The music of Nashville-based artist, Candace in Wonderland, sounds as colorful as her aesthetic. She describes her sound as bedroom pop as she masterfully blends dreamy sounds with colorful visuals and 2000’s influence, using a vocal jazz background to tell stories about being an “over-sensitive space cadet.”
Her latest single, “K.I.S.S.” explores the idea of fighting your own ego with nostalgic pop-punk styles, intimate and honest lyrics and in-your-face pop production.
We recently got the chance to chat with Candace for a look at who she is, what inspires her and the lowdown on her latest single…
Bridge: Five words to describe your sound:
Candace: Dreamy, eclectic, colorful, ethereal, quirky
Bridge: We have to know all about K.I.S.S. – give us the lowdown!
Candace: K.I.S.S. or as I like to call it “Keep it simple, stupid” is essentially a day-in-the-life of an emo kid all grown up, struggling to get out of their head. Full of angst and urgency, this song is about fighting your demons. You might not know this about me, but I change my hair color with every release, and I’ve done some really fun ones like two-tone blue with mint green from “Pipe Dreamzzz, Hot yellow root with green tips from “Cancelled” and most recently, the two-tone pink and orange from “Connect the Dots” In the music video for K.I.S.S, I brought back some of these looks to symbolize me fighting with past versions of myself. And (spoiler alert) at the end of the video I made the choice to shave my head because as we said in the track, “I take myself too seriously, or maybe I need to take myself MORE seriously”. Nobody knows about this yet so until release day, that’s our little secret!
Bridge: Where do you draw most of your inspiration from as an artist?
Candace: I’d say I draw most of my inspiration from weird words or concepts that seem to pop up everywhere, making it impossible to ignore. I believe it’s called the “Baader-Meinhof phenomenon”.
To me, it seems like the universe is trying to teach me something in those moments and I can’t help but write about it. I love conceptual art, and I think this type of inspiration lends itself to these conceptual types of songs.
Bridge: What would you say is the main thing you want listeners to get out of your music?
Candace: I want to use the inspiration that I’ve gained from my favorite artists, and pay it forward to my listeners. I really want listeners to feel seen and understood when they listen to my songs. For example, maybe if you hear lyrics about the struggle of body image issues, it could help you realize that we all have demons we’re fighting, but in bringing them to light, they have less power over us.
Bridge: Any other projects going on or anything our readers should know about?
Candace: I have TONS of songs that are in the works for this year and I cannot wait to show them to you! Stay tuned for new hair colors because that means new music!!
Follow Candace on her socials below and check out K.I.S.S. available everywhere now.
