Q&A: TANSU Releases a Love Letter to New York in Debut EP “The City”
TANSU HAS BEEN TRAINING TO BECOME A DIVA HER ENTIRE LIFE – Harlem’s vocal powerhouse and indie soul-pop artist TANSU has released her debut EP The City. The six song collection encapsulates the essence of her experiences and relationships she has formed in New York. TANSU creates intoxicating music fusing pop, soul, R&B and electronic. The City is off of Little Planet Records with the music being produced by Dave Rublin.
Her debut EP The City, recorded with friend and longtime collaborator Dave Rublin, is a chronicle of a life lived well, delivered by a sterling, astounding voice; spanning indie-soul, sparkling pop and hypnotic trap, it’s a brilliantly defined debut for the lifelong musician.
"It's an EP about girlfriends, boyfriends, old friends, fake friends,” TANSU says, “There are songs about best friends that break your heart, and there are songs about the most important relationship in life; the one you make with yourself. The way I learned to love myself is a direct reflection of the emotional life I choose to lead here in NYC."
The sultry neo-soul epic “Downtown” is a prime example of their creative chemistry. TANSU floats among Dave’s rich, undulating backdrop, the bassline hum slowly building to an ecstatic climax, mirroring TANSU’s bittersweet tale of love, sex and jealousy, which attempts to interrogate the emotions that fuel nights of recklessness and partying. It makes a sharp contrast to “Easy Love,” The City’s understated finale, which finds TANSU charting the ups and downs of a long term relationship with grace and clarity.
The City’s undeniable centerpiece is “Got 2 Me,” a simmering ballad on which TANSU allows her resplendent, powerhouse voice to shine at its fullest potential. An emotional followup to “Downtown,” it’s a song about learning to be vulnerable in a relationship, in spite of your best instincts. Smokey and tense, it’s a showstopping piece of soul-pop, TANSU’s voice slipping between an ingratiating low register and a clarion belt.
Then there is the stunning single "Easy Love" which is a cathartic soft goodbye. TANSU confides, "It is a song about letting go of a friend while respecting the life and beauty the relationship once shared. A loving tribute to someone you can no longer be there for, the song helps us all tell our former friends to take it easy, love." The track entices with soul-drenched vocals, heartfelt melodies and kaleidoscopic synths.
With "Love Alone" TANSU chronicles the deep isolation and pain associated with being in an unfilled relationship. The melancholic and powerfully emotional song showcases TANSU's soul-drenched vocals over a rich tapestry of cinematic synths.
While "Truth About Us" is an anthem for anyone who is in the process of learning how to love themselves first, especially after realizing their partner is not the one. The track features confident vocals and a soaring chorus, highlighting TANSU's songwriting prowess.
For TANSU, The City is not just a debut – it's a manifesto of her artistry, a declaration of her presence in the music industry. With her sterling, astounding voice leading the way, she emerges as a force to be reckoned with, poised to captivate audiences around the globe.
LUNA: Thank you for sitting down and talking to Luna. Our readers would love to get to know you and your music more. For any readers who aren’t familiar yet, what inspires your artistic style and creative persona?
TANSU: Reality first and foremost. Most of my adult life, people have always been surprised by how honest I am and I find that so interesting, because all I know is honesty. I pour that into my music all the more, because I feel like with lyricism, you can be a little more raw and same with poetry. I do feel as if trying to be as open and raw as possible is what fuels me to be the best musician I can be.
LUNA: What artists inspire you, whether that’s music you listen to or pull inspiration from into yours?
TANSU: I grew up on Whitney and Mariah. I grew up in a time of 90s vocal divas, so those are two of my biggest inspirations growing up. When I got to college, I started to study who they studied, like Ella Fitzgerald, Eva Cassidy and Sarah Vaughan. I have come to find that inspiration can come from the sound of a truck on a certain beat to a random rock song that I heard on my mom's radio station when I was visiting her in Connecticut. It comes in many forms nowadays. But that's where I started with big female vocalists and now my horizons have broadened.
LUNA: Say if someone hasn’t heard of your music yet, which song would you introduce your discography to and why do you gravitate towards that song?
