Bereits im April erschien Holding Up Balloons – die Debüt-EP des in Berlin wohnhaften Neuseeländers GRAHAM CANDY. Exklusiv für Popmonitor hat der Schauspieler, Songwriter und Sänger mit der unverkennbaren Stimme seine vier Songs kommentiert und mehr zu den Hintergründen der Platte verraten…
I’ve always had a girlfriend. Most of the tracks are surrounded by my relationships and my addictive personality. As an actor I always pretended to be someone else whereas being a musician is about being vulnerable and myself. It was a hard process to get there because I used to be very confident and a little bit fake, but now I really feel different. A lot of people ask me how I got that voice. That’s the million dollar secret, but actually I’m just tightening my throat. I was imitating Amy Winehouse and Duffy and people said: Man, that sounds good! It just feels super natural now. I’ve always been a quirky character, so it fits with my personality.
WORTH IT ALL
This one is about sex and a girl that was very out there. She was strange but I loved that about her. She was this perfect thing that you see in the media: this skinny, long-haired, beautiful tanned girl and I loved all her imperfections. Also the sex was crazy. I would wake up in the morning and would have all these scratches all over my back. People were like: What the hell is going on? I used to call them angel wings. Anyway, the whole song is about how all the shit is worth it. It was composed in a really punchy way in London – kind of aggressive and fast. The chorus is like the climax. I’ve always wanted to scream Pikachu in this moment.
HOLDING UP BALLOONS
This is a strange song. It’s a sad one done in a happy way. Actually it’s me trying to get over my ex. She was super lovely. I cheated on her and I kind of ruined it. Still I was in love with her. We had two happy years and I was super happy that the relationship happened. It’s kind of a black and white thing. That’s why I put balloons in there. How can you be sad about balloons? It’s about holding up something positive to get over a bad situation. I was in the studio with the producer of Abby. We popped balloons to get the claps. I played the guitar to get this acoustic driven sound.
ADDICTIVE PERSONALITY
With this bright side of me I was in a very dark side. This song is about smoking, drinking and other stuff. I get addicted to stuff really easily. It’s not like I have heroin in my bag, but I smoke for six years. If I like stuff, I don’t wanna get away from it. Most of all I’m addicted to romance. It’s a very honest, dark song and it was great to do it with Feeling Valencia in Riverside. They got a great electronic talent. This song is just me opening up, telling people my story and it was very easy to write that one in Berlin because when I got here in 2013 I did this whole party thing.
DON’T YOU WORRY
This is the first song I made when I first got to Berlin. It just seemed like a lovely colour to put in there. Pretty much it’s just a romantic song. We did this in 2013 and we just had to mix it for the EP.
GRAHAM CANDY
Holding Up Balloons
(BMG Rights Management)
VÖ: 03.04.2015
