Introducing #149 - Tendertwin
Let us introduce you to indie-folk artist Tendertwin - who provides us with an unexpected love tale with new single ‘Triangles’. She took a moment to talk to us about her music and the new track.
Hey, so how are you?
Ahoy, I’m alright! Slowly getting accustomed to the strange, and exploring these new states of mind it’s bringing. I finally flew home from London to my hometown in Turkey, Bodrum, and I’m reconnecting to the shore. I try not asking myself how I am too much.
So, where does the name Tendertwin come from? Does it hold a certain meaning?
Oh, there is a story to this — I’m not actually the one who came up with it. There was a dreadful period of time when I was struggling to decide on a name for my musical deeds, and was colossally failing. The idea of a separate persona was complicated enough. I sort of wanted the responsibility of the name off my shoulders. So, I was at this exhibition opening in Philly, and there was a guy with a typewriter at the entrance who was writing short poems for people on the spot for 5 dollars, as a piece of performance art. I approached and was like, “I just desperately need you to come up with a moniker for me.” He asked the type of music that I’m making, and my astrological sign, and here we are.
Where are you based? What are your favorite things to do there?
This is a tricky one — depends on the season. Eat cherries? See gigs? You could say my main cities are Philly, London, and Istanbul, and it’s all kind of back and forth. I’m currently at my hometown though, Bodrum, and my favorite thing to do here is stare at the sea endlessly at 6AM, and perhaps think of all that has come and gone.
What are your key influences when it comes to your music?
There are ones that changed my life, and the way I hear sound forever, that cover a wide range from from Björk to Bowie, from Meredith Monk to Mahler. As far as detectable influences go, my vocals are perhaps inevitably peppered with stellar women like Fiona Apple, Kate Bush, Florence Welch.
How would you describe your music to someone who has never listened to you before?
It’s here and there, it’s now but then. Expect confusion, twenty-three vocal channels, a bit of despair, and somewhat nautical drama?
You have a link to the Bogazici Youth Choir, can you tell us a bit more about it and your connection to it?
It really defined my adolescent years in the most wonderful ways, I could recall it as my second family. See, I’m a bit obsessed, and, eternally mesmerized by polyphonic ensemble singing. Exploring the depths of harmony with those inspiring was utterly transcendental for me. Choir gave me real discipline, and another perception of the human voice. Bogazici Youth Choir remains a network of singers with whom I connected on a very special frequency — a true academy.
So your track ‘Triangles’ is out now, can you tell us what the track is about?
Ha! Is it a love triangle? Will we ever know? I shall say, Triangles essentially outlining a sense of displacement: this could be in your romantic life, in your past, in your surroundings, in space or time. Three dots on any plane can easily form a triangle of various features. It’s a recurring shape. Take any three freckles on your skin. They are easy to point out, to notice — but then again, are you just imagining patterns? Are you doomed to carry the same rock over that hypotenuse? (Rest my geometry.)