TANSU: That's such a good question because I feel like that can change every day, and truth be told, the public's reaction to the full EP is a little different than what I thought it would be. Right now the song that we have the most streams on is “Easy Love” and it's the one that is hitting the sharpest chord with listeners. I found that very surprising because we wrote that song in three days. “Easy Love” has been doing really well, so I would invite you to listen to that. Now that the EP is out I've actually had such a great time listening to it in full and I listened to it, beginning to end, I was so humbly reminded that this is exactly what I wanted it to be. I personally like to invite people to listen to the full EP beginning to end to get a full sense of me.
LUNA: You just released your debut EP The City and a huge congratulations is in order. What is the inspiration behind the project?
TANSU: I have been living in New York for 14 years now. My father was born and raised in Washington Heights and he is a fabulous man who was very much embedded within New York, and a lot of his lifestyle choices were because of his upbringing in New York and the way he led his life was because of his city upbringing. When I started writing this album, I moved to New York, because my dad loved it so much. I live in an area very close to where he grew up. I didn't realize how rough New York would be when I got here and I didn't realize how much of myself I had to learn when I got here, and New York has absolutely helped establish the relationships I have formed. The album is a reflection of these relationships, whether they be friendships, romantic relationships, girlfriends, boyfriends, old friends, new friends, and there's absolutely no doubt in my mind that being in New York has helped formulate these relationships. “Love Alone” is about the toxicity of a bad love, especially in New York. The album is very much a part of New York as it was inspired by the sounds of the experiences.
LUNA: What did the creative process look like? Do you have any fun memories that you would like to share?
TANSU: “Better Off (Without You)” was a song that we wrote when I had the flu. My creative partner and producer Dave doesn’t question my methods of madness, which I appreciate not being judged. Next day, I woke up keen as a peach and I went out that night with some friends from college, one of whom his name is Quinn Carson and he is a trombone player. We were having drinks and I wanted them to come into my session the next day. Then the next day, Quinn comes in and he records what is now the bridge on “Better Off” which is such a cool instrumental surprise on that last song, and it was such an amazing feeling in that room after because he did that in two takes. It has been difficult to find a good creative partner nowadays, and Dave and I will stare deep into each other's eyes when we're in their studio, looking for the melody that we are searching for. I am so grateful that I have found a creative partner that I trust as much as I do. When we first started hanging out, we would sit on the roof of his Bushwick apartment and we'd overlook the New York skyline and we would share music that we were listening to. The first song we wrote was “Love Alone,” and it started with that baseline and I love a good falling baseline and half steps. From there, we took that baseline and then we added the strings and then we added the melody and we like to build together. I'm so thankful that I have Dave to help me in this creative process and that he works in the same way that I do.
LUNA: What is your favorite song from The City and why do you love it? Is there a certain lyric or message that stands out to you the most?
TANSU: “Got 2 Me” is about my now husband. When we first started dating, I had to learn a lot about myself and how to love and how to love myself before I could really be in a successful relationship. My previous relationship I was with someone for six years and when I was in that relationship, I expressed my feelings and my emotions if I was hurt or sad, it would fall on deaf ears. I would speak and write out these paragraphs and try to explain my feelings. I learned when I would get upset, I shut down and hold on to my emotions. Let's fast forward to my first fight with my husband and when we got into our fight, I shut down and I didn't offer any explanation. I got very cold and quiet. He said you have to talk to me to tell me why you're upset. He taught me over the years that I deserved to share my emotions. My emotions deserve to be heard in order to be in a better, stronger relationship. I think one of my favorite lyrics I've ever written is in the bridge of that song, ‘When you stop me from pulling away / You keep me from going insane.’ That is specifically about when we would fight and I would pull away, but in my head I was going crazy. That song speaks to me breaking out of my emotional shell and he was the one that helped me get out of it, and for that reason, that's why it’s my favorite song.
LUNA: Did you have any lessons or breakthroughs while bringing The City to life?
TANSU: I'm not afraid of any of my honesty, but I got word yesterday that a beautiful, wonderful friend of mine committed suicide. I was listening to “Easy Love” because it’s about a friend that passed. The song took on a new life for me, and that's crazy because what I've really enjoyed about making music is that although I have my own interpretation of the music I've written and I've made others listen to, they take on a new form of the song for their comprehension and listening. Yesterday that happened with me and my own song, and it was a very odd juxtaposition of emotions because I felt so sad and then I also was like holy shit I am experiencing this song in a new way and I'm taking myself out of the equation. I need to remember that others are taking the song and putting their own value on it. I was reminded of that in a really out of body way. I'm thankful that I had that experience as much as I'm still grieving my loss. I have received phone calls from friends that I haven't spoken to in years that have wanted to reach out to me and let me know that “Love Alone” helped them get out of their toxic relationships of five years and they wanted to thank me for that. I like that my music can be there for people without me being there, because I would love to help as many people as I can, but I'm only one person. I have a job. I have bills and I can't always physically be there for everyone. I can't always be on the phone for two hours with a friend, but if I can cut to someone within three minutes and 12 seconds of a song and to be there for someone the way that music was there for me when I was younger and going through my own stuff is an incredibly fulfilling feeling. I'm thankful that this music has come out and it has already solidified its place in people's hearts. I love being there for people and releasing this music. It's just a further way for me to be there for people.
