Interview by Sophia Campanella
Last June, singer-songwriter Caroline Quinn released her debut EP, “THE END OF MAY.” Starting the year with only 80 monthly Spotify listeners, Caroline has been gaining rapid success after the release of her EP, and her single “ALIEN ON MY MIND” has had a viral moment on TikTok.
The first time I worked with Caroline, it was to book her for an opening slot at The Fallser Club for an event in December of last year. Most recently, I had the opportunity to speak with Caroline after she headlined her EP release show at the same venue on August 16th.
LOUDSPEAKER COLLECTIVE: I thought you had a really good turnout [at the show]!
CAROLINE: Yeah, I was so glad. There were a lot of people there.
LOUDSPEAKER COLLECTIVE: I know, how was that for you? Being the headliner for the first time and having such a good turnout at the show? Wait, was that your first time headlining The Fallser Club?
CAROLINE: It was my second time, but the first time doing all my own stuff. So, like, I feel like it’s weird to say that it was kind of like the first time, because I was doing all of my own music instead of like doing covers and stuff, and yeah, it felt really cool. And it is also nice that The Fallser Club is like a legit performance space, like there’s a green room, so I kind of got to hide like a dramatic artist and like wait until it was time for me to come out and then come out, and yeah, it was really cool and it was like really special definitely.
LOUDSPEAKER COLLECTIVE: Yeah, and literally my second question was that was one of your first times playing an all-original set?
CAROLINE: Yeah that was my first time doing a show that I put together with all originals, which was so nice and it was good to have a band where I didn’t feel like my slow songs were too slow, it was like, oh no, now we’re singing the song and we’ll give that the space that it needs, so that was super cool.
LOUDSPEAKER COLLECTIVE: Do you miss anything about doing Chappell Roan and Ethel Cain covers, or do you really like playing all of your original music?
CAROLINE: No, I definitely love singing covers, covers are so fun and, yeah, I had to hold myself back from not throwing a Chappell cover on there. I love singing other people‘s music because I think, like, everyone has their own twist on it. But yeah, I missed it, but I’m also like, you know, it’s okay to be uncomfortable and push myself to just do my own stuff.
LOUDSPEAKER COLLECTIVE: The last time you played at The Fallser Club last December, you had around 80 monthly Spotify listeners, and then that started to change when you uploaded that TikTok video. I remember at one point your Spotify listeners were growing by the hundreds daily. How did that feel for you, seeing that happen so quickly and so fast at that time?
CAROLINE: Really cool. Like, really, really awesome and validating, and everyone online was so nice, which is really cool. Like, no one was bullying me online; they were actually being really sweet, which was, like, woohoo! So I think that helped, but at first, because it progressively happened over like a month. I feel like it happened for a while, and for the first week, I was like, “I’m gonna be sick, stop listening!” Because I would check my phone and I’d have thousands of notifications, and I was like, “Oh my God.” I couldn’t even go on TikTok to scroll if I wanted to; it was crazy. So that was very surreal and very cool definitely. I feel very lucky to have had something like that happen so early on in my career.
LOUDSPEAKER COLLECTIVE: Yeah, that was really cool, and then very shortly after that, you started teasing your EP a little bit by releasing “Obituaries” in March, and then you released “Lost For Words” in May. Were you always planning on maybe releasing or teasing the EP around that time, or did it just feel right
CAROLINE: I think it all worked out timing-wise well, but I definitely was messaging my producer like, “I want to get this done” because we could at least just get like a single done, but they usually will like finish it all at once, so it’s like put a bow on it, it’s done. So, the timing worked out well, but there was definitely a little bit of thinking like, “Oh, this is all happening, I should throw a single out there.” It was kind of funny to throw “Obituaries” out as the one that I chose
LOUDSPEAKER COLLECTIVE: I mean, it worked because you had the music video for it too, I feel like that partially went into it.
CAROLINE: Oh right, yeah. That was funny too because we had finished the music video in November, before the song was finished.
LOUDSPEAKER COLLECTIVE: I mean, it all worked out to have it finished at a good time
CAROLINE: Yeah, I got super lucky with that.
LOUDSPEAKER COLLECTIVE: Yeah, and then you released your first EP in June. How has the response been, both in person at your shows and online?
CAROLINE: It’s been good, honestly. It’s been really, really cool and nice. I would say online, it’s been doing well. It hasn’t had a viral moment, but I still have the really sweet fan base that I have so far, and they’ve been really enjoying it. And it’s really cool to hear people be like, “Oh, ‘Child’s Play’ is my favorite.” That’s so cool, that’s so so cool. And then in person, there’s been lots of people who have told me that “Lost For Words” really resonates with them, and it’s been getting them through a hard time, which I think is crazy. So, yeah, you can’t look at the numbers too much, but also, “Who I’ve Been” was just put on two Spotify playlists, and that was crazy. I mean, we’ll see cause it took Alien around eight months or so for it to have that moment, so we’ll see what happens.
