NYC-based and Columbia University music producer Stephanie Chow, musically known as Wilchai, released her debut single “Deluge” with Unathi Machyo today. The song was mixed and recorded in her bedroom, while singer Machyo was across the country due to the pandemic.
Wilchai shared with Beyond the Stage (BTS) where her passion for making music stemmed from, and talked about her influences, her culture, “Deluge,” and some exciting things to come.
BTS: Why and when did you start making music?
I played classical piano from the age of 4 but found my true instrumental love in guitar. When I was 7, my family bought Guitar Hero, and I was immediately hooked. I played through every song in the story-mode of that video game, and when I ran out of levels I decided that the real guitar couldn’t be so hard in comparison. I was completely wrong– but I realized I loved playing guitar even more than Guitar Hero (I’m actually pretty mediocre at it now).
I played rock, blues, and pop all throughout middle school, and I started a band. We played around town, had little gigs here and there, and I started writing songs. I had these sounds in my head that I couldn’t quite get from a four-piece rock outfit, so I played around on Garageband at my school’s computer room and started learning how to produce. That was life-changing — I suddenly had access to a huge palette of sounds, instruments, and the ability to arrange them however I wanted.
I really got into jazz after seeing the amazing jazz trumpeter Ingrid Jensen play at a JEN conference during a school trip freshman year, and I started attempting to interrogate these sounds into my production. I’m from a small town in IL, but in high school, I was lucky to start getting opportunities to travel for music and start exposing myself to the breadth of music outside of what I saw in my upbringing. Music became exploratory for me, letting me see not only new physical places but work through heady or uncomfortable emotions.
BTS: Who or what inspires your sound?
As a guitarist who plays jazz and listens to a lot of hip hop, I’m inspired a great deal by Black American music. The title of my song “Deluge” actually was inspired by a Wayne Shorter tune of the same name! In terms of specific artists though: Noname, Kehlani, Joe Henderson, The Internet, Cam O’Bi, Charlotte Day Wilson, and Linda Oh…my favorite artist of all time is Frank Ocean. He’s got this introspective, but super grounded sound that defies genres, but has such a universal appeal.
I draw a lot of inspiration for my music from personal relationships. Music is inherently social for me — it’s a dialogue. Even if I’m looking inward, my sound is informed by the people I encounter, observations of their stories, and the conversation I’m engaged in with the world around me.
BTS: What are 3 words you would use to describe your music?
Raw, lyrical, reflective.
BTS: What led to your collaboration on “HOW ABOUT NO” with Luis Villanueva, kakie, and KANG?
“HOW ABOUT NO” came about during the fall of my freshman year at Columbia University. CU has a warm and welcoming DIY music scene, and I ran into Luis outside of our freshman dorm and realized I had been bumping his music off Instagram already! He asked me if I wanted to lay down some guitar/harmony on a song he was working on, and a week or so later we recorded in his dorm room with kakie, who went to school with Luis back in Manila and now attends New School.
BTS: What inspired your debut single “Deluge”? What is it about?
In “Deluge,” I reflect on the opposition between memory and selfhood. I often find myself revisiting memories from my childhood, only to realize I’ve rewritten them in my head and I don’t quite remember them how they actually happened. I read some article that said every time you recall a memory, in the process of thinking of it you alter it slightly.
Lately I’ve been feeling like the memories of my childhood are…not fading, but maybe changing in my head. I’ve stayed in NYC for about a year now, and sometimes I look back on things that happened back home with a new vantage point and realize I feel totally different about the events now. I don’t want to necessarily forget the things that have shaped who I am, but I’ve started realizing that maybe growing comes with revising your understanding of your past. In “Deluge,” I wanted to capture that kind of hazy feeling of struggling to remember, coupled with the feeling of accepting the fallibility (and malleability) of our memory!
On top of that, I wanted to reflect on my own my cultural identity as a first generation Asian American. I’m half Chinese, and yet I’ve only been to Hong Kong, where my grandma lives, once when I was very young. She passed very recently, and I find myself continually trying to reach back into the past to remember her mannerisms, her boisterous laugh and even the sound of her vice. She has a large place in my memory, I think Deluge also speaks to the importance of grappling with the painful effects of diving into your past. Deluge is also an homage to her.
BTS: When and how did you write and produce “Deluge”?
I wrote and produce “Deluge” in the last months of 2020 and put the finishing gloss on it during the beginning of 2021. Making music during COVID-19 is hard — for me, at least. The imposed isolation and separation for live performance made recording difficult. My singer for this song, Unathi Machyo, goes to the same school as me, but lived across the country when we were trying to record. She had to find a clip-on mic in the closet to record through and we sent voice memos back and forth during the recording process.
Thankfully, though, despite the physical distance I’ve been really lucky to have the support of friends (shout out to Alex Maddon for his mixing advice, Dea Thompson for letting me snag her bass in the studio), mentors (Seth Cluett for his overall guidance), and the entire internet to mine for samples when I couldn’t access the real instruments I wanted.
“Deluge” started as a voice memo of a chord progression on my guitar, which I started writing over with lyrics and eventually recorded into my computer with a pretty DIY setup in my bedroom. I then added piano, synths, and bass, and got some backup vocals from my friend Christina Li when Unathi’s computer fritzed out and she couldn’t record. It was kind of an arduous process to finish it but I learned a lot about DIY recording and making use of the resources you have!
BTS: Who is your favorite artist to listen to right now?
I’ve been really enjoying listening to Cisco Swank lately. That dude’s mad talented and his songs mix jazz, hip hop, and classic soul in a really natural and powerful way.
BTS: If you could only go to one concert for the rest of your life, who would you see?
Man, that is hard. If it had to be like a one-stop-shop for all my musical cravings I think it would have to be Kendrick Lamar with his To Pimp a Butterfly lineup — so backing from Robert Glasper, Thundercat, etc. That way I’d be getting a mix of hype stuff, really lyrical and serious stuff, and top-shelf musicianship and instrumentals.
BTS: What do you enjoy most about being an artist?
I love the community of people I get to hang with. The music world is at once super large and surprisingly intimate, and I’ve gotten to both meet people from all over and build some really strong relationships through it. Music is so inherently tied up in people’s cultures and personal stories so being an artist has really helped me learn to connect with other people and better understand their lives.
BTS: Are you currently working on new songs or even an album/EP?
Yes! I plan to have a few singles out in summer 2021 and have been collaborating with/producing for some very talented artists with work coming in the next month.
BTS: Do you have any teasers for what’s coming?
I’m currently working on a music video for “Deluge” with my friend and amazing photographer/cinematographer Lucy Blumenfield (@lucyblumenfield on Instagram). Keep your eyes peeled for that!
BTS: What is the best way for your fans to keep up with you?
Follow me on Instagram @steph.fm and follow my artist page for Wilchai on Apple Music or Spotify.
Make sure to follow Wilchai to stay informed on what is to come!
Stream “Deluge” here.
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So proud of you! Stream wilchai!
great interview and dope photosssss!