LUNA: How important is personal experience in shaping your songwriting, and do you find it challenging to share such vulnerable work with your listeners?
TANSU: Not at all because I know that I'm not the only one going through these emotions. I may just be the only one that sings about it. As much as I realized that everyone has their own experiences, sometimes I feel that we don't share the reality of them because we are jaded or ashamed or a little shy. I feel as if sometimes my honesty can get me into trouble, but I also think it's really helpful to be able to talk about things that aren't always talked about. For example, “Better Off” is actually a song about breaking up female friendships and I remember writing that song and it was a different type of heartbreak because I had broken up with a good girlfriend at the time. I didn't know how to put into words how I felt, and this was not the first time I had felt that disappointment from a female friend. It was the first time I was writing about it, and I found myself really hurt by a friendship breakup and this deserves as much emotional attention as all my other heartbreaks. I'm happy to have written a song about this because I don't think that the breakup of female friendships gets as much musical attention as it deserves. We deserve to have a song that we can scream, cry and sing along, about a friend that was supposed to be there for us and is not anymore based on her selfish decisions. I liked that I wrote a song about that emotion because we're allowed to be mad about that.
LUNA: Female friendship breakups are a different level of hurt and it’s a growing pain that I don’t hear a lot of artists touch on as much as they focus on romantic breakups.
TANSU: My girlfriends’ friendships are so rich and have gotten to a point now where I rely on them as much as I rely on my my family, and I rely on them in a heavier manner when it comes to things I'm going through because I know that they can support me in what I need. A breakup on that level is a different and deeper heartbreak. I was very proud of myself to have written a song about it and it's been fun explaining it, especially to women.
LUNA: What kind of atmosphere or emotional space do you aim to create for your listeners?
TANSU: Whatever they want. I'm not in a place to be like they need to listen to it in this way. I want when you are listening to my music, I hope you are in a safe space. I hope for all of my listeners, I owe everyone to always be in a safe place. I ask that people listen to the project in tracklisting order, no skips, because it is a full story. The songs live in their own right. You've got “Love Alone,” which is this big belting ballad and then you go into “Truth About Us,” which is more of a pop song, and you go into “Downtown,” which is like a sexier R&B song. They're all different, but they all intertwine and it comes together beautifully. I would just ask for the chance for my listeners to listen to the whole album..
LUNA: What do you need in your space when you feel creative inspiration hitting you? Do you have any rituals you do before you produce your work?
TANSU: I get very laser focused, so when we're in the studio, and if I have an idea that I'm really feeling strongly on or like the melodies are coming quickly, I need to be quick and record on my phone and then I'll need to layer it immediately so I have it as reference. When I'm in the studio, I remind myself that this is an opportunity that I need to be grateful for and I need to focus even if this isn't exactly what I wanted it to be yet because I have lived through the development of a song. I remind myself to give myself patience when I'm in the studio because not everything is going to be exactly what I want immediately. I also need to have a big bottle of water. I need 60 seconds to just deeply breathe and remind myself of the opportunity and that I am doing this for a reason, and this is my reason for being on this earth is to create, and just reminding myself of that headspace right before I go in to recording anything always helps me align on my purpose.
LUNA: How are you feeling in this current era of your career and what does the rest of the year look like that you would like to share with Luna?
TANSU: I am really excited and I am super proud. It's been a long time coming. I am so happy that the EP is out and that people are hearing it and understanding the project. I'm excited to bring back albums. I grew up with albums and I love that this EP is a full body of work. It's taken so much work to get this out, and the fact that it's out in the way that I wanted it to come out is incredibly powerful and I'm very grateful for that. What's next is live shows. I want people to experience the energy in real time, so I have an EP release party coming up in the Lower East Side on April 21.