LOUDSPEAKER COLLECTIVE: Yeah! So your EP has five tracks on it. Did you write them with the intention of putting them on the EP, or were you writing them, and the idea for the project came partway through?
CAROLINE: I think at the time when we decided that we were going to work on an EP, every time I was writing something, I was thinking “This could be something for the EP,” but it was just kind of like if I was writing at the time, it’s convenient that this will go on the EP, but I’m just writing, and however this ends up being used, it ends up being used. But I think everything except “In The Garden” was written around the same time. “In The Garden” was actually one of the first drafts of the song I had ever written in around 2022 or 2023 or something. And I was like, “I feel like this song has, like, some good roots, but we’ll see what happens.” And then later on, I ended up really liking the sound and having a lot of new ideas for it. So most of it was written around the same time with that in mind, but then also in a cool way, it was something from years ago that I was like, “Oh shit, we can break something back from that.”
LOUDSPEAKER COLLECTIVE: That’s so cool, and I feel like it’s so funny cause that ended up being like the main, one of the main themes for the EP, because it’s where the EP name came from and everything.
CAROLINE: That’s actually really funny. It worked out.
LOUDSPEAKER COLLECTIVE: Yeah, and then we were just talking about it. I noticed that “Who I’ve Been” was put on two Spotify playlists, Fresh Finds Pop and Next Gen Singer-Songwriters. Can you maybe speak more on the writing of how that song came about?
CAROLINE: Yeah, totally. That was, I feel like the whole EP was written just straight from emotion. Like sometimes it’s like you have to sit down and figure out what you wanna write about, where the EP I think was written based around when something would happen in my personal life, and it would be like, “Ohh okay, I have something to write about right now.” And “Who I’ve Been” was a song that I kind of wrote just to get whatever I was feeling out. And it was really funny because I had sent Ross a bunch of demos, and I had completely forgotten about that song. Like it was out of my mind, I didn’t care about that song. And then I came into the studio and Ross was like, “I wanna work on that ‘Who I’ve Been’ song.” And I was like, “Oh no, that’s not good. That’s just a song that’s not good,” And he said no. And I remember in the moment, I was like, “Wouldn’t it be funny if we had one of those moments where I used to not like this song but now I really like it?” And that’s exactly what happened. I’m grateful to Ross for being that kind of conscious voice, that’s like, “now just roll with it, you know? just don’t be too hard on yourself.” So yeah, that’s kind of how that came about.
LOUDSPEAKER COLLECTIVE: That was really cool what he added because I know you were going for that video game music kind of vibe, and he definitely succeeded in that.
CAROLINE: Yeah, and I think the video game thing is definitely influencing some of what I might want to include in the next project
LOUDSPEAKER COLLECTIVE: And then on top of the success with your EP, your song “ALIEN ON MY MIND” reached 100,000 listeners on Spotify. And with that, you released the music video. What was the inspiration behind the music video?
CAROLINE: I had so many different ideas that it’s hard to remember how I got to where I was getting to. But I think, because the original image that I had when I thought of the song was a normal housewife going about her daily life and, then an alien spaceship lands in her yard and is like, “Oh I’m on earth” and he’s like “ Well wait, I don’t fuck with Earch like Earth is crazy, you guys have so much shit going on.” So that was kind of the idea that I was having, I was like, “Okay, how can we incorporate the aliens and the housewife and all of these things?” I feel like Alien has a lot of different ideas, but one of the components that I really like is the chorus. Where it’s like, “I’m flying high, can’t complain,” That is supposed to be someone who’s desensitized to everything and is not thinking about all of the horrible things that are happening in the world. But it’s also supposed to be an anthem at the same time, where it’s like, “I am getting through it despite everything that’s going on.” There’s so many layers. What I wanted to do to pay homage to that darker side of it was to make it a music video where who I am in the video is basically like a billionaire who’s doing super well, and is like, “I can’t complain. Life is good. I’ll go to space if I want to.” And my friend Hazel, who was in the music video, was supposed to be the working person who’s struggling and suffering at the hands of a billionaire. And it’s supposed to be almost like dark and creepy motivating, because then they take over the billionaire, and they’re the one who is doing really well and successful and it’s good. Or also, another dark side of it is, now they are the billionaire, what’s going to happen now? Like, what do they do with all of the power that they have? Are they just a part of the system, or are they actually gonna change the system? There’s like, way too many meanings.
LOUDSPEAKER COLLECTIVE: But that’s cool because I feel like you can’t take one meaning from that anyway. Like, there’s always so many meanings when it comes to something like that, you can’t just take it at one size. So far this year, you’ve played almost a dozen shows, you released two singles, and a five-track EP. I know that’s a lot, but is there anything else that, like, maybe in the works that your audience should be excited for?
CAROLINE: Yeah, definitely. I’m working on a project with my producer right now, so there’s definitely more songs coming, hopefully in the form of an album. And lots of shows coming up, lots and lots of shows. I feel really lucky that people are reaching out to me to do shows, lots of opportunities to see me live, and hopefully more bigger shows.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Loudspeaker Collective 