the writing process and how you got inspired.
I wanted to make a song about this age of 20 to 25, 26 or even younger, maybe even older: of this time that you’re kind of supposed to know what you’re doing, in a way. I would say 23 is still such a young age, but the media is like “wow she’s so old.” Like, “This by 24!” [Laughs] I don’t even know, but it’s really so young. Also for 23, it doesn’t have any milestones associated with it, like when you’re 18 or 21, or even 25, when you can finally rent a car. So I thought it was funny to just sing about being 23 and maybe these expectations you have when you’re younger like “oh I’m gonna get married, I’m gonna have a house, I’m gonna do all this.” I thought when I was 16 by the time I was 19 I would have an apartment with my best friend, have a dog, and be so put together, but it’s like that’s not the case, and it’s ridiculous to think that would be the case! But when you’re in high school and you have to choose a major for college when you’re literally a child still, you’re like “yeah! That’s what I’m gonna do with my life.” It’s such a ridiculous pressure and I think it’s important to be young and act young still. But also still responsible. I’m definitely like the mom of my friends and stuff. I’m not crazy wild, but yeah. It’s kind of all over the place with 23— living in the present, thinking about your childhood, thinking about the future like being married, buying a house, and silly things like that. [Laughs]
That’s super cool. I guess you gave 23 a milestone! [Laughs] So when are you all grown up and 23?
April 3rd is my birthday! I posted a picture announcing “23” last week and everyone was like “Happy birthday!!!” And I was like oh… maybe I should have released it on my birthday! But the song says “a couple more weeks ‘til my birthday.”
Right! February 23rd also makes sense: 23, the 23rd.
That’s just a coincidence, but a really good coincidence! We were like “let’s do the third week of February,” and we weren’t sure what day that was. Like, not the end of February or the beginning. And it fell on the 23rd because that was the Tuesday.
That’s so crazy — it was meant to be then! Congratulations again, that’s super exciting.
Thank you so much!
I’m curious because you have another song out “Punching Bag.” Did the writing process for that song differ to how you made “23”?
I write a lot with my music producer/music friend Marinelli. I either write by myself with my guitar in my room in the middle of the night, or I go to his house— which only two weeks ago he moved to his own place. He lived in his parents house, too, which is why we both really related to that; we’re very similar ages. It’s really nice writing with him because I’ve known him for so long, and if we have an idea that we don’t love of each other's, we’re like “nah.” And we’re not gonna be like “okay, hear me out.” [Laughs] We don’t have to be so polite about it, which is really nice to have that kind of relationship with someone. But for “Punching Bag” and “23,” we both co-wrote it, and it was a very similar process for both.
So it seems like you both are super comfortable writing together, in general.
Yeah! I’ve known him since I was like 10, and we have made like over 10 songs together through the last five or six years.
Wow, have you ever written with anyone else?
I have, not for my own personal project, but for trying out for other people, but nothing too exciting.
Cool, so for most of the songs you’ve made to release, you’ve done with him?
Yeah! Either by myself or with him. He’s my main go-to music guy.
I love that! I love that you have that relationship, that’s so good to find.
Yeah it’s really nice to have him— he’s like one of my best friends And also my boyfriend is a guitar player. He just graduated from USC for jazz guitar, so he’s so good. So I could play something kind of decent on guitar and be like “okay, go record this.” And he’ll do it perfectly! [Laughs] I have one of those friends for each instrument.
Right! That’s like the Ariana Grande approach: making music with your friends. And it comes out great since you all know each other so well.
Yeah, that makes it so fun.
I’m curious, going back to the early days for you, who your early influences were in music?
My first iPod when I was like 7 years old had the Black Eyed Peas, Weezer, Blink-182, Coldplay, and Gwen Stefani— which I still love all of them. Quite across the board. [Laughs] And then in middle school I started listening to Dr. Dog, Lana Del Rey, Radiohead, and I feel like — this is so cringe to say — but I’ve always had good music taste. I listened to really indie music when I was 13 because my friend made me a mixtape of it, and I kind of never changed my music taste since then. More recently I’ve added in Big Thief and Phoebe Bridgers. I don’t know there are so many influences. And I studied jazz voice for a year at the New School — that’s why I’m a “jazz school drop out” in the song. I love jazz and bossa nova, too, which are definitely influences. That might not show so far, but yeah. A lot of stuff. [Laughs]
Yeah! Did you ever think of going more towards the jazz route in your music, or did you always feel like indie was the space for you?
I knew that I would be indie and make indie music. But the reason why I studied jazz is because I do love and appreciate and respect jazz so much, but it has such a strong technical component to it, vocal-wise and with musicianship, so I knew it would make me a better musician. I knew going into it that’s what I was getting out of it, rather than trying to be a jazz singer.
For sure! I think that’s a foundation everyone can benefit from having.
Yeah! That’s what I was going for— I got at least a quarter of it!
It’s also so great to have that appreciation! Well, once again, thank you so much for taking the time, and congratulations on the release. Before we wrap up, do you have anything coming up that you would like to share with people?
I have another music video and single in the works! Dare I say, an EP after that! [Laughs] I’m really excited! We’re shooting this music video beginning of March, so really soon. And the song is really fun! To me it’s a little different, but people who have listened to it are like, “no this is still in the same lane.” But it’s really fun! Almost every line is kind of a joke, but it doesn’t sound like it. If you listen to it closely, it’s kind of funny and a lot of people can relate to it. That one is coming out really soon; I think early April!
Awesome. So right around when you’re “all grown up and 23”!
I’ll finally be a grown up and then I’ll release my third song. [Laughs]
Exactly [Laughs] you have to wait til then!
One part of “23” that I was thinking is that you don’t have to be 23. You could be almost 30 or almost 18; it’s just about looking forward to being older, and thinking things are going to be different. It’s not the specific age, but the feeling associated with just growing up.
Yeah, exactly! And I think that comes through because you chose such a random number like 23. It’s super exciting that your track “23” is out! Congrats again; thank you so much for sitting down and chatting with me!
Thank you — it’s been so nice talking to you! And thank you for your kind words about “23”.